Amy Winehouse’s family has criticised a documentary about her life. The singer, who died in 2011, is the subject of Amy, which will be shown at at this year’s Cannes film festival.
Today 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.” 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 had critical and commercial success with his documentary Senna, about the Brazilian Formula One 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.”