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PEN SCRATCHING

BARKING

CLICKING AS CAMERA IS SET UP

- WOMAN: Maya? - MAYA: Hm?

WOMAN: Can you film on this?

FOOTSTEPS, CLICKING AND WHIRRING

MAYA: You have to give it, erm, time for the camera to adjust focus.

That looks good.

J‘ Gravity's my enemy

J“ It grabs at me like I'm on E

J“ The stars are banging close to me

J“ As I'm floating in the life odyssey

I My lines are down You can't call me

J‘ As I float around in space odyssey

I My lines are down You can't call me

J‘ As I float around in space odyssey

I Ooh, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah... I

(CONVERSATION IN TAMIL)

Yuli!

Where is Yuli with Raj Kamal's boat?

STEVE: Why are you a problematic pop star? Why don't you just...

Shut up? Why don't you just shut up and get a hit?

Yeah. Why don’t you?

MAYA: IfI shut up and get a hit,

I would have to become a drug addict and overdose

or, like, meet a very bad ending to the story, because that’s what happens

when you don ’t express the shit you need to express.

I came to music as a medium,

but the need to express myself through anything existed before.

CAMERA CLICKS

I Growin' up, brewin' up Guerrilla gettin' trained up

I Look out, look out From over the rooftop

I Growin‘ up, brewin' up Guerrilla gettin‘... I

I wanted to be a documentary film-maker.

I felt like I had, like, a million stories to put on film.

I Row da boat straight to da ocean

I Give him a run a run at his own game

I Signal the plane An' I landed on the runway

I A survivor, independent foreigner

I First your beats had me running To the running man... I

STEVE: I met Maya in 1996 when we were at art school together.

After a while we made friends and we started working together,

helping each other out on our film projects.

Oh, dear, let's first do a video project!

Central Saint Martins wasn 't very diverse.

There were no black people or brown people in our year at all.

So, she kind of stood out.

Action!

She made films about the friends she grew up with, the kids on her council estate.

But the thing that really fascinated me was her own story.

(CONVERSATION IN TAMIL)

MAYA: You know, there are loads of people here

who can empathise with what it's like to have a dad

who became a banker, a lawyer, a judge, a fucking whatever.

And this is what happened to a kid whose dad went off and became a terrorist.

And this is how it fucked up the family.

And this is how it fucked up the people. This is how it fucked up the country.

TANK RUMBLES

For the ten years we lived in Sri Lanka we were surrounded by civil war.

My dad was the founder of the Tamil Resistance Movement

and my family was in danger all the time.

We came to England as refugees - myself, my mum, my sister, my brother -

in May 1985.

My dad stayed in Sri Lanka to fight the war.

REPORTER: For many years there have been about 30,000 Tamils in Britain.

But in the last ten days alone, at least 100 refugees have arrived in South London

and are being placed with Tamil families already here.

Now, the government say there are too many of them,

placing an enormous strain on the system.

DANCE MUSIC ON PLAYER

MA YA: Music was my medicine.

I had to deal with the fact that I was something else

and I was different and I was an immigrant.

In Sri Lanka I was getting shot at for being a Tamil

then I came to England and was getting spat at for being a Paki.

We had this second-hand radio.

I'd put my headphones on and sleep to it every night

listening to...Madonna and Taylor Dean

or whatever that was, like, a hit at the time.

One day, I was coming home from school and all my neighbours

were stood in, like, a line passing all this stuff out of our house.

I was, like, you can keep everything. I know you did it cos I saw you.

But can I have my radio back? And they were, like, "No".

And, erm, so that night I went to sleep without headphones

and without pop music.

And then I heard the bass line come from the other neighbour's house

which was, you know, he was listening to hip hop.

And it was, like, the first time I heard Public Enemy

and all these, erm, hip—hop songs.

And... and the bass line was so insane and I was like, “What is that?"

HIP HOP PLAYS

The first bit of Western identity I embraced was through music.

MAN: As we are watching the nine o’clock news, as you can see,

Maya ls, erm, reading some mash-up book, which is... What is it?

