Ye’s documentary series will stay streaming on Netflix. On Monday, it was announced thatMRC was canceling a Kanye West documentarythat had already been filmed amid highly controversial comments made by the mogul in recent weeks. A statement released by the producers noted that “cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.”
“The silence from leaders and corporations when it comes to Kanye or antisemitism in general is dismaying but not surprising. What is new and sad, is the fear Jews have about speaking out in their own defense,” the statement reads in part.
It has also been reported thatKanye Westwas dropped by his talent agency CAA as well as the fashion house Balenciaga. This all might lead to some mounting pressure at Netflix to go ahead and pull the docuseriesJeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, which was released in three installments on the streaming platform earlier this year and was nominated for an Emmy. However, Netflix has confirmed (viaTMZ) that they won’t be removing the series at this time.
According to the outlet, Netflix’s stance is that streamingJeen-Yuhsdoes not mean they support West, as he was only the subject of the docuseries, uninvolved with its creation or marketing. Netflix reps have also reportedly pointed out that there isn’t any anti-Semitic material in the series. It’s also said that the streamer never removes previously-released content featuring people who have since become more problematic. Netflix has been known to cancel upcoming projects due to controversy, so perhaps things may have been different ifJeen-Yuhshadn’t yet been released. In any case, it’s not going anywhere.
Related:Jeen-yuhs Review: The Kanye West Documentary on Netflix Begins
Even those who madeJeen-Yuhshave had their own problems with Kanye West. Filmmakers Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah previously recalled how West had gone on Instagram to publicly demand that they “open the edit room” to give the rapper “final edit and approval” on the docuseries. The post has since been deleted, though Simmons also shared the story of how he also had to physically tell West to take a step back during production ashe was just getting too involvedwith the behind-the-scenes process.
“When it came down to making it, I had to let him know to make this film authentic, he had to step back,” Simmons toldTHRin January. “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.”
Addressing the assertion they’d exploited West’s mental health issues, Simmons added, “I always thought he was just going off. I didn’t think it was anything to do with mental health. And in our community, we don’t pay attention to mental health, so we didn’t understand it. To lose his mom, Donda West, in public like he did, you just don’t know what that would do to a person. We can’t go around anything that happens in life. Things happen, and we were filming it. We have to be authentic to what happened.”
