Inside the Making of the Celine Dion Documentary

After a three-decade-plus run in the pop spotlight, topping global music charts and shattering attendance records, Celine Dion certainly had it all, on the most epic scale imaginable. Until one day, she didn’t.

Whether or not you’ve been an admirer of the powerhouse French-Canadian vocalist, Amazon Prime’s often achingly intimate and bracingly intense documentary I Am: Celine Dion delivers a portrait of the icon that can’t help but inspire both empathy and respect. The film chronicles Dion’s ongoing battle with stiff-person syndrome, which has drastically impacted her ability to perform.

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“There are a lot of relatable moments with Celine even though you may have very little in common with her,” the film’s director Irene Taylor tells AARP, noting that despite all the singer’s soaring accomplishments and the lavish luxuries they reaped, the great common leveler of a debilitating health struggle brings her down to earth in the most human of ways.

Bucking documentary convention, there are no talking-head sequences featuring friends, colleagues or experts offering their own insights. Much like the performances of her heyday, Dion holds the spotlight from start to finish. It’s Celine’s show, full stop.

Taylor says that Dion herself proposed the notion of telling her own story, unfettered by outside perspectives. “She had asked me if a film like that is possible, and I assured her ‘It’s absolutely possible, but that means you have to work a little harder because you have to be available more.’ She agreed. And there is a will in her way.”

“She let me know from day one of filming that she was going to be very open,” adds Taylor. “She was sick and tired of being sick and tired, and she was ready to talk about that and come to terms with how she might move forward.”

The film illustrates both the highs and lows of Dion’s life, liberally juxtaposing numerous archival clips from throughout her life including images of her beloved manager-husband René Angélil, who died in 2016, alongside more recent footage chronicling her current everyday experiences. She appears startlingly deglamorized, devoutly earnest and, refreshingly, far funnier than she’s ever come across before.