The director of a new film about Amy Winehouse says he wanted to show the "happy" side of the singer.

The documentary movie Amy is due to be released from July 3.

Director Asif Kapadia told the Independent that he wanted to change people's abiding perceptions of the Brit, who died in 2011 aged 27 from alcohol poisoning.

He said: "That final image of Amy being messed up and stumbling around, that’s so powerful and that’s all people remembered.

"So it was really a case of re-balancing the way people perceived her by showing the young, fun, happy, bright-eyed healthy girl that she used to be, who was just amazing. You think it would have been nice to have met her, she would have been fun to hang out with."

The film has come under criticism from Winehouse's family for being "misleading".

However, the director said: "We were just trying to be honest to Amy really, to show that she was in a confused situation and I think a lot of people got confused about her and the fame and the fact everybody wanted a piece of her.

"People that were anywhere near Amy were suddenly being interviewed and being on TV and it becomes quite exciting for people and that wasn’t necessarily great for her. And we had to show that, it would be remiss to not show it.”

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