Five years after the death of music legend Whitney Houston, a new documentary wants to put the spotlight back on her one final time.
The film Whitney: Can I Be Me promises to re-examine Houston’s life and frame her as the iconic figure she was to her friends, family and fans, rather than a tragic one put forward by the media.
“She was such a massive influence on people’s lives,” filmmaker Nick Broomfield told Newsweek.
"I think a lot of people were cruel to her toward the end of her life, so it seemed like a good opportunity to look at her life again and celebrate what was so amazing. And maybe look at the harshness with which she was treated at the end."
Many will recall Houston died at 48, found semi-submerged in her bathtub after drowning with a toxic mix of prescription drugs and cocaine in her system.
But those closest to her certainly don't wish to remember her that way.
"There will always only be one Whitney Houston and all you can say is 'drug addict'? Come on. Please," a voice-over opens the trailer for the film, which you can watch above.
It is assumedly a snippet from one of the many first-hand interviews with those closest to the singer that are blended with archival footage from her 1999 tour in the film.
Broomfield said he wanted to focus on the toll that fame took on a supremely talented young woman who was thrust into the life of a pop star after growing up poor in New Jersey.
“She was the way out for lots of people—her family, her friends; she had this enormous entourage of 50-plus people that she supported all her life,” Broomfield said.
“She was paying for their houses, schools, everything.”
The film, which takes its name from a question oft-repeated by Houston herself - Can I be me? - premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April to high praise.
It features an interview in which she admits, "success doesn't change you, fame does."
And as one commentator is heard agreeing in the trailer, "The longer she stayed in it the harder it was to get out."
The film will premiere on American TV Network Showtime on August 26.