For more than a decade, a movement called #FreeBritney has been growing. Now 39, pop icon Britney Spears has been living under court-approved conservatorship since 2008. (In November, at Spears' request, a financial administrator was appointed co-custodian.) On February 5, the #FreeBritney movement premiered "Framing Britney Spears," a documentary film (opens in new tab) released on Hulu and produced by The New York Times took it from the margins to the mainstream by.

Produced by a crew of mostly female filmmakers, led by director Samantha Stark and Times senior story editor Liz Day, the documentary chronicles Spears' rise to and rise from fame. 2002. The film follows her breakup with Justin Timberlake, the misogynistic press coverage that followed, and her legal battles over the past several decades and the fan movements that ensued.

Stark and Day (who reports to camera in the documentary) discuss why this story was important to women, how they did it without Spears' involvement, and what they think of the subsequent backlash by viewers against Timberlake spoke with Marie Claire about.

Marie Claire: How did the idea for the film come about?

Liz Day: Because we are the same age and I remember seeing her as America's Golden Girl when I was in high school. I also remember witnessing her public struggles when I was in my twenties, and always feeling a little guilty and complicit in going along with and laughing at the jokes that made fun of Britney during that period.

So I have long been fascinated by her story and the contradictions that conservatorship brings. [She is] seemingly a highly successful billionaire pop star, but also a vulnerable human being with very potential illnesses and risks, who needs the strict protection that conservatorship provides. [The question is: Are both of these things true? And finally, inspired by the many (recent) cultural reviews surrounding figures like (former White House intern) Monica Lewinsky and (figure skater) Tonya Harding.

MC: Why do you think it is important for women to tell this story now?

Samantha Stark: When I was doing research for this film, it was hard to find coverage that was not written by men. It was also difficult at first to find non-male interviewees. We wanted to do this retelling, so we said, 'We need a woman's perspective on this. I think the fact that it was an all-female crew, no matter who we interviewed, signaled to us that we were doing something different. Understanding that Britney has been seen a lot through the male gaze in the past, people wanted to validate to us that we are not doing that. I think that's why a lot of people agreed [to participate]. [In it, Sawyer reiterated her claim that Spears was a bad role model for her children and grilled her about the alleged cause of her ending her relationship with Timberlake.]

SS: I think it was primarily men. But I think the scenario of pitting women against each other is getting old. The people who were interviewing Britney at the time, as far as we could tell, all had the same view of her and seemed to think it was okay to ask her those questions (about sexuality and love life).

MC: How did you try to convey Britney's experiences and feelings as faithfully as possible when it is unclear at the end of the film whether she was interviewed by you and many in her entourage refused to be interviewed?

LD: As an interviewer, I was aware of how much people assumed they knew about Britney. When we actually delved into it, it was not well reported. [For example,] tabloid reports citing anonymous sources, and nothing is actually off the record. We understood that and were careful not to simply make the same assumptions or repeat what everyone thinks is true about Britney but isn't or isn't necessarily known. We put a lot of effort into approaching Britney. And while there were many people who claimed to speak for her, we just tried to be honest about what we could not know and put it out very clearly for people to try to understand.

SS: Everyone wants to think they know everything about Britney Spears. The particular challenge of the film was to create a story that no one could imagine what was going on in Britney's head.

MC: What struck me about this film is that, unlike recent posthumous documentaries about Amy Winehouse or Whitney Houston, for example, this film shows an ongoing struggle. Britney is still alive in this. Did you feel a sense of urgency to get this film out there because of that?

SS: When we started shooting the film, we were pursuing Liz's original suggestion, which was to reevaluate the media and correct misinformation about Britney. And as filming progressed, court documents began to circulate indicating that Britney wanted to change her father's role as conservator. And she wanted her father removed from conservatorship. It was quite a shock when these court documents started coming out (last fall) because we had never seen any public court records before where Britney had said anything about wanting to change the conservatorship. So we wanted to report as much as we could and tell the story of what was unfolding in the courtroom right now.

MC: What has been the reaction to the film so far?

SS: We've been really surprised and encouraged that there are so many people who really understand what we were trying to say [about discrimination against women] by showing clips from old media.

LD: I totally agree. We always liked what these moments reveal, but it's really amazing to see how well it translated on screen and resonated with viewers, and to see celebrities on social media sharing their anger and similar experiences when they were interviewed by similar hosts in the 90s. It's great to see celebrities on social media sharing their anger and similar experiences of being interviewed by similar moderators back in the 90's.

SS: One of the goals was to validate our own complicity. What was very moving was #WeAreSorryBritney apologizing to her for being complicit in the way people consume and believe the media. It brought tears to my eyes. [18] [19] MC: Do you have any thoughts on the viewer reaction to Justin Timberlake? Many viewers have said on social media that they felt like the docs showed that he was also complicit in spreading misogynistic stories about Britney after the breakup [such as the radio interview where he talked about their sex life and the interview with Barbara Walters in which he said " Horrible Woman"].

SS: People keep asking me if I asked Justin for comment, but I think we did the same thing we did in many archives. In the music video for "Cry Me a River," we stalked a woman who looked exactly like Britney and watched her take a shower from her closet. In fact, I asked everyone I interviewed about that music video and no one remembered it. They all said, "Oh, Britney was cheating on Justin in that music video." It's the other way around. So I think it's time to take a second look.

MC: What did you think of the first Instagram that Britney posted on Monday after the premiere of the doc?

SS: At the end she says, "I like to share." I loved it. But I don't have anything to say. I think everybody can take something they like from this film.