Session 5: Amy (2015)

Today’s film:Amy

• Director: Asif Kapadia• Starring Amy Winehouse• Premiered May 16, 2015 at Cannes Film

Festival (France)– Opened in US, UK, and Irish theaters: July 3, 2015– Released theatrically in 31 total countries, starting

on July 10, 2015• Budget: $3.4 million ; Box office: $23.7 million• Expository documentary

Today’s film:Amy

• Awards:– Won 30 film awards, with an additional 33

nominations– Wins: Oscar (Best Documentary Feature); European

Film Awards (Best European Documentary); BAFTA (Best Documentary); Grammy (Best Music Film)

• Honors:– Ranks #17 on vulture.com’s 2015 list of 50 Best Music

Documentaries of All Time• Rotten Tomatoes score: Critics 95% ; Audience

87%

Asif Kapadia

Kapadia at the Vanity Fair post-Oscar party, February 2016

Kapadia resume summary

• As director: 18 credits, both fiction and documentaries; short and feature-length films– Best known for The Warrior (2001), The Sheep Thief

(2002), Senna (2010)

• As producer: 8 credits, primarily documentaries• As writer: 9 credits, both fiction and docs• Kapadia has won 33 awards, with an additional

24 nominations – Including 4 BAFTAs, two for Best Doc (Amy and Senna)

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse in performance (date and site unknown)

Today’s film:Amy

• “It is an overwhelming story, and despite everyone knowing the ending, it is as gripping as a thriller.” – The Guardian

• “Amy is a cautionary tale – she was the Janis Joplin of our age – and as it’s the media age, we get to see the full price of fame, this time as a fragile talent self-combusts.” – Screen International

• “Stoking the star-maker machinery, behind the popular song” – Joni Mitchell lyric from “Free Man in Paris”

• Let’s watch ...

Brief epilogue

• Amy Winehouse (September 14, 1983 – July 23, 2011)– Age 27 at the time of her death– Discography:

• Frank (2003)• Back to Black (2006)• Amy Winehouse at the BBC (live album, 2012)

Brief epilogue

• Mitch Winehouse was not happy with this film– Mitch viewed a close-to-final cut and threatened legal

action until a few changes were made• Mitch wanted more changes, but the production crew

refused, claiming they originally had the full backing of the family and that they “approached the project with total objectivity”

– Mitch has publicly condemned the final cut of the film, claiming that Kapadia planned to make Mitch the anti-hero from the start• But Mitch did praise the film’s performance footage of Amy;

he said “it’s the narrative that is the problem”

Brief epilogue

• Amy Winehouse Foundation launched September 14, 2011–Would have been Amy’s 28th birthday– Created by the Winehouse family– Drug and alcohol abuse education and support for

young people, especially the vulnerable or disadvantaged

Brief epilogue

A bronze statue of Winehouse was unveiled in her London neighborhood of Camden Town in September 14, 2014

Brief epilogue• Both parents have written memoirs about Amy, with proceeds

donated to the Foundation– Mitch’s book published 2012; Janis’s in 2014– Mitch owns the copyright to Amy’s music

• 2018 documentary titled Amy Winehouse: Back to Black released• 2018 announcement about an upcoming biopic, with family

approval• 2018 announcement by Mitch of upcoming worldwide hologram

tour (2019), with her live band and backing singers– Same company as created the Roy Orbison and Maria Callas hologram

shows– February 2019: announcement that the tour had been postponed, for

unspecified production issues; no rescheduled dates announced