Director of unauthorised Kanye West documentary reveals why he filmed his lowest moments
The director started filming the six year documentary when he was only 18
The new documentary about Kanye West, In Whose Name? releases next week, and the director has given his first public interview about the project.
Nico Ballesteros was just 18 years when he first started Kanye West in 2016, and finished the documentary project in 2022.
The documentary, which hasn’t been authorised by the rapper, will include his hospitalisation after a mental breakdown alongside his marriage to Kim Kardashian falling apart.
The 3,000 hours of footage has been edited down into the documentary, with Nico retaining creative control of the entire project, meaning Kanye wasn’t able to have an input on how he has been portrayed.
The director told the Los Angeles Times: “I didn’t make this to tell a story of descent or unraveling.
“I made it to tell a beautiful, deep story of an American figure. We live in such a headline-based society, so I believe this is the body text underneath those headlines. I’m not trying to persuade anyone. I want it to be like a Rorschach test.”
He continued: “I was there as a journalist, documenting. It never really broke the fourth wall for me. I had a profound sense of empathy and he was always polite to me — even a kind of mentor, at least creatively.”
Whilst Kanye West doesn’t own any of the footage and didn’t pay Nico for the documentary, he has seen the completed project, texting Nico: “That doc was very deep. It was like being dead and looking back on my life.”
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