Asif kapadia biography of michael
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The Reveal
Biographical documentaries are a natural for the streaming era, when you can browse through a subscription service and click on whatever public figure you want to learn more about. It’s like the adult version of the popular “Who Was?” books for children, that paperback series with the boardwalk-style caricatures on the cover. In the words of Kendall Roy on Succession, they are “high-calorie info snacks.” Within the past month or two alone, four acclaimed new bio-docs have been released, three of them straight to streaming services—Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (Hulu), Judy Blume Forever (Prime Video), and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (Apple TV+ on Friday)—and another, Little Richard: I Am Everything, that made its way to rental outlets only a couple of weeks after debuting in theaters.
I watched all four of them this week and they all pass the most basic test: If you’re interested in learning more about Brooke Shields, Judy Blume, Michael J. Fox, and Lit
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Oscar-Winner Asif Kapadia Reveals Filmmaking Tricks He Learned From Making Commercials — Cannes Lions
Oscar-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia has revealed that he uses the skillset he previously perfected making commercials to get his feature-length projects across the line.
Kapadia, who made his name in the film world with a trilogy of biography documentaries Senna (2010), the Oscar-winning Amy (2015), and Diego Maradona (2019), was speaking at Cannes Lions, when he explained his commercial mindset:
“The work I’ve done in commercials has helped me make the films I make. Traditionally with a movie or drama, you write a script, spend years developing it, but because of the number of pitches you have to do when you meet people [making commercials], or you have a script and you have to visualize it, cut a really interesting deck or a sizzle reel, all of those tricks I learned while doing the odd commercial, I bring into movies.
“Whenever I make a film
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Mike Leigh, Asif Kapadia & Michael Winterbottom on Gatekeepers of Independent Cinema – BFI London Film Festival
Leading British independent filmmakers expressed some frank views on gatekeepers acting as a barrier to independent cinema at a BFI London Film Festival panel discussion on Tuesday.
The panel consisted of Palme d’Or winner Mike Leigh (“Secrets & Lies”), Oscar winner Asif Kapadia (“Amy”) and Golden Bear winner Michael Winterbottom (“In This World”). The discussion used Winterbottom’s recently published book “Dark Matter: Independent Filmmaking in the 21st Century” as a starting point. The discussion was moderated by former London spelfilm Festival artistic director Sandra Hebron.
Leigh, who debuted in 1971 with “Bleak Moments,” has a unique approach to getting funded in that, except for his films with historical subject matter like “Topsy Turvy,” “Mr. Turner” and “Peterloo,” he does not reveal what his films are about. The reason for this process, he says, is tha