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With its academic interviewees and mini-histories, J.M. Harper’s directorial debut “As We Speak,” about the weaponizing of rap lyrics in the courts, has the trappings of rigor. But not unlike its subject, the documentary’s power, beauty and complexity lie in Harper’s use of rhetoric and lyricism. The film editor of the Emmy-nominated series “Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy” has made a willfully creative work that mimics the ways rap can be intimately observational, seemingly confessional even, but is also a feat of artistic expression.

The hip-hop artist and Bronx native Kemba acts as a guide and a character for “As We Speak,” which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Utilizing Erik Nielson and Andrea Dennis’s book “Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics and Guilt in America,” the film follows Kemba as he crisscrosses the nation to speak with fellow artists and then leaps the Atlantic to the U.

Given the current dismal political and cultural climate as well as streaming services’ massive appetite for celebrity driven content, it comes as no surprise that the 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival is chock full of portrait documentaries. Frida Kahlo, Christopher Reeve, Luther Vandross and Tammy Faye are just a few of the boldface names that are being examined in various docus featured in the Sundance nonfiction lineup.

The festival is no stranger to star-driven docus. In recent years, films about Ruth Bader Ginsburg (“Rbg”), Fred Rogers (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”), Harvey Weinstein (“Untouchable”), Michael Jackson (“Leaving Neverland”), Kanye West (“jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy”), Bill Cosby (“We Need to Talk About Cosby”) and most recently Judy Blume (“Judy Blume Forever”) and Michael J. Fox (“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie”) had world premieres in Park City.

But unlike films self-produced by their star subjects, the profile docus selected...

Netflix has added Sahara Bushue to its unscripted team, TheWrap can confirm.

Bushue had been consulting for the streaming giant since March. She will now join the company on a permanent basis on unscripted VP Brandon Riegg’s team. Her official title will be director of unscripted series.

Previously, Bushue worked as the senior vice president and head of unscripted for Westbrook Studios, the entertainment venture company founded by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. She was there for a little over two years when the company produced projects such as “Red Table Talk,” “Welcome to Earth,” “Amend: The Fight for America” and “Women of the Movement.”

Before that, Bushue was the senior vice president for alternative programming and development at NBC. Altogether, she was at the network for 13 years. Throughout her time at NBC, she’s worked on “America’s Got Talent,” “Ellen’s Game of Games,” “World of Dance,” “Little Big Shots” and “Hollywood Game Night.

We will update this article throughout the season, along with all our predictions, so make sure to keep checking IndieWire for the latest news from the 2023 Emmys race. The nomination round of voting takes place from June 15 to June 26, with the official Emmy nominations announced Wednesday, July 12. Afterward, final voting commences August 17 and ends the night of August 28. The 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards will now take place Monday, January 15, live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. Et/ 5:00 p.m. Pt.

See our previous thoughts on what to expect at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards here.

The State of the Race

Months of predictions often lead to plenty of last minute second guessing, but it does seem like HBO has given enough of a last minute boost to “100 Foot Wave” Season 2 for it to go all the way. Again, it really said something last year that the exhilarating...

RedBird Imi, the venture led by former NBCUniversal and CNN chief Jeff Zucker, has made its first media investment.

The $1 billion media, entertainment and sports vehicle (a joint venture between Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird and Abu Dhabi’s International Media Investments) is launching a new non-fiction content studio led by Ian Orefice, the former president and COO of Time Studios.

The new studio, called EverWonder, will finance, produce and distribute non-fiction features, documentaries and series, with a particular eye toward projects that can be leveraged into brand extensions or new intellectual property.

“I think it’s an incredibly exciting time in the non-fiction space, and we have the ability for documentaries and live events and docuseries and truth-based storytelling to live on a true global scale,” Orefice tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “So every project we endeavor to do starts with that premise: Will this find a global audience?...

Netflix has reportedly indicated it has no plans to remove the recent Kanye West documentary Jeen-Yuhs amid the rapper’s ongoing antisemitism scandal.

Companies including fashion brand Balenciaga, talent agency CAA, and Vogue magazine have distanced themselves from West after he made a number of antisemitic comments on social media and in interviews.

Released earlier this year, jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy was a three-part documentary about West’s life, directed by Coodie & Chike.

According to a report in TMZ, Netflix’s position is that the company is “not in business” with West, because he was the documentary’s subject, and was not involved in the creation or promotion of the films.

The outlet also cites a Netflix source as saying that there is nothing antisemitic contained within the documentary.

