Asif Kapadia is an Academy Award-, four-time BAFTA Award-, Grammy Award- & European Film Award-winning director, writer and producer. His latest film, 2073, starring Samantha Morton, Naomi Ackie and Hector Hewer, is in theaters from December 27. Kapadia is best known for the acclaimed trilogy of documentaries Amy, Senna and Diego Maradona. His seminal film Senna was a huge hit around the world, winning BAFTAs for Best Documentary and Best Editing, the universally acclaimed Amy is the most successful theatrical British documentary of all time, winning Academy, BAFTA, European and Grammy awards. Kapadia’s debut feature, The Warrior, starring the late Irrfan Khan won two BAFTA film awards for Outstanding British Film of the Year and Special Achievement by a Director, Writer or Producer in their Debut Film as well as being nominated for Best Film Not in the English Language. Kapadia directed episodes of the hit series Mindhunter for David Fincher, the Series Directed and Exec Produced the critical hit music series 1971: The Year Music Changed Everything, and also co-directed and executive produced the mental health series The Me You Can’t See.
The paradox of being a filmmaker is that I sometimes go long stretches of time without watching a lot of movies. I am one of those people who has my head down during the year, and this year I have been working like crazy. Recently, I’ve been to a bunch of festivals with my new film, 2073, and normally I would have time to watch lots of other movies, but when I went to Venice, I don’t think I saw a single film.
No Other Land is the film I have seen recently that I think probably has the most to say about what is going on at the moment, and also the difficulties of making films. (In a way, it also has a crossover with the themes of my film, 2073, and the journey of the filmmakers, the journey of the subjects of the film, the power of the movie.)
It’s made by two filmmakers, one Palestinian, one Israeli, two journalists who came together to make a film about the West Bank, maybe two or three years ago. It predates everything that’s been happening in the last year. but it’s a very powerful piece of filmmaking. I would say that film has been quite an important part of what’s going on within the world of documentary right now. It had its world premiere in Berlin and it’s been winning a lot of awards, but because of what’s been happening around the world, it’s really struggled to get distribution. And it’s really hard for the filmmakers to travel because of what’s happening to them at home.
I think No Other Land is really powerful, and I think it’s also a very interesting film in terms of where the hell we are right now in the world and the challenges facing artists trying to tell these kinds of stories. People in the industry will say, Great film, but we’re not going to distribute it or We’re not going to show it.
I would say No Other Land is the most important film that I have seen recently, and it’s also a little taster of where we are and what’s to come. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of really strong films that are not getting distribution anymore. Streamers don’t buy them. And I think there’s a political aspect to it. This is an industry where a few huge companies decide what does or doesn’t get seen, and if they don’t pick a film because they don’t want to politically get involved in certain conversations, then it has to go an independent route, which is bit by bit being eroded and destroyed. People are going to have to reinvent the industry, because there’s going to be too many films, particularly in the documentary world, that are never going to get seen unless someone finds a new system to release them.
I want cinema to survive. And in order for cinema to survive, we need independent companies that want to protect that. Because when you have just a few people making decisions, they will decide what works best for their business model. Their business model generally means not wanting to piss off any political leaders around the world, so there will be lots of political films which will never get made, seen, distributed or released. We’re being told, “We love politics, we love really powerful stuff. But not that – you can’t talk about that. We won’t show that.” And I think that is a really dangerous place.
In 2073, we talk about this period of change from the way we used to live to a very authoritarian rule, and the bit in between is the event, the change. We’re in that event right now and it’s happening in cinema and in all sorts of art and culture, where there are faceless boards who decide what can and cannot be shown, which artists are allowed to speak, which ones should win an award or not win an award. These are dangerous times.
