Amy Winehouse was a tiny person with a big, soulful voice. Listening to her sing "Tears Dry on Their Own" and "Back to Black," you can hear the emotion behind every lyric. She burned brightly in the public eye, but not just because of her talent: Winehouse was a tabloid fixture. When she was alive, photos of the singer in compromising situations involving drugs constantly made headlines. We were all voyeurs to her demise.
Director Asif Kapadia's documentary Amy aims to show a different side of Winehouse. Like Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the film is an intimate look at an artist who grappled with mental illness and addiction, both in and out of public view. Amy Winehouse wrote all of her own lyrics, using them to express her struggles with relationships, emotions, and the confines of femininity. The popular perception of Winehouse as a tragic trainwreck tended to overshadow her immense artistic talents, which Kapadia highlights through found footage and interviews.
In the exclusive clip from Amy below, Winehouse talks about how music provided an outlet for her to cope with depression. She says she was glad to be able to pick up a guitar for half an hour and feel better — something a lot of people battling depression aren't able to do. There was a lot more to Amy Winehouse than ballet flats and a bird's nest of hair — that's what Kapadia's film endeavors to reveal.
Amy opens on Friday, July 3 in New York City and Los Angeles, with special advance screenings in certain locations on Thursday night. The film opens nationwide July 10. All theater information can be found here.