Showtime’s controversial Whitney Houston documentary, ‘Can I Be Me’ was a bombshell to say the least.
An in-depth look at “the real Whitney,” the film acted as an expose of sorts that documented the singer’s meteoric rise to the pinnacle of fame and catastrophic fall – underscored by a series of personal failures that included marital, financial, and health woes alongside hinting at an alleged secret lesbian love affair with Robyn Crawford.
Though a hit among critics for its grittiness and seemingly no-holds-barred approach to telling the pop icon’s life story, some fans thought it to be a bit too personal. Others, namely her longtime mentor and producer Clive Davis, thought it to be flat out ‘inaccurate.’
To paint a better, well-rounded picture of the fallen songbird, Davis is in heavy promotion of his own documentary – ‘Soundtrack of Our Lives.’ With it, he claims he will give the truest depiction of Houston “the person” to date – separate from her persona as a pop star – with hopes of giving fans the realest glimpse into her life they’ve had yet…
Directed by Chris Perkel, ‘Soundtrack’ will undoubtedly be Houston’s most widely promoted documentary to date. With Apple Music already snapping up global rights to the flick, reports have it plans for “a Times Square billboard [and] a 30-second national TV ad during the Emmys and Oscar-qualifying runs in L.A. and New York” are already in motion.
Based on Davis’ 2013 memoir of the same title, the film features interviews and appearances from Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and many more. Speaking on the film, Clive stated:
“For the first time you see a picture of her as an artist, as one of the greatest female singers in history, and yet you also see her downfall graphically exposed.”
Speaking on Whitney, Davis expounded:
“This was no girl from the hood. She was from an urban African American neighborhood, but she was a fashion model at 16 and was very much in that world, and she always was in control…”
When quizzed on his thoughts of Nick Broomfield‘s controversial Showtime documentary, ‘Can I Be Me,’ Clive didn’t exactly bite his tongue:
“No one thought Whitney was not being Whitney. She was an artist like no other before with no blinders,” he said. “So I think that that whole [film], with all due respect, is inaccurate.” However he added that many raw scenes were “painful.”
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