Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah, the two filmmakers behind jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, premiered the film at Sundance Film Festival over the weekend. The two discussed working on the project with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining the difficulties they had getting the project made in a piece published on Sunday.
“When it came down to making it, I had to let him know to make this film authentic, he had to step back,” Simmons told the outlet. “I had to take control of this narrative that God created — we didn’t create this. And he said he trusted I would do a good job on it.”
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Ozah added that the story isn’t exclusive to Kanye, and instead is about overcoming adversity.
“For us, the story isn’t about Kanye. It isn’t about Coodie. It is just using them as vessels to be able to unlock your passion,” he explained.
They also discussed the difficulty in finding an ending for a man whose life continues to make headlines, seemingly every day.
“We feel like everything happens in God’s time. While we were [filming], we kept thinking, ‘This is the ending,’ and then it was like, ‘No, it’s not,’” says Simmons of the ever-growing narrative. “Next thing you know, he is running for president, and I grab the camera, and I am there.”
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy is hitting Netflix on Feb. 16.
[Via]