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Tag: Asif Kapadia

  • Amy Winehouse’s Father Slams Oscar-Winning Documentary About His Daughter

    Amy Winehouse’s father has bashed the Oscar-winning documentary directed by Asif Kapadia about the troubled singer, calling the film a a “negative, spiteful, misleading portrayal” of his daughter’s life.

    Amy was named Best Documentary Feature at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, but the late singer’s father was not too keen to celebrate.

    Mitch Winehouse and other family members have been critical of the documentary about Amy Winehouse since its inception. Mitch opened up on Twitter about his feelings on Asif Kapadia’s win following the award ceremony.

    “Always proud of my baby. Amy will not get an oscar though,” he wrote on Twitter. “Just Asif Kapadia. That is what this is all about … Asif. He’s fooled everybody.”

    “I am not changing my stance just because film won Oscar. It’s a negative, spiteful and misleading portrayal of Amy. We will fix this,” Winehouse continued.

    “I am not changing my stance just because film won Oscar. It’s a negative, spiteful and misleading portrayal of Amy. We will fix this.

    Amy Winehouse’s family vocalized their disapproval of the film even before it was released a statement, saying that Amy is “both misleading and contains some basic untruths.”

    “The narrative is formed by the testimony of a narrow sample of Amy’s associates,” the statement read, “many of whom had nothing to do with her in the last years of her life. Counter views expressed to the filmmakers did not make the final cut.”

    Last week, Mitch Winehouse hinted in a tweet that there are other, more realistic projects in the works about his daughter.

    “My friends. This film will not be the defining image of Amy,” he wrote on Feb. 21. “We are already working on other projects. I can’t say more at this stage.”

  • Amy Winehouse Film Wins Best Documentary at BAFTAs

    The Amy Winehouse film titled Amy won the award for best documentary at the BAFTAs this weekend. It was the second such win for director Asif Kapadia.

    Amy premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last summer. It features an intimate look at Amy Winehouse–her talent, her rise to fame, and her fatal addiction to drugs.

    As he accepted his award, Asif Kapadia said of the film, “It was all about Amy.”

    “We really fell in love with her when making the film. And our aim and mission was really to try and tell the truth about her,” he said of Winehouse. “To show the world what an amazing person she was, how intelligent, how witty, how beautiful she was, before it all kind of got out of control and went a bit crazy.”

    Several of Amy Winehouse’s friends took part in the film project. Amy’s father Mitch Winehouse, however, spoke out against the film once it was completed. He believed it portrayed him as being uncaring.

    With this BAFTA win, there is much speculation that the Amy Winehouse film is in line for an Oscar. Fans will only need to wait two weeks to find out.

    Were you an Amy Winehouse fan? Do you hope to see Amy if it hits a theater near you?

  • Yasiin Bey (Formerly Mos Def) Takes Part In Force-Feeding Demonstration

    Yasiin Bey, the rapper formerly known as Mos Def, is known for being one of the more gifted rap lyricists to ever pick up a microphone. Beyond his performing excellence, Bey is also an outspoken Muslim, and has openly disagreed with the United States government’s actions involving the Middle East. Now, the talented artist is using his position to perhaps shock people into speaking out, thanks to a eye-opening video that shows Bey being force-fed in the same manner prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are.

    The video is a four-minute demonstration, and it is the brainchild of the human right organization, Reprieve. The group partnered with award-winning director Asif Kapadia and Bey, and Reprieve’s goal with the video is clear:

    The video launches a campaign to rally support for Guantanamo prisoners who are on hunger-strike in protest against their detention without charge or trial. The campaign asks members of the public to undertake their own short-term hunger-strikes in solidarity with the prisoners, and donate the time to support them, while also raising the issue with their political representatives. The website consolidates the total number of hours of hunger-striking undertaken in this way.

    Prisoners in Guantanamo have been hunger-striking since February this year, with the total number involved now well over 100. The strike is in protest against their ongoing detention, despite the vast majority of prisoners never having been charged or tried, and over half the remaining population having even been cleared for release by the US Government. However, their peaceful protest has met with an increasingly aggressive response from camp authorities, including force-feeding and violent procedures known as ‘forcible cell extractions’ (FCEs).

    The video itself may be disturbing to some viewers:


    As for your reaction to the piece, well, that all depends on your disposition towards the entire quagmire. If you’re one of the ones who view the prisoners at Guantanamo as a threat to national security, you probably don’t have a problem with what’s going on. If, however, you’re opposed to these kinds of actions, Reprieve’s video will only further stoke your fire. In fact, the following YouTube comments encapsulate both sides quite clearly:

    That is just brutally disgusting but I wouldn’t mind if they did it several times a day to pieces of shit like Obomber, Cheney, Clinton (both), Bush (both), Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and about a hundred others.

    Gary orGibby

    And

    so wait a minute… Guantanamo….. Prison for terrorists/mass murderers. We aren’t talking Ghandi. This was so staged and fake it was ridiculous. Crying and screaming? Give me a break. Hollywood at it again.

    shakeyfly

    So? Which side of the fence are you on?

    Lead image courtesy