Amy Winehouse’s dad slams ‘misleading’ documentary about singer’s life
Mitch Winehouse next to the statue of his daughter unveiled in Camden Market last year. Picture: Dieter Perry - Credit: Archant
The family of late singer and former Camden Square resident Amy Winehouse has criticised an upcoming documentary about her life.
The musician, who died in 2011, is the subject of Amy, to shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Winehouse’s family distanced themselves from the film, claiming that it is “misleading”.
But the film-makers said that they approached it with “total objectivity” and insisted the story it tells is “a reflection of our findings” from around 100 interviews with people who knew the star.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Winehouse family said they “would like to disassociate themselves from the forthcoming film about their much missed and beloved Amy”.
He went on: “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.”
In an interview with the BBC, Amy’s father, Mitch Winehouse, said the film presents him as not being there to help Amy – something he denies.
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He told the BBC: “I was there every day.
“And if I wasn’t there – because I was working or I was away somewhere or she was away somewhere – she’d phone seven times a day.
“And there’s no sense of that in the film and that’s what’s disappointing.”
He added: “A biographer puts everything down there and let’s people decide for themselves.
“These guys have decided what to put in and what not to put in. It’s a two-hour film and you can’t put everything, but there’s got to be an element of balance and there isn’t any.
“My disappointment is that the film could have been terrific. They’re going to look at this film and know the film’s been tainted. And there’s absolutely no reason for it to have been that way.”
Amy Winehouse died aged 27 from alcohol poisoning in July 2011.
The film, directed by Asif Kapadia, is among the titles that will be shown at the industry get-together in the south of France next month.
Kapadia has already tasted critical and commercial success with his documentary Senna, about the Brazilian Formula 1 driver.
In a statement, the makers of the film said: “When we were approached to make the film, we came on board with the full backing of the Winehouse family and we approached the project with total objectivity, as with Senna.
“During the production process, we conducted in the region of 100 interviews with people that knew Amy Winehouse; friends, family, former-partners and members of the music industry that worked with her.
“The story that the film tells is a reflection of our findings from these interviews.”
