With Donald Glover turning away from music and Rihanna herself always dipping her toes into other endeavors, the duo has combined creative forces to create Guava Island. The trailer made its debut on the last day of PHAROS, his annual festival. PHAROS has been described by Glover as “a gathering of the five intuitives of the human experience: tribe, ritual, experience abstraction, architecture, language”. In its second year the festival took place in New Zealand, premiering Guava Island on November 24th.
Directed by Glover’s longtime collaborator Hiro Murai, the trailer opens with Glover playing the guitar and singing while playfully teasing his on-screen girlfriend Rihanna. From there, the trailer segues into shot of him performing, dancing, running away, and held hostage. The most notable dialogue in the trailer from Glover: “We live in paradise but none of us actually have the time or the means to live here” speaks to the duality of living in what the West often describe as “destination getaway” while many of the natives are often left with the struggles day-to-day life
It will also feature Letitia Wright and Nonso Anozie. Watch the trailer for Guava Island below.
#guavaisland @rihanna pic.twitter.com/thWN6QoQYr
— courtney (@purelylorde) November 24, 2018
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I.S. Jones is the Managing Editor of Dead End. Her works have appeared in Revolt, NBCThink, and elsewhere. You can tweet at her here