Way before all the (deserved) hype kicked off after the release of Back to Black, I remember randomly picking up Frank by Amy Winehouse in Woolworths back in 2003…weren’t things a little different? Yes, we had the internet but it was mostly dial-up and AOL ruled the world but in a little corner of the world, I heard that first album and was completely blown away. I didn’t necessarily relate to her lyrics on a one-to-one basis but her voice and style was undeniable.
The beauty of music, like the classic films, is that it never fails to spread the good word in all respects and when there was pure Winehouse, it was all kinds of mighty. When I heard about her death, there was a bizarre mix of sadness and expectancy but there was definitely one defining memory among the fallout, it was of a sad regret, a selfish one, in that we’d never get to see her out there in the fray, sharing her stunning talent with the living world.
The documentary, AMY, is from BAFTA award-winning director Asif Kapadia (Senna), and tells the story of the six-time Grammy-winner – in her own words. It’s set to feature extensive unseen archive footage and previously unheard tracks, and we’re also told it’ll reflect her character to give us a strikingly modern, moving and vital film that shines a light on the world we live in, in a way that very few can or have.
Amy was a once-in-a-generation talent and a pure jazz artist in the most authentic sense, she wrote and sung from the heart using her musical genius to analyse her own problems. Sadly, her enormous success coupled with relentless and invasive media attention, plus those troubled relationships we all know so well as fans, saw her life tragically begin to unravel and she died from alcohol poisoning in July 2011, at the age of 27.
Directed by Asif Kapadia (Senna, The Warrior) and produced by James Gay-Rees (Senna, Exit Through The Gift Shop) through On The Corner Films, AMY is released in the UK by Altitude Film Distribution. Find more information at the official website: www.amyfilm.co.uk
