Don’t expect Amy Winehouse’s family to praise the forthcoming documentary about the late singer, Amy. The family has “disassociated” themselves from the film, just weeks before its premiere at Cannes Film Festival.
“The Winehouse family would like to disassociate themselves from the forthcoming film about their much missed and beloved Amy,” a spokesperson for the Winehouse family said in a statement on Monday (April 27).
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While a rep for the Asif Kapadia-directed documentary maintains that they have conducted “the region of 100 interviews with people that knew Amy,” Amy’s father, Mitch Winehouse, told The Sun on Sunday (April 26) that he “felt sick” when he viewed the doc for the first time and that it was both “misleading and contains some basic untruths.”
“Amy would be furious,” he said. “This is not what she would have wanted.”
Read the family’s entire statement, courtesy of Rolling Stone, below:
“The Winehouse family would like to disassociate themselves from the forthcoming film about their much missed and beloved Amy. The documentary about her life will be released this summer and receive its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
They feel that the film is a missed opportunity to celebrate her life and talent and that it is both misleading and contains some basic untruths. There are specific allegations made against family and management that are unfounded and unbalanced. 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.
Fundamentally, the Winehouse family believes that the film does a disservice to individuals and families suffering from the complicated affliction of addiction. By misunderstanding the condition and its treatment, the film suggests for instance that not enough was done for Amy, that her family and management pushed her into performing or did not do enough to help her. In reality, the filmmakers were told of a huge effort from all concerned to help Amy at all stages of her illness and their constant presence in her life throughout, as well as that of many excellent medical professionals.
As many families know, addiction cannot begin to be treated properly until the individual helps themselves and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Furthermore, Amy was an adult who could never be told what she could and could not do. Through their work with the Amy Winehouse Foundation, Amy’s family have met many others enduring through the same struggle that they endured and have helped hundreds of disadvantaged young people in Amy’s name. They will continue to do so and hope their work creates more understanding of a terrible illness.”
Amy is slated to open at Cannes in May.