The weekend after the film aired in the US, #wearesorryBritney started trending on Twitter. “That is the effect we wanted,” says Samantha Stark, director of Framing Britney Spears, a New York Times documentary film that was telecast in the US in February and has now dropped in India on Discovery+. As a legal battle rages with the pop star, placed under conservatorship since 2008, challenging her father’s right to control her finances, the #freeBritney movement has gained ground, fuelled by the film’s success. The director speaks to t2 about the film that has reignited conversation about the conservatorship and places in context the events in Britney’s life that led to the star being deemed unfit to manage her own affairs.

What prompted you to take up the Britney Spears project?

I work for a series of documentaries called The New York Times presents. It was the idea of Liz Day, a senior editor. The original pitch was to look at the media coverage of Britney through the lens of 2020, post-#MeToo, when we are able to talk about mental health more openly. Then this legal battle started happening and it took on a life of its own.

When did you start work?

In July 2020. There wasn’t that much happening to film safely. We were looking for stories that would use a lot of archival material. People make jokes about Britney all the time. But we wanted to take her story super seriously. She is one of the biggest pop stars in the world and all around the globe now people are interested in the story.

Was the Free Britney movement on by then?

The agitation had started online in 2019, with them looking for clues in Britney’s Instagram. Many felt they were conspiracy theorists. But when we spoke to them, they had some valid points to make on the conservatorship system. Now a lot of people are taking them seriously.

A demonstration in 2020 seeking to free Britney from the conservatorship Sourced by the correspondent

Did you try to contact Britney?

You can’t just ask Britney how she feels about the conservatorship. We know from court documents that her conservator can limit who visits her or who she interacts with and there is a tight circle around her. We tried through the regular ways — through publicist, manager, lawyer… we also tried through friends, intermediaries, family. We don’t even know if the messages got to her because of the conservatorship.

How bad were things with Britney when the conservatorship was ordered?

It is hard to say. Nobody questioned the conservatorship as they felt this was a young woman gone out of control. But we wanted to question everything, including whether the conservatorship was necessary. There were these still images and headlines that Britney is having a meltdown. But when we went outside the frame and we saw the context, she was at the most desperate and horrible time of her life. This was a woman stalked by dozens of men wherever she went. She was in the middle of an intense custody battle. She always wanted to be a mom and she has said in interviews that it was the most important thing in her life. We also know from her mother’s book that she was suffering from post-partum depression. It wasn’t talked about back then. Lot of people assume Britney had a mental health diagnosis or was having a drug problem. We actually don’t know that as her medical records are sealed.

Did the paparazzi instigate her?

We see in the film the story behind Britney hitting the paparazzo’s car with an umbrella. She had been followed around while she was denied access to her kids. He was hitting in her face and asking questions. That definitely could be considered provoking.

Who all did you speak to?

It was really difficult to find people to go on camera for this. We had a spreadsheet of over a thousand names of people with first-hand experience of working with her or with first-hand knowledge of the events we were covering. But there has been such a zone of silence around her for so long that it was very hard. A lot of the records are sealed so people can’t talk about them, there are NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). There are minor children involved. There’s also an ongoing legal battle. The family has been advised not to speak to the media. We had to get creative. One of the biggest people we have on the show is Felicia Culotta, Britney’s long-time friend who travelled the world with her as an assistant, as a teenager. We also had a lawyer, Adam Streisand, who Britney tried to hire at the beginning to fight the case against her dad. We also have her first marketing executive at Jive Records who spoke about how they decided to market Britney.

What is your reading of Britney’s equation with her father?

What we know factually is her father Jamie wasn’t around much when she was a child growing up. He suffered alcohol abuse and went into rehab. Her parents filed for bankruptcy right before Britney’s first album came out when she was a teenager. He hopped around from job to job when she was growing up. It doesn’t appear that he had a close relationship with her until 2008 when the conservatorship happened. So it was pretty surprising that he was selected. Recently through the court-appointed lawyer Sam Ingham — Britney wasn’t deemed fit enough to select her own lawyer — there has been paperwork that has been filed asking for her father to step down from being in charge of her money. He already did step down in 2019 from being in charge of her personal life. He has so far refused and is fighting his daughter in court to maintain control of her finances.

Director Samantha Stark Sourced by the correspondent

What about Britney’s sons? One turns 16 this year and the other 15. Do they have a say in this?

I don’t think so, though we don’t know. Their father Kevin Federline filed a restraining order against Jamie Spears after there was a physical altercation between him and one of the sons. Right now Britney’s father cannot see his grandsons and they cannot see him.

Britney had apparently refused to perform if her father continues to control her finances. Is she in touch with music any more?

She was supposed to have this year-long Las Vegas residency, in which she would perform several times a week. They had made the costumes and were making announcements. That was in end-2018. Soon after she cancelled it, in January. We can assume that’s when she started the boycott.

Will you continue to track her case? And if she makes a comeback, will there be a sequel, Britney Spears Unframed?

(Laughs) That would be incredible and it’s such a good title. I think there will be Britney Spears Unframed if she participates in it. There’s a court hearing on Wednesday and we’re covering it. These things take super long. Maybe the public pressure will make something radical happen. A lot of fans expressed the sentiment that they want Britney to do whatever she wants to. They would support her if she wants to make music or even if she wants to retire. She has been doing this ever since she was a child. She is 39 now.