The family of Amy Winehouse have publicly disassociated themselves from an upcoming documentary about her life, saying it does a disservice to those suffering from addiction.
Amy is due to première at the Cannes Film Festival in May and looks at the Back To Black singer’s rise to fame and tragic death in 2011.
However, her family have today said that they see the film as a “missed opportunity to celebrate her life and talent” and said that it was “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,” they said.
In a lengthy statement, the family continued to add that the Asif Kapadia-directed movie “does a disservice to individuals and families suffering from the complicated affliction of addiction” and wrongly suggests “that not enough was done for Amy, that her family and management pushed her into performing or did not do enough to help her”.
Speaking separately to The Sun On Sunday, Amy’s father Mitch said that he “felt sick” when he watched the film for the first time and slammed the film’s decision to interview her ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
“Blake is saying in the film that the reason Amy was like that was because of me — not because he gave her crack and heroin and because he completely manipulated and coerced her into Class A drugs. If the real truth came out about Blake, he wouldn’t be able to walk down the street, so how they can allow him to make that claim about me is so hurtful and beyond belief.”
