Hi, I’m Melina Matsoukas. I’m the director of ‘Queen and Slim’ and also one of the producers. This scene is when Daniel Kaluuya, who plays Slim, and Queen, Jodie Turner-Smith, first fall in love. It represents their second date, but also a moment that they are so determined to have because they might not make it to the end. They may not be afforded another chance to dance, to connect, and ultimately, to fall in love. “Oh, I don’t drink.” “Maybe you should start.” The space is a juke joint, but it represents for them a safe haven, a place where they are connected. Thus, I named it The Underground after The Underground Railroad. I’ve always thought of their journey as representing a reverse slave escape narrative as they are black fugitives running from the north traveling south. They are protected here in the womb of their community, and they utilize this fleeting moment of safety to connect, and ultimately, to fall in love for the first time. The production design of the space was modeled after the photography of Birney Imes, who photographed the deep south. And he has a book on juke joints that I modeled some of the design after. But I also modeled it after these beautiful hand-painted landscapes that mark many shelters in Jamaica, particularly outside of Kingston on my favorite beach called Hellshire Beach. I wanted the design to speak to the black diaspora as well as the American South and all the subtle ways in which the black community is connected. [MUSIC PLAYING] The scene was scripted as if it was meant to be their first dance at their wedding. I remembered the feeling of watching ‘West Side Story,’ one of my favorite films. And when Tony sees and dances with Maria for the first time, how they’re in this bubble shutting the world out around them. And I wanted Queen and Slim to feel the same way in that moment. Another reference for this scene was ‘In the Mood for Love.’ I wanted them to feel shrouded in that love and in that light and the color and in these languid, poetic moments in a similar way as Wong Kar-wai was so beautifully able to paint in his film. We also used Steadicam to dance with the actors. We had set up the space so we could see and rotate 360 without seeing ourselves or equipment as I wanted the camera to feel like part of the choreography. I wanted to use these long, languid shots to pull you into this moment. This is also one of the few times we used a few slow motion shots. It was important to make this moment somewhat surreal so as to mirror the feeling you get when you’re lost in love and the world’s slowing down around you. There’s no one else in the room as they dance, not literally, but figuratively. The music drops out and we bring in for the first time this beautifully composed theme which represents their love. We call it the ‘Love Theme’ and it was composed by our amazing composer, Dev Hynes. [MUSIC - DEV HYNES, ‘LOVE THEME’] “What do you want?” “I want a guy to show me myself. I want him to love me so deeply I’m not afraid to show him how ugly I can be. I want him to show me scars I never knew I had.” It was a choice I made in the edit to take their words from the next scene and lay them over this first dance so it’s as if you can feel and hear her thoughts as she’s experiencing them in real time. “And I want him to cherish the bruises they leave behind.” And as the song ends and the people around them cheer the bands, it’s as if they are applauding their love. This takes them back into real time and they leave together, connected and as one for the first time in their story. [CHEERING] [MUSIC - DEV HYNES, ‘LOVE THEME’] “We should go.”