What is the controversy around Netflix's Prince documentary? Details explored

The Prince Documentary, which director Ezra Edelman worked on for years, will no longer be released by streaming giant Netflix. Edelman previously worked on O.J.: Made in America, which received wide acclaim in 2016. The director joined the Netflix documentary on Prince in 2019, and he was working on it since then. The director has not commented on this development for now. It was the streamer's decision.

Netflix and the singer's estate reached a mutually beneficial agreement not to release the nine-hour documentary. Both, the streaming corporation and Prince's Estate put out a statement saying:

“The Prince Estate and Netflix have come to a mutual agreement that will allow the estate to develop and produce a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince’s archive. As a result, the Netflix documentary will not be released.”

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Why will Netflix's Prince documentary never be released?

Netflix's Prince documentary has been under development for over half a decade. Initially, Ava DuVernay was going to direct the movie, but she left it and O.J.: Made in America's Ezra Edelman took over as the director. While he continued to remain as a director until the project's demise, there were several stumbling blocks until this new development.

The deal between all the parties involved required the Prince documentary to be six hours long, but director Edelman's footage ran for nine hours, which violated the agreement. Apart from that, the estate also had several other problems with the Netflix documentary. They believed that the documentary featured several inaccuracies and embellishments about certain controversial events.

According to a report from The New York Times, the Prince documentary also included several of the singer's former romantic partners who accused him of emotional and physical abuse. The Netflix documentary tracked the popular singer’s personal and artistic journey. Some of those interviewed in the documentary were ex-wife Mayte Garcia, Susannah Melvoin, and Jill Jones.

Garcia allegedly told the documentary makers about feeling abandoned and lonely after the death of her and Prince's infant. Susannah Melvoin, one of Prince's old flames revealed that the musician exhibited controlling behavior by monitoring her calls, trying to drive a wedge between her and her sister, and not allowing her to leave the house once she moved in with him. Jill Jones, another romantic partner accused Prince of physical assault.

However, other interviews in the documentary recounted positive experiences with the singer as well. This dichotomy made director Ezra Edelman describe the documentary as one of the hardest projects he ever worked on. As of now, he has yet to put out a statement, but two other entities close to Prince released a statement reacting to the cancellation of the documentary.

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What was the statement by Primary Wave Music and Prince Legacy?

The entities, Prince Legacy and Primary Wave Music are two companies that are linked to the Prince Estate. They reacted to the news of the cancellation of Edelman's documentary and production of a new documentary by releasing this statement:

“Those with the responsibility of carrying out Prince’s wishes shall honor his creativity and genius. We are working to resolve matters concerning the documentary so that his story may be told in a way that is factually correct and does not mischaracterize or sensationalize his life. We look forward to continuing to share Prince’s gifts and celebrate his profound and lasting impact on the world.”

They were not the only ones to release a statement. The official social media account of Prince's Estate also posted a video with this caption:

"The Vault Has Been Freed. #FREE"

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