It is also pointed out that the decision is consistent with Netflix’s past stance on content concerning controversial figures.

The question of anti-Semitism is one that has traditionally made Hollywood profoundly uncomfortable as an industry full of Jewish people who would rather not talk about Jews, Jewish people, Israel or – God forbid – anti-Semitism.

Why that’s true requires a Ph.D. in psycho-Semitism (if that were a thing), but Kanye “Ye” West has managed to get shut out of much of Hollywood this past week after a series of anti-Semitic rants that have been embraced by hate groups and spread over social media. He’s lost his agency (CAA), his lawyer at Brown Rudnick and lucrative partnerships with fashion giants such as Balenciaga and others.

Also on Monday, MRC announced the cancellation of an already completed, 2 million documentary called “The Myth of Ye” that it had financed and produced and hoped to sell for as much as 10 million in distribution revenues. Director Zach Heinzerling sought to explore the relationship between the rapper,...

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has found himself in hot water after giving a series of inflammatory interviews where he spouts anti-Semitic rhetoric. Multiple collaborators have dropped the rapper, citing his remarks as the reason. But one place that Ye will remain is Netflix, via the “Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy” documentaries, TheWrap has confirmed.

The three documentaries, it should be noted, feature West as the subject matter; he wasn’t involved in the creation or promotion of the movies. The documentaries are also free of the kind of hate speech that has embroiled him in his most recent controversy.

Netflix has taken a similarly hands-off approach for things like the Dave Chappelle’s comedy specials which feature anti-trans sentiment and were still allowed to exist as part of the streamer’s vast catalog.

Also Read:

Kim Kardashian Condemns Anti-Semitism, Doesn’t Call Out Ye by Name: ‘Hate...

“Four Hours at the Capitol,” “The Beatles: Get Back,” “Playing With Sharks,” “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” and “How To With John Wilson” are among the nonfiction television programs that have been nominated in the Cinema Eye Honors broadcast categories, Cinema Eye Honors announced at the organization’s annual fall lunch in Los Angeles on Thursday.

“Four Hours at the Capitol,” Jamie Roberts’ HBO film about the Jan. 6 insurrection, received three nominations to lead all programs. “Get Back,” “Cosby,” “Stanley Tucci,” “John Wilson” and “Playing With Sharks” each received two nominations.

Along with “Four Hours at the Capitol” and “Playing With Sharks,” broadcast film nominees were “Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes,” “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing” and “George Carlin’s American Dream.” Nonfiction series nominees were “Get Back,” “Cosby,” “Black and Missing,” “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey,” “LuLaRich” and “Mind Over Murder.” Nominated anthology series...

The Creative Arts Emmy Awards were presented during two ceremonies over the weekend of September 3 and September 4, so who were the big winners? Scroll down for the results in all 93 categories, updated throughout the weekend as they were announced.

SEEWatch Saturday’s live streaming 2022 Creative Arts Emmys webcast revealing 45 winners

The Primetime Emmy telecast scheduled for September 12 will get the most media attention, but the vast majority of awards were presented at these Creative Arts ceremonies. Those races included top program awards like Best TV Movie, Best Variety Special (Live), Best Variety Special (Pre-Recorded), and Best Structured Reality Program. But this was also where TV’s outstanding costume designers, sound designers, hairstylists, choreographers, and many others were recognized. These awards can also give us a preview of what programs are front-runners for top prizes that will be presented eight days later. For instance, shows like “Game of Thrones,” “Chernobyl,” and...

Drake, Selena Gomez, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are among the Emmy-nominated producers in the series and specials categories, the TV Academy announced.

Grammy-winning superstar Drake is a first-time Emmy nominee as an executive producer of HBO’s “Euphoria” alongside fellow EPs Adele “Future” Nur and the quadruple-nominated Zendaya (who’s also nominated for lead actress in a drama and two original songs). At 25, Zendaya is now (officially) the youngest woman ever nominated for producing at the Emmys, in addition to being the youngest two-time lead acting nominee ever.

Gomez is also officially an Emmy nominee as an executive producer for “Only Murders in the Building,” the first time a Latina has received a nom for comedy series for a show she also starred in. She’s in great company alongside her co-stars, Steve Martin and Martin Short.

Although she’s won three Emmys for acting, Laura Linney got her...

“jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy” co-directors Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah both vividly remember how they first encountered Kanye West as a rapper. For Simmons, it was back in Chicago with West performing with Glc after seeing him lay down beats in local barbershops. “I was like, this dude is the one. He was so charismatic on stage and his lyrics; the things that he was talking about, I was like, this guy is a standout artist,” Simmons tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). The first time Ozah heard Kanye rap, it was when he played “Jesus Walks” for him. “To be bold enough to rap about Jesus and talented enough to create a song about Jesus. I could literally ride around the block, pumping a song about Jesus and pop my head and feel cool. That’s a major accomplishment!”

See 2022 Emmy nominations:...

Disney announced Monday that the company has formed a new Awards team to handle film and episodic content across all labels in Disney Studios Content. The news comes just one day before the 2022 Primetime Emmy nominations are announced.

Led by René Ridinger, the new VP, Awards, the team encompasses publicity, creative, and media for awards campaigns for projects produced by Disney Live Action, Disney Animation, Pixar Animation, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, and more. The only exception will be Searchlight Pictures, which will remain in-house at Searchlight.

The new group will work under Michelle Sewell, EVP, Global Publicity, as part of the marketing team led by Disney Studios President of Marketing Asad Ayaz. In addition to Ridinger is Nikki Adler, who serves as Director, Awards, and Samy Gaballa, who will be Creative Arts Director.

Ridinger, a seasoned film and TV PR and awards executive, most recently led documentary publicity at Netflix,...

Film and TV public relations awards executive René Ridinger has been named VP, Awards at Walt Disney Studios.

Ridinger will focus on strategy and talent relations, working closely with internal executives and marketing and publicity teams.

In addition, Strategy PR vet Nikki Adler will be joining the Burbank, CA studio as Director, Awards, to oversee awards publicity, guild, and event strategy.

Samy Gaballa, a 20-year Disney veteran, will be stepping into a new role as Creative Arts Director, spearheading all awards-related creative.

The new awards team encompasses publicity, creative, and media and will handle film and episodic content across all labels in Disney Studios Content, including Disney Live Action, Disney Animation, Pixar Animation, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios.

The team is seated under Michelle Sewell, EVP, Global Publicity, as part of the marketing team led by the...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official awards predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis; Awards Circuit Column, a weekly analysis dissecting the trends and contenders by television editor Michael Schneider (for Emmys) and Davis (for Oscars); Awards Circuit Podcast, a weekly interview series with talent and an expert roundtable discussion; and Awards Circuit Video analyzes various categories and contenders by Variety's leading awards pundits. Variety's unmatched coverage gives its readership unbeatable exposure in print and online, as well as provide inside reports on all the contenders in this year's awards season races.

To see all the latest predictions, of all the categories, in one place, visit The Emmys Collective

Visit each category, per the individual awards show from The Emmys Hub

To see old predictions and commentary,...

Apple TV+ led both the comedy and drama fields when it comes to nominations for the Hollywood Critics Association’s 2nd annual Hca TV Awards in streaming. The outlet’s “Severance” 12 nominations; “Ted Lasso” was next with 11. “Severance” was recognized for streaming drama series, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, directing and writing. “Ted Lasso” was nominated for streaming comedy series, actor, supporting actor, supporting actress, directing and writing; “Ted Lasso Presents: The Missing Christmas Mustache” was nommed for short form animated series.

The Hca TV Awards are unique in featuring several drama and comedy categories for both broadcast and cable. And it’s also unique for splitting broadcast/cable and streaming into separate nominations and ceremonies. The streaming nominees will be announced later this afternoon.

Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” and Hulu’s “Dopesick” each landed nine nominations. Other major nominees included Netflix’s “Squid Game” with seven,...

The TV academy has honored voice-only performances since 1992, when six cast members from “The Simpsons” collectively became the first actors to receive Emmys for such work. The Best Voice-Over Performance category became an official non-juried one in 2009 and was then split into two categories in 2014: Best Character Voice-Over and Best Narrator. Jeremy Irons (“Game of Lions”) made history as the latter category’s first champion, having been awarded once before for “The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century: War Without End” in 1997.

The 2022 Best Narrator ballot list below consists of 33 performances. Seeking a fourth victory is David Attenborough (“The Mating Game”), whose three-year streak was broken last year by Sterling K. Brown (“Lincoln: Divided We Stand”). Also in the mix are former winners Peter Coyote (“Benjamin Franklin”) and Keith David (“Muhammad Ali”).

Unlike the live action and fictional program nominees, which are chosen by all 22,000 plus academy members,...

The number and range of superstars vying for Emmys this year – everyone from Kanye West and 50 Cent to Mick Jagger and Imagine Dragons – is staggering.

More than 600 entries in the seven Emmy music categories were unveiled today as voting began for the nominations round. Nominations will be announced by the Television Academy on July 12.

