The meteoric rise and disturbing fall of Britney Spears has devolved into a Kafkaesque court battle that has reawakened her fandom and raised pressing questions about mental health and an individuals' rights. A re-examination of her career and a new assessment of the movement rallying against her court-mandated conservatorship capture the unsavory dimensions of the American pop-star machine.
“Framing Britney Spears,” is the sixth installment of FX and Hulu’s “The New York Times Presents” series of stand-alone documentaries.
Nominated for two Creative Arts Emmys including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
Winner of the 2021 Television Critics Association Award (TCA) for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information.
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“The film feels revolutionary” - The Atlantic
“Excellent, heartbreaking” - Los Angeles Times
"Moving with crisp rigor and an unstinting yet respectful frankness through the Spears story” - Variety
“What’s different is the way this new version is told: with sympathy, when the public’s relationship with this pop star until recently bordered on sadism.” - The Washington Post
“A thought-provoking retrospective on Spears’ life and career’ - Chicago Sun Times
“A pointed work of cultural criticism that might make some viewers feel guilt about idly gawking at pictures of Spears on Perez Hilton circa 2007.” - Los Angeles Times
"The New York Times Presents gives us a horror documentary, as scary and unfathomable as The Blair Witch Project, only more chilling because it is not fiction….Framing Britney Spears is worth watching for the details, the history it tells, and the history it captures inadvertently by virtue of its hybrid journalistic filmmaking.” - Den of Geeks
“…the documentary adds to the critical conversation we are having about women, agency and trauma.” - NBC News
“The strength of “Framing Britney Spears”…it’s in its thoughtful hindsight.” - Washington Post
"...In 2021 it’s so bizarre and cringeworthy to watch what was commonplace then: late night jokes about her virginity status; reporters asking her if she had a sex life; regular shaming for expressing any burgeoning sexuality at all. Watching a montage of it, you can see how the obsessive attention surrounding her is spiraling out of control, so one can only imagine how jarring it must have been in the center of it all. By the time you’re viewing Matt Lauer (!) quiz a crying Britney (!!) about whether she’s a bad mom (!!!) for Dateline in 2006, it’s all one can do not to turn away in horror: We were okay with this?!” - Mashable
Nominated for two Primetime Emmys including Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
Winner of the 2021 Television Critics Association Award (TCA) for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information.
Showrunner and Executive Producer