Filmmakers Clarence Simmons and Chike Ozah — better known as Coodie and Chike — have worked with Kanye West on music videos like “Through the Wire,” "Two Words" and "Jesus Walks." But their latest collaboration was much longer than a four-minute song and took a bit more time to make.

jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy is a sprawling three-part documentary made over 21 years. An intimate and revealing portrait of Kanye West’s experience, the doc showcases both his formative days trying to break through and his life today as a global brand and artist.

To celebrate the docuseries’ Netflix debut, the filmmakers discussed how they cut down 400 hours down to the four-hour final product, how they funded the project’s early days and what they hope viewers take away from the documentary.

What can viewers expect?

Clarence “Coodie” Simmons: We have three acts: Act 1 is Vision, Act II is Purpose and Act III is Awakening. I had to have a vision. So when I ran into Kanye in Chicago and I saw how charismatic he was and how energetic and talented he was, I’m like, “That was the vision.” When I put the camera on, that was the vision, to document him, not knowing if he wanted me to film him at the time or not. It’s just one of those gradual things that happened. I knew his style somewhat didn’t fit with the rappers back then. It was different. But I knew he was going to do something great.

What do you want viewers to take away from the trilogy?

Chike Ozah: If you put your mind toward your passions and have faith in God, you can achieve anything. It doesn’t come without hard work; it doesn’t come without adversities; it doesn’t come without strains in friendship. But if you keep pushing through for years, you will eventually succeed. Kanye’s a billionaire, but when we first start this film, Kanye’s not a billionaire by any means. So even just seeing that growth. It’s definitely empowering.

How did you go about editing down 400 hours of footage into four?

Coodie: It was a team process. We have brilliant editors, Max Allman and Jason Harper and Byron Leon, who dug into these tapes. They were finding things that I forgot that I had. You have to think about all the things that you have not seen yet. So we had to be real strategic about the storytelling.