The most star-studded category is that of best song. “Euphoria” star Zendaya and composer Labrinth, who won Emmys for the series in 2020, have entered two songs from this past season as co-writers and could score again given the huge popularity of the HBO series. Labrinth has also entered in the series-score category.

Country stars Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert are up for songs in “Nine Perfect Strangers” and “Queer Eye,” respectively. Music docs are included too, as Sheryl Crow has entered a song from the new Showtime documentary on her life and Mary J. Blige...

A version of this story about “jeen-yuhs” first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

When Kanye West announced on social media in January that he expected the filmmakers of the documentary “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy” to give him final cut, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah, friends of Kanye’s from Chicago who’d been accumulating footage for nearly 20 years. After all, they were preparing for a version of the film back in 2006 when the hip-hop artist and producer, in the first flush of fame, announced that they couldn’t release that film because he didn’t want to be seen in unguarded moments.

“I read his message on my birthday that he wanted to shut the movie down,” Coodie said, laughing. (The series’ directing credits read simply “Coodie & Chike.”) “I almost fainted, but at the same time,...

Last Year’s Winner: “Secrets of the Whales”

Still Eligible: No.

Hot Streak: Disney+ itself is not on a hot streak, having only won last year, and no other year since its existence. Disney as a whole though has won two years running, with ESPN winning in 2020 for the blockbuster docuseries “The Last Dance.”

Notable Ineligible Series: “The New York Times Presents”; “Biography”

This article will be updated throughout the season, along with all our predictions, so make sure to keep checking IndieWire for the latest news from the 2022 Emmys race. The nomination round of voting will take place from June 16 to June 27, with the official Emmy nominations to be announced on Tuesday, July 12. The Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be given out over two consecutive nights on Saturday, September 3 and Sunday, September 4, with an edited presentation on the ceremonies to be broadcast on Saturday, Sept. 10, at 8:00 p.m.

Pete Davidson doesn’t take Kanye West’s digs too literally, otherwise he would be hospitalized…for real.

During Davidson’s Netflix Is a Joke: The Festival set, the “Saturday Night Live” star responded to multi-hyphenate artist West’s lyric that he is HIV-positive.

“I’ve had a really weird year. I had an AIDS scare this year,” Davidson joked onstage. “Yeah, I did, and you’re like, ‘Pete, wow, what’s going on in your life? Are you sharing needles? Are you doing heroin? Are you having tons of unprotected sex?’ No, Kanye told me I had AIDS. And he’s a genius so I was like, ‘Oh, fuck. I better call my doctor. The guy who made ‘College Dropout’ thinks I have AIDS.'”

Davidson went on to explain that saying someone has AIDS is “such a ’90s, early 2000s thing.”

“John Mulaney called me and he was like ‘AIDS?...

Deadline has launched the streaming site for its Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted event, which Saturday showcased 21 documentary and reality series along with the subjects and creators who make them tick. It now joins our scripted Contenders counterpart to provide a 360-degree view of the shows that are generating buzz this TV awards season.

Click here to launch the Contenders TV: Docs + Unscripted streaming site.

Overall, more than 60 cast and creators from 12 networks, studios and streamers took part in the all-day virtual event. Hulu, ABC, National Geographic, Showtime, Netflix, VH1, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Warner Bros Television, Comedy Central, Lifetime, A&e, TLC, HBO Documentary Films, MTV and Fox Television showed off series from The Kardashians and The Daily Show With Trevor Noah to The Masked Singer, We Need to Talk About Cosby and 90 Day Fiancé and all points in between.

Among the panelists who participated in the discussions were Kim Kardashian,...

Kanye West has become possibly the world’s most famous and revered rap star, dominating headlines with his music and his personal life. But there was a time – hard as it is to imagine – when he was pegged as “just” a great record producer, and not a performer in his own right.

The Netflix docuseries Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy dials back to that time when Ye (as he calls himself now) struggled to be taken seriously as a solo artist. The series is directed by Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah, who made some of West’s most important music videos. Simmons grew up in Chicago, as did Kanye, and began shooting video of West back in the late 1990s, well before the rapper released his first solo album.

Contenders TV Docs + Unscripted: — Deadline’s Complete Coverage

“To actually start documenting him, what inspired me was Hoop Dreams, the documentary...

Exclusive: Time Studios has entered a shopping agreement with Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper, fourth-generation members of the Russ family who now own its iconic New York culinary brand Russ & Daughters, to develop a scripted series examining its history and the family behind it.

