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The Guardian
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
From Prince to Michael Jackson: why are the most controversial documentaries getting canned?
It can be a painful thing, acknowledging that our heroes are both human and flawed, but Ezra Edelman spent five years doing just that. The film-maker behind 2016's sprawling, Oscar-winning OJ: Made in America, was at work for Netflix on what, by all accounts, would have been the definitive Prince documentary: a nine-hour behemoth drawing upon dozens of interviews with the late icon's associates and rare access to his personal archive. The film – according to the few who've seen a rough cut – built a layered portrait of Prince's immense genius and complexities, including a darker side concealed by his playfully eccentric persona: his allegedly cruel treatment of girlfriends and female proteges; his demanding ruthlessness as a bandleader. 'We're asked to sit with Prince's multiplying paradoxes for many hours, allowing them to unsettle one another,' wrote Sasha Weiss, of the New York Times Magazine, after viewing it. We won't, unfortunately, get that opportunity. In February, Netflix scrapped Edelman's documentary after executors of Prince's estate, reportedly upset by its content, fought for months to block its release. The streaming platform plans to develop 'a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince's archive.' In other words: a watered-down take, to placate the powers that be. This dispiriting saga reveals much about the bleak state of the celebrity documentary complex in 2025: they are plentiful on streaming platforms yet increasingly indistinguishable from sponsored content. In raw numbers, documentaries are more popular than ever, but they also feel more toothless and risk-averse. Netflix's capitulation lays it all out in the open, reflecting a climate in which dull, sanitised celebrity docs flood the marketplace while distributors balk at complicated and/or unauthorised films providing complex portraits of their subjects. The Book of Prince frightened Prince's estate because they couldn't control it. But some of the most compelling music docs in recent memory are animated by singular directorial perspectives, not transactional access. That includes Questlove's fascinating Sly Lives!, which uses the rise and fall of enigmatic funk legend Sly Stone as a vehicle to explore cultural pressures on Black pop stars. By comparison, the band-authorised Becoming Led Zeppelin feels like a work of sheer legacy-minded mythmaking. The performance footage is electric, but interviews with the surviving members steer away from squirmy subjects, like plagiarism charges or underage groupies; complicating wrinkles are smoothed over. There's a blurring line between journalism and PR fluff in documentaries lately. It is increasingly common for celebrities to produce, or play a significant behind-the-scenes role, in documentaries about themselves. If the gold standard for this category is Beyoncé's concert films, then Netflix's Harry & Meghan, a six-hour exercise in brand management, made with their own production company, may represent the nadir. As Edelman put it, viewers are 'being served slop'. In 2020, Hulu released a four-part series on Hillary Clinton, obscuring the fact that Clinton had chosen the production company and had input over the editing process. Similarly, Taylor Swift selected the director of 2020 documentary Miss Americana, a fitfully revealing glimpse behind the scenes of the Swift empire, then went on to make 2023's massively successful Eras Tour movie through her own production company. The problem isn't that such films exist; it's that they suck up all the oxygen – and money – from documentary distribution. In recent years, streaming services have filled up with docs about beloved celebrities, some quite worthwhile (2020's Zappa, 2021's Tina), others blandly reverential (Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story). Entertainment companies gobble up fawning documentaries about public figures, but won't touch anything controversial. Consider that Leaving Neverland, HBO's bombshell 2019 film investigating child abuse allegations against Michael Jackson, has effectively disappeared. It was permanently removed from Max after a lawsuit from Jackson's estate – a troubling omen, as Slate's Sam Adams argues, 'at a time when media access is under the near-total control of streaming conglomerates'. (A sequel, Leaving Neverland 2, hit YouTube recently to minimal fanfare.) A similar dynamic threatens to spread to the literary world. Last year, the influential rap group De La Soul denounced a book about them by music journalist Marcus J Moore and claimed to be 'exploring all of our legal options'. In a higher-profile case, Meta recently sued to block promotion of a tell-all memoir from a former employee, an effort that backfired deliciously. It will be an impoverished world where authors fear to publish unauthorised biographies because they can't afford to be sued by the subject. The corporate culture of capitulation has only worsened since Trump's re-election. In December, ABC News agreed to pay $15m to settle what some consider a frivolous lawsuit from Trump. In April, the executive producer of 60 Minutes resigned, saying his journalistic integrity had been compromised by corporate higher-ups, who have been considering their own Trump settlement. Sign up to Film Weekly Take a front seat at the cinema with our weekly email filled with all the latest news and all the movie action that matters after newsletter promotion No wonder film companies fear releasing anything that might upset the tweeter-in-chief. Consider that last year's sleazily gripping Trump biopic The Apprentice struggled to find a domestic distributor until a small company, Briarcliff Entertainment, stepped in. (Briarcliff's founder argued that the bigger studios had spurned it 'strictly based on cowardice'.) Consider, too, that the remarkable documentary No Other Land, which won an Oscar for its wrenching depiction of Palestinian life in the occupied West Bank, still doesn't have a proper US distributor. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime (whose parent company recently donated to Trump's inauguration, which its CEO Jeff Bezos personally attended) is spending $40m to make a Melania Trump vanity documentary, from which the first lady will reportedly profit. Projects like that are closer to propaganda than journalism, and this one's being bankrolled and legitimised by one of the largest and most powerful streaming companies in the entertainment industry. Documentaries ought to challenge and hold power to account more than they flatter. Instead, in a landscape where a few streaming companies owned or run by billionaires dominate the documentary market in the US, viewers are paying the price.
