Kanye West’s teen documentary maker is opening up about his thought process over the content.
Nico Ballesteros, who has made more than 3,000 hours of footage for Whose Name? says he wants to dig deep into the life of the rapper.
He said in an interview with 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 added.
The documentarian added: “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.”
Speaking over distance form the rapper’s political content, Nico added: “I don’t support antisemitism, obviously, or hate speech. He and I don’t share the same views.... We’re human. That’s really where I’m at. He’s a person - he’s a human.”