Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.

Mathangi Arulpragasam was born in Sri Lanka, her father was inside the Tamil separatist movement, and her family fled the war for London. At art school she began filming herself and the people around her with a video camera. Then she made music as M.I.A., became known worldwide, and each time drew attention less for the music than for the political things she said. Stephen Loveridge's documentary is built almost entirely from footage the artist shot herself over the years. That material separates the film from the usual musician portrait: the camera is not behind the subject, it is in her hand. At the centre of the narrative is not a career but what it means to be a refugee, and how popular culture receives a woman who talks politics. The civil war in Sri Lanka and the artist's conflicts with the media take up a large part of the film. Who it's for: Viewers who like music documentaries, narratives of migration and identity, and archive-based films. Who it's not for: The narrative is not chronological and moves loosely. The film also leans heavily on a single point of view, with no room for the counter-argument.