Amy Winehouse Documentary Trashed By Deceased Singer’s Family

Amy Winehouse’s tragic death was divisive even when it occurred. Some were quick to canonize the singer for ushering in a jazzy, bluesy influence on 21st century pop music, while others derided her drug-reference-laden lyrics as harbingers of Amy’s imminent downfall.

Even when alive, Winehouse herself was shrouded in mystery. An often boozy, unpredictable live presence somehow managed to buoy Amy’s troubled public persona — even as her excess substance use became as synonymous with Winehouse’s name as her signature vocals. Now, an upcoming documentary titled, simply, Amy is looking to break deeper into what made the iconic singer so captivating and yet so volatile.

While fans may be eager to get a precious look into Winehouse’s brief career, her family is declining to give the film their blessing. In fact, they are now going as far as to say that Amy would be extremely annoyed by the final product. The Winehouse family publicly aired their disagreements with the filmmakers in a public statement released by People on Sunday.

“It is both misleading and contains some basic untruths. The narrative is formed by the testimony of a narrow sample of Amy’s associates, many of whom had nothing to do with her in the last years of her life. Counter views expressed to the filmmakers did not make the final cut.”

Also on Sunday, Winehouse’s father, Mitch, slammed the documentary in an interview that was released in the U.K. paper, The Sun. There, he criticized the film for sacrificing the truth of his daughter’s life to follow a preconceived narrative.

“I felt sick when I watched it for the first time. Amy would be furious. This is not what she would have wanted… They had a pretty good idea of the film they wanted to make from the off and weren’t going to let anything, like the truth or Amy’s friends, get in the way.”

Despite the Winehouse family’s opposition to the film, it is unlikely that they will be able to curb the fervor that has been building since the documentary was first announced. In May, Amy is set to make one of the biggest premieres possible in the documentary world: the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. A spokesperson for the documentary maintains that the Winehouse family was fully on board with Amy and that story they tell is based on fact, reported People.

“We came on board with the full backing of the Winehouse family and we approached the project with total objectivity. We conducted in the region of 100 interviews with people that knew Amy. The story that the film tells is a reflection of our findings from these interviews.”

What do you think of the family complaints about Amy Winehouse’s documentary?

[Image via Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]