The project marks Time Studios’ first under its newly inked first-look deal with producer Kim Rozenfeld—who formerly served as Head of Nonfiction Development and Head of Current Programming at Apple TV+—and his Half Full Studios. The producers are currently out to writers to help craft the story of the landmark institution.

Russ & Daughters is a historic shop opened by Joel Russ on New York’s Lower East Side in 1914. Today, it remains a culinary icon, world-famous for providing the highest quality, when it comes to smoked fish, caviar, bagels, bialys, babka and other Jewish delicacies. The original shop on East Houston Street...

Megan Thee Stallion will be the subject of a new documentary series as produced by Time Studios and Roc Nation and directed by Nneka Onuorah, a filmmaker behind the documentary “The Legend of the Underground” and an upcoming series competition series featuring Lizzo.

The multi-part docuseries, which does not yet have a title, will explore the life and career of the Grammy-winning rapper and musician, delving into Megan’s upbringing in Houston, Texas, her personal and professional hurdles and how those have shaped the many layers of her personality. The project will use archival footage and new verité video that will further demonstrate how Megan rose from being a viral freestyling phenom to now an iconic cultural powerhouse.

“We are thrilled to be able to work with Roc Nation to share Megan’s story with the world. Millions of people are familiar with her as an entertainer, but this series...

As the title puts in no uncertain terms, directing duo Coodie and Chike’s four-and-a-half documentary Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy treats the matter of the subject’s genius as a given. To the naysayers, that might still be up for debate. But to place someone as incendiary as Kanye West—the American rapper, producer, fashion designer, one-time presidential candidate, and billionaire now legally named Ye—in the dictionary besides that contentious and sacred word “genius” is to assert an obvious truth worth repeating: that hip-hop produces geniuses who should be recorded as such in the history and canon of art. The Black hip-hop artist is expected to work twice, thrice as hard, to accumulate laurels and corporate sponsorships, break records and become an exceptional humanitarian and entrepreneur, to even be considered a respectable artist by white America—let alone a genius. But Coodie and Chike do not waste much time...

Photo: ‘jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’ - “act iii: Awakening” Wednesday, March 2nd, the final installment of ‘jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’, was released on Netflix: “act iii: Awakening.” This in-depth look into Kanye West’s rise to fame was a composite of footage director and friend Coodie Simmons (aka Coodie) had taken of the rapper over the past twenty years. The third and final act of ‘jeen-yuhs’ shows Kanye’s sudden and intense rise to fame. But we only see it from a distance. Once ‘The College Dropout’ was finally released, Ye’s career blew up, winning multiple Grammys, landing television interviews – Coodie became pushed to the sidelines. So, this part of the documentary looks at Ye from a new angle. Unlike the first two episodes, Coodie and Kanye’s lives are not joined at the hip. The bigger Ye got, the less he asked for Coodie to be around...

“Tonight is not about Yeezus. It’s about Jesus,” said DeVon Franklin, the TV and film producer, bestselling author and VP of the Motion Picture Academy’s board of governors, introducing a panel at NeueHouse in Hollywood this week. It was both, of course, as the event he was leading was sponsored by Netflix and at least ostensibly in the service of promoting discussion about “Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy,” the three-part documentary about hip-hop titan Kanye West that just rolled out over three weeks on the streaming service. Franklin wasn’t being misleading, though: Yahweh mentions did at least slightly beat out Ye shout-outs during the two-hour discussion, although there was no mistaking that the promise of discussing pop culture’s most polarizing figure was the chief lure for the members of L.A.’s Black church community that primarily made up the full house.

So is “Jeen-yuhs” really a faith-based film?...

Photo: ‘Jeen-yuhs Part 2’ The three-part film is being released on Netflix in weekly installments, the final of which will be March 2nd, 2022, and the first of which was February 16th. It is directed by filmmaker, Coodie Simmons, who also partially stars in what is a uniquely intimate documentary. Mr. Simmons plays a key role both behind the camera and in Ye’s (formerly known as Kanye West) personal life. ‘jeen-yuhs’ is a film of a rare kind in its own cinematic right, as it is the distillation of footage amassed over two decades. Because of the sheer magnitude of the project, especially when covering the life of a celebrity such as Ye, it only makes sense that it be released in a longer form. However this, and the fact that we watch the man become the legend over years of his life, offers viewers the chance to sit with Ye,...

Image Source: Netflix

Kanye West has made headlines for many different reasons in the past few years. From his tumultuous marriage to Kim Kardashian to his two-month relationship with Julia Fox to his confusing album rollouts, the rapper is never out of the news for too long. But back in 2002, when West was still just an up-and-coming artist, he made headlines for a truly terrifying reason: a near-fatal car accident.

