A new and highly emotional trailer for Whitney: Can I Be Me, a documentary about the life of late pop icon Whitney Houston, was released today.
The documentary that is said to be an intimate portrait of Whitney leads into the trailer with a single voice saying: "There will always only be one Whitney Houston, and all you can say is 'drug addict'? Come on. Please."
Behind-the-scenes clips, performance footage and interview excerpts are woven together as people talk about the seven-time Grammy winner.
Various people who knew the late singer say things like, "Her favorite saying was 'Can I be me?" and "Her rise to fame just took the wind out of her." Another person said, "She never had this belief that she was this amazing person." Ultimately, "The longer she stayed in it, the harder it was to get out."
A past interview with Whitney herself reveals how she really felt. "Success doesn't change you," she said. "Fame does." Eventually, the trailer comes to a close with perhaps the most powerful line of all: "Whitney Houston died from a broken heart. She died from a broken heart."
The film showcases "raw" and "uncensored" footage from Whitney's rise and fall while exploring why "even though she had made millions of dollars, had more consecutive No. 1s than The Beatles and was recognized as having one of the greatest voices of all time, she still couldn't do what she wanted to do, either professionally or in her personal life."
Whitney: Can I Be Me, which first premiered and received high-remarks at the Tribeca Film Festival, is set to premiere Aug. 26 on Showtime.