In Whose Name? (2025)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A deep dive into the life of Kanye West, capturing raw moments outside of his public performances.
The story
In Whose Name? is a documentary that covers six years of the life of American rapper Kanye West. The film explores his personal struggles with bipolar disorder, his public performances with the Sunday Service Choir, and his unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign. It also examines the collapse of his marriage with Kim Kardashian and his controversial public outbursts. The film aims to provide a deep look at his life without offering a specific commentary or conclusion, allowing the audience to form their own opinions.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In Whose Name? covers six years of the American rapper Kanye West's life, including his struggles with bipolar disorder, performances with the Sunday Service Choir, unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, the collapse of his marriage with Kim Kardashian, and his antisemitic public outbursts. The film features appearances by a wide range of figures including Elon Musk, Drake, Marilyn Manson, Pharrell Williams, Lil Dicky, Playboi Carti, Swizz Beatz, and Charlie Kirk, as well as Chris Rock, Consequence, Michael Che, Steve Higgins, David Letterman, Rihanna, Amber Rose, Kris Jenner, Lady Gaga, LeBron James, Sean Combs, Anna Wintour, Joel Osteen, DMX, James Turrell, Kenny G, Candace Owens, and Donald Trump. The documentary was created by Nico Ballesteros, who spent years capturing footage to create a portrait of West that he describes as 'very deep.' The film concludes without a definitive commentary, leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions from the presented material.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 104
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Nico Ballesteros
- Cast and characters
- Kanye West · Kanye West
- Genres
- documentary
- Themes
- mental health; fame; marriage; politics
- Tone and mood
- introspective; raw
- Premise and plot tags
- biographical; music; celebrity
- Reception
- Publications generally found its box office performance to be surprising, as the film did not receive heavy promotion in the lead up to its release; Rolling Stone projected that it would go on to outperform several other documentaries released earlier in the year by comparing their opening numbers.
- Production trivia
- Nico Ballesteros recorded over 3,000 hours of footage for the film.; The production team spent a year editing the film in a remote jungle house in Costa Rica for security.; Kanye West described the documentary as 'very deep. It was like being dead and looking back on my life.'
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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