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2022 has already been a bumper year for revelatory documentaries about musical superstars—from Amanda Micheli’s Halftime, which examines the rise of Jennifer Lopez, to Kathryn Ferguson’s Nothing Compares, which reevaluates the legacy of Sinéad O’Connor. But now, there’s yet another deeply personal and profoundly moving film that’s set to join its ranks: Apple TV+’s Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, which tells the story of the prolific multi-hyphenate’s struggles with her mental and physical health, and her long road to recovery.
Due to premiere globally on the streaming service on November 4, it’s billed as a “uniquely raw and intimate documentary” which tracks the Grammy and Emmy-nominated Only Murders in the Building star’s six-year journey “into a new light” after a particularly difficult period in which she was diagnosed with lupus, depression, and anxiety, and still reeling from a kidney transplant which had caused one of her arteries to break and required emergency surgery. In the director’s chair, supporting the musician and actor as she reflects on her recent past, is Alek Keshishian, who previously helmed Madonna: Truth or Dare, the sweeping critical hit which attempted to demythologize the pop icon.
“I’m a little nervous but also excited to share this side of me with you all,” Gomez wrote on Instagram ahead of the release of the film’s trailer on October 10. It opens with a shot of her looking wistful in the back of a taxi as she speaks to herself in a voiceover. “Just be who you are, Selena,” she says. “No one cares about what you’re doing. It’s about who I am. Being okay with where I am. I am grateful to be alive.” We then see a flurry of shots from ’90s home videos of Gomez, interspersed with snippets of her being followed by a film crew, rehearsing, performing on stage, receiving treatment in hospital, and later lying in bed, consumed by self doubt. “My whole life, since I was a kid, I’ve been working,” she says at one point, fighting back tears.
But then, we watch as she slowly comes to grips with her new life and learns how she can help others grappling with similar problems. “Everything that I’ve gone through—it’s going to be there,” she continues. “I’m just making it my friend now. This is the beginning for me.”