Amy

Over the Christmas holidays, I also went to see another film at The Showroom cinema. As a part of their 'Best of 2015' showings, I went to see Asif Kapadia's 'Amy', a documentary about the singer Amy Winehouse. I had heard her music before, and knew a bit about her life and death due to the extensive media coverage, and so wanted to know more, especially because I knew the film had done very well both commercially and critically. I also knew there had been a negative response about the film from her family, and this made me more curious to see what the film was like.

The documentary follows the life of Amy Winehouse and her rise to fame, as well as her battles with substance addiction. The film starts with video footage of her at fourteen, singing happy birthday at a friends party, singing with a jazz orchestra at sixteen, and then doing her first gigs at eighteen. It follows the making of her first and second albums, and how a lot of the songs she wrote were true stories about her life, as well as her battles with bulimia and self harm, ultimately leading up to her death.

An interesting thing I thought about the film was the way the documentary was made. It is an observatory documentary, though at some points it starts to become a poetic documentary, the words of her songs appearing on the screen, more recent footage of places setting the scene for older stories and the fact that all the interviews are only audio - none of the interviews done exclusively for the film include any visual footage. I thought this method of documentary making was very effective, especially as the audio alone made so we only got her friends and families voices, and no body language or facial expressions, which could make the interviews more reliable, or possibly less as we don't have these things.

To me, although the documentary dealt with a tragic and upsetting story, it was never very sentimental. There was very little to emotionally manipulate the audience, which in a way made it more effective, as it wasn't setting out to make an audience cry, but to tell them a true story. Although portraying her father and ex husband negatively, Kapadia uses stories from her friends, family and doctors to do this, making this negative representation seem more reliable.

To me, 'Amy' was a very interesting documentary. After the film ended and the titles rolled, the whole of the audience sat in silence until the very end, and I was part of this, not quite knowing what to do or say. I went to go see it with my mother, who was also effected by it, one thing I remember her saying was that she couldn't quite believe her parents reactions to the mental illness and eating disorders she had during her childhood. I was glad I went to see it, and I would definitely recommend it, as both a portrayal of the effects of depression and substance dependency, but also as a representation of how the media can be toxic, and negatively effect people's lives in horrible ways.