Just two weeks after signing a deal with Roc-a-Fella Records, West drove home after working late at a California recording studio on Oct. 23, 2002. He fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car into an oncoming vehicle. The driver of the other car broke both of his legs, while West shattered his jaw in three places. But West didn't let his near-death experience hold him back from his bright future. In fact, it motivated him to go even harder for his debut album,...

Netflix’s highly anticipated Kanye West documentary “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy” began streaming last week, but you would be forgiven for losing track of West’s constantly evolving stance on the film. In the weeks leading up to its release he publicly demanded to re-edit the film in order to “control [his] image,” and baselessly threatened to block the documentary from being released. Soon after, he once again took to Instagram to request that Drake record new narration for the documentary. But he eventually attended a screening of the film arranged by Netflix and was seen embracing the film’s directors before addressing the crowd. Since then, he has used his social media following to passionately promote the film, and even celebrated when it briefly became the most viewed item on Netflix.

Despite not having final say over the film, it appears that West is pleased with how it turned out.

Photo: ‘Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’ Kanye West the self-proclaimed ‘genius’ and ‘god’ has the first act of his documentary titled ‘Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’ available to watch on Netflix and the first act takes the audience back in time when West was a talented producer, trying to get signed to Roc-a-Fella Records. The entire documentary is about unseen footage of West from the past two decades which includes his career in music and fashion, the death of his mother Donda West, and his 2020 presidential campaign. The documentary is directed by Clarence Simmons aka Coodie and Chike Ozah and throughout the first act, Coodie narrates West’s story, therefore, giving more context of what West was thinking or feeling at that present moment. Related article: Oscar-nominated - 'West Side Story' Full Commentary - Rita Moreno, Steven Spielberg, Rachel Zegler Related article: Oscar-nominated - Exclusive: 'Dune' Full Commentary,...

Image Source: Getty / David Livingston

Following the August release of "Donda," Kanye West is gearing up to drop more new music. On Jan. 27, the 44-year-old rapper announced that "Donda 2" will be dropping on Feb. 22. The album will be executive produced by Future.

On Feb. 17, West announced that "Donda 2" is getting a unique release through a device called the Stem Player, which is being sold in conjunction with the album to allow viewers to listen. "'Donda 2' will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube," West shared on Instagram, explaining, "Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. It's time to free music from this oppressive system. It's time to take control and build our own. Go to stemplayer.com now to order."

On its website, it states that the device retails for $200, has 8Gb of storage, bluetooth compatability,...

This review of “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy” was first published on Jan. 23, following its premiere at Sundance 2022.

It isn’t necessary to be a Kanye West fan to appreciate or enjoy the new three-part Netflix documentary “jeen-yuhs” — and these days it’s more understandable if you aren’t — but it helps.

No one has done more in the last several years to harm West’s reputation than West himself, but it will undoubtedly help the viewing experience to possess a degree of admiration for his accomplishments — or even just an ounce of empathy for his complex, contradictory, polarizing humanity — especially since co-directors Coodie and Chike do a more than serviceable job reminding their potential audience that for better or worse, just like everyone else, West is some mother’s son.

The first chapter of “jeen-yuhs,” “Act 1: Vision,” showcases the intimacy of the filmmakers’ connection to West and provides a context for documenting his journey.

Kanye West's life and career got the documentary treatment from Netflix in a three-part series titled "Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy." The behind-the-scenes documentary - which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival ahead of Netflix's Feb. 16 premiere - is "an intimate and revealing portrait of Kanye's experience" that focuses on his early days in music, his failed 2020 presidential bid, and his image as a businessman and artist. While West was involved in the making of the documentary, codirectors Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah had control of the final cut.

West previously demanded that control be transferred over to him ahead of the documentary's premiere. "I'm going to say this kindly for the last time. I must get final edit and approval on this doc before it releases on Netflix," he wrote in a statement shared on Instagram on Jan. 21. "Open the edit room immediately so I can be in charge of my own image.

Rapper Kanye West has opened up about his mental health struggles, admitting he’s felt “suicidal” in the past. The 44-year-old rap star has opened up about his mental health struggles in his new Netflix documentary, ‘Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’, revealing he told Kid Cudi about his mental health and substance abuse issues during a recording […]...

