“I’m going to say this kindly for the last time,” began the 22 Grammy winner Kanye West in an Instagram rant today, “I must get final edit and approval on this doc before it releases on Netflix.”
West was referring to the three-part documentary Jeen-Yuhs which is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 23 at 6PM MTN time.
“Open the edit room immediately so I can be in charge of my own image. Thank you in advance.”
Jeen-Yuhs is directed by Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah. Producers are Simmons, Chike Ozah and Leah Natasha Thomas and covers West in three acts, taking us behind the iconic music with never-before-seen footage from 21 years of the performing artist’s life. The docu covers West rise from hip hop artist to being a worldwide franchise, with a snapshot of his failed 2020 presidential bid as well as the death of his mother Donda West.
Deadline reached out to Netflix for statement. We’ll update you when we have it. Review copies of Jeen-Yuhs have already been sent to the media.
In an interview with Variety, Simmons and Ozah claimed that they had final cut over Jeen-Yuhs.
Netflix has often debuted their pop singer documentaries at film festivals, i.e. Gaga: Five Foot Two at TIFF 2017 and the Taylor Swift docu Miss Americana at Sundance 2020, the last live edition of the fest before the pandemic. The filmmakers of those docs received great access to their subjects sans any controversy. However, recent docs about music icons have been mired in black ink from their debuts at festivals, i.e. Alanis Morissette blasted her HBO doc Jagged before its TIFF world premiere last fall, and the HBO docu series Leaving Neverland which opened at Sundance 2019 saw a $100M lawsuit against the pay-cabler and public condemnation from the Jackson estate.
