It seems that even Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), the parent company that owns Coachella, is doing all it can to forget and destroy all evidence of Frank Ocean’s disappointing show in the desert from a few weeks ago.
For those that are unaware, attendees of the much-anticipated show complained about the singer lip-syncing some songs, allowing the DJ to play 10 minutes mid-set, letting a random kid come on stage and ending the show earlier than expected because of Coachella’s curfew agreement with the city of Indio.
Brain Kinnes, an up-and-coming filmmaker, posted a 20-minute film on his YouTube channel that edited together hundreds of videos taken at Ocean’s Coachella set. He used videos from Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and anywhere he could find videos of the show to create a short film that essentially presents the entirety of Ocean’s set at the popular music festival (yes, it was that short).
But, according to Variety, on the same day that the video was uploaded to Kinnes’ YouTube, AEG gave the small-time filmmaker a cease and desist order and demanded that he destroy all of the video content he collected of the Blonde singer’s show; and that “anything short of full compliance with this demand,’’ will lead to the initiation of legal action.
Kinnes decided to create the short films only after it was announced that YouTube canceled the live stream of Ocean’s much-anticipated Coachella set, which frustrated and disappointed millions of fans across the world (including myself) who were too broke to take the trip to Indio, Calif. It was six years since he had a live performance and seven years since he released a full-length album, and fans were desperate to hear the Channel Orange artist.
The 26-year-old filmmaker’s short film was the closest thing fans at home had to seeing Ocean’s show live. But now, it’s nowhere to be found.
Although the short film was taken down from Kinnes’ YouTube, links on his website sent interested fans to Google Drive and Dropbox, which still allowed them to watch. But those links have also been taken down as well.
Despite his video essentially being erased from the internet, Kinnes has not been quiet on social media, showing his frustration over the legal injunctions leveled against him.
He’s still been adamant about interested Frank Ocean fans having the ability to watch the film he created. But, based on details that came out about the Nostalgia, Ultra singer’s unorganized set, I’m not sure they’d want to.