Kanye West allowed a filmmaker to follow him for years for an upcoming documentary, but he did not have a say in the editing process, a source close to the rapper exclusively tells Us Weekly.
“This is an unauthorized film,” the source says of In Whose Name?, which is slated to hit theaters on September 19. “The footage we have seen so far we believe was collected in the proper way. But neither Ye nor [his company] Yeezy has seen, authorized or approved the final product.”
In response, a rep for director Nico Ballesteros confirms to Us, “Nico Ballesteros had access to Ye during the making of In Whose Name?, allowing him to document moments that became integral to the film’s narrative. While Ye is a central figure in the story, he did not have approval rights over any of the film’s content or editorial decisions, ensuring it remains an independent creative work.”
Starting at the age of 18, Ballesteros was given unprecedented access to West — who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021 — at a critical time in the Grammy winner’s life. Over the course of six years, the amateur documentarian shot 3,000 hours of behind-the-scenes footage chronicling West’s divorce from Kim Kardashian, mental health struggles and antisemitic rants.
Ballesteros released the first trailer for his directorial debut on Wednesday, August 13, which begins with West, 48, declaring in a voice-over, “I’m off my meds for five months now.” Kardashian, 44, then cries out, “Your personality was not like this a few years ago!” (The former couple were married from 2014 to 2022 and share four children: North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6.)
The minute-long trailer also features clips of West’s Sunday Service choir, his unsuccessful presidential campaigns and his bombshell 2020 claim that he and Kardashian had considered an abortion during her pregnancy with North.
“Ballesteros did more than document a cultural icon. What began as silent observation evolved into a profound journey of artistic and personal growth,” the film’s synopsis reads. “Immersed in Ye’s world of extremes, [Ballesteros] bore witness to brilliance and breakdowns, triumphs and turmoil but also observed the paranoia and intensity that increasingly shaped Ye’s world.”
The description continues, “In the end, Ballesteros captured not just a portrait of Ye, but a reflection of the human condition in all its contradictions. The camera never blinks as Ye speaks candidly about living with bipolar disorder, offering rare insight into the realities of mental illness and its impact on identity, perception and power. Through a personal lens, the film considers how mental health is handled — or left unspoken — among the weight of visibility and vulnerability.”
Producer Simran A. Singh said in a statement on Wednesday, “This film presents a raw and often unsettling portrait, without commentary or conclusion, leaving viewers to interpret the events for themselves. Nico was living alongside Ye, camera in hand, not fully knowing what he was capturing or where it would lead, and that’s exactly what makes the footage so powerful.”
Singh added, “There was no agenda, no filter; just real, raw moments. Because of that, there’s a level of honesty you don’t usually get in documentaries. As things started to take shape, it became clear that Nico was the only one who could truly tell this story. He had the access, but more importantly, he had the perspective. He was inside the chaos but somehow still able to step back and find the story to make a movie.”
This is not the first time that West was denied the last word with a documentary. In 2022, he took to Instagram to demand “final edit and approval” for his three-part Netflix series Jeen-Yuhs, which his longtime collaborators Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah directed and shot over two decades.
“Open the edit room immediately so I can be in charge of my own image,” West wrote. “Thank you in advance.”
Simmons later told the New York Post, “We’re still trying to work things out with Kanye and his team,” but it is unclear whether they ultimately allowed West to make changes.
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