One of the most interesting premieres at this year’s Sundance is Coodie & Chike’s jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, which is a 270-minute documentary following the rise of Kanye West from Chicago kid with dreams and a chip on his shoulder to the mega-wattage superstar that we all know him as now. It’s being released in three parts, given that a runtime like that would make even the strongest bladder explode, and Netflix dropped a teaser for the project on Monday so you can just get your first look at it. And, well, it looks pretty damn cool, if we do say so ourselves.
Take a look:
In lieu of a good synopsis from Netflix, we just decided to take what Sundance wrote about the film in their festival program so that you can understand just how huge the scope of this project really is:
“One fateful night at Jermaine Dupri’s birthday party in 1998, Coodie, a Chicago public access TV host, first interviewed 21-year-old up-and-coming hip-hop producer Kanye West. Inspired by the film ‘Hoop Dreams,’ Coodie started to document West’s life to see how far his dreams would take him. When West moved to New York City to land a record deal, Coodie followed with camera in hand. He recorded West for years, from the hustle of his budding producer days through his rise to global icon. You think you know Kanye West, but you really don’t.
You can’t manufacture a project like ‘jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy;’ it takes decades of vision, commitment, prayers, and perspective to produce. It seems providential that Coodie & Chike should be the ones to make the definitive film about West’s career thus far, as they were the filmmakers who introduced him to the masses with their documentary music video for ‘Through the Wire.’ This epic three-film documentary features hours of fly-on-the-wall footage and paints a sweeping portrait of one of pop culture’s most controversial figures.”
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy will premiere later this month at the (now all-digital) Sundance Film Festival, but the first installment of the trilogy will play at theaters around the country, for one night only, on February 10. That first film will be available for streaming on Netflix on February 16, with the other two hitting the service each week after. Get ready, Kanye nerds.