Clarence “Coodie” Simmons—a director on the Kanye West documentary Jeen-Yuhs—recently revealed that he had to stop filming during a significant part of the project.
Jeen-Yuhs Director Dropped Filming Kanye West During Documentary
The part mentioned was while the filming crew was on the road during Kanye’s 2020 presidential campaign. In an interview with BBC Radio 1Xtra, Simmons said that the reason why he didn’t film was that:
“I put the camera down so I could pay attention to what was going on and make sure everything was going to run smoothly. And I never shot that side of Kanye. It just felt uncomfortable.”
According to Simmons, the Grammy Award-winning musician didn’t request for him to stop filming at any point. Not only that but there was money to be made had he not made the personal decision to turn the camera off. Regardless of what the filmmaker decided, there would’ve been some criticism. It could’ve been viewed as exploitive considering the mental struggles of Kanye West paired with running a campaign.
Or it could’ve been viewed as an extended PR film for his decision not to go full-on “warts and all” for Jeen-Yuhs. Ultimately, it depends on what the goal is of the director duo of Coodie & Chike’s West’s story. Coodie & Chike made their splash in the film and music industry with the 2004 Source Award-winning music video for a young Kanye West’s debut single “Through the Wire”.
Since then, they’ve gone on to do many music videos and documentaries.
Jeen-Yuhs is a trilogy with parts one and two—titled “VISION” and “PURPOSE”—which were released on February 16 and February 23, respectively. The third part, “AWAKENING” dropped on Wednesday, March 2.
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