Award winning documentary filmmaker Asif Kapdia and Universal Music are getting together to make a documentary on Amy Winehouse’s short life and career. The project will be shopped around at the Cannes Film Market next month by Focus Features International, a division within Universal.
“This is an incredibly modern, emotional and relevant film that has the power to capture the zeitgeist and shine a light on the world we live in in a way that very few films can,” Kapadia and producer Gay-Rees told Billboard.
“Amy was a once-in-a-generation talent who captured everyone’s attention; she wrote and sung from the heart, and everyone fell under her spell. But tragically, Amy seemed to fall apart under the relentless media attention, her troubled relationships, her global success and precarious lifestyle. As a society we celebrated her huge success, but then we were quick to judge her failings when it suited us,” they added.
“Asif and James have the remarkable ability to bring a moving and thought-provoking story to life, as evidenced by Senna. We look forward to seeing their vision of Amy Winehouse,” Focus International co-president Alison Thompson explained.
Producer James Gay-Rees and Kapadia had teamed up once before for the 2010 award-winning doc Senna, which recounts the life and death of Brazilian Forumula one car-racing legend Ayrton Senna.
Winehouse died of alcohol poising back in 2011 after rapidly becoming a world wide star on the heels of her 2003 debut album, Frank, and 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, which led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins and sold more than 12 million copies.