Raw Spice

In 1994, filmmaker Neil Davies was looking to make a documentary film about a girl group. He was put in contact with a newly formed group named Touch, who would later go on to become the Spice Girls. There was no guarantee that the group would find success in the music industry at the time, but Davies felt that "even if it's a car crash, it was still a great story." He envisioned the film as "a kind of warning to teenage girls that this is what happens to you in Tin Pan Alley."{{cite book |last=Smith|first=Sean|title=Spice Girls: The Story of the World's Greatest Girl Band |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2019|isbn=978-0-00-826756-8|pages=62, 86}} Davies and co-producer Matthew Bowers filmed the group for four months in 1994;{{cite web|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/331711837|title=TV Highlights|first=Marion|last=McMullen|work=Coventry Telegraph|url-access=subscription|date=21 March 2001|pages=20, 93|access-date=24 February 2021|id={{ProQuest|331711837}}}} they then tried to sell the project to television networks but were unsuccessful as the networks were not interested in a film about an unknown group. Two years later, after the Spice Girls' commercial breakthrough, the footage Davies and Bowers had shot was allegedly stolen by two former colleagues. This led to a four-year legal dispute over ownership of the footage that ended in Davies's favour. Davies was then commissioned by ITV to create a documentary about the Spice Girls from the filmed footage.

Prior to airing, the film was the subject of four-year-long legal disputes with former members of the film's production company and the Spice Girls themselves, who tried to prevent it from being screened.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/mar/20/broadcasting |title=Spice Girls film makes it to screen |work=The Guardian |date=20 March 2001 |access-date=18 February 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/mar/20/marketingandpr.broadcasting1 |title=Clifford steps into Spice Girls row |work=The Guardian |date=20 March 2001 |access-date=18 February 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/353637141/|title=How Spicy documentary shows band in the Raw|work=The Sunday Mail|date=15 April 2001|last=Butler|first=Dianne.|page=32|via=ProQuest|access-date=28 March 2021|url-access=subscription}}

Raw Spice first aired in the UK on 21 March 2001 on ITV. It was the most-watched program of the night, drawing 9.4 million viewers—almost 40% of the available audience.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/mar/22/overnights |title=Spices prove a hot date on ITV |work=The Guardian |date=22 March 2001 |access-date=18 February 2017}} The film aired in Australia on Network 10 in April 2001.{{cite web|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/360208585/|title=Raw hide, claim Spice Girls|work=Herald Sun|date=21 April 2001|last=Smith|first=Cameron|page=119|via=ProQuest|access-date=24 February 2021|url-access=subscription}} Raw Spice was also released on DVD with additional footage.

Entertainment Weekly{{'}}s Tanner Stransky gave the documentary film a B minus.{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/2008/08/15/raw-spice/|title=Raw Spice|first=Tanner|last=Stransky|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=15 August 2008|access-date=24 February 2021}} The Calgary Herald gave the film two out of five stars, saying: "If the film had been able to clear more than one day's worth of interview footage from 1994, it may have been a great piece of pop music moviemaking instead of an overly long TV sound byte."{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/487708371/|title=Raw Spice|page=34|newspaper=Calgary Herald|first=Katherine|last=Monk|date=30 June 2008|url-access=subscription|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=24 February 2021}}

• Spice Girls filmography

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|id=tt1543322|title=Raw Spice}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20210215152652/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b85c7523d Raw Spice] at the British Film Institute{{better source needed|reason=Help request: a live link can be searched for at https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/search/expert - if available, replace the archive URL with the live link. Or if none found, remove this 'better source needed' template. | date=October 2023}}

{{Spice Girls}}

Category:2001 television films

Category:2001 films

Category:Works about the Spice Girls

Category:2001 documentary films

Category:Documentary films about women in music

Category:2000s British films

Category:British musical documentary films