The 56-year-old Canadian suffers from stiff person syndrome (RPS), an autoimmune disease with no known cure and which causes acute pain, difficulty moving and spasms.
“When life imposes a challenge on you, you have two choices: take it head on, or not,” explains Céline Dion, who assures that her decision to discuss her situation in the documentary is both “a great gift and a great responsibility.”
The singer, who has been rare in public since the announcement of her illness, also hopes that the film will encourage people suffering from the same syndrome.
“It’s difficult to be here but at the same time I’m very moved,” declared the star on the red carpet of the first broadcast of the documentary “I Am: Celine Dion”, in New York, on June 17, this times in French. “I feel like I still have a lot of support and a lot of love and I hope this documentary will help, because it helped me a lot, even if it’s a fight forever, one day at home. times. »
In December 2022, the singer with more than 250 million albums sold, for the first time, spoke about the illness which forced her to put her career on hold.
Available on Prime Video from June 25
Irene Taylor, the director of this documentary which will be available on Prime Video from June 25, explained to AFP that Celine Dion had set one condition for making this film: to be able to tell her own story, in her own words, rather than having people talking about her.
“For someone like me whose job is to tell stories, it was holy bread,” she said.
“She showed herself unvarnished, in a very authentic way. In her joys, as in her sorrows,” added the director.
The documentary offers archive images of this world-famous stage beast but also offers a window into his domestic life, with his children and his dogs.
It also recounts his illness, with a long passage showing the star in full crisis, completely immobile and unable to speak.
The film certainly presents her, marked by the loss of this voice which made her reputation, but it is rather her joy of life and her unfailing sense of humor which shine through on the screen, like her love for her family, her friends and music.
Celine Dion has always thought – as she says in the film – that she had to produce beautiful, shiny apples for her fans, who pay substantial sums and queue for hours to hear her sing.
On June 17, in New York, she explained that she was moved to tears by a fan’s recent message: “We are not here for the apples, but for the apple tree.”
