''Whitney'' is a 2018

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about the American singer and actress

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...

. The film was directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced by Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn and Lisa Erspamer. ''Whitney'' was screened out of competition at the world premiere as part of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2018 with a cinema release on 6 July 2018. The film was also released on

home media Home media refers to media used for recording, copying, delivery, and playback of various types of entertainment and information in the home. Forms of home media include: * Home video * Magnetic tape * Phonograph record A phonograph record ( ...

where it debuted at number one on the UK Official Music Video Chart.Official Music Video Chart
Top 50 , 4 November 2018 – 10 November 2018 The film received positive reviews from critics and audiences and grossed $4.7 million worldwide at the box office. In December 2018, ''Whitney'' was nominated at the

61st Grammy Awards The 61st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on February 10, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys hosted. During her opening monologue, Keys brought out Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez, and fo ...

for Best Music Film.

Production

Development

The concept of a documentary evolved when Lisa Erspamer worked as co-executive producer for the singer’s special two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2009. In 2015 Erspamer approached Houston's sister-in-law Pat Houston and Houston’s film agent Nicole David to discuss the idea. David then suggested Scottish film director Kevin Macdonald. Co-producer Simon Chinn recalls: “We raised the full budget in 10 days exclusively from theatrical pre-sales which is quite possibly a first for a documentary.”Whitney
(2018) - Edinburgh International Film Festival

Filming

In July 2016, Macdonald began filming the interviews of around 70 people. Important members that are interviewed were Ellen White, a family friend, Mary Jones, longtime

personal assistant A personal assistant, also referred to as personal aide (PA) or personal secretary (PS), is a job title describing a person who assists a specific person with their daily business or personal task,. it is a sub-specialty of secretarial duties ...

, Houston’s older brothers Michael and Gary and other members of the Houston family. Houston’s mother

Cissy Cissy, Cissie or Cissi may refer to : People * Cissy Chandler (died 1954), wife of American author Raymond Chandler * Cissie Caudeiron (1909–1968), Creole nationalist and folklorist * Cissi Elwin Frenkel (born 1965), Swedish journalist and te ...

was interviewed in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. More than 1,500 tapes of archival footage of varying quality were found including 250 masters, 2,000 stills and footage originally discovered on

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with Sam Dwyer as archive producer. Private footage was gathered from all over the world including Japan, the Netherlands and Los Angeles.One moment in time:
The making of Whitney By Stuart Kemp - 3 July 2018

Post-production

A substantial amount of the

editing Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, o ...

, including changing screen size, and frame rate was done at Molinare, a post-production company in London’s

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

Music

Composer Adam Wiltzie was in charge of the film's music and score. Some excerpt examples used in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...

for the film: *"

How Will I Know "How Will I Know" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her self-titled debut studio album. The song was released on November 22, 1985, by Arista Records as the album's third single. Originally written and composed by Geo ...

" performed by Whitney Houston *"Here I Am (Take Me)"

The Sweet Inspirations The Sweet Inspirations were an American R&B girl group mostly known for their work as backup singers on studio recordings for other R&B and rock artists. A founding member of the group was Dionne Warwick, who was later replaced by her aunt, Ciss ...

Chain of Fools "Chain of Fools" is a song written by Don Covay. Aretha Franklin first released the song as a single in 1967 and subsequently it appeared on many of her albums. It hit number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot Rhythm & Blues chart and number two on ...

" by Aretha Franklin *" Walk On By" Performed by Dionne Warwick *"When Love Slips Away" Performed by Dee Dee Warwick *" Theme from Valley of the Dolls" Performed by Whitney Houston *"When I First Saw You" Performed by Cissy Houston *" The Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston *" I Am Changing" by Whitney Houston *"

I Wanna Dance with Somebody "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her second studio album, ''Whitney (album), Whitney'' (1987). It was released as the lead single from the album on May 2, 1987, by Arista Reco ...

