Doc Corner: Asif Kapadia's 'Diego Maradona'

By Glenn Dunks

It is a case of diminishing returns for British director Asif Kapadia and the latest of his video tape collages, Diego Maradona. As one of the few dissenting voices to his Oscar-winning Amy – more on ethical grounds than technical – but an admirer of his earlier Senna, this portrait of the superstar Argentinian footballer never reaches the narrative heights of either. While Ayrton Senna and Amy Winehouse proved fascinating subjects in their own ways outside of whatever one thinks of Kapadia’s grave-robbing approach to their personal lives, the athletic hero at the center here is simply far less interesting and is not well served by this style of filmmaking.

As seen in Kapadia’s film, Diego Maradona’s life is something of a selfish downfall rather than a tragic response to fame or the inevitable culmination of a career of risk like his other subjects. By the time his career flamed out in a cloud of cocaine, extra-marital affairs and larrikin boozing, he had well and truly shown the world that he was one of – if not the – greatest footballer to ever live (I personally wouldn’t know more than five players off of the top of my head, but even I had heard of his feats with a soccer ball). Yet despite the dramatic highs and lows, his story as told on screen here is frustrating.

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Watching the Documentary Finalists: Part 1 - Other People's Lives

Glenn here looking at each of the 15 films on the Academy’s documentary finalists which, five of which will be shortlisted for nominations on January 14th

The documentary finalist list announced last month does us a small bit of good.  While it was sad to see such excellent feats of non-fiction filmmaking as The Pearl Button, In Jackson Heights, Sherpa and Stray Dog (to name just a few) removed from contention, reducing the astronomically long submission list of 124 down to a more manageable 15 titles does help us out dramatically in being able to not only get a grasp on the category for 2015, but also to give us a sample of what the Academy’s doc branch thought of the documentaries of any given year beyond the five eventual nominees. This year’s finalist list has its regular faces, but wasn't entirely devoid of surprises and many of the year’s best films found a spot despite some egregious choices thrown in. Each of the three posts in this series are divided into vague groups – (Pt 1) movies dedicated to other peoples’ lives, (Pt 2) movies about the world on the political edge, and (Pt 3) movies about confrontations.

Activists, actors and musicians after the jump...

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Amy, Marlon, Janis and Kurt's Documentaries Raise Ethical Questions

Glenn here. As the world of documentary filmmaking grows and grows, biography docs are among the most popular and easiest to sell. This pre-sold name-brand familiarity makes them more desirable to financiers, producers, directors, distributors, exhibitors, festivals, and ultimately audiences. It’s hardly surprising that of the Academy’s 124-strong long-list (to be narrowed to 15 any day now) at least 20 cover the life of a famous person in the public eye. And if you want to stretch the parameters to include institutions such as National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, Tower Records, The Black Panthers, The Bolshoi Theatre etc, the number balloons. They are also among the highest profile submissions, too, with names like Nina Simone, Evel Kenievel and Chris Farley simply standing out more than geo-politics, homophobia in the Middle East, or Cambodian rock and roll.

This sub-category of documentary were once considered more frivolous and less serious, but have recently begun to win Oscar attention with titles such as Exit through the Gift Shop, Man on Wire, and even Wim Wenders’ Pina and Salt of the Earth. As a result, ethical questions about this kind of documentary filmmaking are rising up. I know it doesn't sound sexy, but bear with me for Amy Winehouse, Marlon Brando, and other luminaries after the jump....

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