Gaga: Five Foot Two is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Chris Moukarbel about singer Lady Gaga. It was produced by Moukarbel, Gaga, Bobby Campbell, and Heather Parry. Shot in a cinéma vérité style and avoiding retrospective material and conventional interviews, it follows Gaga over the course of a year as she records, releases, and promotes her fifth studio album, Joanne (2016), while also preparing for her performance at the Super Bowl LI halftime show. The film presents an intimate portrait of Gaga's personal and professional life, including her relationships with family, friends, collaborators, and fans, and foregrounds her struggle with chronic pain, later identified as fibromyalgia. The project originated through Gaga's management team and was produced by Live Nation, with Moukarbel filming much of the documentary himself over an approximately eight-month period and shaping it as an intimate, present-tense portrait rather than a conventional retrospective.
Gaga: Five Foot Two premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017, and was released globally on Netflix on September 22. The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. Many reviewers praised its emotional candor, behind-the-scenes access, and Gaga's willingness to appear vulnerable, particularly in scenes dealing with chronic pain, family, and loneliness. Others commended Moukarbel's intimate approach and the documentary's portrayal of Gaga as more human and emotionally exposed than in earlier celebrity images. More critical reviews, however, argued that the film was too carefully managed, lacked narrative focus and context, and offered a limited or overly curated portrait of its subject, with several critics unfavorably comparing it to Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991). The film won Best Music Documentary at the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards, and also received awards from the NME Awards and the Webby Awards.
Synopsis Gaga: Five Foot Two is a documentary that follows a year in the life of American singer Lady Gaga at age 30 as she records, releases, and promotes her fifth studio album, Joanne. The film presents an intimate portrait of Gaga's personal and professional life, documenting her interactions with family members, friends, collaborators, employees, and fans. It also foregrounds her struggle with chronic pain, later identified as fibromyalgia, showing how it disrupts her daily routines, rehearsals, performances, and studio work, and tracing her attempts to manage it through treatment and physical therapy. The film juxtaposes scenes from Gaga's working life with more informal moments, including her cooking at home, sitting topless by a pool, and speaking candidly about men and the pressures surrounding her public life.
A central focus of the documentary is the creation and promotion of Joanne. Gaga is shown in recording sessions with collaborators including Mark Ronson and BloodPop, as well as with "Hey Girl" duet partner Florence Welch. The film follows several aspects of the album's rollout, including the shooting of the music video for "Perfect Illusion" in the desert, during which Gaga wonders whether fans will be disappointed by her departure from the elaborate costumes of her earlier career, getting a Joanne tattoo, the online leak of the album, and a visit to Walmart to check its placement in stores. A sequence of Gaga interacting with fans is intercut with archival footage of her earlier, more extravagant appearances, highlighting the contrast between her past image and the more stripped-back persona she adopted for Joanne.
The film also explores Gaga's emotional vulnerability during this period. It addresses the breakdown of her engagement to Taylor Kinney, her loneliness despite constant public attention, and her reflections on fame, heartbreak, and womanhood. She speaks about the ways she used performance and spectacle to reclaim control over her image, citing her 2009 performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards as an example, and discusses how fame and public scrutiny have affected women in entertainment, referring to figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Anna Nicole Smith. She also expresses frustration with the power male producers hold over women in the music industry. Her family forms another important part of the narrative, particularly in scenes related to the album's dedication to her late aunt Joanne, including one in which she plays the title track to her grandmother, as well as more private moments such as attending the baptism of musician Brian Newman's daughter Sistilia, of whom Gaga is the godmother.
Alongside its focus on Joanne, the documentary includes footage of other performances and appearances, such as Gaga singing "Bad Romance" on piano at the 90th birthday celebration of her longtime collaborator Tony Bennett, performing "You and I" at an event for the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Camden, New Jersey, and delivering "Angel Down" on the rooftop of the Bitter End in New York City. It also touches on other facets of her life and career, including a moment of distress on the set of American Horror Story: Roanoke, in which she had a guest role, receiving balloons from Bradley Cooper in celebration of their film A Star Is Born being greenlit, and her comments on Madonna, whom she says she continued to admire despite being hurt that Madonna had criticized her through the media rather than confronting her face to face.
