Controlling Britney Spears, the follow-up to The New York Times Presents documentary Framing Britney Spears, is premiering tonight (September 24th) on FX and Hulu. Arriving less than a week before the pop star’s next conservatorship hearing, it is based on inside knowledge of Spears’ daily life in the arrangement.
The documentary is directed by Samantha Stark with Liz Day as a supervising producer and reporter and highlights how the conservatorship has “controlled” every aspect of Spears’ life. It is described as revealing “a portrait of an intense surveillance apparatus that monitored every move the pop star made.”
“When Britney spoke publicly about her conservatorship in detail for the first time during a court hearing in June, she said a reason she hadn’t spoken up earlier is she didn’t think people would believe her,” said Stark in a statement. “She said she felt abused under the conservatorship and questioned whether the judge thought she was lying. Britney’s speech motivated the people in this film to seek us out to share their stories — at great risk to themselves — because they felt compelled to back up what Britney was saying with evidence they had or moments they witnessed.”
Netflix is releasing a documentary of its own, Britney vs. Spears, on September 28 — one day before the next court hearing that could decide the fate of her conservatorship.
Earlier this month, Spears’ father asked the court to end his daughter’s conservatorship. This followed a filing from Spears’ attorney to have her father removed as conservator of her estate.
Stream Controlling Britney Spears at 10 p.m. ET on FX or Hulu.