MA YA: It's called Black Skin, White Mask.

And it's about black power and black supremacy.

It's about the supremacy oppressing black equality.

This sheet tells you who took it out when.

And the first date on here is 1986

and the last date is what I took out, '96.

That‘s ten years, but it‘s still on this page.

That's how much people read it.

HIP HOP PLAYS

Hey, Mika, what‘s up?

Hey, Mika, what's... SCREAM

Ama! Ama! Ama, let me see you do the butterfly in your butterfly dress.

Do the butterfly!

Do the butterfly!

Do the butterfly! LAUGHTER

CLUNK

DOOR SHUTS

ENGINE HUMS

Out of the blue we got a phone call from my dad and he’s like,

"This is your dad speaking. I'm going to be in London tomorrow".

And we went to pick him up at the airport.

Say something! (LAUGHTER)

I hadn't seen him since I was... 11 or something.

In Sri Lanka I remember seeing you twice, and once you gave us apples.

And that’s the first time I'd had an apple.

And then, I remember the other time you came at 3am

and you gave me two rupees to go and buy ice cream.

And we still didn't know who you were. We thought you were our uncle.

We didn’t know you were our dad.

But tell me about the wooden duck.

And? What happened?

MAYA: You're one of the founders of...

When did you found...?

Man, I'm 23. He was something like 29

or 35 or whatever, when he was in the war.

He could've turned round and said, "Look, man, this is shit. Why are we doing this?"

But they didn‘t do that, man.

There's no point in sitting here when he's 50, and he‘s got no...

His whole life is like, at a dead end, sort of thing. He doesn't know what to do.

So, now, he's talking about peace because he can't do anything else.

He can't fight now.

He could have sent a birthday card or a Thank You card or a Valentine's card

or Well Done card. Come on!

You know, a Christmas card.

Just one card between the whole family.

Just anything.

I'm glad for everything he's made us out to be.

He's made us so strong for what he's put us through.

He's made us damn interesting. He's given us a bloody background.

I‘m glad he's notjust a 9 to 5 petrol-station owner.

You know? I'm glad he‘s notjust a doctor or whatever.

OK, we didn't have wealth and the richness and security,

but that's made us so strong. We‘re so independent.

I actually feel sorry for him

cos he sacrificed everything for, like, how many years

and went to fight for the country.

And he hasn't succeeded yet, or anything.

Are you interested in what's happening in Sri Lanka?

Not just Sri Lanka, man. The whole world. Africa and all them countries.

But you’ve got a direct link to Sri Lanka.

No, I haven‘t. So what if I'm born there? I'm Tamil, so who gives a shit, man.

There‘s kids dying. I care about all of that.

Right, I’m gonna play you a video.

It's just at 15-minute film... that the Tamil Tiger women made.

MALE REPORTER: this is the northern frontier of the country’s civil war.

The Sri Lankan security forces have been fighting Tamil separatists

and the Tamil Tigers have gained a reputation as fearless fighters.

FEMALE REPORTER: Anhibir is a member

of the Tamil people '5 pro-independence movement,

the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LITE.

MAYA: When I first saw this tape of women my age,

you know, they cut their hair off and they're in uniform,

I realised that would have been my reality.

Like, what are they eating and like, what do they do when they’re on their period?

How do they survive in the jungle?

Why was it me that got away?

FOOTSTEPS

HINGE CREAKS, THUD

ROCK MUSIC INTRO

I didn’t go to concerts a lot, but somebody gave me a free ticket

then we got invited backstage and then I met Justine.

And we just hit it off.

Britpop was at, like, the forefront of British culture at the time.

But I didn’t know Elastica and their music wasn’t my music.

Break a leg!

Break a leg!

CHEERING

MUSIC: ELASTICA - CONNECTION

I Riding on any wave That is the luck you crave

I They don‘t believe it now They just think it‘s stupid... I

MAYA: We came from a different set of people.

