BY LUCY CAULKETT
A documentary about the life of Russell Brand entitled Brand: a second coming, is to be premiered today in Newyork. The documentary which depicts the life of the controversial comedian turned political activist was directed by Ondil Tinover and charts the rise of the outspoken Essex born 40 year old from an ambitious boy to television celebrity. Tinover who has autonomy over the contents of the documentary, has apparently not had the final version of the documentary approved by Brand, who apparently canceled his appearance for the film festival and is rumored to be discontent about some of the contents of the documentary.
Brand, who has caused controversy time and time again since his meteoric rise from drug addict to national celebrity, has made a few warm up appearances in the UK, though organizers have not seemed keen to give press accreditations for his most recent appearances most likely because of the heavy criticisms that often accompany the reviews of his shows of late. Brand was recently in South Africa where there was a mixed reception to his shows, but the documentary due to premiere today is believed to be as full as it gets. Already, there have been complaints about the portrayal of his ex wife Katie Perry, who was described as coming across as ”childish” and selfish”.
Tinover, who made the documentary, told the Huffington post that Brand gave her full autonomy over the creative content of the documentary, but by the time of the filming, the outspoken comedian was beginning to want to control the way the documentary was shot. This is partially understandable as the documentary is about his life. However, the director really should have discretion over how they want to present a documentary about someone, not the person whose life is being depicted. This preserves the integrity of the documentary to a degree and potentially avoids the sort of bias that can discredit the quality of a documentary. Brand, who closed his trews youtube channel which had a tonne of followers, was voted the 4th most influential thinker in the UK, by prospect magazine, the editor Branwon Maddox commented that the results were reflective of his readers views who cast the votes. Well, it then depends what kind of readers the magazine has, although it is fair to say that as offensive as Brand sometimes can be, he does wield some influence, but 4th most influential, is a bit of a flatter really. Brand is clearly an educated man with intelligence, but many times fails to use that intelligence in the way he presents himself. Nonetheless, he still has a lot of supporters who like the brash way he just says things the way he sees them without a care for the subjective opinions of his critics.
Russell Brand wrote a book in 2014 entitled the ‘revolution’ that sold many copies in the UK. Reviews by prospect magazine about the book have not entirely been favourable, though one thing for sure this documentary might reveal is that Russell Brand belongs to a brand of his own.
