Culture

A documentary following Celine Dion‘s battle with debilitating Stiff Person Syndrome will be the subject of an upcoming film entitled I Am: Celine Dion.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon MGM has secured the worldwide rights to the chronicle of Dion’s now-two-year struggle with Moersch-Woltman Syndrome, which the singer’s sister, Claudette Dion, recently revealed has left the singer with “no control of her muscles.”

A synopsis of the documentary about the 55-year-old singer describes how it will follow her from “visiting her couture touring wardrobe and personal effects to spending time in the recording studio,” pulling back the curtain on the singer’s rarely-seen private life. “An emotional, energetic, and poetic love letter to music, I Am: Celine Dion captures more than a year of filming as the legendary singer navigates her journey toward living an open and authentic life amidst illness.” 

Dion revealed in Dec. 2022 that she’d been diagnosed with the rare neurological disorder marked by uncontrolled and severe spasms that had caused difficulty walking and properly using her famously powerful vocal cords. She subsequently cancelled planned 2022 tour dates.

In her December update, her sister Claudette said that the hope is that Celine will be able to return to the stage, but that it is currently unclear how, or when, that might happen. “The vocal cords are muscles, but so is the heart,” said Claudette. “That’s what gets to me. Because it’s one in a million case, scientists don’t have that much research on the topic, because it didn’t affect that many people.”

In initially announcing her diagnosis in an Instagram video, Dion said that the previous few years had been, “such a challenge for me, the journey from discovering my condition to learning how to live with and manage it, but not to let it define me. As the road to resuming my performing career continues, I have realized how much I have missed it, of being able to see my fans. During this absence, I decided I wanted to document this part of my life, to try to raise awareness of this little-known condition, to help others who share this diagnosis.”

The film will stream on Prime Video, with no release date announced at press time.