Unknown Speaker

Yeah, here you go. Please go ahead. Thanks. So first of all, congratulations. What
an absolutely admirable moving piece of nonfiction filmmaking, some achievement.
So, you know, we Indians, kind of used to control freak parents, but this was
something really weird even for us. Can you tell me a little about what is your own
take on this issue?

Unknown Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, I think Britney got into this situation where her father, who we
know, was an alcoholic, you know, throughout her life and was really absent from
her life. And that she said, she has been scared of, you know, for a long time has
is given complete control over all her decision making for many years, and that's
really surprising, first of all, why he was considered an okay person for that to
happen. This idea that he would know better than her and could help her even with
all his faults is, I think, points to this kind of paternalistic idea that, you
know, young women need their dads to take care of them. When and, you know, some
what we're finding out. And I think, you know, we know, from history, but sometimes
that's not the right move at all. I mean, she's talked about how she feels abused,
she feels traffic, she was forced to work. She talks about feeling punished or
threatened by getting visits with our kids or her boyfriend taken away from her if
she stood up for herself. And this is all been court sanctioned in a way. So it's,
yeah, it's twisted.

Unknown Speaker
So do you take exception to the very concept of conservatorship? Or do you think
the law is being misused in this situation?

Unknown Speaker
You know, there's a lot of disability rights activists who are coming out about the
idea of conservatorships in general, because it's such an extreme way to control a
person, you know, there's, it's supposed to be considered the total last resort, I
mean, the things they can make. It looks like they have been making medical care
decisions for her choose her doctors choose where she lives, choose everything that
happens to her money, choose anyone she interacts with, except for this one lawyer
that she didn't choose, throughout all these years, you know, monitor her
communications, it's, it's a lot of control. And so a lot of people have been
bringing up this idea of like that, there should be alternatives to this. Why? Why
is it so? Why does it appear so easy for all someone's rights to get taken away?
Even if they have severe disabilities, even if they have dementia? And we also, I
mean, also it appears that the law is being misused here. You know, the letter of
the law is not what's happening in real life. They're not allowed to put someone in
a facility against their will Brittany's saying they they did, they coerced me into
doing this. And it also appears like there are not is not enough oversight in the
system. So, Brittany, you know, almost a month ago now on June 23. I said, I'm
being abused. I'm being trafficked. These people are manipulating me. I want an
investigation into this. And there's no, there appears to be no, like, pull her
out, you know, kill switch, if you will. For this. If someone says I'm being abused
by the people in control of me, it's almost a month later, and they haven't taken
her out of the situation. So it really looks like there's all these loopholes in
the system. Also, she's paying for all the lawyers to fight against each other and
to fight against her wishes. And that's a weird loophole.

Unknown Speaker
So I like the way the film examines, Britney, how Britney was treated as a as a sex
object, even when she was eight at that talk show. Kai who was asking whether he
can be her boyfriend. So how oppression really, I mean, it was it went all through
her life, didn't it? Like it did not begin with the conservatorship?

Unknown Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We saw we were kind of shocked to see from the very beginning
that show that you mentioned when she was 10, I believe there was a talent show, a
very famous talent show and he said, you know, the only thing he was asking her is
like, Do you have a boyfriend? What can I be your boyfriend And so it does feel
like that was kind of like the writing on the wall for her. It happened throughout
her life. And I think it happened with older people because Brittany had a lot of
fans who were a little younger than her. And I think she was, you know, she was 17
1819 those people have sexuality. She was expressing her sexuality. It really spoke
to people who were going through that themselves as teenagers and the people who
were exploiting her and shaming her and like, quote, sexualizing her were all the
older people, the adults, and so

Unknown Speaker
that game show where they will listing things that she has lost. That was fine.
Yeah, that's horrible. So do you think this misogyny in this celebrity culture has
changed significantly, especially after the me to movement? What events have what
the conservatorships events have played out differently? In 2021? We are probably
more aware of mental health issues at least.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I don't know, I hope it would have played out differently in that the
cruelty the with, you know, when she was treated wasn't celebrated so much. I think
another thing is, now we have social media. And so not when those shows that you
mentioned were on TV, there wasn't a way for people to immediately respond to them
and say, This is wrong. But now if that was on TV, it would be clipped out and put
on YouTube immediately. And everyone could comment on it and say, you know, this is
disgusting and give reasons. So in that way, the gatekeepers are much less
powerful. And so I think maybe it would be different because of that.

Unknown Speaker
So when you are making this documentary, did you think that it will blow it up to
such an extent that nearly everybody's talking about it?

Unknown Speaker
No, I had no idea I would be talking to you when I was making that documentary. at
all, like we didn't even have distribution outside the US because we didn't think
people would be interested in it. So it was completely shocking. I'm still shocked.
But it shows how many people love Britney Spears? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker
Would you like to update this documentary as new information keeps coming out? The
case is updated. Would you like to do a follow up to see?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you know, right now, we've been doing reporting, we've been doing some print
stories, investigations. And we are gathering we're trying to gather material, just
see if we can make a second one and, you know, new people who will speak out and
it's still been challenging to get people willing to go on camera. So we're working
on that right now.

Unknown Speaker
Okay, Samantha, that's all for me. Thank you. Hey, thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai