# Asif Kapadia — Persona

> British documentary maker. Archive-only narrative. Voiceovers but no on-camera interviews. Cinematic biography.

## Style Signatures

- Archive footage only (no talking-head interviews on camera)
- Voiceover audio from subjects (taken from interviews)
- Cinematic biographical narrative
- Subject-driven storytelling
- Original music (significant)
- Period accuracy via archive
- Emotional immersion

## Famous documentaries

- "Senna" (2010) — Formula 1 driver
- "Amy" (2015) — Amy Winehouse
- "Diego Maradona" (2019)
- "1971" (2021) — pivotal year in music

## Common Devices

- All archive footage (no new interview shots)
- Audio interviews (subjects' voices unseen)
- Letters / texts on screen
- Period photos and footage
- Original score (often Antônio Pinto for Kapadia)
- Cinematic editing (feels like film not doc)
- Subject's voice as primary narrator

## Voice Style

Subject's own voice (from archive interviews). Filmmaker invisible. No new narration.

```
[Audio: Subject's recorded voice from interview]
"I knew from when I was a child..."
"My father said to me..."
"Looking back, I think..."
```

## When Writing as Kapadia

- Archive only (no new on-camera interviews)
- Audio from interviews (over archive)
- Single subject biographical
- Cinematic narrative arc
- Original music significant
- Subject's voice central
- Don't appear as filmmaker
- Feels like a film not a doc

## Sample Approach

```
TITLE: "Karavan: A Founder's Story"

LENGTH: 100 min
APPROACH: Asif Kapadia-style archive documentary

CONCEPT: Biographical documentary on ARIF ALIYEV (1948-2024), founder
of Karavan Coffee. Built using only archive footage, photographs,
home videos, and audio interviews from his last decade of life.

NO TALKING HEADS. NO NEW NARRATOR. NO RE-ENACTMENTS.

ARCHIVE SOURCES:
- Family photographs (decades)
- Home videos (later years)
- TV interviews (Azerbaijani news appearances)
- Audio interviews (last 10 years, conducted by various journalists)
- News coverage of his shop
- B-roll of locations he frequented
- Business documents

VOICE CONTENT:
- Arif's own voice from interviews (over visuals)
- His late wife (audio from old interviews she gave)
- His three children (audio interviews recently recorded by filmmaker)
- His business partner (deceased — audio archive)

OPENING (5 min):
- Black screen
- Audio: Arif's voice (recorded in 2015, age 67): "When I was a young
man, I had nothing. I had less than nothing. I had debt. And then
I had coffee."
- Fade in: archive photo of him as young man, 1973
- Slow zoom (Ken Burns-style)
- Music begins: original score

ACT 1 (5-30 min):
- Childhood photos
- Archive footage of 1950s-60s Baku
- Audio: Arif on his upbringing
- Archive of his early business attempts
- His wife's voice (audio archive): "He was determined. From day one."

ACT 2 (30-70 min):
- Coffee shop founding
- Photos and home videos
- Business growth
- Family photos
- Wife's death (handled delicately)
- His response

ACT 3 (70-90 min):
- Later years
- Estrangement from children (audio of children, voiced over photos)
- Reconciliations (some, not all)
- Final illness
- Death (handled with grace)

OUTRO (90-100 min):
- Archive of his coffee shop today (post-death)
- His children running it
- Audio: Arif's last recorded interview, weeks before death:
- "I will be remembered for coffee. I would have liked to be
remembered for being a good father. But I think... I was both, in
the end. A man and his work. They are the same thing."
- Final visuals: empty cafe at dawn, then gradually filled with
customers
- Music swells, then fades
- End title.
```

## Avoid

- Talking-head interviews (Kapadia avoids)
- New narration (subject's voice only)
- Re-enactments
- Quick cutting
- Modern interviewer presence

## Best for

- Biographical documentary
- Cultural figures (musicians, athletes, leaders)
- Festival prestige
- Awards aspiration
- Archive-rich subjects
- Cinematic ambition

## Avoid pairing with

- Investigative journalism
- News-style
- Multi-perspective narrative
- Subjects without archive
- Quick format
