Culture / Film

Janet Jackson is taking control of her own story in the forthcoming documentary ‘Janet’

Oh Janet! How many nights we owe to your music; crammed between our friends, rising and falling along to the sounds of Together Again and All For You. 

So you can imagine the kind of excitement that shot through us at the news that the singer would be getting her very own documentary.

On Instagram this morning Janet Jackson posted a teaser of the forthcoming film, simply titled Janet. In the clip we see Paula Abdul, Mariah Carey and her brother Tito Jackson preface the film with words about her character. "She's an empowered woman," stated Carey while Abdul asserted that, "She's a force to be reckoned with." Thrown into the mix is archival footage from Janet's concerts and (swoon) Tupac, our forever crush, from their role together in Poetic Justice. All the while, playing in the background is Janet's 1986 track Control, from her album of the same name that signalled the star taking hold of her own narrative - something that had previously been defined by her family and their work together.

In fact, it's this sentiment that the short trailer pivots off. “This is my story told by me, not through someone else’s eyes,” Jackson declares in the footage. So it's only fitting that executive producing the four-hour documentary is none other than Janet herself, along with her brother Randy, while Ben Hirsch is on board as director.

Janet will air next year in January, just in time for the 40th anniversary of the musicians first album Janet Jackson. Expect a tour through her life; beginning with a period of grief after the death of her father in 2018 and then moving through her formative years and career, while pausing on the moments we recognise her for. Think that 2004 Super Bowl appearance with Justin Timberlake and honestly, a majority of the 90s.

Meanwhile, the documentary will stitch together commentary from those closest to her and never-before-seen archival footage. Considering Janet has been five-years in the making, we expect it will be a spectacle of 80s and 90s pop culture. Will it delve into the more murkier waters surrounding her family? We're unsure. But we're just glad Janet is finally getting recognition for her individual talent.

Watch the teaser for Janet below.

 

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