(Screenshot from YouTube)
“I need to be on the right side of history,” pop icon Taylor Swift says about her jump into the political arena in the trailer to a new documentary film coming to Netflix Jan. 31. “Miss Americana,” directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Lana Wilson, follows Swift throughout the making of her album “Lover” and as she finds her political voice over the last few years.
Prior to the 2018 mid-term elections, Swift had been quiet publicly on matters of politics until she came out in an Instagram post endorsing two Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee in October 2018. Less than a year later, Swift encouraged her fans to support The Equality Act — legislation designed to protect LGBTQ Americans from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity — in the music video for her single “You Need To Calm Down,” which featured dozens of LGBTQ entertainers.
“I feel really good about not being muzzled anymore and it was my own doing. There’s nothing that feels better than this moment,” Swift says in the film.
In the “Miss Americana” trailer — released online Jan. 22 — Swift is shown being criticized by the media for being too thin, having model friends and dating too many men, even being called “annoying” by a Fox News contributor.
Swift goes on to say that due to the media onslaught that “no one physically saw me for a year, and that is what i thought they wanted.” She continues, saying “I had to deconstruct an entire belief system. Toss it out and reject it.”
“Miss Americana” is an official selection at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and will premiere on the festival’s opening night Jan. 23. Along with streaming on Netflix at the end of the month, the film will also be released in select theaters Jan. 31.
Watch the trailer for “Miss Americana” below.
