Months after Taylor Swift released her new album Lover, a new Netflix documentary about the singer will open the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, according to a new press release from the streamer.
Titled Taylor Swift: Miss Americana, the upcoming doc will take a “raw and emotionally revealing look” at Swift’s life during a “transformational period” in which she will come to terms with being a woman “harnessing the full power of her voice,” per the release. Swift’s album Lover features the song “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” which Swift told Rolling Stone is a political track written after the midterm elections.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
The new documentary has a powerful pedigree. It is directed by Emmy winner Lana Wilson, who helmed After Tiller, a film about the aftermath of the murder of Dr. George Tiller by an anti-abortion extremist. It is produced by Morgan Neville, who won an Oscar for his music documentary 20 Feet From Stardom and recently directed 2018 Fred Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
The big Sundance news comes weeks after Swift announced the project on social media, in order to call attention to her conflict with Big Machine Records. Swift claimed that the company, who owns the masters of her previous work prior to Lover, would not allow her older recordings in the Netflix documentary. Big Machine Records denied forbidding Swift from performing her old songs in the documentary, but later, Swift’s publicist shared documents that seemingly confirmed that they would not license the songs for the Netflix project.
As for what the documentary will specifically focus on, it’s possible that the film will explore Swift’s recent foray into political activism, as well as her 2017 sexual assault trial against a former disc jockey who allegedly groped her during a photo opportunity. Both were big moments for Swift that marked her harnessing the power of her voice. Whether her recent issues with her former record label will be a part of the conversation also remains to be seen.
No release date has been set yet for the documentary, but according to Netflix, it will drop on the streaming service in early 2020. The film will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2020.
Refinery29 reached out to Swift for comment.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT