Selena Gomez Opens Up About Her Mental Health

Singer Selena Gomez ended up in tears after seeing her documentary Selena Gomez: my mind & me for the first time. This is how director Alek Keshishian remembers it, who accompanied her for six years through some of the brightest and darkest moments of her life: “Everyone was in tears,” the filmmaker recounts in a talk.

“Selena was like, ‘That was amazing, that’s beautiful, Alek,'” shares Keshishian.

In the documentary that arrives on the Apple TV + platform on November 4, vulnerable moments of the interpreter of “Lose you to love me” are shown, such as her fight against lupus —a disease for which in 2017 she underwent a bone transplant. kidney—, his mental health problems (such as the depression and anxiety he has faced), as well as a journey of reconnecting with his roots, returning to the place where he grew up and with the people who were in his childhood.

“All my life, since I’m a girl, I’ve worked, and I don’t want to be super famous but I know that if I’m here I have to use that for good,” says Gomez in the trailer that was released on World Mental Health Day. .

For the filmmaker, who has directed documentaries such as In bed with Madonna, it was about showing a face beyond the pop star who has more than 350 million followers on Instagram, a decision that he considers brave on the part of the artist, who late 2016 canceled his Revival Tour due to anxiety.

“Selena connects with something that is very human and I think that is why she is so adored, because she is not a character, what we see is really her authentic self and that has become what she is known for. In the world we live in today, the bravest thing Selena could do was be really true to herself and not be the popstar.”

It is about showing a face beyond the pop star.

“She’s giving people the opportunity to say, ‘How do I get out of this?’ and the only way to disconnect is through human contact; you have to go back to basics: from meeting someone through social media to meeting them in person, listening to them, being with them, listening to their stories.”

After gathering more than 200 hours of video material, as well as newspapers published over 15 years, photographs and home videos from the childhood of the singer with Mexican roots, Alek wanted to make the documentary as compact as possible, until he had little more than 90 minutes in which he captured the essence of Gomez.

“She didn’t love everything (what appears in the documentary) but she realized that they were important moments,” details Keshishian.

brilliant career

She is the daughter of Mexican Ricardo Joel Gomez and American Mandy Teefey-Cornett.
He began his artistic career at the age of 10; today she is 30.
He has won awards such as Kids’ Choice Awards, Emmys, and MTV Video Music Awards.
It created the Rare Impact Fund in 2020, to subsidize medical treatment for low-income people.

Alek Keshishian
Director
“She did not love everything (what appears in the documentary) but she realized that they were important moments”

In 90 minutes the essence of Selena is shown.