Recently, the topic of drugs usage has been brought up in class. One of the homework assignments was to watch the documentary “Through a Blue Lens”, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (IMDb). The documentary was released in 2003 and it centers around the area of Downtown East Side, DES, in Vancouver (IMDb). The documentary focuses on the habitats of DES, most who happen to be drug addicts, and their relationship with the local police force (IMDb). The film itself is heavy to watch in its entirety in the sense that it includes footage of one of the drug users dying from an overdose, soon to be relieved back to life. While in conversation with my classmates, I noticed that the students from Vancouver had been showed the film in school as an approach to display the the difficulties of DES.

Shortly after talking about the documentary, the class briefly touched on how the media tends to report the deaths of celebrities, particularly if a celebrity passed away from a drug overdose. The celebrities who were mentioned in class were Cory Monteith, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Winehouse and Heath Ledger. Beyond the classroom discussion, I caught myself thinking about Amy Winehouse and her life in the spotlight. I was about nine years old when her hit song Back to Black was released and while I didn’t fully understand Winehouse’s music, I do recall listening and singing along to her songs.

In July 2015, director Asif Kapadia produced a documentary about Amy Winehouse, titled Amy, which tells of the narrative of her life before fame, up until Winehouse passes away. The documentary received overwhelming positive feedback, as the film got a rating of ninety-six on film review website Rotten Tomatoes. Moreover, the film is such a success that it is reported to have “become [the] highest grossing British documentary of all time” (Dailymail).

The way how Winehouse was treated before and after her death in the eyes of the public is unparalleled. As Winehouse was battling against substance abuse and mental health concerns, public figures such as Jay Leno and Graham Norton made jokes at Winehouse’s expense (Theguardian). It wasn’t only talk show hosts who poked fun at Winehouse as news publications like The Daily Mail published stories with headlines of “Amy leaves the Wine-House emptyhanded” and “Wild Winehouse…” for all to read. However, a shift in the media’s behavior is manifest after Winehouse’s death. At a contrast to the headlines previously stated, magazines like Rolling Stone and NME titled their articles “Amy Winehouse’s Death: A Troubled Star Gone Too Soon” and “A Most Modern Tragedy: Why We’re All to Blame for The Death of Amy Winehouse” respectively.

It seems as if when an individual is going through a troubling period, a majority of people, especially those who don’t know said individual personally, take a step back and make rush assumptions. While it may be easy to judge a book by its cover, that doesn’t necessarily mean people should. Although the world we live in is not perfect, perhaps we should not be so quick to dismiss nor judge people who live in poverty, people who struggle with drug abuse or people who live with mental illnesses. The cliché ‘put yourself in someone’s shoes” may be overused, the phrase does ring some truth as it evidently seen in the case of Amy Winehouse. As spectators, we will never fully understand the hardship Winehouse dealt with.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/05/amy-winehouse-documentary-asif-kapadia-review

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0226525/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3189601/Amy-Winehouse-film-highest-grossing-British-documentary-time-raking-3million.html