Amy is one of the most painful documentaries ever made, because it is entirely assembled from footage of a person who is still becoming themselves, still discovering what they are capable of, and you know the entire time that it is going to end in 2011, in a room in Camden Town, at 27 years old.

Asif Kapadia assembles his documentary from personal footage, interviews recorded specifically for the film, and concert recordings. What emerges is a portrait of extraordinary talent accompanied by a devastating portrayal of how that talent was handled by the people around her.

Amy’s voice was genuinely remarkable. The live performances in the film, stripped of production, make clear what was lost. The footage of her at the piano at eighteen, writing songs with a lyrical specificity beyond her years, is heartbreaking in retrospect.

Amy won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It is essential viewing.