Kanye West and Julia Fox flamed out fast: the couple have broken up after a whirlwind two-month romance that spawned headlines and many matching outfits. Fox's representative confirmed the news to Us Weekly on Feb. 14. The statement read, "Julia and Kanye remain good friends and collaborators but they are no longer together."

When rumors of the breakup first hit, Fox responded to a Daily Mail headline that alleged she had been crying at the airport after wiping her Instagram feed of photos with West. Fox wrote, "I haven't cried since 1997 and I especially wouldn't cry over This!!" She said her distressed look was over being "late for a plane to go see the only men that matter which is my son and my dad."

West and Fox first met on New Year's Eve, and on Jan. 1, the two were spotted dining together at Carbone in Miami. Days later, the 44-year-old...

Kanye West made a surprise last-minute appearance at a Los Angeles screening Friday of the upcoming Netflix docuseries Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy.

Ye showed up about 15 minutes into the screening of the first part of the film, sitting on a chair in the front corner of the room, Variety reports.

The rapper’s slightly tardy appearance at the screening likely caught attendees — including Usher, Offset and Roddy Ricch — off-guard as West had previously demanded (and was denied) editing access to the three-part documentary prior to its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

All eyes will be on Netflix this Wednesday when the streaming service releases the first episode of its “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy.” The highly anticipated Kanye West docuseries, over two decades in the making, recently debuted to strong reviews at Sundance. But the rollout recently hit a few snags as the rapper has publicly bristled with Netflix about the series.

However, it seems that all might be forgiven between Ye and “jeen-yuhs” directors Coodie and Chike Ozah. Variety reports that the rapper attended a screening of his documentary on Friday night, where he was seen embracing the two directors and spoke to the celebrity-filled crowd after the screening ended. He continued to express his distrust for Hollywood executives as a whole, but said he appreciated the belief that Coodie and Ozah had in him and the 20-year relationship he shares with them. The controversy-loving star also found time to offer words of support to DaBaby,...

Kanye West made a surprise appearance at a preview of the Netflix docuseries “Jeen-Yuhs” at Citizen News in Hollywood on Friday night.

Celebs in the 300-strong audience at the Super Bowl Weekend event included Taraji P. Henson, Offset, Usher and Roddy Rich and Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. and co-president Valeisha Butterfield Jones.

West arrived at about 8:15. He made a beeline to the screening, which had started about 15 minutes earlier. A staffer brought him a chair to watch from a front corner of the room.

After the screening, West hugged co-directors Coodie and Chike.

… @kanyewest is here. #JeenYuhs #justforvariety pic.twitter.com/9mhyhEs4IG

— Marc Malkin (@marcmalkin) February 12, 2022

His appearance was noteworthy in itself, as he’d sparred with Netflix over editorial control of the film. “I’m going to say this kindly for the last time,” he wrote on Instagram last month. “I must get final edit...

Some weeks it seems like the streamers really are catering to every demographic. How else can you explain a single week that sees both the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” franchises making long overdue returns? There’s also a new Adam Scott show that makes returning to the office an even creepier experience, a dramatic retelling of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” and animated adventures starring Mickey Mouse and Cuphead. See? Every demographic dutifully covered.

On with the television!

Apple TV+

“Severance”

Friday, February 18, Apple TV+

After directing 2018’s Emmy-nominated limited series for Showtime, “Escape at Dannemora,” Ben Stiller returns to helm six of the nine episodes of Apple TV+’s trippy new prestige series “Severance.” Created by Dan Erickson, the series stars Adam Scott as a man who works for a mysterious company called Lumon Industries. In an effort to keep the business’ operations a secret, employees...

The new documentary Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy is four-and-a-half-hours worth of revelatory footage of Kanye West — and directors Coodie and Chike cut it down from 330 hours, dating back to the early 2000s.

Their first cut, they reveal on the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, was nine hours long. “If it’s not moving the story forward, you have to let [it go],” says Coodie, who was a comedian and host of the Chicago hip-hop TV show Channel Zero before dropping everything to follow West to New York.

He...

Netflix is rolling out "jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy" with all the pageantry you'd expect for a Kanye West documentary. The streamer is billing "jeen-yuhs" as "a three-week global event," which will unfold in three acts, similar to its "Fear Street" movie trilogy last summer. "Act 1 (Vision)" premieres on February 16, 2022, which means the first two-thirds of this trilogy will be playing out during Black History Month.

Directed by Clarence "Coodie" Simmons and Chike Ozah, "jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy" is described as "an intimate and revealing portrait of Kanye West's experience, showcasing both his formative days trying to break through and his life...

The post jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy Trailer: Kanye West's Life and Career Get the Netflix Documentary Treatment appeared first on /Film.

