Kate Moss is sitting in a dark room, on the chair from the Fast Love video, with all the speakers on it. “On Christmas Day 2016 we heard with shock and disbelief that our dear friend George Michael had passed away,” she says. “Only days before, he was putting the finishing touches to the film you are about to see. This is George’s film Freedom and it’s his final work.”

And that’s it from Kate; her only contribution to George Michael: Freedom (Channel 4) is to introduce it. Don’t worry, though, there is plenty more starry contribution – including from the supermodel catwalk, the one that came just before Kate’s era. So Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and the one no one remembers, talking about the Freedom ’90 video they appeared in because George didn’t want to be in it himself. That’s a good song, isn’t it, stands the old time test? Which Wham Rap! really doesn’t.

There is starry contribution from the music biz too, of course. Elton, as you’d expect; Liam, as you might not. That’s Liam Gallagher the comedian, currently one of the funniest on the circuit. “They were fucking everywhere,” he says, wisely, of Wham!. But the best line of the night award goes to … [opens envelope, pauses for extra drama] … Stevie Wonder! For: “You mean George is white, are you serious, oh my God!” Stevie Wonder may be the only person in the world who can still get away with a Stevie-Wonder-is-blind gag.

The musical contributors have records with their names printed on them, which they play on similar stylish turntables. George Michael: Freedom is art-directed and choreographed like a pop video, although this time George does appear – mostly sitting at the window of his Highgate mansion, the tortured writer bashing away with two fingers at an old manual typewriter. Get a laptop, mate.

He is the narrator, as well as the co-director (along with his close friend and collaborator David Austin). This is very much George Michael according to George Michael. With contributions from his famous pals. As well as the above, Mary J Blige, Nile Rodgers, Mark Ronson, Tony Bennett. Plus Ricky Gervais, Tracey Emin, James Corden … Carpool Karaoke started with George Michael, since when Corden has gone on to break America, becoming the George Michael to Mathew Horne’s Andrew Ridgeley, you could say.

There are contributions from managers and lawyers and record company executives too, as much of George Michael: Freedom is about his dispute with Sony. Maybe too much – falling out with your record company might be frustrating and annoying, but it it isn’t actually slavery, George, is it? The dispute is the reason the Big Five were in that Freedom video and he wasn’t, of course. That is those Big Five 90s supermodels rather than African animals … now I’m thinking of a Cape buffalo lip-syncing along: “Free-dom! I won’t let you down.” Yes, I think that would have worked too, and a Cape buffalo probably would have got out of bed for less than Linda Evangelista.

Anyway, at times it’s a little self-indulgent. And a little preposterous. “I believe I was destined to feel that particular pain so that I could do the ultimate with my music in terms of healing,” George says about Older, which he wrote after the death of his Brazilian boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa. But also he also speaks very movingly about losing Anselmo, and how he channelled his grief and anger into his battle with Sony – and into some powerful, moving, beautiful songs, whether it was destiny or not. And, of course, those songs will have done some healing, of himself, of others.

He speaks openly and candidly about his early hunger for fame, and about how – when he achieved it – he wasn’t always very good at it. And about the controversy over him nicking all the R&B awards off black artists. He can have a laugh at himself, too. See the above Comic Relief Carpool Karaoke sketch. Or his hilarious Extras appearance (hence Ricky G): Hampstead Heath cruising and community service.

So preposterous perhaps, but also honest and brilliant – the film, and the man. He says he would like to be remembered, not just as a singer and songwriter, but also as “someone who had some kind of integrity”. That seems likely.

I’ve been writing about George Michael in the present tense. Because he is the subject – as well as the director and everything else (as discussed) – of this documentary. But perhaps also a little bit because I still can’t quite believe that he’s gone.