Megastar “an open book” on the subject of health in “I Am: Celine Dion”

In a scene from the documentary “I Am: Celine Dion,” Celine Dion recalls her childhood. (Photo courtesy of Prime Video)

With “I Am: Celine Dion,” the superstar from Montreal dramatically reveals why she no longer performs and her hope that her long-concealed health problems can perhaps be treated.

Their physical ailment – ​​stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder – often resulted in paralysis and terrible pain.

Dion, 56, confided her story to Irene Taylor, an award-winning documentary filmmaker (“Beware the Slenderman”).

“To be honest, I had significant reservations,” Taylor admitted in a Zoom interview. “I pretty much got over that in the first hour of my conversation with her. She was very open from the beginning. She was also very friendly.”

“I thought we could talk about anything because Celine knew she was ready to talk very openly about something she had kept hidden for 17 years.

“She always called herself an ‘open book,’ but in reality she was a very closed book about this really important thing that was happening to her. The pandemic gave her a good excuse to pause and try to get to the bottom of what was going on in her body.”

Taylor had full access to Dion’s archive: costumes, shoes, jewelry, concert videos, diaries. “There were 600 hours of private footage, concert footage that had never been seen before. Who knew Celine played ‘River Deep, Mountain High’?”

The moment that will inevitably be talked about most is the harrowing, unforgiving close-up view of Dion suffering a sudden seizure, making us acutely aware of just how terrible this disease is and how much her life is at stake.

As Dion is turned over with glassy eyes and given a nasal injection, the paramedic asks, “Should we turn off the cameras?”

“I was next to her in the room the whole time, two feet from her head because I was holding the microphone.

“You called it shocking. I would call it horrifying. Terrifying. It was frightening. I was very worried, but as a filmmaker I knew what to do – keep filming.

“I know that Celine is only semi-conscious when she has these seizures. It was very, very unlikely that Celine would have such a severe seizure while our camera was rolling. And that’s why we never prepared for it, we never even talked about it.

“I know it’s very hard to watch,” Taylor admitted, “but as a filmmaker who has been doing this for 25 years, I’m a believer in documentary film. I believe that by looking at authentic, real-life scenarios in the lives of my characters, we develop compassion and understanding for one another.

“I certainly don’t think suffering is crazy. It would have been crazy if I had shown the whole episode, which was about ten times longer than what appears in the film.”

“I Am: Celine Dion” will stream worldwide on Prime Video on June 25