Amy Winehouse documentary to be made by Senna director Asif Kapadia

The life and times of the singer Amy Winehouse is to form the subject of a new documentary by Asif Kapadia. The British film-maker won the Bafta documentary award for his previous picture, Senna, a portrait of the Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna, who was killed at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994. His Winehouse film looks set to provide another tale of surging triumph curtailed by tragedy.

Singer-songwriter Winehouse won five Grammy awards for her breakthrough 2006 album Back to Black. But her career was dogged by reports of substance abuse and mental health issues. She died from alcohol poisoning in July 2011 at the age of 27.

The as-yet-untitled documentary will be produced by James Gay-Rees, Kapadia's partner at the Playmaster Films production company, with a co-production credit for Universal Music. "Amy was a once-in-a-generation talent who captured everyone's attention," Kapadia and Gay-Rees said in a statement. "She wrote and sung from the heart and everyone fell under her spell. But tragically Amy seemed to fall apart under the relentless media attention, her troubled relationships, her global success and precarious lifestyle."

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