The Guardian
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Prince estate blocks release of Netflix documentary by Oscar-winning director Ezra Edelman
The estate of the late funk superstar Prince has successfully blocked the release of a nine-hour Netflix documentary about him, made by the Oscar-winning creator of OJ: Made in America. Netflix said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune: 'The Prince Estate and Netflix have come to a mutual agreement that will allow the estate to develop and produce a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince's archive. As a result, the Netflix documentary will not be released.' The film, which was completed but untitled, was made by Ezra Edelman, who won an Academy Award and Emmy for the eight-hour 2016 film OJ: Made in America, which told the story of the life and criminal trial of OJ Simpson. Edelman, who spent five years making his Prince film, was originally granted unprecedented access to Prince's archives – known as The Vault – by the estate following an undisclosed multimillion-dollar deal. He was told the estate, which was then being administered by a bank, would not exert editorial control over the film (as recounted in a New York Times article in September 2024). The film features a number of people close to Prince, including former bandmates, managers, girlfriends and one of his sisters. But in 2022, after Prince's estate changed administration to some of his heirs, associates and the company Primary Wave, the new owners moved to block Edelman from accessing The Vault. The Netflix executive who commissioned the film then left the company, and after seeing the film, the estate reportedly made a series of demands for cuts and reshoots. Sources speaking to Variety claimed the estate found the film to be 'sensationalised' and had factual inaccuracies. Music producer Charles Spicer, a member of the estate, wrote on X in 2024: 'We have a duty to honor and protect his legacy with a story that fairly shows his complexities as well as his greatness. #no9hourhitjob'. Now the film's release has been cancelled, the estate has taken a triumphant tone on social media, sharing the same statement as Netflix as well as a new video captioned 'The Vault has been freed', showing footage of Prince alongside two quotes by him: 'Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people,' and: 'The truth is, you're either here to enlighten or discourage.' Londell McMillan, a member of the estate and the lawyer who negotiated on its behalf, called the decision 'a big, big win for Prince's legacy'. He said the estate's planned documentary would be 'an in-depth piece that explores the complexities of the brilliant musical genius'. The author of the New York Times article, Sasha Weiss, saw Edelman's film and called it a 'cursed masterpiece', saying it 'shows, more movingly and convincingly than almost anything I've seen, how life can illuminate art, and yet how separate the two things really are'. Weiss describes a scene that features Prince's former girlfriend Jill Jones alleging a physical assault by him against her. She also reports scenes that describe his dependence on pain medication, and feature criticism of certain lyrics as antisemitic. The musician and Oscar-winning film-maker Questlove features in the film, and told Weiss after seeing it: 'It was a heavy pill to swallow when someone that you put on a pedestal is normal. Everything's here: he's a genius, he's majestical, he's sexual, he's flawed, he's trash, he's divine, he's all those things … I saw this as a rare, rare, rare chance for [Black men] to look human to the world.'
The Independent
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Netflix axes controversial nine-hour Prince documentary
A controversial nine-hour long Netflix documentary about Prince will not be released by the streaming service, and may never be broadcast. The film was directed by Ezra Edelman who won the Academy Award for Best Documentary for his almost eight-hour long 2016 feature about OJ Simpson, OJ: Made in America. The lengthy film about Prince was commissioned by Netflix, who arranged with the Prince Estate to grant Edelman unprecedented access to the groundbreaking musician's legendary vault of unreleased material. However, the Prince Estate were reportedly unhappy with the portrayal of Prince that emerged in Edelman's film. In a statement to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Netflix said: 'The Prince Estate and Netflix have come to a mutual agreement that will allow the estate to develop and produce a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince's archive. 'As a result, the Netflix documentary will not be released.' Earlier today, Prince's official X/Twitter account tweeted: 'The Vault Has Been Freed.' In a separate statement to the Tribune, Londell McMillan, who was Prince's lawyer and is now a manager of Prince Legacy LLC said: 'The vault is free. It's a big, big win for Prince's legacy. 'We're excited to have the right to put a plan together. which is exciting for the fans and his legacy. Thankfully we were able to reach an agreement with Netflix.' McMillan said the new film will be 'an in-depth piece that explore the complexities of the brilliant musical genius.' At a Grammys event last Saturday, McMillan announced: 'There will not be any salacious documentary. We have turned the page, to shine the proper light on Prince.' Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 4 month free trial (3 months for non-Prime members) Last year, he tweeted about his displeasure over the direction the film had taken. 'They hurt others like [Michael Jackson] but I will not permit ANYONE (ex's, musicians, engineers, friends, family, enemies) hurt or falsely portray Prince (and we all know he had his ways) Everyone does… We look forward to sharing his balanced story,' wrote McMillan. Edelman spent almost five years editing his film, which now looks unlikely to ever see the light of day. The Independent has reached out to Netflix and the Prince Estate for comment. Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson, died in 2016 of an accidental overdose of fentanyl at the age of 57. In recent years the Estate has released previously unheard music from Prince's vault posthumously, including the full-length album Welcome 2 America in 2021.
