On Sunday, February 28, the Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles may see a first: a filmmaker of Indian origin could go up the stage to receive the award for the best documentary. British-born Asif Kapadia’s explosive film on Amy Winehouse, Amy , has already made box office history, earning $22 million worldwide ($8 million of which is from the U.S. market alone). In a year packed with several well-made and critically appreciated documentaries, Amy is being considered the front runner for the Oscar. Kapadia is now all set to make his next documentary film on Diego Maradona.
Amy , which is about the short, troubled life of the Grammy award-winning singer has already won numerous accolades. Its success at the box office is a testament to the fact that documentaries do not have to be dull and boring. In fact, audiences can be easily drawn into watching engaging, informative and entertaining real-life, non-fiction stories. Kapadia, who started his career with one of the early Irrfan Khan films, The Warrior (2001), also made the acclaimed documentary Senna (2010) on the racing career of the Brazilian Formula One driver, Ayrton Senna. But that BAFTA winner failed to get the Oscar nod. That could change, especially since the story of Amy Winehouse has touched many more people.
A popular subject matter for documentaries is often the troubled lives of celebrities, as it tends to draw in audiences. Last year saw quite a few films dealing with that theme. Marlon Brando is considered by many to be the best American actor of all times, but his personal life was messy. This can make for a compelling narrative. Brando, while suffering, performed in some of the greatest films of the last century — A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), The Godfather (1972) and Last Tango in Paris (1972). But in Listen To Me Marlon (2015), British director Stevan Riley went further than just make a biographical documentary on Brando. Riley used hundreds of hours of audiotapes that Brando recorded, and juxtaposes those with video footage. Brando died in 2004, but as we watch the compelling Listen To Me Marlon , we get the sense that the actor is sitting in some recording studio at this moment, narrating his life story — the good, the bad and the ugly.
Another celebrity who impacted our lives was the enigmatic singer, Nina Simone. Although Simone was an American performer with a deep sonorous voice, she spent a substantial part of her adult life and career in France. Her music legacy ranges from songs like ‘Sinner Man’ and ‘I Put a Spell on You’ to ‘Four Women’. What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015), a Netflix-produced documentary, goes beyond Simone’s singing career and random outbursts while she was on stage. Liz Garbus’s documentary also explores Simone’s very visible presence in the American civil rights movement (a chapter also covered in the Brando documentary). Watching the film, fans of Simone will learn so much more about the artist.
Another celebrity was the subject of a documentary that made the rounds in film festivals in 2015. But this time, the celebrity turned the camera on herself and her life. And the results were quite different. Laurie Anderson, a New York City-based iconoclastic musician with a wide smile and funky, short, spiked hair, made a fascinating experimental documentary, Heart of a Dog , in which she spent substantial time talking about the loss of her piano-playing and finger-painting dog, Lolabelle. Hard to believe, but she actually shot footage of her dog on the piano over many years.
Heart of a Dog is a heart-warming film, often very funny but also quite sad. And in talking about the death of Lolabelle, Anderson also touches upon what must be surely a greater loss to her — the death of her singer/musician-husband Lou Reed. It is a deeply personal film with many layers. And while the narrative has an experimental tone to it, like the films on Brando, Winehouse and Simone, Heart of a Dog speaks to the audiences. Even those who may not know much about Anderson’s life will connect with the film.
(Aseem Chhabra is a freelance writer.)
