NewsGeorge Michael / Freedom Uncut
Four-year-old TV doc gets theatrical release
George’s “last work” is dusted down to promote the Older reissue
An ‘uncut’ version of the 2017 George Michael documentary Freedom will be released theatrically in June this year.
Freedom was first show on TV in the UK on 16 October 2017, two days after the appearance of the much-delayed reissue of Listen Without Prejudice (which had been held back in part to benefit from Freedom‘s appearance on the TV schedules). Both projects were conceived while George was still with us, but he didn’t live to see either come to fruition.
Freedom takes us through the now familiar stages in George’s career – Wham!, tight shorts, Top Of The Pops, Making It Big, Going Solo, Mega-stardom with Faith – before finally slowing down the frenzied pace in the very late 1980s when George attempted to step back from the rather crazy level of fame he had attained at that point. There is a particular focus on Listen Without Prejudice (presumably to promote the reissue of the album) and that court case although the documentary is overly reliant on celebrity endorsements with the likes of Liam Gallagher, James Corden and Stevie Wonder queuing up to listen to tracks such as ‘Praying For Time’ and telling us how good they are.
SDE reviewed Freedom at the time and concluded that is was a “disappointing documentary that skims the surface of a complex artist”. When broadcast in America (on Showtime) the LA Times reported that Freedom was “essentially a glorified sizzle reel stringing together interviews and TV performances any serious fan is likely to have already seen”. The Guardian in the UK called it “preposterous perhaps, but also honest and brilliant”.
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ReviewsThe directors are credited as “George Michael and David Austin” and when shown on TV in 2017, Freedom ran for 95 minutes. Then in 2018 a ‘Director’s Cut’ version, which ran for 114 minutes, was screened at over 25 festivals, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Raindance Film Festival. It won a total of five ‘Best Documentary’ awards. The newly announced Freedom Uncut runs for 108 minutes, meaning it’s actually six minutes shorter than the Director’s Cut shown in those festivals in 2018.
Given it’s nearly half a decade old, I always wondered why Freedom was never issued on blu-ray or DVD and it seems odd that Sony and team GM are scheduling a theatrical run all these years later. The press release makes no reference to the TV screening in 2017 and if you weren’t paying attention you might think this is something brand new. So why is this happening? The only answer I can come up with is they’ve dusted down this old documentary to help promote the Older reissue, which comes about two-and-a-half weeks after this “global cinema event”.
Freedom Uncut will be shown at cinemas from 22 June 2022 and tickets go on sale next Wednesday (27 April). It’s not clear how long the run will be but more information is available via the special Freedom Uncut website that has been set up.
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13 thoughts on “George Michael / Freedom Uncut”
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Much as I like the Freedom documentary and was George’s final work I think the estate should of given the green light to this new documentary which definitely celebrates George Michael the Artist from those who knew him best https://www.protocolmediagroup.com/george-michael-portrait-of-an-artist/
As superficial as it might be I loved the documentary and I am only hoping they will release it on physical media soon.
I think it is fair to say that George Michael’s estate is run by clowns. What a waste.
I think the lack of comments on this shows the reaction, underwhelming as everything from the GM camp. I always worried about his voice on the documentary, its timbre had clearly changed – always made me wonder if he would be ever able to regain his singing voice.
Nope, I haven’t seen this post until now and I check it daily
Had this recorded on my DVR before it broke and had to be replaced. Have wondered why it was never issued on blu-ray. Maybe that will follow this theatrical release.
“Directed by George Michael and David Austin”…. David Austin just seems a leech who can’t believe his luck that after GM wrote him a minor hit in the 80’s, he then also promoted David to be a director of his movie and do his business affairs. Many of those things David Austin still seems to be messing up. Both GM and David Austin had no director experience. No wonder this documentary turned out average at best. Any documentary where other artists are talking about you is going to be a cheese fest. We all know George Michael was brilliant. We don’t need Nile Rodgers, Stevie Wonder, etc to explain that. We wanted to see GM in private working on new songs, explaining how his career unfolded and what that meant to him. We want him to openly talk about his coming out as gay which must have been very difficult if you are a global sex symbol adored by millions of women. This documentary is missing all depth. It’s a shame David Austin is now digging it up, falsely claiming it is uncut and use it to promote another of his very ill conceived projects; the reissue of Older.
It always reminds of what someone once said about Paddy McGuiness, a UK “comedian” and presenter. His best mate at school became one of the UKs best loved comedians and actors who kept shoe-horning Paddy into his shows. “Luckiest man on TV”.
Presumably you are referring to Peter Kay? If so, I never realised that they were best friends from school… (although to be fair I haven’t followed either of their careers very closely).
Interesting though.
Spot on Chris, Paddy the character in Phoenix Nights was easily the least interesting and amusing character on the show. It’s also a shame the likes of Dave Spikey never went on to such a high earning career as clearly have more talent…
Paul, can you just set this comment (below) to copy / paste for all future George Michael Archive releases. It sums up how I have felt for all nearly all previous releases and articles and now this one. Here it is…..
“Erm?”
Oh look – yet another unfathomable and ill-conceived decision from the George Michael camp!
Maybe the extra 13 minutes covers the period when Older was recorded. They can then re-release the documentary with the remaining 6 minutes when Patience is given the SDE treatment, that is if those 6 minutes covers Patience.