Amy Winehouse's new documentary, entitled "Amy," intends to reveal the true persona of the singer and outshine the legacy imprinted by the tabloids after her demise in 2011 by alcohol poisoning.
The documentary depicts Winehouse's early years, growing up full of talent yet troubled in London's working class — as a young teen, she escaped to what a friend described as "trouble at home." Her father left them for another woman, Amy battled with her mother, Amy had bouts with bulimia and depression, and she poured her heart and soul into her music. There were also footage of her father's return, which did him no credit by the way, and some horrifying scenes with the incident on stage caught by the paparazzi.
According to CBC News, Asif Kapadia was requested by Universal Music to direct a documentary that would expose the British singer's troubled past and present it in a clearer picture. Kapadia also helmed the award-winning docudrama "Senna," about the late Brazilian Formula One race car driver Ayrton Senna.
In a recent conversation with CBC News, Kapadia said, "There were so many questions. Like, why did it happen? Why was she on stage, why was she performing, why is everyone letting this happen? I wanted to make the film to get the answers."
The director organized 100 interviews for the said documentary, some of them he got from the "Rehab" singer's friends from her teenage years who gave him permission to use their footage. Their videos exposed a young Amy attending birthday parties, playing pool and just playing around and having fun.
"No one has ever seen any of this material on YouTube," Kapadia voiced, "That's why it's interesting. It's before Amy was famous. And it's personal, I had no idea she was so funny. I had no idea she was this interesting, bright-eyed, charismatic girl in the early years."
He continued that the challenge of the film was to get people's trust to hand over their personal memories of someone who is no longer around. Kapadia explained, "Someone who they saw was slowly dying and being humiliated and mistreated publicly, so those memories are even more precious to them."
Amy Winehouse's documentary also hopes to answer the troubling question why the remarkably talented singer-songwriter self-destructed at the young age of 27, at the apex of her career.
A report from Philly.com revealed that the new documentary will get viewers hooked and that the audience will have to make their own judgment after watching it.
Winehouse's vocal talent placed her on a talent show and later grabbed the attention of the record industry. Unfortunately, as her career soared high, she entered into a catastrophic relationship with a drug and alcohol addict.
The Economic Times summed up the Amy Winehouse documentary as an awful cautionary narrative, one that is repeatedly seen by many and yet still come out with no learned lessons.
