• Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
  • Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
HomeWatchlistTwo Whitney Houston Docus are Coming Our Way and i ...

Two Whitney Houston Docus are Coming Our Way and it’s True, We Will Always Love Her

April 26, 2017

By Maya Palit

whitney
Photo courtesy Whitney Houston Facebook page

A new documentary titled Can I Be Me about the legendary singer Whitney Houston has its premiere at the Tribeca film festival in New York today, and will soon be released world-wide.

The documentary looks at Houston’s whirldwind career, turbulent marriage, incredible onstage presence, drug addiction, early death at 48, and her lifelong attempts to negotiate with a domineering mother and Arista, her oppressive record company.

Through a series of interviews with stylists, bodyguards, back-up singers, and previous footage shot for a documentary on one of Houston’s tours that was never actually made, the film focusses on her enormous success, and the talent that led her to being known colloquially as ‘the Voice’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xw2Ok_RqUI

But it also closely examines the racism of the music industry in the ’80s, its insistence that an artist couldn’t be too ‘black-sounding’, and its attempts to market her as an unequivocal ‘pop princess’ and nothing more. Apparently music that sounded too much like a black artist were sent back to the studio, and Houston’s face was ‘lightened’ by her record company for certain publicity shots.

Another film about Houston is in the works too and set for a Cannes release this May. This one is being directed by Kevin McDonald and produced by Altitude Films which also produced Amy, the controversial film that documented singer Amy Winehouse’s career and life. (It was a phenomenal hit with fans of the artist, although it also attracted some —  somewhat uncalled for and moralistic — criticism about it being ‘tragedy porn’ for its frank depiction of Winehouse’s drug addiction.) But with two new films on the horizon, both promising to do justice to Houston’s tumultuous career, roots, and personal life, it will be interesting to see which one pulls it off better.

Tags: Amy Winehouse, Documentaries, documentary, music, singers, Whitney Houston

Share!
Tweet

Maya Palit

About the author

Related Posts

Every Navratri Falguni Made Me Feel That Queer Is Ekdum Cool

This Docu Shows Addicts in Punjab Are Less Shahid Kapoor, More Uncles Next Door Being Saved by Women

‘I Don’t Give a Shit.’ The New Sunny Leone Documentary Tells Some Dangerous Truths About Bollywood

How the Lata Mangeshkar-Asha Bhosle Era of Bollywood Music Marginalised an Entire Range of Female Singers

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

You May Also Like

  • After Payal Tadvi’s Death Can We Allow Medical Education to Continue to Pretend to be Casteless? May 28, 2019
  • Jokha Alharthi’s Man Booker Win Reminds Us of Oman’s Recent Slave-owning Past May 24, 2019
  • In Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow is Sexy, Sterile and So Burnt By Marvel May 12, 2019
  • Let Us Admit the Sins of Atishi Marlena May 10, 2019
  • 20 Questions for SC Panel that Cleared the CJI of Sexual Harassment Charges May 9, 2019


Online Bachchi, Dil Ki Sachchi

Come on over for feminist journalism.

Politics. Pop Culture. Health. Sex. Law. Books. Work.

We write what we want to read.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Refund Policy
  • About
  • Contact Us

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Keep up with us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on E-mail

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Copyright © 2018 The Ladies Finger
Subscribe to our RSS/Atom feed here