Another major thread is the preparation for the Super Bowl LI halftime show, which also frames the documentary. The film follows the performance from early planning meetings, in which Gaga describes the opportunity as a dream come true and expresses her desire to defy public expectations, to the day of the show, when she reflects on its significance in her career and urges herself to enjoy the moment. The documentary concludes with Gaga preparing to take the stage, while the end credits feature footage from performances promoting Joanne.
Appearances
As listed in the film's end credits.
Lady Gaga Angelina Calderone Germanotta, grandmother Cynthia Germanotta, mother Joe Germanotta, father Natali Germanotta, sister Sonja Durham, Haus of Gaga member and friend Bobby Campbell, manager Tony Bennett, musician Brian Newman, musician Florence Welch, musician BloodPop, producer Mark Ronson, producer Richy Jackson, choreographer Frederic Aspiras, hairstylist Ruth Hogben, filmmaker Donatella Versace, fashion designer
Production Development The project originated through Gaga's management team, which had discussed making a documentary about the singer for some time, though, according to the film's director, Chris Moukarbel, there was initially "no urgency" around it. The idea was first raised by Gaga's longtime manager Bobby Campbell in conversations with Live Nation, which produced the film, and the company subsequently suggested Moukarbel as director. Gaga was at first reluctant to participate, as she was focused on writing and recording and did not want a film project to become a distraction. According to Moukarbel, there was no formal preparation period before filming began, and that the project was introduced casually through Campbell while Gaga was working on her record.
Produced by Moukarbel, Gaga, Bobby Campbell, and Heather Parry, Gaga: Five Foot Two was conceived by its director as a cinéma vérité-style portrait centered on a limited period in Gaga's life, avoiding sit-down interviews, talking heads, and retrospective material about her past. He said he wanted to "keep the camera on her" and capture "what was happening in the moment", rather than rely on others to explain her work ethic or career. His intention, he added, was not to make "a movie about fame", but rather a portrait of "an artist who is famous" and the conditions she must navigate in order to create her work. The director also intentionally avoided making a film that resembled Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991), despite regarding it as a benchmark for the music documentary genre. Elsewhere, Moukarbel described the finished film as an "impressionistic portrait" rather than journalism or an attempt at establishing an "objective truth". He likewise said the film's style was meant to place viewers "in the present moment with her", minimizing archival material and backstory in favor of immediacy. Entertainment Weekly reported that the film was conceived as a "completely new project", unrelated to Gaga's abandoned documentary plans with Terry Richardson, and that both Gaga and Moukarbel wanted it to focus on "a very specific time in her life".
Filming took place over about eight months, as Moukarbel followed Gaga during the making of Joanne and, later, her preparation for the Super Bowl LI halftime show. The latter was not part of the original plan, but became the story's natural ending once Gaga learned during filming that she had been booked for the performance. Moukarbel said that the Super Bowl structure appealed to him because its live, high-pressure format made it a fitting way to bookend the documentary. Filming began in June 2016, after Gaga had already finished writing the album. Moukarbel recalled that the first day he filmed Gaga—at her home, as she cooked and then went to the studio—ultimately formed the basis of the film's opening scenes.
Moukarbel said he began editing while production was still underway, reviewing footage with his editor in order to identify the story early and shape later filming accordingly. Most of the documentary was shot by Moukarbel alone, as Gaga generally preferred not to have a larger crew around while she was writing or working, although additional crew members were brought in for larger-scale events such as the Super Bowl and music video shoots. He also noted that the camera's relationship to Gaga changes over the course of the film: early scenes are shot in close proximity, while later ones place her farther away and increasingly surrounded by staff as "the demands of her career start to take over". Despite Live Nation's financial backing, he said much of the production remained small-scale and was paid for out of his own pocket because the level of access required a minimal setup, often consisting only of himself and a camera. He later told Entertainment Tonight that he had initially imagined incorporating more overtly stylized or produced footage, but abandoned those ideas because they did not feel appropriate to the film's more intimate approach. Roughly half of the footage, he added, was shot in the studio, though much of it was omitted from the final cut because it became repetitive once the broader shape of Gaga’s life during the period came into focus.