After seven years of production, a new documentary about Russell Brand premiered at the SXSW festival in Texas last night, called Brand: A Second Coming.

The film was ultimately directed by Ondi Timoner - who previously directed acclaimed music documentary Dig! - after passing through a number of different directors over the years.

With the film finally complete, however, Brand himself decided not to attend the film's premiere. On his official website, he gave an explanation for why he would not be present.

"Ondi is a very beautiful person and a director of peerless integrity, I suppose what I didn’t consider was that in letting go of the film, I was agreeing to be the subject of a biography. Posthumously this is a great honor but while you’re alive, oddly intrusive and melancholy," he explains.

"You’d think a narcissist would like nothing more than talking about themselves and their 'rags to riches', 'hard luck' story but actually, it felt like, to me, my life was hard enough the first time round and going through it again was painful and sad.

"I know Ondi is an artist and I’m told the film is good but for me watching it was very uncomfortable," he added.

In an interview with Indiewire about the documentary, Timoner explained, "it's just so hard for him. He's very much on the fence, I think, and he was leaning that way, and then leaning against. It's hard for him to talk about his life."

"I really wanted him to be at peace with this film, but I don't know if he'll ever really be at peace with it," she said.

Early reviews for the film have been favourable, with Alex Needham of The Guardian writing, "even if you’re cynical about Brand’s motives, or just think that he’s a bit of berk, the film convinces you of the almost alarming sincerity of his political mission".