"The goal was to see how far his dreams would take him, but I had no idea where life would take us next." Netflix has debuted the full-length official trailer for their epic three-part documentary series jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, looking back at the prolific rise & musical genius of hip-hop mastermind Kanye West. This doc just premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival recently. Their intro: "You can't manufacture a project like jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy; it takes decades of vision, commitment, prayers, and perspective to produce. It seems providential that Coodie & Chike should be the ones to make the definitive film about [his] career thus far, as they were the filmmakers who introduced him to the masses with their documentary music video for 'Through the Wire.' This epic three-film doc features hours of fly-on-the-wall footage and paints a sweeping portrait of one of pop culture’s most controversial figures." What a killer trailer.

Following the journey of music star Kanye West from his early days to worldwide success, the first of the three-part documentary jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy will premiere on Netflix on February 16. “A landmark documentary event presented in three acts from Clarence ‘Coodie’ Simmons and Chike Ozah, jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy is an intimate and revealing portrait of Kanye West’s experience, showcasing both his formative days trying to break through and his life today as a global brand and artist,” reads Netflix’s release. “When I first put the camera on this up-and-coming producer back in’98, I knew he was destined for greatness,” says Simmons in the first look trailer. “The goal was to see how far his dreams would take him, but I had no idea where life would take us next.” Twenty-one years in the making, Simmons’ never-before-seen footage of the hip hop icon will show the highs...

Source: YouTube user Netflix

Kanye West fans, gather around, because Netflix is releasing a documentary about the enigmatic rapper called "Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy." The three-installment project - which has been over 20 years in the making - is "an intimate and revealing portrait of Kanye's experience," according to the streaming giant. The archival documentary will focus on West's life and career, from his early days trying to break into the music industry up until today, analyzing his reputation "as a global brand and artist." It will also follow West's journey from becoming a rap artist to a businessman, and touch on his failed 2020 presidential bid, as well as the death of his mother, Donda West.

Netflix shared the first-look trailer of the documentary on Sept. 25, which shows behind-the-scenes footage of a young West with rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) as they rap lyrics from their early collaboration...

Even after decades in the brightest spotlight imaginable, the world can’t take its eyes off of Kanye West. The rapper, who recently legally changed his name to Ye, continues to release music and court controversy in his personal life, but one of his most intriguing projects is “jeen-yuhs,” the upcoming Netflix documentary about his career. The first chapter of the three part documentary had its world premiere at Sundance last month, prior to its February release on the streaming service. Now Netflix has revealed the first trailer for “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy.”

The official synopsis describes “jeen-yuhs” as “a landmark documentary event presented in three acts from Clarence ‘Coodie’ Simmons and Chike Ozah…. an intimate and revealing portrait of Kanye West’s experience, showcasing both his formative days trying to break through and his life today as a global brand and artist.”

The documentary was directed by Chike Ozah and Clarence “Coodie” Simmons,...

Two weeks before the streaming premiere of Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, Netflix has shared the latest trailer for the in-depth, decades-spanning documentary about the rapper.

“Act 1” of the three-part series arrives Feb. 16, and the two-minute preview covers much of the ground that will feature in the debut episode, namely West’s gradual ascent from eager Chicago beatmaker to a bonafide rapper in his own right. The trailer also hints at the stardom that was soon to follow, as well as West’s own belief that his career was preordained by God.

Days before its official release, Netflix has unveiled the full trailer of the Kanye West documentary “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy.” But unlike the initial teaser released last month, this new, full look gives a preview of all three parts of West’s epic journey.

“When I first put the camera on this up-and-coming producer back in ’98, I knew he was destined for greatness. The goal would be to see how long his dreams would take him. But I had no idea where life would take us next,” the film’s director and narrator Clarence “Coodie” SImmons” says in the new trailer. “It felt like the bigger Kanye got, the farther we grew apart. But there was more to Kanye’s story I needed to tell.”

The first part of the seven-hour documentary series looked at West’s struggles trying to make it as a rapper in Chicago, and in Todd Gilchrist...

Coodie and Chike, the directors behind the decade-spanning, three-part new Kanye West documentary Jeen-Yuhs, say they had no advance notice before Ye suddenly demanded creative control over their film in an Instagram post last week. But the directors have no intention of agreeing to “open the edit room” to Ye, and not just because they’d already finished all three parts, which debut on Netflix Feb. 16. “Me and Chike have a company called Creative Control,” says Coodie, “because you don’t want to lose your creative control.”

At the same time,...