My Chemical Romance - Helena

What this video is

Released as the second single from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on March 8, 2005, 'Helena' arrived at the apex of emo's mainstream crossover moment. Written in memory of the Way brothers' late grandmother Elena Lee Rush, the song and video transmuted personal grief into a collective cultural ritual. The theatrical funeral-mass setting — shot on location at a real Los Angeles church with actual band fans as…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of mid-2000s emo's mainstream peak, 'Helena' exemplifies the genre's embrace of theatrical narrative video over performance-only formats. Its fusion of funeral pageantry, synchronized mourner choreography, and confessional band performance established a template widely…

The director

Marc Webb (born August 31, 1974, Bloomington, Indiana) is an American film and music video director. He graduated from Colorado College with a degree in English in 1996, then launched his career directing music videos in Los Angeles. Between 1999 and 2009 he…