FILM COLUMN: ‘SENNA’
Ayrton Senna Documentary is Helmed by an Indian American Director
The following is not a typo, dear readers. Take note: Asif Kapadia’s Senna, which won the Audience Choice Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, is the South Asian documentary film of 2011, even though the film itself if about the remarkable Ayrton Senna and the life and times of his amazing though tragically short-lived racing career. For those of you who are not South Asian, do not worry -- this article is for you too. However, this being an opinion ediorial, the slant here is adjusted for South Asian readers specifically.
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The South Asian press has famously and traditionally gushed over its famous celebrity sons and daughters, directors, music producers and the like, which means that we are fully aware of the successes on a global scale of Bollywood mainstream films.
In the world of independent cinema, and even mainstream cinema for global distribution, the landscape is more diverse and fierce, and it's usually in this arena where South Asian media doesn’t tread, especially when it comes to promotion of films that require press and marketing. The filmmakers of South Asian origin probably require ten times more promotion, attention, and exposure than even the lowest-earning Bollywood films and filmmakers.
Asif Kapadia is one such man. His debut film, The Warrior, which stormed onto the scene in 2001 and earned BAFTA nominations for Best Actor and Best Film, pitted against box office darling Bend It Like Beckham. The Warrior won both awards and thrusted Irfhan Khan onto the international cinema scene. However, for all the accolades across the pond with the British press and the Hollywood foreign press, such accolades eluded Kapadia from South Asian publication circles.
The monumental achievement, however, put Kapadia on the map and on the scene, and he has been diligently working on amazing cinema ever since.
So when this author heard about Senna -- a documentary film about the most famous racecar driver in Formula 1 racing over the past two decades -- it wasn’t just the documentary that interested me -- it was the fact that the uber-talented Kapadia was back behind the camera again.
The triple World Champion in Formula 1 racing could not have been served greater justice then to be given into the hands of writer Manish Pandey and director Asif Kapadia.
Ironically, I noticed a very similar occurrence happening this year. Senna was already gaining momentum upon its inclusion at the Sundance Film Festival, prior to its first screening. When it was all said and done, the film, much like Kapadia’s The Warrior, nabbed the top prize at Sundance Film Festival.
Building on this momentum, the small documentary has been lauded by every major publication and film critic in the country, all, ironically, without backing of the South Asian media. Which begs the question once again: where is the support?
In this writer’s humble opinion, a general and often-heard complaint is that there just are not enough great films being made by South Asians or South Asian content, and yet when they are, like Kapadia’s Senna, they are largely being ignored by the media, which should be supportive of such great content.
The real irony about Senna is that it’s a documentary film which quickly acquired theatrical distribution and promptly shattered box office records in the United Kingdom, earning more than £375,000 in its opening weekend alone!
Now firmly entrenched in theatrical release across the United States, Senna has now gone on to gross over $8 million worldwide -- not bad for a film about one of the most beloved racecar drivers the sport and the world has ever known, wrapped into a film which delivers beyond expectation.
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And what is just so special about this film? I have to believe it’s the execution and the decision by writer Manish Pandey and director Kapadia to create this film as a narrative, even though the only footage available to them is past recorded footage. Usually, when it comes to documentaries, they are laced with archival (at times out of context) footage and interviews with people associated with the topic, person (if biopic), or subject matter -- the idea being to provide different “perspectives” on the event or subject with different points of view.
Pandey and Kapadia literally throw out the rule book here and instead go for capturing the essence of putting you, the audience, in the place of Senna, whether its from his life and choices or directly in the driver’s seat flying around the race track at 200-plus miles an hour. This is not a feat to be achieved very easily, if at all! Yet this dynamic duo does it so masterfully that by the end of the film, you almost forget you have watched a documentary.
This is truly one of those films, whether you are South Asian or not (though specifically if you are), you cannot miss. Once you see it, you will most probably say to yourself, "How come I never heard of this director before?"
Alas, the great mystery and conundrum of South Asian media, but hopefully, if this little article helps give you the nudge, then you will be slightly more receptive to seeing great content by South Asians.
Perhaps this is also the interesting paradox as well -- the film is so good that it means that the origin and nationality of the filmmakers actually become irrelevant. Call me crazy, but this is the ultimate praise any film can receive!
Once we understand that simple truth, the way we South Asians watch content may change now, moving forward.
Producers' Distribution Agency's 'Senna' is now playing in theaters.
