Oscar-winning director Kevin MacDonald is known for films like The Last King of Scotland, but he also makes documentaries.

His latest documentary is Whitney, about the life and career of the late singer Whitney Houston, which will be released in Irish cinemas on 6 July.

There have been previous documentaries about Houston, but this is the first to be officially supported by her estate. It features interviews with those who knew her best, and MacDonald was able to get access to footage going back to the singer's childhood.

He says he wasn't a fan of Whitney when he was approached by producers to make the documentary, and was initially skeptical because he thought there wasn't much to be said about her that hadn't already been said.

However, he was persuaded to make it when her agent, Nicole David, revealed that she never truly understood Whitney and wanted to learn "what made her tick."

Whitney Houston's music and talent has tended to be overshadowed by her well documented struggles with drug addiction, and Kevin says, "Her story is the great tragedy of our time."

"She had one of the great voices of the twentieth century but isn't really given the credit for that."

Some of the people around Whitney appear to have been negative influences in her life, and Kevin says they deal very differently with what happened to her.

"Everybody around her feels guilty, and the way they deal with that guilt varies enormously. Some of them are in denial whereas others are full of regret and tortured by it."

"It's a sad story, but the aim is to make you feel compassion for this woman who people are maybe quite dismissive of and don't take terribly seriously as an artist."

To catch the full chat press the play button on the image on the top of the screen