New Documentary ‘The Princess’ Immerses Audiences in Diana’s Story

Director Ed Perkins attends the screening of the film "The Princess", in London, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)
Director Ed Perkins attends the screening of the film "The Princess", in London, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)
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New Documentary ‘The Princess’ Immerses Audiences in Diana’s Story

Director Ed Perkins attends the screening of the film "The Princess", in London, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)
Director Ed Perkins attends the screening of the film "The Princess", in London, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)

Oscar-nominated director Ed Perkins trawled through hundreds of hours of footage of Princess Diana in search of moments he hoped would offer new perspective on her life and public image, 25 years after her death.

His new film "The Princess" relies entirely on archive video to trace Diana’s life from a timid teen to her death on Aug. 31, 1997, aged 36, and the unprecedented scenes of mourning that ensued.

In eschewing interviews and retrospective analysis traditionally used as the narrative tool in documentaries, Perkins said he hoped to explore the complicated relationship between Diana, the media and the public and elicit an emotional response from audiences.

"Our hope was to use the archive as a kind of time machine to take audiences back into our collective pasts and allow them to relive the story," he told Reuters.

Perkins, who was 11 when Diana died and remembers the confusion he felt over the outpouring of emotion, said he hoped his style of filmmaking would encourage audiences to reanalyze their own relationship with the princess.

"The thing that's most interesting for me is what was our role in this? What was our active role in the story? What was our complicity?" said Perkins, who earned a 2019 Oscar nomination for the documentary short "Black Sheep."

"The part of the Diana story of this puzzle that I felt was less explored and more interesting for me was, what does Diana's story say about all of us? And so that's the whole approach here, to kind of immerse audiences in this present tense unfolding, to never let you escape from the archive, to take you back into these moments in all our lives."

Diana had just turned 20 when she married Charles in 1981 and became the subject of global admiration and scrutiny. The collapse of their marriage, which she blamed on Charles' lover and future wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, only fueled media and public interest in Diana, who died when a limousine in which she was riding crashed in a Parisian tunnel as she fled the paparazzi.

"The Princess" will be released in theaters in Britain on June 30.



Brazilian DJ Alok Rocks Coachella, While Some Other International Artists Cancel 

Alok performs during the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Indio, Calif. (AP) 
Alok performs during the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Indio, Calif. (AP) 
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Brazilian DJ Alok Rocks Coachella, While Some Other International Artists Cancel 

Alok performs during the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Indio, Calif. (AP) 
Alok performs during the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Indio, Calif. (AP) 

Brazilian DJ Alok brought a beaming blend of electronic dance beats to the stage on Saturday at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival despite the growing fears of international artists about the future of performing in America.

"For me as a Brazilian, it's always been hard to get a visa. So, for us, it didn't change much," Alok told Reuters during an interview backstage at Coachella, held in Southern California.

"But, of course, for Europe and others, they changed the rules, right?" he added.

Alok heard about other Coachella performances being cancelled in 2025 due to visa issues and feels fortunate that he made it to the festival when other international artists could not.

"For us, we were very lucky. The team were all here from LA, so that was amazing," he said.

In the first week of April, British singer FKA Twiggs, who was scheduled to perform at Coachella, cancelled her performance.

She said that she was bowing out due to "visa issues" on the social media platform Instagram.

She also cancelled her entire North American tour.

With the Trump administration rapidly cancelling the international student visas of pro-Palestinian activists as well as revoking the legal status for 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, international music artists have also found that they are not immune.

In March, British punk rock band member of UK Subs, Alvin Gibbs, shared on the social media platform Facebook that they were allegedly denied entry into the United States while traveling to their performance at LA Punk Invasion 2025.

Despite evolving visa policies looming, the music producer Alok did not fret about the future during his set. He moved his music to the next level.

While Alok traditionally uses LED projections to create rows of artificial background dancers for his music sets, for his Coachella set, he evolved the performance with live performers dancing to his beats.

"It was very challenging. I'm very used to doing a lot of crazy stuff in the shows, very integrating with new technology, but this one for sure was the most difficult," Alok said.

"We're dealing with human technology and the synchronizing. But it's also something beautiful because once we are connected in the same synergy, same purpose, we can do stuff that is extraordinary," he added, noting a desire to keep performance human instead leaning too much on artificial intelligence.

"Art is made by soul," the singer said, later adding his appreciation for his guest performer, American singer Ava Max.

"We have a song that works super well and she's a rock star, so she did great. And we also have this classic song 'Hear Me Now' and we did a new version for Coachella. I'm just going with the flow."

Alok is best known for that 2016 single and for his 2024 album, "The Future is Ancestral," which features nine dance tracks mixed with indigenous songs, some of which have been sung for centuries by Brazilian tribes.