October 5, 2018
How to Make a Documentary About a Subject You're Close To: Steve Loveridge on 'Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.'
A different, private side to a very public performer.
Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Steve Loveridge’s Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. is an archival documentary where some of the footage was shot and provided by the subject herself.
M.I.A., the popular rapper who hit peak popularity in 2008 with the hit single Paper Planes and has gone on to become a celebrated Grammy and Academy Award nominee, is the subject of Loveridge (a friend since college)’s documentary about the popular performer, and her own performative material provides the backbone for this moving feature. Her real name being Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, the documentary seeks to show both the private and public lives of Maya, as told both by herself and, as the film progresses, through the perceptive eyes of the media that seek to condemn and tame her. When she recieves negative pushback from the NFL about displaying the middle finger during a Super Bowl halftime performance, the true scope of her influence (and impact on those who will proceed her) is truly felt.
Source: NoFilmSchool