Framing Britney Spears director: “It was hard to get anyone to talk”

[Slave4yew]

Los Angeles magazine interviewed the Framing Britney Spears director. Good read.  
 

 

Why did you want to explore Britney Spears for a documentary?

[New York Times senior editor] Liz Day pitched it. Originally, it was before all these court filings started coming out, so when we originally pitched it, there hadn’t been any public record indications that Britney wanted anything changed with the conservatorship. We didn’t think there was going to be much change on that front, so we actually began looking at the media coverage that had happened about her with the post-#MeToo lens and realizing how much of the media coverage was so misogynistic in a way that feels like it wouldn’t fly today. And then it also asks these questions, like why did nobody bring up anything when these late-night hosts are making fun of her, her ***uality as a teenager, like why didn’t we as a society say don’t do that?

I was also really interested in these two images that have traveled with Britney her whole life. One is of her shaving her head and one is brandishing this umbrella, and it feels like it’s in everyone’s subconscious. I wanted to know what was outside the frame of those still images.

As we started filming, these court filings started coming out where Britney is indicating that she wants things in the conservatorship to change, which you can’t underestimate how groundbreaking that was. That really made us want to dig into conservatorship law and see what is legal and why.

You secured an interview with Felicia Culotta, her longtime assistant/chaperone. What is tough to get her to agree to appear in the film?

It was really hard to get anyone to talk at all at first. There’s been this cone of silence around Britney for so many years that it feels like no one wants to be the first person to talk. We had a spreadsheet of hundreds of people with anyone we could think of and we sent requests and called people. A lot of people talked to us off the record, but it was hard to get people to go on the record and on camera with their face. We have an all-female crew doing this. We wrote out our whole pitch, and wanted to reassess things and correct a lot of misinformation about her out there.

We wanted to find a female record executive to talk about her early career and we found Kim Kaiman, who is in the piece. She was really surprised that we reached out to her because people don’t really ask her for interviews about this. We talked to her a lot and she reached out to Felicia for us and that’s how we got it. It was several phone conversations and Felicia was impressed that we were going to go out to Mississippi to interview her in person and she showed us around her town and it gave us more of a sense of what Britney’s life was like growing up.

Speaking to a female record executive as opposed to a male, how do you think that will change people’s perception of Britney?

What [Kaiman] said and what was corroborated by several other people was how much control Britney had over the creation of her image. The point that kept being made was that teenagers have ***uality. The reason Britney was so successful was that she captured the dichotomy of what it’s like to be a teenage girl so well because she had ***uality and wanting to be an adult woman, and she also had a kid in her and that’s true about many teenagers. She got a lot of shame for that and there were a lot of people thinking she’s being ***ualized, she doesn’t know what she’s doing, this is disgusting, she’s a child and I think that was older people doing that, not the millions of tweens and teens who felt like something about her really spoke to them. We discovered in the piece this kind of strength and control she has over her body and her space as a young person that I think is one of the big reasons she is successful.

Her target audience was 12- and 13-year-olds. Kim marketed her as your friend who you idolize but at the end of the day, she has the same hopes and dreams you do. It was surprising to me because when I was interviewing a lot of these Free Britney people, and the vast majority of them were in their late 20s, early 30s, almost all of them. And it’s the same people who Kim marketed Britney toward are now standing outside the courthouse protesting. That was a revelation for me because it worked so well because they really responded to seeing her as this friend they looked up to. And now years later, seeing your friend who you looked up to in a situation where it’s unclear whether she’s happy or not, they’re still, like, this is my friend I idolize.

A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THE FREE BRITNEY MOVEMENT ARE ASKING LEGITIMATE QUESTIONS THAT WE SHOULD ALL ASK ABOUT THE CONSERVATORSHIP SYSTEM.

What did you think of the Free Britney fans?

A lot of people write them off as conspiracy theorists. That’s a really easy thing to do. I was surprised at how in-depth and investigative they were going, and there are some lawyers who are a part of this group and some people who have witnessed conservatorship abuse because there is abuse that happens in the conservatorship system. And a lot of them are asking legitimate questions that we should all ask about the conservatorship system. Where are there conflicts of interest? Where are there loopholes? We don’t know why Britney is in one, but for example, a lot of people think it has something to do with living with a mental illness. Should somebody living with a mental illness be subject to a conservatorship is a legitimate question to ask.

It’s important not to write them off as conspiracy theorists. Of course we’re vetting everything they say and we’re not including anything that isn’t true.

Was there anything you didn’t include that you wish made it in the documentary?

This could be a six-hour series. I heard a lot of these incredible stories from fans who were gay boys growing up with her and this idea that she was criticized for her ***uality from a young age and was rebellious throughout her career after that. A lot of the loudest voices in the Free Britney movement are gay men who were boys when she was becoming popular. I found that very moving.

What are you hoping this documentary will accomplish?

