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Robin HarperAn independent filmmaker is suing Beyonce for copyright infringement claiming that the trailer for her Lemonade HBO special is a knock off of his short film, PALINOIA.
In documents filed in federal district court in New York and published by The Hollywood Reporter, Matthew Fulks alleges that nine visual similarities amounting to 39 seconds of the 60-second trailer are similar to images in his seven-and-a-half minute film. Those images include “parking garage,” “feet on the street” and “side-lit ominous figures.”
Fulks claims that these similarities and the way the images are combined mean Beyonce and her team misappropriated his film’s total concept and feel.
He also claims that in the past he was approached by Columbia Records, also named in the suit, to possibly direct a video, so people involved in the Beyonce video had access to his film.
Fulks, who also is suing Beyonce’s Parkwood Entertainment and Sony Music, is seeking unspecified damages based on a full accounting of the money Lemonade has generated.
You can judge for yourself. Both PALINOIA and the Lemonade trailer are streaming on YouTube.
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