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
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.
based films scripts time
I want to make my own films from my own scripts based on stories I want to tell, but they take time to put together.
fan films images several stories
I made several short films with very little dialogue. I'm still not a fan of talking heads. My stories are told with images as much as possible.
favourite films shot
I made three short films of my own which I wrote, produced, directed... you did everything in those days. My favourite one was something I shot on VHS... a little documentary.
audience films next remember sad whether
The big thing for me is to make films that you feel, whether you feel happy, whether you feel sad, whether you feel sick; it's to make the audience feel so that the next day they remember what they saw.
films massive questions subjects
The subjects have to come with questions for me. I don't make films where I'm a massive fan.
dimension films happy muslim spiritual tackle
My films often have a spiritual dimension which comes from my Muslim background, and I'm happy to tackle that in cinema.
films maybe subjects
I often make films about subjects I don't really know much about. Maybe it's laziness, but I don't go in there having done a tonne of research; the research happens while I'm making the film.
films
I like to make films where I learn along the way, like the audience.
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.
drivers driving formula hour manual miles per streets technology ultimate
There are no drivers like Formula One drivers. They are engineers, in a way. They are driving manual cars one-handed at 200 miles per hour around streets in Monaco. These cars use the ultimate in technology.
asked final given honorary martin meet mentioned scorsese tutors
Martin Scorsese was being given an honorary doctorate, and one of the tutors asked if there was a student film he particularly liked. He mentioned our film. There was a dinner after the final show just for the tutors, but I was smuggled in to meet Scorsese over dessert.
architect design graphic interested quite studied technical visual
I studied graphic design originally. I used to like drawing, and I was quite into technical drawing. I was always interested in the visual medium, but I thought I was going to be an architect or something like that, but it's quite a lonely job.
art designed director student victoria
My wife Victoria Harwood was art director on 'Far North,' and she had designed my student film, 'The Sheep Thief.'