Kanye West is at the heart of a bold new documentary that captures his mental health struggles and public controversies, and the filmmaker behind it is standing firm on his decision to show it all.
Nico Ballesteros, who began filming Kanye West in 2016 as a teenager, spent six years embedded in the rapper’s world, amassing over 3,000 hours of footage.
The result is In Whose Name?, a documentary that pulls back the curtain on West’s most turbulent years — including his break from medication, antisemitic remarks, and tense moments with Kim Kardashian.
The film, which opens Friday (September 19) in more than 1,000 theaters nationwide, doesn’t shy away from West’s lowest points.
In one scene, he rants after visiting the White House in 2018, wearing a MAGA hat, saying, “I need to go in the exact way that a foreign dignitary would go. I’m not going to step outside and put my life in danger. I put my life in danger by wearing the hat and I need to be loved and respected as such.”
Another clip shows Kardashian confronting West after that visit, telling him, “I’ve been crying all day — it’s just this bad dream that’s not ending. I’m not about burning bridges with companies. You’re going to wake up one day and you’re going to have nothing.”
West fires back: “Never tell me I’m going wake up one day and have nothing. Never put that into the universe.”
Ballesteros, now 26, insists the film isn’t about West’s downfall.
“I didn’t make this to tell a story of descent or unraveling,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I made it to tell a beautiful, deep story of an American figure.”
The documentary also includes the moment West made the antisemitic comment that cost him his lucrative Adidas deal.
On camera, he says, “I can literally say antisemitic s### and Adidas can’t drop me.” The company cut ties with him shortly after.
Ballesteros, who was never on West’s payroll and retained full rights to the footage, said West welcomed constant filming — even during dental appointments — and gave the final cut his blessing.
“That doc was very deep. It was like being dead and looking back on my life,” West texted him after watching it.
Still, Ballesteros made it clear he doesn’t align with West’s rhetoric. “I don’t support antisemitism, obviously, or hate speech,” he said. “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.”
In Whose Name? premieres nationwide Thursday (September 19).