I hope it gives viewers a more accurate and clear perspective on who Britney is and who she was. I hope it makes everyone question our own complicity in the awful things that were done to her by us, by the consumers. The reason Us Weekly was able to pay these paparazzi so much money was because people were buying the magazines. At one point Wesley Morris, one of the writers in our film, says, “No one was helping her because there was too much money to be made off her suffering,” and I think we show that in a new way. I also hope people come away with a look at the conservatorship system and think about the questions that it raises as systemic issues are there.

 

[Bo da toe]

24 minutes ago, Slave4yew said:

Her target audience was 12- and 13-year-olds. Kim marketed her as your friend who you idolize but at the end of the day, she has the same hopes and dreams you do. It was surprising to me because when I was interviewing a lot of these Free Britney people, and the vast majority of them were in their late 20s, early 30s, almost all of them. And it’s the same people who Kim marketed Britney toward are now standing outside the courthouse protesting. That was a revelation for me because it worked so well because they really responded to seeing her as this friend they looked up to. And now years later, seeing your friend who you looked up to in a situation where it’s unclear whether she’s happy or not, they’re still, like, this is my friend I idolize.

This is exactly how it feels

[nottinghill99]

wow this is such a great interview <3

[rennen]

57 minutes ago, Slave4yew said:

I hope it gives viewers a more accurate and clear perspective on who Britney is and who she was. I hope it makes everyone question our own complicity in the awful things that were done to her by us, by the consumers. The reason Us Weekly was able to pay these paparazzi so much money was because people were buying the magazines. At one point Wesley Morris, one of the writers in our film, says, “No one was helping her because there was too much money to be made off her suffering,” and I think we show that in a new way. I also hope people come away with a look at the conservatorship system and think about the questions that it raises as systemic issues are there.

Facts. 

This documentary is going to be an emotional roller coaster. 

[PZHSB]

Very good interview. If only the rest of the world treated Britney with the same respect this person did. 

[Easy There]

Seems like a great interview. But I doubt it will explore conservatorship abuse much,and it will barely touch FreeBritney movement.

[Easy There]

Seems like a great interview. But I doubt it will explore conservatorship abuse much,and it will barely touch FreeBritney movement.

[G.E]

Did anyone see the new “Framing Britney Spears” ad? I read some fans thinking this is what she meant with project rose.  More conspiracy theories hahaha Looking forward to Friday. Maybe we should all share the documentary pic and free Britney hashtag on Friday, to bring more awareness to her situation.   

[Slave4yew]

8 minutes ago, PZHSB said:

Very good interview. If only the rest of the world treated Britney with the same respect this person did. 

You can tell she did this with good intentions. Love her for being one of the first to document this. 

[PokemonSpears]

At least there was finally some interest about her situation. We have to wait and see if the final product actually does its job to ask all of those questions and make people realize how wrong the whole situation is, but it sounds promising, that maybe they could even do a follow-up in the future, or more people that refused to talk will be willing to do so after seeing this. 

[Peter Pan]

I can’t wait to see it! Feb 5 is getting closer and closer! 
If it’s good I finally can show this to some of my friends who have been asking me about Britney’s situation. 

[Slayer]

A great interview!

I really can't wait to see the documentary, I hope it is very pro free britney and it blows up!

Featured btw

[MacLaura]

2 hours ago, cornejotavo said:

Did anyone see the new “Framing Britney Spears” ad? I read some fans thinking this is what she meant with project rose.  More conspiracy theories hahaha Looking forward to Friday. Maybe we should all share the documentary pic and free Britney hashtag on Friday, to bring more awareness to her situation.   

Which ad?

[Slave4yew]

28 minutes ago, Slayer said:

A great interview!

I really can't wait to see the documentary, I hope it is very pro free britney and it blows up!

Featured btw

[Forever222]

Good interview. It’s great that she even opened her eyes and understands now that this is real. Hopefully more people are educated about Britney’s situation with this doc. 

[Sea flower]

Great interview, very good answers. Knowing now that they started working on it before B started fighting the conservatorship, makes me more excited for the documentary.

[andy131]

Is there any confirmation that it’s 75 mins? This show is typically like 20 or 30 mins right?? The other episodes?

[2K16NEY]

Wow. She really captured what it felt and feels like being a Britney fan. It was so sweet to see it articulated so well. Only 4 days left hennies! 

[Whoisittt]

So excited that Wesley Morris is involved with this! He has an incredible pop culture podcast with Jenna Wortham called "Still Processing." I highly recommend listening and I hope they speak on Free Britney one day as well. I trust him completely. 

[IconicShow]

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing this documentary if anything if they don’t go too deep into certain aspects of the conservatorship or discuss things many fans want to be talked about, I think this will open the door to possibly more people to come out and talk about the conservatorship! Hopefully expose more of what we may or may not know in the conservatorship, also there’s other documentaries in the works so this is just the first step and start of many that hopefully will get more people to talk and bring more awareness to what’s going on with Britney and eventually continue to get her on the path to autonomy and freedom.

 

I also find it interesting that they had trouble getting people to talk I think a small reason for that is again the fans just need to stop attacking people the minute someone comes out and tries to talk about something related to Britney in regards to this conservatorship fans go on the attack  and start bashing and dragging people so quickly it’s no wonder why so many don’t want to talk the fans just need to calm down!