East End Review

Tag: Asif Kapadia

Rio Cinema workers to strike over living wage and redundancies

Changing times: the Rio Cinema. Photograph: Chris Evans

Staff at the Rio Cinema in Dalston are to strike over low rates of pay and compulsory redundancies.

In a ballot that took place on Wednesday (11 May), cinema workers voted to take industrial action, with the walk out set to take place on 25 May.

Employees are seething over the cinema’s reluctance to pay the London Living Wage (LLW) – currently set at £9.40 an hour – a figure regarded as the basic cost of living in the capital.

Last month Rio Cinema announced a restructure that offers higher wages but which cuts hours and staff to pay for it.

The disgruntled workers have launched the SOS Rio campaign, and an online petition has attracted 2250 supporters, including the likes of Hackney director Asif Kapadia and the actor Zawe Ashton.

The Rio employs 30 members of staff, many of whom work on a part-time or casual basis.

Two thirds of the cinema’s staff are in BECTU, the media and entertainment trade union.

In the ballot on Wednesday, 13 employees voted in favour of strike action, with seventy per cent of BECTU members casting their vote.

The strikers’ demands include a pay rise for all staff and commitment to the LLW, the withdrawal of the cinema’s restructure and threat of compulsory redundancies, as well as a “detailed five-year plan from the Board on how they intend to grow the cinema as a community resource for low income families”.

“What started out as a simple pay dispute has turned into a passionate ideological battle over the soul of one of the last community cinemas in London,” said Sofie Mason, national official of BECTU.

“Staff want change but not change that rips the heart out of the Rio.”

Rio cinema Executive Director Oliver Meek said he was “at a loss” over the planned strike.

“I’m incredibly frustrated by this,” Mr Meek said. “I’ve already confirmed with staff that the vast majority would go from the minimum wage, which is currently £7.40, to 12.5 per cent above that to £8.10 an hour.

”It’s not the London Living Wage, and whilst I agree we should be paying the London Living Wage, we can’t do that when the cinema is not financial viable.

“The salary I’m proposing is more than many other independent cinemas pay, and this is really a first step.”

Mr Meek, who became the cinema’s Executive Director last year, has hatched a “regeneration plan” for the Rio, which would add a second screen and make the ailing business more sustainable.

“If we had a second screen we’d be able to pay the London Living Wage – which is what we should be doing,” he said.

“But effectively I’ve taken on a cinema that’s been failing for a decade so I’m not able to do so at this point,” he said.

Long-running dispute

The long-running dispute over pay dates back to 2013, when the Rio Board announced the cinema was close to going under.

Staff agreed a pay cut of 10 per cent over seven months, which along with public donations saved the cinema.

Then in October 2015 staff asked for a pay rise for all employees, as well as repayment of the 10 per cent wage cut from 2013.

But all the cinema bosses offered was a wage increase to £8.10 for the lowest paid, which led to the collapse of talks in March.

May 13, 2016
Oscar win for Hackney director Asif Kapadia

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Oscar winner: director Asif Kapadia

Hackney director Asif Kapadia triumphed last night at the Oscars, winning Best Documentary Feature for his film about the late singer Amy Winehouse.

Amy, which is the highest grossing British documentary of all time, beat off competition from Cartel Land, The Look of Silence, What Happened Miss Simone and Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom.

The film looks at the life of the troubled jazz singer, who died in 2011 aged 27, using interviews with friends and family as well as archival footage.

In his acceptance speech at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, Kapadia, 44, who grew up in Hackney, said: “This film’s all about Amy showing who she really was – funny, intelligent, witty. We just wanted to make a film to show what she really was.”

The Oscar win makes it a clean sweep of major award ceremonies for the film, which was named Best Documentary Award at the BAFTAs and Best Music Film at the Grammys.

The director responded on Twitter to this latest victory with one word – “Wow.”

Speaking to the East End Review in January, Kapadia said that his aim for the film was to show people “the real girl, the real Amy”.

“At least now people have more compassion and love for her now than maybe before. I think she became a bit of a tabloid persona, tabloid character, when actually she’s high art, she’s a real natural phenomenon and someone for London to be really proud of,” he said.

Kapadia has become the UK’s most successful documentary maker of recent times, with Amy surpassing Kapadia’s 2010 docuemntary Senna as the highest grossing British documentary of all time.

Talking about his upbringing in Hackney, Kapadia said it had given him “strength to survive”.

“I’m a Hackney boy born and bred,” he said. “I was born in Mother’s Hopsital which is no longer there, I went to Tyssen Primary school and I went to Homerton House secondary school.

“We lived in Stokey and we lived in Stamford Hill and although I don’t live in Hackney right now you can’t take Hackney out of the man. It definitely gave me the strength to survive.”

Last month Kapadia revealed that he is working on a new documentary about the Argentine football legend Maradona.

February 29, 2016
BAFTA win for Hackney director Asif Kapadia

Asif Kapadia at the UK premiere of Amy

Hackney director Asif Kapadia triumphed at Sunday’s BAFTA awards ceremony, winning the Best Documentary Award for his film about the life and career of singer Amy Winehouse.

Amy looks at the life of the troubled jazz singer, who died in 2011 aged 27, using interviews with friends and family as well as archival footage.