" & (Acappella) by Whitney Houston *" Home" by Whitney Houston *" So Emotional" by Whitney Houston *"This Day" by Whitney Houston *"Ain't It Funky Now" Performed by James Brown *"

I'm Your Baby Tonight ''I'm Your Baby Tonight'' is the third studio album by American singer Whitney Houston released on November 6, 1990, by Arista Records. The album has been certified quadruple platinum in the US by the RIAA. Background By 1989, Whitney Housto ...

" by Whitney Houston *"

I Have Nothing "I Have Nothing" is a song by American singer and actress Whitney Houston, released on February 20, 1993 as the third single from '' The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album'' (1992) by Arista Records. The song was written by David Foster and L ...

" by Whitney Houston *" I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston *" I Love the Lord" by Whitney Houston

Release

The film is a joint British-American venture produced by Lisa Erspamer Entertainment and Lightbox, with

Roadside Attractions Roadside Attractions is an American production company and film distributor based in Los Angeles, California, founded on July 27, 2000, by Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff, specializing largely in independent films. Lionsgate Lions Gate ...

, Miramax and

Altitude Film Distribution Altitude Film Distribution is a British film distribution company, part of the Altitude Film Entertainment group. The parent company was launched in 2012 by Optimum Releasing founder Will Clarke. Altitude Film Entertainment is vertically int ...

serving as distributors.Academy Award-Winner Kevin Macdonald To Direct Official Whitney Houston Documentary
- 28 April 2016WHITNEY
- Altitude It is also presented in association with Altitude Film Entertainment. ''Whitney'' was released in cinemas in the United States, United Kingdom and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 6 July 2018, by (UK) Altitude and (US) Roadside Attractions. It was released in Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

on 26 July 2018. The world premiere for the film was on 16 May 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival. Screenings also took place at the

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and

Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...

Marketing

The official

teaser trailer A teaser (or more specifically teaser trailer) is a mini- trailer and a form of teaser campaign advertising that focuses on film and television programming. It is a videography pre-release move or television show advertisement. Short in length, te ...

for the UK and Ireland was released by Altitude Films on 5 April 2018 on

with the full trailer released on 25 May 2018.

Home media

It was released in

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

by digital download on 2 October and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

on 16 October 2018. The DVD and Blu-ray releases include

audio commentary An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...

from producer Simon Chinn and director Kevin Macdonald, photo gallery and theatrical trailer. The film debuted at #1 on 4 November 2018, staying at that position for two weeks on the UK Official Music Video Chart, based on sales of DVDs and other physical formats.

Reception

Box office

''Whitney'' began its release on 6 July 2018. During its opening weekend in the United States and Canada it grossed $1.3 million from 452 theaters, finishing 11th at the box office. 65% of its audience was female, with 35% being between the age of 25-49. In the United Kingdom, the film opened on 6 July 2018 grossing £142,936 ($189,923) from 231 screens in its opening weekend, finishing twelfth at the box office.Whitney (2018)

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is ...

It grossed another £44,968 ($59,497) on 174 screens in its second weekend, a 68% decrease over the first week grossing a total of £323,532 ($428,066) through 10 days. Over 13 weeks it grossed a total of £459,725.

Critical response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: "''Whitney'' shifts from soaring highs to heartbreaking lows with palpable emotion and grace befitting its singular subject." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Terri White for ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' gave it four out of five, calling it: "A sobering, haunting but completely fresh look at Whitney's life and death that will reframe everything you think you know about the singer."Whitney Review
Empire online Owen Gleiberman of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote: "In ''Whitney,'' Macdonald lays out Houston's story—the light and the darkness—in a classically etched, kinetically edited way. He makes superb use of archival footage, tickles us with montages of her heyday (not just Houston but the whole era—the way her songs, in hindsight, tapped into a certain free-floating ’80s jubilance), and interviews her family members and associates. The film captures the quality that made Whitney Houston magical, but more than that it puts together the warring sides of her soul."

Awards and nominations

Charts

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney 2018 films 2018 documentary films American documentary films British documentary films Documentary films about African Americans Documentary films about women in music Documentary films about singers Films directed by Kevin Macdonald (director) Whitney Houston 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s British films