Prism Prize Video: Shad - The Stone Throwers (Gone in a Blink)

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The 2019 Prism Prize for Best Canadian Music Video was awarded recently to Kevan Funk, for his clip for Belle Game’s Low. We will continue to profile prominent Canadian videos, including this one from an acclaimed hip-hop artist shortlisted for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize.

Shad - The Stone Throwers (Gone In a Blink)

The video opens with a montage sequence, showing people, unclothed, standing in front of a blank white screen. The grainy, video-camera quality imagery shows close-ups of their naked body, and the sequence is laced with cuts which show the city of Toronto - gritty and real, strangely desolate, devoid of the usual hustle and bustle it is often associated with.

The people in the video are seen tackling themes including economics, criminal justice, and beyond. The concept of the video is to show how the powerless are often forced to resort to violence to survive, for which they are later vilified. While the powerful do more harm to the people and planet with weapons of money and influence. This obvious discrepancy in the societal power balance is a significant focus of Shad’s lyrics.

There were two things that Shad hoped to capture in the visual for the song: vulnerability and rage. The nakedness of the casts represents their vulnerability, and their screams represent the rage that grows inside of them.

Credits: 

Director:  Matthew Progress 

DOP: Giles Monette 

Editor: Cam Lasovitch 

Actors: Oluseye, Shae-Lynn Masik, Max Mohenu