Whitney Houston

A trailer for the documentary “Can I Be Me” just debuted. Filmmaker Nick Broomfield spent two years digging through archives and talking with Whitney Houston’s friends and relatives. He says Houston did not expect that she would become famous. The woman who eventually became an American princess was once a waitress from a poor area of Newark that has never recovered from violent riots that occurred there in the 1960s.

As a child, Houston sang in a church gospel and soul choir in New Jersey with her mother. She met music producer Clive Davis in a night club, and became world-famous with “I will always love you”, the theme song of the 1992 film “The Bodyguard”, in which she co-starred with Kevin Costner. The song “The greatest love of all” is one of Houston's most popular songs. In her 25-year career, she was a top-selling artist, had devoted fans around the world, and received 6 Grammy awards among more than 400 other prizes. But her life was troubled by drugs, alcohol, and a chaotic marriage to singer Bobby Brown. She was found submerged in a hotel bathtub in 2012 when she was just 48.

The documentary film “Can I Be Me” delivers previously unreleased interviews, performances, and other taped material. It will be broadcast on Showtime on August 26.