After his sudden death at 54 in 2016, Prince's musical legacy was never a question. But as details emerged about the fentanyl overdose that killed him, stories about his staunchly protected private life began to paint a more complicated picture. Over a 9-hour documentary, director Ezra Edelman seeks to lift the veil on Prince in a nuanced manner, writes New York Times Magazine deputy editor Sasha Weiss. She's one of the few people who have seen the film after spending a year and a half covering Edelman's progress—and a dispute with Prince's estate and Netflix may keep it that way. The deeply personal places the film takes viewers has caused a stir from the estate, which changed hands over the project's five-year span. Currently, there are no plans to release it.
Weiss says that while the estate can fact-check the documentary, that's all the editing power granted after Netflix spent "tens of millions of dollars" for exclusive rights to footage from Paisley Park's vault of unseen footage and shows. But the estate is holding onto a loophole: contractually, the film was supposed to be no more than 6 hours. For Edelman, making that kind of cut would harm the narrative needed to tell the story in full: Prince was as a musical phenom and cultural icon who came from an abusive home, but he could be controlling and cruel in his own relationships. "How can you tell the truth about someone who, when you're talking to people, they all had different things to say?" Edelman says. "How can you tell the truth about someone who never told the truth about himself?" Read the fascinating piece in full here. (Or check out other longform recaps.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
