If you’ve just pre-ordered your copy of Britney Spears’ highly anticipated autobiography, The Woman in Me, it’s a good time to revisit the pop icon’s long and hard-won battle for freedom in the documentary Britney vs Spears.

On Sept. 29, 2021, just a day after Britney vs Spears premiered on Netflix, Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, was removed from the nearly 14-year-long conservatorship that had put him in control of virtually every aspect of her life, an arrangement the singer alleged was traumatic and exploitative. That November, when a judge ruled the conservatorship ended, the #FreeBritney movement rejoiced. Britney was back.

Directed by Erin Lee Carr (Mommy Dead and Dearest; At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal) and featuring music journalist Jenny Eliscu, who’d interviewed Spears multiple times for Rolling Stone, Britney vs Spears presents an up-close look at the tumultuous period that led to the conservator arrangement, analyzes its thorny particulars, and, in original interviews and via archival footage, depicts Spears’ fight to regain her freedom. 

Where can I watch Britney vs Spears?

Stream it here.

Where can I find the trailer for Britney vs Spears?

Check it out at the top of this article.

Who’s in Britney vs Spears?

• Britney Spears (archival footage)
• Jamie Spears, her father (archival footage)
• Jenny Eliscu, journalist
• Felicia Culotta, Spears’ former assistant
• Sam Lufti, Spears’ former manager who Spears referred to as “her friend sometimes”
• Adnan Ghalib, a paparazzo who began dating Spears 
• John J. Nazarian, a private investigator hired by Spears’ legal team
• Mark Vincent Kaplan, Kevin Federline’s attorney
• Louise Taylor (archival footage), hired by Jamie Spears as Britney’s business manager during the conservatorship
• Tony Chicotel, an attorney who explains the conservatorship arrangement
• Larry Rudolph, Spears’ former attorney and manager, whom Jamie Spears hired back during the conservatorship
• Howard Grossman, Spears’ former business manager
• Dr. James Edward Spar, a consultant who the film says was named in a court document that described a medical evaluation of Spears 
• Andrew Gallery, cinematographer for the 2008 documentary For the Record
• Tania Baron, former backup dancer for Spears

What happens in Britney vs Spears?

“OK, the press and the media, my whole life, it’s really crazy,” Spears says in a clip from the film — seen on stage in Las Vegas, during the Piece of Me tour that began in 2013, in the midst of her conservatorship. And, as Britney vs Spears shows, even Spears was understating it. 

The film revisits Spears’ rise as a precocious young performer growing up in Kentwood, Louisiana, and in concert footage at the height of her fame, when the star was very much in creative control. Britney vs Spears takes a close look at the events that led up to the conservatorship: the dissolution of her marriage to former backup dancer Kevin Federline, their contentious 2007 custody battle, the aggressive pursuit of Spears by paparazzi, and the relentless and cruel media coverage of Spears’ private life and allegations about her mental health. 

Starting on Feb. 1, 2008, Jamie Spears was named Spears’ legal conservator, an arrangement that would span more than a decade, stripping Spears of her right to make final decisions for herself and control over her creative, business, legal, and health affairs. In interviews with former employees, associates, and experts, the film examines the bewildering and constricting arrangement, which friends say even dictated who Spears could speak to, and how much time she spent with her children. In messages Spears sent to others during her isolation, Britney vs Spears shows what Spears was going through as she fought to be free.

As director Carr told Vogue.com in 2021 about her motivation for making the film, “In retrospect, we — the collective we — knew that Britney had been wronged, but there had not been a definitive feature-length documentary about it. Netflix had been pitched Britney quite a bit, but they were waiting, I think, for a very specific and personal telling of the story, so that’s what I set out to [make].”

Watch Britney vs Spears now.