Amy (2015)

Asif Kapadia takes his role as director to a whole other universe in his 2015 documentary of 'Amy'. As the second film in his trio (including 'Senna' (2010) and 'Maradona (2019))Kapadia claims his authoritative stamp on his work as he highlights his auteur features in the groundbreaking 'Amy'. A documentary film that is based upon the tragic life of Amy Winehouse, we do not only do we get to know the late pop star, but we also fall in love with her. Learning about her life and the influence that those around her had upon her, the emotion created by Kapadia is something of a rare experience in a somewhat mainstream film. Critics would agree as the groundbreaking documentary would only go on to win an Academy Award for 'Best Documentary' in 2016.

Visually, the film is made almost entirely from archive, found footage- resourced by Kapadia and his tight knit crew as they went through hundreds of hours of footage to fit into Kapadia's documentary style, with the exception of drone shots from above London (specifically highlighting areas where Winehouse herself lived), this film is almost a highlighted version of the digital debate- with archival film stock footage being the reason the film exists- it is hard to ignore the extent of research the team committed themselves to. Kapadia also filmed interviews with hundreds of people from Winehouse's life, editing them to perfection into his work, selecting only the most relevant to put his version of Winehouse's life on screen, a version that WInehouse's father- Mitch Winehouse, would later remove himself from due to the antagonistic image he was given by Kapadia.

The film also features original scores by Brazilian composer- Antonio Pinto, infused with Winehouse's own music and post production edits of lyrics and her own writing on screen, the phenomenal emotional response by the spectator in relation to this simply enhances the understanding of the famed reputation the film has been given since its initial release. Kapadia has also given way to the mainstream and allowed the taboo to become a key feature of his narrative as we are thrown not only into the joyful highlights of Winehouse's life, but also the worse of the hardships she faced, simply allowing us to connect and become empathetic for the protagonist. Winehouse also narrates her own life as Kapadia sourced her voice over as a part of his narrative- she walks us through the stages of her life, good and bad. And as spectators we already know what the denouement of the film is going to feature, yet with the relationship Winehouse creates with those watching throughout the lengthy documentary- we are simply heart broken at the end. Amy Winehouse was more than what the tabloids presented her to be and this is clearly a message in Kapadia's feature documentary film.