Asif Kapadia, San Francisco, CA 7/6/15
Asif Kapadia hadn’t been a particular fan of Amy Winehouse when she was alive. He was, of course, aware of her, both the tabloid coverage and the assurance from friends he trusted that she had one of the best voices ever to be recorded. When he took on the project of making a documentary about the stormy life and all-too-early death of the singer, he found himself rethinking everything he thought he knew about her. It became his mission to counter the tabloid image with that of the bright and brash teenager with ambition, guts, and talent who never expected to be a star, and was completely unprepared for stardom when it arrived. He’s succeeded. Part of that is his method: clips of Amy, including a wealth of home movies, that has her talking directly to the camera. It does more than just tell her story: it allows us to get to her on a personal level that would have otherwise been impossible. It also compels an emotional investment that makes what happens heartbreaking for the waste of a life, and infuriating because those around her couldn’t, or wouldn’t, save her.
When I spoke with Kapadia on July 6, 2015, media hype, getting her friends to trust him with her story, and why he prefers to use only audio in recording his extensive interviews were among the many topics we covered while we discussed his film, which is on my top 10 list for docs in 2015. He also shared the serendipitous nature of how he became involved in the film, why he never has a Plan B, and an incisive dissection about the nature of celebrity.
AMY is his piercing documentary about the rise and very public fall of singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse. Using archival footage of Amy talking directly to the camera, and voiceover reminiscences of those closest to her, the film considers both the private demons that tormented Winehouse, and the media frenzy that fed up on them, while also showcasing her enormous talent as an artist, and how she channeled her private pain into her art. Kapadia’s previous work includes the documentary SENNA, about another talent that died too young
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As much as I loved watching unseen footage of Amy, hearing old demos and watching her be awesome. I felt that this documentary was too quick to imply biased opinions on the ones that I imagine would be suffering the most. Mainly her parents and father in particular. Not only has he lost a daughter, now he has to deal with the backlash of a documentary that draws conclusions, with a small handful of interviews, that her fathers negligence was a contributor to her death. Not to mention showing Amy and her father having an argument over having a fan photograph, I bet the film makers were jumping up and down when the found that doozey. Sure its always nice to have a villain in a story, someone to blame, but at what cost. These a real people and real parents, and no parent is perfect. But to amplify someones parental imperfections across the whole world, knowing that they had lost a daughter, for the sake of a juicy story and entertainment purposes, I feel, is rather inhumane. I don’t think anyone has the right to have an opinion on what happened within her personal life accept for the people involved themselves and this documentary encourages this voyeuristic and damaging culture we have towards successful artists “Celebrityism”. Why not spend the time focusing on what we all know and loved and what I had thought it was going to be about, her music…..