Hercules and Love Affair

Taking perhaps the worst curse word out there and turning it into a symbol of power — that's the underlying theme behind this clip from Hercules and Love Affair and director Matt Lambert, who blur the lines between music video and documentary much like the way the NYC gay nightlife icons featured here blur the lines between taboo and acceptance. Paris, it seems, has never stopped burning.

Andy Butler, Hercules & Love Affair: "My initial idea was to conceptualise the song through a series of filmed interviews with performance artists who explore profanity and gender in their work but I was not aiming at the fusion of music, video and documentary. When I talked to Matt for the first time he mentioned the idea of combining the two formats - music video and documentary. Fast forward 6 months to when I previewed the early edits and it kind of blew my mind"

Matt Lambert, director: "I spoke to some of the people who appear in the video for over an hour. Each of them had a different answer and different relationship to the word 'cunt' as well as the appropriation and reclamation of profane language as a means of pushing culture forward. Language, especially when dealing with issues surrounding identity, defines people's realities whether they choose to embrace or ignore language.”