Beyoncé has been shaking up the industry with her stance on social injustices and police brutality. She has created an artistic masterpiece titled, “Lemonade” to promote self-love and black girl magic attached with a short film. Before the visual album released, Beyoncé posted a trailer for the film on YouTube. According to a new lawsuit filed by independent filmmaker, Matthew Fulks, the trailer was copied without permission.
Fulks alleges the defendants including Sony Music, Columbia Recording and Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment got access to the short film titled, “Palinoia”, in which the filmmaker believes the “Lemonade” trailer resembles.
The lawsuit claims, in July of 2015, Bryan Younce, who has worked on Beyoncé’s visuals, reached out to Fulks to submit a treatment for consideration by Columbia, five months following the interaction, the filming of “Lemonade,” began.
“The number of aesthetic decisions included in Plaintiff’s “Palinoia” Work that are parroted in Defendants’ “Lemonade” Trailer demonstrates that the “Lemonade” Trailer is substantially similar to the “Palinoia Work,” the lawsuit reads. “The misappropriated content includes both the particular elements that the Plaintiff chose to comprise the “Palinoia” work and the coordination and arrangement of those particular elements.”
The similarities are rather vague. While the lawsuit cites nine visual similarities covering 39 seconds of the 60 second trailer, including “graffiti and persons with heads down,” “red persons with eyes obscured,” “parking garage, stairwell,” and “title cards screens” to name a few.
The lawsuit also draws comparisons in the audio.
Fulk is demanding all profits from the sales of the “Lemonade” album and anything attributed to exploitation of his work.
