Kanye Hosts London Film Screening

The rapper came on stage at the prestigous BAFTA screening room to introduce the 35 minute movie- which he directs and stars in. It also features a number of new songs from West.

 

Introducing his short he referenced other concept films by music artists- Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Prince’s Purple Rain and Pink Floyd’s The Wall- as well as Picasso and Matisse.

 

The star explained: “With the passing of Michael Jackson I feel a responsibility to bring things to our generation that can inspire and bring real culture to pop culture. I want to use my power in a proper way.”

 

Runaway tells the story of a Phoenix- played by gorgeous Selita Ebanks- who falls to earth and is rescued by Kanye. The pair fall in love before she is forced to return to her own world by bursting into flames.

 

However the film contains little dialogue and is made up of around five main scenes soundtracked by his new songs.

 

Some sequences are fairly abstract, one scene features a song called Lights and shows a marching band, boy in a red hood and a huge model of Michael Jackson’s head.

 

The song Runaway is used when West leaves a dinner scene, runs to a piano and is joined by a group of ballet dancers. The arty short-film ends with the recently leaked Lost In The World track- which samples Bon Iver.

 

Kanye explained that Runaway is likely to debut on MTV channels around the world later this year though admitted at the start that this was a “rough version.”

 

After the screening the Chicago MC answered questions from the assembled journalists, bloggers and fashion students for over two hours talking about everything from the film’s ‘colour pallet’ to his forthcoming joint album with Jay-Z.

 

Look out for more of that on the site soon…