She had no idea about the urban culture and stuff that I'd grew up on

and I’d never been inside a house in Notting Hill.

Urgh!

- JUSTINE: Seems a bit dark. - Yeah.

JUSTINE SINGS

I Boy, you're turning me inside out And round... I

Why is it like this? Yesterday, it was really nice.

JUSTINE: You look like you just walked out of seeing a James Bond film.

- You look so great. Honestly. — I look like Mowgli.

- You always look like Mowgli, but... — It‘s just the fringe...

MA YA: She offered to let me do her video called Mad Dog

and she gave me £100 to make it.

And I just wanted to bring the world I was in into the world she was in.

MAD DOG MUSIC VIDEO

I got some girls that I'd met in a club the night before and we just, like,

shot in the morning under the Westway

and then it was, like, the first indie music with some dancers in it.

I Don‘t need no credit card

I To make my charge complete

I Don‘t want you on your back Ijust got on my feet

I Don‘t want the same boy Another time... I

She asked me to come on tour and film and I was interested in making documentaries

so I was, like, 'Yeah, cool'.

MUSIC PLAYS - ELASTICA: GENERATOR

I I'm a sonic generator It's as far as I can take it

I Aren‘t you glad that I can make it

I Oh, oh, in the money Baby put your arms around me

I Aren't you glad That you have found me... I

MUSIC FADES

MAYA: I hated it. I was there because I liked Justine.

And I was, like, 'You've got access to a microphone and 1,000 people every night.

’Please use it to say something.’

Her band didn’t like the fact me and her were so close.

And they were pissed off at me and theyjust shut me out all the time.

TEARFULLY: Ijust wish I had someone to talk to right now.

I guess that's why I‘m talking to the camera

cos Ijust need to get this shit out of the way

so I could just go to sleep.

You know, I‘m so pissed... off...

at people not really taking me seriously.

And...

not really caring about what's going on.

And... I don‘t even know if this

is what I should be doing right now.

You're just fucked off cos you didn‘t get enough attention.

- That's not it at all. - It totally is.

I've gone through life without having it.

You've never had this little attention, obviously and your ego can‘t deal with it.

- Please! — All right, whatever.

- D'you know what I mean? - Whatever!

Too many days have gone by with you thinking shit and not saying it to people.

BOTH TALK AT ONCE

Iknow ou're ver sensitive. , Y Y

Instead of me going home,

I'm just sitting there going, 'No, I‘m bigger than that. I don't need this shit‘.

I know. You‘re bigger than I am. I know you are.

WATER POU RS

Come on, Maya, let‘s not talk about this now. Let's talk about it when we get home.

Going home. I'm taking you home. I'm taking you home.

MA YA: You know what? Fuck talking about youth culture in Britain,

fuck talking about fucking fashion,

fuck talking about all this pretentious cliquey bullshit.

After 25 years, I 'm ready to go and fucking put all the pieces together.

All this time I 've been denying the life that I had in Sri Lanka.

I'm now living in London and sort of caught up in a superficial lifestyle.

And a lot of people I know, including myself,

were just constantly going around and searching for meaning.

And Ijust began to wonder

what the alternative would have been ifI lived in Sri Lanka.

Ijust wondered if you had, like, spare camera batteries, that would be great.

But if you don't, then I'll just have to... get round that problem.

GASPS

N0!

Fucking "journalist" it says, my occupation.

A journalist! I told them I was a...

just a stupid ten-minute experimental film-maker.

Well, I said I do fine-art film and video.

They do shoot journalists.

I can apply for a different one.

I suppose ifI do it tomorrow morning...

Maybe it peels off.

OK, let's go.

I'm gonna go back to my school that I went to

and go back to the fucking girls that I hung out with.

Bye!

I’m gonna go and film that 21-year-old in Sri Lanka

because that so could have been my reality.

Oh, you wanna hear my story? I 'm gonna fucking show you my story.

I will show you my fucking story.

JUSTINE: Wait! Maya! You’ve forgotten the camera!

That's a good one. You nearly left without your camera.

