Finally in Canada, M.I.A. talks new doc
Controversial musician outspoken at Hot Docs about Netflix, borders
M.I.A. is a controversy machine.
The British-Sri Lankan musician and artist born as Matangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, was in town on Wednesday evening at Hot Docs for the Canadian premiere of Matangi/Ma
ya/M.I.A., the long-gestating documentary about her life, and she could not help saying something provocative about one of the biggest players in the entertainment world. It happened following the screening, at a question-and-answer session moderated by film critic Radheyan Simonpillai, with the film’s director, Steve Loveridge, video-conferencing in from London.
After the film provided the audience with illuminating behind-the-scenes context to many of the headline-making moments in the pop star’s life — much of it made of home movies and footage shot by M.I.A. herself, who at one point was an aspiring documentary filmmaker before breaking out as a musician — here’s what she said about why the film won’t be on Netflix, at least for now.
“Even our film, when Steve wanted to sell it to Netflix, they said ‘no one’s going to watch this film because Asians don’t watch films,’ they’re not going to pay for it.”
“I wouldn’t use those exact words, but yeah,” interjected Loveridge. “It wasn’t exactly what they said, just to be clear.”
“He told me that’s what they said,” she responded. “I was paraphrasing,” he said. “Anyways, Steve said that Netflix said, ‘Asian people don’t watch films.’ ”
“I see the headlines tomorrow,” Simonpillai said.
(Netflix declined to comment on the record.) That conversation came in a response to an audience question about whether M.I.A. thought things have gotten better for female artists of colour. Her full reply was long and thoughtful; after oohing at the initial statement, the audience laughed throughout.
Even the fact of M.I.A.’s visit to Canada did not come without incident, as she was initially was not allowed to board a flight to Canada from London, despite already appearing in New York and Utah to promote screenings over the past few months. She instead flew to New York and then made her way to Buffalo, where she made her case at the border and eventually was allowed to cross.
“I don’t like that in 2018, America’s like ‘Come in.’ Canada’s like. ‘No you can’t!’ ,” she said. Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. is about one of the most interesting pop musicians in the world, and her incredible back story. Her father was one of the founders of the Tamil resistance movement in Sri Lanka, and the film follows her life as a refugee in Britain, through her artistic journey which has also led to activism on the behalf of her ancestral home while making hits like 2008’s “Paper Planes” along the way.
Director Loveridge has been a friend since the pair were in art school together, and his creation helps to provide context and show how her personal journey coalesced into her artistic vision. The pair clearly have a friendship forged over a lifetime, and the film’s biggest feat is how much it makes you like and understand her — but despite that, M.I.A. is still clearly uncomfortable with aspects of Loveridge’s editorial decisions. “He made what he wanted to make,” she said, and at another point, mentioned how if she had control, there would have been plenty of people that would not have made the final cut. Initially, M.I.A. thought Loveridge was going to edit together a tour documentary, but he kept asking her for more archival footage. Even at the Toronto screening, there was some new footage in this edit that M.I.A. had not seen.
Loveridge says it just made sense to keep some distance between M.I.A. and the project.
“If I was making a film about anyone living, like a biographical documentary, I would have never let them in the edit suites. It’s not a personal issue that I have with Maya, I just think it’s inappropriate for someone to be hovering over the edit, going ‘don’t make me look bad,’ ,” said Loveridge. “I think it is par for the course for any documentary filmmaker.”
Considering that she’s made incredible funky music, M.I.A.’s initial reaction to seeing it is priceless: “I realize I’m not a very good dancer. In my head, I always thought I was amazing.”
Whatever its impact on her self-confidence, the film helped quash her fight with one of world’s biggest sports leagues. The doc sheds more light on the singer’s controversial Super Bowl appearance in 2012, where she performed with Madonna and gave the finger during the halftime show. The NFL attempted to sue her for over $16.6 million.
“Steve saved me. He’s like a superhero,” said M.I.A.
“I am allowed to say the NFL actually saw this little teaser trailer to the documentary when I had a big freakout with her management and label, way back in 2013,” Loveridge said. “I put up a little five-minute YouTube trailer to the documentary and the NFL saw that, and got so shaken by that — that it might turn out to be a big takedown just all around the Super Bowl — they actually backed down and dropped the lawsuit.”
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. has a few more screenings at Hot Docs, and the film is currently seeking distribution with hopes for a theatrical release sometime in the Fall.