The meteoric rise and tragic demise of mercurial singer Amy Winehouse will be the focus of a recently announced, upcoming documentary from award-winning Senna director Asif Kapadia. In the first teaser for the film, we get a look at some of the archival footage that will be used to provide a glimpse into the chart-topping musician’s brilliant but frustratingly short career.
Titled Amy, the documentary will arrive in U.K. theaters July 3, just a few weeks shy of the four-year anniversary of Winehouse’s death — a death reportedly due to alcohol poisoning, but preceded by several years of widely publicized drug abuse and personal problems. A release in U.S. theaters is expected shortly thereafter, though nothing has been confirmed at this point.
In the brief teaser for the documentary, a young Winehouse can be heard telling an interviewer, “I’m not a girl trying to be a star or trying to be anything other than a musician.”
The talented artist, who went on to win five Grammy Awards in addition to countless other accolades around the world, also offers up some thoughts on why she doesn’t think fame is in her future.
“I don’t think I’m gonna be at all famous,” says Winehouse when asked during an early interview about the likelihood of making it big in the music industry. “I don’t think I could handle it. I would probably go mad.”
Kapadia and Amy producer James Gay-Rees explained their reasons for making the film in a statement accompanying the teaser’s debut.
“Amy was a once-in-a-generation talent who captured everyone’s attention; she wrote and sang from the heart and everyone fell under her spell,” said the pair. “But tragically Amy seemed to fall apart under the relentless media attention, her troubled relationships, her global success and her precarious lifestyle. As a society we celebrated her huge success but then we were quick to judge her failings when it suited us.”
