Asif Kapadia
Asif Kapadia
Asif Kapadiais a British filmmaker. He directed several award-winning films, including The Sheep Thief, winner of the 2nd Prize Cinéfondation for Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival, The Warrior, the BAFTA Award for Best British Film 2003 and Senna, winner of the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, the BAFTA Award for Best Editing and the World Cinema Audience Award Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2011 and Amywhich has become the highest grossing documentary of all time in the...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionDirector
fact filming stand time tv worked
I worked in TV for a short time and couldn't stand the fact that we'd always be filming someone talking, just giving information.
people
People have always been recording what's going on around them in one form or another.
appeal dramas dreams formula great human sports
I wanted to make a film that wouldn't just appeal to Formula One fans. That's what the great sports documentaries do - 'Hoop Dreams,' 'When We Were Kings' - they're human dramas first, sport second, if at all.
people
The thing people don't get about Indian films is that the songs are the story.
experience post production realised seemed
I never realised 'The Return' would take so long to make - it was a very tough 'political experience,' and the post production in L.A. seemed to go on forever.
knew loved work
I just loved films. I knew I wanted to work on film, not video.
above allow background believe drawn elements layer sort
My background is Indian, so I believe in a spiritual idea that there is another level, another layer or layers, if you will, above us. I believe that there are elements that allow things to be drawn together, a sort of energy.
class golden lucky martin master scorsese student ticket
While still a young student at film school, I was lucky enough to get a golden ticket to a Martin Scorsese master class at BAFTA in Piccadilly: fancy, but technically still 'the flicks'.
born far found life liked lived time weirdly
Weirdly enough, I live in London - was born there and have lived there all my life - but I hadn't made a film in London for a long time. I hadn't found the right subject. I liked going away, to some far flung place.
fully time
We were working on 'Senna' for a long time before we were fully financed, so we didn't actually have an editor for a while.
equipment films people
We were studying at Newport Film School, and I found that the only way for me to make films - because you need people and you need equipment - was that I had to be a student.
anyone car circles drove fan formula giant looked
Why make a movie about Ayrton Senna? Someone who drove around in circles at 200mph in a car that looked like a giant cigarette packet? Why would anyone who isn't already a fan of Formula 1 care?
below brick days directly filming four looking minutes realised seen spent viewpoint
We spent four days filming in a helicopter. I had never seen London from that viewpoint - you get a sense of how big it is and how easy it is to get lost. There was one day when we couldn't find Brick Lane: we spent 25 minutes looking and then realised it was directly below us.
means
To be teammates in Formula One actually means you are first rivals, not really mates.