Amy: The Girl Behind The Name

Amy directed by Asif Kapadia is a 2015 British documentary film that follows the life and death of British singer Amy Winehouse. It shows who Amy truly was as a person vs how the media portrayed her. She was presented through home videos with a voice over of different people who knew and spent time with her. They described her as a person and also in some parts how others treated her.

This film could be used as a case study because it covers a variety of different representations. It incorporates the representations of gender, issues and age. Gender is a strong representation in the film with a strong theme of dependency arising. Amy depends on men in her life mainly because of her lack of a relationship with her father, this has caused her to become needy towards other males. She further becomes heartbroken when going through a break up which destroys her further. 

The music industry was took a huge impact on both her rise and fall in the industry. Without the music producers in the industry Amy wouldn't have made it in the industry but that is so for all music artists who all need someone already in the industry to help them join. But the industry was also one of the biggest reasons for her fall and destruction because of how much they were asking from her. They tried to change Amy into something she wasn't, she only wanted to be herself something which the industry wouldn't allow her to do. They would also try to rush her into creating albums etc. something she planned to take her time with.

I think the audience responded to Amy well because she was so natural, and was easy to relate to as she was like any other girl expect she had a strong talent in singing. Also because she didn't try to make herself out to be someone she wasn't she appealed to the audience further because she was down to earth. She was quite like Adele who doesn't change her self because of what people want to see. 

Technology took a huge impact on Amy allowing her to get further recognition within the media. The use of TV interviews showed the audience the real Amy. But with things such as radio her songs were played allowing her popularity to rise. However the heighten of technology in this century has enabled more listeners to her music with social media and music streaming such as Spotify. But this was unavailable when she was alive so she was unfortunately unable to use these services. 

Overall I enjoyed the film and thought the way it was put together was very creative and different to the majority of documentaries. The use of home videos allows the audience to see Amy behind the camera rather than who they tried to make her.