Watch Britney vs. Spears Netflix trailer: 'I just want my life back'
Filmmaker Erin Lee Carr got documents from a source connected to the singer's controversial conservatorship.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Netflix released the first trailer for its new Britney Spears documentary on Wednesday. Britney vs. Spears, from director Erin Lee Carr, comes to the streaming service on Sept. 28, and will delve into the singer's battle with her father, Jamie, who has served as her conservator for over a decade.
"I just want my life back," Britney Spears says in the trailer, adding later, "I have worked my whole life. I don't owe these people anything."
The trailer also shows fans protesting the conservatorship and shouting Spears' name, as well as snippets from interviews with experts commenting on the unusual situation the singer is in.
Britney Spears' conservatorship has been making news since it began in 2008 but drew greater attention when a Spears-focused episode of the documentary series The New York Times Presents debuted on Feb. 5. Fans, often using the hashtag #FreeBritney, have been calling for the singer's father to step out of her life.
Although Spears is a 39-year-old mother of two and an internationally famous pop star, she hasn't been allowed to handle her own finances since Jamie Spears was appointed her conservator back in 2008. In July, Britney Spears' attorney filed a court petition to have Jamie Spears removed from the conservatorship, and in early September, Jamie Spears himself filed a petition to end the controversial arrangement entirely.
Britney Spears herself did not participate in the documentary, the Los Angeles Times reports. But it promises to share information that hasn't come out elsewhere. Carr, 33, has worked on the film for more than two years, and told the newspaper a "source that was connected to the conservatorship ... began to give us documents in the fall of 2020."
Carr also said it's tough to believe Britney Spears needs a conservatorship at all.
"My understanding of a conservatorship is that you have to be unwilling to meet a need for clothing, shelter and to feed yourself," she said. "When I see someone doing really complex dancing and performing on a stage earning millions of dollars, those things don't seem like they belong in the same sentence."
The next hearing in Spears case is scheduled for Sept. 29, the day after the film's Netflix release.
