‘Britney vs Spears’ Trailer: Netflix Documentary Investigates the Pop Icon’s Conservatorship

Tyler Hersko
·2 min read
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Britney Spears’ contentious conservatorship has been one of the most-discussed topics in entertainment news this year. Now, Netflix is preparing to explore the conservatorship via “Britney vs Spears,” an upcoming documentary slated to premiere on the streaming service. Netflix unveiled the trailer for the film on Wednesday.

The documentary is directed by Erin Lee Carr, who has made a name for herself through her directorial work on high-profile topics in titles such as “How to Fix a Drug Scandal” and “I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter,” which premiered on Netflix and HBO, respectively.

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Netflix published the trailer for the documentary one day after dropping a Twitter teaser for the project that featured an audio snippet of a voicemail Spears sent to a lawyer in 2009.

Spears has been in a conservatorship since 2008 following a series of highly-publicized court rulings and legal issues. Since then, her estate has been managed by her father, James Spears, which has led to public outcries concerning whether the conservatorship is detrimental to the singer’s health. She has not performed since 2017, allegedly because she is unhappy with her father managing her affairs.

Spears’ conservatorship became a major topic in entertainment news earlier in the year, in part due to the high-profile “The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears” documentary film that premiered on FX in February. The documentary, which was directed by Samantha Stark, received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for two Emmys. Since its premiere, the public outcries against Spears’ conservatorship, colloquially known as the #FreeBritney movement, have continued to gain momentum. Spears’ father publicly asked a judge to end the conservatorship in early September.

As for Spears, the singer rarely appeared in media interviews and public appearances since the conservatorship began, which the singer alluded to in a statement to a judge in June: “I have the right to use my voice and take up for myself,” Spears said to the judge, per Variety. “I can’t let the public know anything they did to me and by not saying anything, is saying it’s okay.”

Check out the trailer for “Britney vs Spears” below:

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