Documentary director Nick Broomfield has an impressive track record, and his music documentaries are among his best work. His previous output includes the controversial films Biggie & Tupac and Kurt & Courtney.

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Now Broomfield is turning his attention to the life of Whitney Houston, co-directing Whitney – Can I Be Me.

The film immediately challenges preconceived notions of who the late singer was, as a series of interviews with those closest to the singer separate myth and reality.

The film has a mountain of footage filmed during Houston’s 1999 world tour that’s never previously been seen before, and combined with archival footage from Houston’s childhood and early public performances, the storytellers weave an engrossing presentation.

Charting Houston’s early days as a teenager in New Jersey, to her breakout debut album that smashed records and won stacks of awards, the film is a revealing excursion into the singer’s career, relationships and values.

The record company reportedly worked hard to market the singer to a wide audience, especially a white audience. Kenneth Reynolds, who worked with the singer when her career began at Arista records, recalled “Her music was deliberately pop, anything that was ‘too black’ sounding was sent back to the studio”.

Reynolds said the clear instruction was that Houston was to be moulded to appeal to lovers of Joni Mitchell and Barbra Streisand, rather than listeners of George Clinton and Funkadelic. As time went on, black audiences began to react negatively to the singer, something which those closest to her, say affected her psyche for years.

The film also discusses the intense speculation about Houston’s sexuality that arose in the early 1990s. From the beginning of her career Houston’s childhood friend Robyn Crawford was at her side, and some of those closest to the singer have suggested that the friends were in a relationship, and that pressures from Houston’s religious family took their toll.  

Highlighting racial discrimination and homophobia, the film explores if these were the seeds of Houston’s falling star and fading talents.

The film rejects the assumption that Houston’s descent to a life filled with domestic violence, drug use and professional disasters began when she married R&B singer Bobby Brown, as confidants reveal that the couple didn’t really come from different worlds, but were in reality had a lot in common.

The second portion of this film covers the plethora of missed performances, rumoured drug overdoses and erratic behaviour that filled the singer’s final years. Given the revelations and insights shared in the first part of the movie, the journey into darkness is even more heartbreaking.

Unlike his other work director Broomfield does not appear in the film, it’s not an investigative film, rather the story unfolds before us like a great tragedy.

Whitney: Can I Be Me is screening exclusively at Cinema Paradiso from 15-21 June.

Graeme Watson