Warning: This episode contains descriptions of child abuse and domestic abuse.Over the past few years, a celebrated filmmaker has tried to unlock the mysteries of the pop icon Prince.Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor at The New York Times Magazine, says that the result is a cinematic masterpiece. How is it possible that nobody will ever see it?Guest: Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor at The New York Times Magazine.Background reading: Inside Ezra Edelman’s documentary on Prince.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Kristian Dowling/Getty Images Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chapter 1: Why will nobody see this cinematic masterpiece about Prince?
From New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. For the last few years, one of the country's most celebrated filmmakers has tried to unlock the mysteries of one of the country's most celebrated musicians. According to my colleague, Times Magazine deputy editor Sasha Weiss, the result is a cinematic masterpiece. So how is it possible that nobody will ever see it?
It's Friday, March 7th. Sasha, welcome to The Daily.
Thanks so much for having me, Michael.
Hard to fathom it's your inaugural episode.
I'm delighted to be here.
I want to just acknowledge... a certain awkwardness to the work we're about to undertake, which is we are going to be talking, you and I, about a very important film that none of us will ever see. Yeah. That's weird. Totally. But back when you thought the world very much would see the film... You became deeply invested in the story of it. And you have stayed invested in it for years.
Simple question. Why?
Well, let's start with who it's about.
My name is Prince.
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Chapter 2: What makes Prince a cultural and musical icon?
He's not going to take out an assessment of his album, The Rainbow Children, which was kind of widely shared at the time that there were anti-Semitic lyrics. He's not going to take out elements of the story that are sad or unfortunate or portray Prince in a negative light because they're part of the story and they're part of the arc.
And he's not going to allow extra journalistic facts to determine the shape of his film. So this back and forth continues for many months, and the estate manages to hold up the film on questions of length. They claim that they had agreed to license music for a six-hour film and no more. And this was no simple thing.
Like, to cut this film by three hours would be... Like, the metaphor that I keep thinking of is like... unknotting a hand-woven Persian carpet. Extremely difficult to disassemble. It would be like starting all over. But also, it wasn't ever clear that this would satisfy the estate anyway, because they had made their strong objections to the project very clear.
So the project seemed to be at an impasse. And ultimately, last month, Netflix comes out with the following statement. 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. Translation, Ezra Edelman's film is dead. He's cut out. It's thrown away.
And if there's ever going to be a film, it's going to be a film made by the estate.
Wow. Sounds like Netflix basically sells out Ezra Edelman after all these years and says that some family-made version of a film might someday replace what you have described as this masterpiece.
Well, all of the parties have been tight-lipped about the situation for contractual reasons, but that's my sense of it. Yeah. So the day after this news came out, I was able to talk to Ezra. Well, it's kind of a grim day.
Yeah, it's a little sad. It's a little sad.
And he was devastated.
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