Guiding us round the original Jackson family home in Gary, Indiana, flicking nostalgically through family photo albums, fooling around with assistants in his personal limousine… these never-before-seen videos show a pop superstar at the peak of his fame.
In 2001, defying lingering allegations of child molestation, Michael Jackson decided to make a fly-on-the-wall-style documentary which would show him chatting to celebrities, meeting ‘real’ fans and travelling back into his past.
There’s certainly no shortage of confidence as Jackson gives words of reassurance to a 19-year-old Beyonce, then emerging as a star in her own right. He even laughingly tells cameras he’s glad that ‘dirty pictures’ have been removed from the bedroom he once shared with his brothers and fellow performers in the Jackson Five.
Yet his world soon came crashing down.
In November 2003, with the new documentary still filming, officers from the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s department raided the star’s Neverland ranch in California, part of a criminal investigation into sex abuse.
It was a shattering blow. Two years later, he would be acquitted but for Jackson – who fled the US for Bahrain in the wake of the verdict – the doors were slamming shut.
TV networks lost interest in the documentary, leaving Jackson’s friend and producer Marc Shaffel with a mountain of unused footage.
Yet that might soon change. For, while his reputation has been battered in the 15 years since his death, the King of Pop is having a posthumous renaissance.
In 2001, defying lingering allegations of child molestation, Michael Jackson decided to make a fly-on-the-wall-style documentary
Included in the footage shot as part of the film, Jackson was seen meeting with a 19-year-old Beyonce
Filmmaker Marc Shaffel helped interpret a bizarre episode in another of the clips, in which Jackson is sprayed with perfume in his limousine
The new biopic, Michael, has been a huge success and, grossing more than $1billion, has created a new generation of fans. A sequel is already in production.
Now Mr Shaffel believes that his own footage – one of the last sustained portraits ever made of Jackson – is relevant once again and plans to release a new film portrait of his own, tentatively titled The Real Michael.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, the producer said: ‘During the time these clips were shot Michael was about at the pinnacle of his second half of his career. The 1993 allegations made by Jordan Chandler had passed. He was in a great mood and the fans were very welcoming to him.
‘The material was originally shot to be a reality show I was making about Michael.
‘It was my long personal friendship with Michael that made filming this series possible. I own and have shot and paid for the footage and production.’
Now Mr Shaffel wants his film to see a wider audience.
‘This footage is a perfect real-life account of his life – and perfect to accompany the massive theatrical release of the Michael film.’
The clips he has shared with the Daily Mail are certainly striking – although not without their puzzles.
Now Shaffel wants his film to see a wider audience following the recent success of the biopic Michael
Explaining the extraordinary clutter on view in the Jackson family home Shaffel explained that, by the early 2000s, it had been occupied by an older relative who had been given little notice of the filming
Jackson relaxes in the back of a limousine, where he would later be sprayed with perfume
Explaining the extraordinary clutter on view in the Jackson family home, for example, Mr Shaffel explained that, by the early 2000s, it had been occupied by an older relative who had been given little notice of the filming.
Mr Shaffel also helped interpret a bizarre episode in another of the clips, in which Jackson is sprayed with perfume in his limousine.
‘Michael, being the consummate prankster with the people closest to him would over-do the cologne and perfume,’ recalled the producer.
‘At the time, he liked this very expensive perfume. His nickname for cologne was “smells” so when he asked for smells his cousin, who was his assistant on that trip, brought out the perfumes and started over spraying as a prank but unfortunately for all of us in the limo with him [it] was so strong we couldn’t breathe.’
- Daphne Barak is a senior interviewer and documentary film maker. Daphne is also a cancer survivor who has a fast-growing charity with the University of California, San Diego. www.gamechangerevents.org
