Left/Right is moving from Britney Spears to Janet Jackson with their latest documentary in The New York Times Presents strand, Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson, airing on November 19.
The film will tell the story of the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, which saw Justin Timberlake briefly expose Jackson’s breast to millions of viewers. Jackson’s career never recovered but Timberlake went from strength-to-strength.
The documentary will examine the racial and cultural currents that collided on the Super Bowl stage, and explores how the incident impacted one of the most successful pop musicians in history.
It will feature rare footage and interviews with several people who were at the controls that night in Houston, including NFL and MTV executives, to reconstruct an incident that shook the country and explain how it shaped culture in the decades to follow. With new reporting by The Times, as well as insights from music industry insiders, cultural critics and members of the Jackson family, the film illuminates the fallout, and CBS boss Les Moonves’s role in it.
Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson is directed and produced by Jodi Gomes, who previously directed A+E Networks’ The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty.
It comes after The New York Times Presents made headlines with Framing Britney Spears, a doc about the conservatorship of Britney Spears that was followed up by Controlling Britney Spears.
The strand is produced by The New York Times and Left/Right with exec producers Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver, Mary Robertson, who is also showrunner, Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick and Stephanie Preiss.
Red Arrow Studios International distributes The New York Times Presents internationally, under the banner The Weekly: Special Edition.