THST 2500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Asif Kapadia, Jargon
23 Jan 2017
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Week 2 January 16-18
Discussion Of ‘Amy’ Documentary
By: Asif Kapadia
Was it powerful?
• Tragic arch of this artist burning out
• Throwing the lyrics on screen to show the deepness of the words/lyrics
Show specific songs after specific turning points in her life
▪ Really underscoring the deeply autobiographical nature of her songs, she
wasn’t trying to ‘hatch a hit’ she’s singing the truth, her truth
• Home videos adds more reality towards it
• Archival footage of home movies, showing an innocence, charisma (camera was
drawn to her) that is eventually tarnished/destroyed with the media’s chaotic
influence
Did it accomplish what it addressed?
• Capture the essence of Amy not just one perspective but several (the good the bad
and the ugly... the real truth)
• Voice overs of a range of people
• Role of the media
• Start your see just Amy → to the perception of what the media saw and that
manipulated her view of self
• It tackles lots of things about family, media, fame, addiction, but most
importantly, it captures the very heart of what she was about, which is an amazing
person and a true musical genius.
• “The burned out diva”
• Editing become very important and tedious within this auto-biography
▪ Bombardment of media documentation but a lot of self
documentation (inner circle)
• Interviews, pictures, old home movies, concert footage, studio recording
session footage (Tony Bennett), clips from news casts
• The arch of the film involves distancing for her from who she really is (sense
of isolation increased even though her fandom/paparazzi hounding her
showing how lost/burned out she was)
• The focus on her talent and how much of an old soul she was having such a
powerful jazz, blues influenced style, the collaboration with Tony Bennett
really showed even when she was plummeting how truly talented she was
and an important individual within the music industry due to her raw,
honest, talent
Was this a film you felt had a point of view? Was Amy father or the husband,
were they justified in claiming the film did a number on them?
• Felt a sense of guilt and blame, held up a mirror to their actions
• Dad micro managing her/ exploiting her (e.g. films her at her worst still), dad
not supporting her to go to Rehab
• Queen of decay- beautiful women self distrusting (article linked to this
movie)
• Media monster consuming her and spitting her back out
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