Kapadia, 44, who was born and grew up in Hackney, will now be hoping to make it a clean sweep at the Oscars, at which Amy will be vying for Best Documentary Feature.

In his acceptance speech for the award, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Kapadia said: “We really fell in love with [Amy Winehouse] when making the film. And our aim and mission was to try and tell the truth about her. 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.”

The director last month revealed that he is working on a new documentary about the Argentine football legend Maradona.

February 15, 2016
‘Hackney boy’ Asif Kapadia nominated for Oscar for Amy Winehouse documentary

Amy Winehouse. Photograph: Alex Lake

Hackney-born film director Asif Kapadia has been nominated for an Oscar for his documentary about the life and career of Amy Winehouse.

Amy was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category, and will go up against What Happened Miss Simone? as well as non-music related documentaries The Look of Silence, Cartel Land and Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom.

Amy is the highest grossing British documentary of all time, surpassing Senna, Kapadia’s 2010 documentary about the Brazilian Formula One driver.

Speaking to the Hackney Citizen and East End Review, Kapadia said he was sorting out his tax receipts when the announcement was made yesterday.

“It’s been winning quite a few prizes, but I’m very superstitious and you don’t want to get carried away so I was trying not to think about it. Luckily our film starts with the letter ‘A’ so it was the first one up.”

Despite critical acclaim and box office success, Senna was overlooked on the Oscar shortlist for 2012, making the nomination for Amy all the sweeter.

“Our aim was to show people the real girl, the real Amy – and in that way I think we succeeded,” said Kapadia.

“At least now people have more compassion and love for her now than maybe before. I think she became a bit of a tabloid persona, tabloid character, when actually she’s high art, she’s a real natural phenomenon and someone for London to be really proud of.

“Hopefully if this happens again and someone else has what appears to be a public breakdown we’ll show a bit more love and compassion and not attack them.”

After wins last year for Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Ida) and James Lucas (The Phone Call), Kapadia is happy to be flying the flag for Hackney at this year’s Oscar ceremony, as fellow East Londoner Idris Elba lost out for his role in Beasts of no Nation.

“I’m a Hackney boy born and bred,” he said. “I was born in Mother’s Hopsital which is no longer there, I went to Tyssen Primary school and I went to Homerton House secondary school.

“We lived in Stokey and we lived in Stamford Hill and although I don’t live in Hackney right now you can’t take Hackney out of the man. It definitely gave me the strength to survive.”

Asif-Kapadia receiving an honorary doctorate at the University of East London in 2012

The Oscars have once again come under fire for a lack of racial diversity, with Kapadia enjoying the dubious distinction of being one the few non-white nominees.

“I guess all you can do is be there and represent your side and hopefully other people will get the opportunity and come through,” he said.

“I’m just happy to be there as one of the Londoners. I’m just going to go there with our film and not worry too much about that other stuff.”

The 2016 Oscar winners will be announced on 28 February at a ceremony at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood.

January 15, 2016
Asif Kapadia – ‘Something happened with Amy’

Amy Winehouse. Photograph: Alex Lake

Camden, not Hackney, is the place with which the singer Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011 of alcohol poisoning, will always be associated.

But for Hackney-born director Asif Kapadia, whose acclaimed documentary Amy tells the story of the singer’s precarious life and untimely death, Winehouse could have been “a girl from down the road”.

Unlike other films directed by Kapadia, such as the award-winning documentary Senna, Amy is a London film. And like many fellow Londoners, Kapadia was moved by the singer’s life.

“Something happened with Amy Winehouse,” says Kapadia, explaining why he decided to make the film. “I wanted to know how that happened in front of our eyes. How can someone die like that in this day and age?

“For me, she was like a girl from down the road. I grew up in the same part of the world. She could have been someone I knew, someone I was friends with or might have gone to school with. I thought we should investigate.”

Kapadia was born in 1972, the youngest of five children. He went to Homerton House school (now the site of City Academy) and began his film career as a runner on student films.

After undertaking an HND at Newport Film School, Kapadia studied film-making at the University of Westminster before completing a Masters in film and TV direction at the Royal College of Art.

Amy has already broken box office records, and looks set to challenge Senna, Kapadia’s documentary about Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna, as the highest grossing British documentary of all time.

Like Amy Winehouse, Ayrton Senna was an icon who died in tragic circumstances. But researching the story and carrying out interviews for Senna proved a more straightforward process.

“With Senna there were a lot of books and a lot of people knew the story. With Amy it became apparent that no one knew the story, or that people were not willing to tell it.”

Many of Winehouse’s closest friends apparently took a ‘vow of silence’ after her funeral, so to complete the 100 plus interviews that make up the film’s narrative, the production team needed to win over their trust, a process that took almost a year.

“It was all quite recent and painful for a lot of people and there was a lot of guilt and a lot of baggage,” adds producer James Gay-Rees.

“The whole experience took an awful lot out of all these people, understandably.

It is hard to imagine what it must be like to see your closest childhood or teenage friend going through the perils of celebrity and mega-fame, knowing that there were underlying issues that would come to the fore.”

Kapadia made the songs and lyrics of Amy Winehouse central to the film. “Once you understand her life and you read the lyrics, they run much deeper than you might have thought,” he says.

“I thought all we have to do is unravel what these lyrics are about. That for me became the big revelation. This is a film about Amy and her writing.”

Amy is on general release in cinemas now.

August 5, 2015