The Netflix doc plays an alleged 2009 message of the singer asking a lawyer to help her out of her conservatorship.
Netflix's new documentary, Britney vs. Spears, sets out to uncover the whole truth behind Britney Spears' both private and public battle to end her 13-year conservatorship.
"I have worked my whole life," Spears is heard saying over performance footage of herself. "I don't owe these people anything."
The doc shows years of investigative work, including exclusive interviews and confidential documents that are said to have been leaked to director Erin Lee Carr (How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Dirty Money) and journalist Jenny Eliscu.
"The film weaves a shocking timeline of old and new players, secret rendezvous and Britney’s behind the scenes fight for her own autonomy," reads Netflix's press release. "Text messages and a voicemail as well as new interviews with key players make clear what Britney herself has attested: the full story has yet to be told."
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Carr says she was never able to interview Spears for the documentary, but "tried to contact her repeatedly," even sending her a letter that she has "reason to believe that she was able to read it."
"I had to sit with the understanding that it was unlikely ever to happen," she tells the publication.
Carr tells the Times that during filming, they did have "a source that was connected to the conservatorship that began to give us documents in the fall of 2020."
"This was the first time I had seen what people in the conservatorship at the inception of it said. It made me feel like I was on the right track," Carr says of the documents obtained. "Because there was this overwhelming fear: What is it I don’t know? Why is the legal system, her father, everyone keeping her in this conservatorship? What if I am making a story about something where I just can’t have access to the right facts?"
The director also addresses her documentary coming out months after The New York Times Presents Framing Britney Spears.
"This is a two-and-a-half years long investigative process into the conservatorship," she says of her doc. "There has been an amazing amount of coverage, but that’s a really long time to be focused on this. We wanted to be the definitive place to understand the beginning, middle and hopefully what we will find out as the end of this saga."
As for what you won't seen in this doc, the director states, "[In making the film I] was trying to not be another person to trespass on her privacy again and again. But she wants to get out of the conservatorship, so therefore we should know what is going on inside it. I specifically made the creative decision that we were not going to utilize the same imagery that she has said before is traumatizing. The incidents that happened in 2007 during one of the episodes at the hospital -- you’re never going to see those."
Carr implores, "If you care about women, you should watch this movie. If you care about mental health, you should watch this movie. If you’re a fan of Britney Spears, you should watch this movie."
Meanwhile, Spears' boyfriend, Sam Asghari, left a comment on Netflix's Instagram post sharing the trailer. The actor wrote, "I hope the profit from these docs go towards fighting agains [sic] injustice #freebritney."
Britney vs Spears begins streaming Sept. 28 on Netflix.
On the same day that the documentary trailer was released, a court filing by the 39-year-old singer's lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, was obtained by ET that asks the court to remove Spears' father, Jamie Spears, as her conservator immediately. The pop star first requested her father's removal as conservator in August. Shortly thereafter, Jamie Spears said that he was willing to step down from the role "when the time is right." This month, Jamie filed court documents to end Britney's conservatorship entirely.
The next hearing is Sept. 29.
RELATED CONTENT:
