WHITNEY
“When I was first approached about it, my immediate response was that I’m not really interested in Whitney Houston,” director
Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) says of this documentary profile of the pop diva, who died tragically at 48 in 2012. What convinced him was “the combination of thinking there’s this really interesting personal mystery, but also how this woman was a musical genius. She’s someone who has had such a big impact on culture but is not taken seriously.” Through interviews with friends and family members as well as rare archival footage, he creates a three-dimensional portrait of a deeply troubled soul. “The answers to the mysteries in your life usually lie in your childhood, your upbringing and your parents,” says Macdonald, who uncovered a history of abuse in Whitney’s early life. “That’s certainly what I felt with her.” [R]