Prince Doc Director Addresses Netflix Cancellation: “It’s a Joke”
Ezra Edelman responded on Tuesday to Netflix’s announcement that they would not release his Prince documentary, calling the decision short-sighted, stifling and “a joke.”
Controversy over Edelman’s documentary first made headlines in September, when a New York Times report alleged that the nine-hour project would accuse Prince of physical and emotional abuse. The Prince estate said at the time they were “working to resolve matters,” and Netflix revealed in early February that the streamer would not release the documentary, and that the estate may develop a new project using content from Prince’s archive.
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Edelman did not comment on the Netflix announcement last month, but this week called the debacle “a joke” on Pablo Torre Finds Out. “The estate, here’s the one thing they were allowed to do: Check the film for factual inaccuracies. Guess what? They came back with a 17-page document full of editorial issues — not factual issues,” he said. “You think I have any interest in putting out a film that is factually inaccurate?”
Edelman, best known for Oscar-winning documentary O.J.: Made in America, went on to say the issue was less about who has the truth and more concerning “who has control,” adding that “this is reflective of Prince himself, who was notoriously one of the most famous control freaks in the history of artists. The irony being that Prince was somebody who fought for artistic freedom, who didn’t want to be held down by Warner Bros., who he believed was stifling his output. And now, in this case — by the way, I’m not Prince, but I worked really hard making something, and now my art’s being stifled and thrown away.”
Edelman went on to say that Netflix is “afraid of [Prince’s] humanity.” In the interview, host Pablo Torres said he had seen the documentary, and that “my main sensation watching it was that, this is one of the most impressive artists that has ever lived.”
In response, Edelman said “this is the thing that I just find galling. I mean, I can’t get past this — the short-sightedness of a group of people whose interest is their own bottom line.”
He continued, “The lawyer who runs the estate essentially said he believed that this would do generational harm to Prince. In essence, that the portrayal of Prince in this film — what people learn about him — would deter younger viewers and fans, potentially, from loving Prince. They would be turned off. This is, I think, the big issue here: I’m like, ‘This is a gift — a nine-hour treatment about an artist that was, by the way, fucking brilliant.’ Everything about who you believe he is is in this movie. You get to bathe in his genius. And yet you also have to confront his humanity, which he, by the way, in some ways, was trapped in not being able to expose because he got trapped in his own myth about who he was to the world, and he had to maintain it.”
Among the allegations reported to be in the documentary was an interview with Prince’s ex-lover Jill Jones, who spoke of a night in which he slapped and punched her in the face. Another past relationship, Susannah Melvoin, reportedly told filmmakers that after she moved in with the musician, he monitored her phone calls, told her not to leave the house and tried to keep her separated from her sister. In another interview, his ex-wife, Mayte Garcia, allegedly recalled being left alone after her and Prince’s child died.
Other interviews allege the famous singer exhibited a controlling nature and that he suffered abuse as a child. Additional sources, however, also recalled positive memories of the singer, which created what Edelman described as one of the hardest projects of his career.
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