- MAYA: See you later. - Yeah.

MUSIC: M.I.A. - BIRD FLU

HORN TOOTS

I Big on the underground What's the point of knocking me down

I Everyone knows I'm already good on the ground

I Most of us stay strong... I

MAYA: Yeah.

Halin is my dad's cousin.

She takes care of all the young kids that come to Colombo

as refugees from the North. You know, my relations.

Hold this.

When I was your age I used to live in this room.

(SPEAKS TAMIL)

You know, I haven't seen my family for 16 years

and I'm having to spend a lot of time with them off camera

and get them to be comfortable with me and understand what my personality is like.

Because when they see me, they straight away assume

that I’m a Tamil girl and I’m into the same things as everybody else.

And they sort of suggest taking me out to the shopping mall.

And it’s really difficult for me

to get across the point that I 'm not interested in those things.

That’s not why I’m here.

KENNY ROGERS ON RADIO: LUCILLE

SINGING: ...time to leave me, Lucille.

...a fine time to leave me, Lucille.

What are we gonna do?

What do you mean, a night check—up?

When ?

Everybody is scared to talk to the camera, basically, about anything.

They let me know that whatever they say

might get in the hands of police officers.

No, but the experience I had when I was like, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

was intense, ’cos. ..

So, that cancels that...

- That’s you. - KOLIAN: Mm-hm.

And that’s my little brother, and that’s me.

So, that’s two out of six boys are dead.

Wil/sy, he died in 1993

aged 22.

He was at medical school and he was coming to visit his mum

and while he was waiting for the boat he got killed.

I 'm just beginning to get close to

the things that I wanted to find out.

So, I’m gonna extend my stay and stay for a little longer.

And spend two months as opposed to one and see what happens.

BACKG ROUN D CHAT

BOB DYLAN ON RADIO: MOZAMBIQUE

(SPEAKS TAMIL)

SINGING: ...aqua blue

SONG CONTINUES

(CONVERSATION IN TAMIL)

AMBIENT STREET SOUNDS

FOOTSTEPS

SPEAKERS CLATI'ER

- STEVE: What is all this? — This is a 505. I've got five of them.

STEVE CHUCKLES

I've got four of the 5055

and then I've got a four-track, which is the little machine...

that I recorded on.

I never thought I was writing songs for myself.

CLATTER I thought I was writing songs for Justine.

You know.

I'll play you the first tape of songs we used to make.

CASSETTE CLICKS AND PLAYS ELEVATOR SONG

I think we were really into the word "elevator".

STEVE CHUCKLES

Then I wrote this beat, here. It's called Chicken Choker.

This was the first beat I wrote.

PLAYS BEAT

At this point we were just writing, like, any old songs about random things.

And then, when I got back to London

I actually started writing about the things that I wanted to write about.

You know? RA‘I‘I’LING

My lyrics were just things that was in my head

combined with me being obsessed with dance, you know, urban music.

BEEPING

I I mashed up a coconut Outside by the back door

I Should be closed I'm eating up my mango

I Daddy was home Huntin' up a wild boar

I Get your mum now Cook up the whole lot

I We had no idea We were cooking for commandos

I Our camp had videos made by Arsenio

I Show the films like Rocky & Rambo

I Role models from Hollywood to jungle

I We learned to fight using our heroes

I Aviator shades, gold rims With the grenades

I Home-made tin weapons that ricochet

I When it's hot we all made lemonade

I Now we, we, we rock like we're macho Like that's what we wanted... I

MA YA: I knew how to tell the story because it was all there in front of me.

Like, when you walked into my room there was photographs I 'd just taken,

tapes of the Tigers.

I found something that I knew how to put together

and whatever I did, it was gonna pop just because I was desperate.

I Oh, oh, oh, ho I

Let's see what's on... BEAT PLAYS

The best song I’ve got today has got to be... this.

I My hips do the flicks As I walk, yeah

I With the good hair I can do what I can

I Did your mama tell you about me?

I What did she say? Don't go play there

I Gonna make that hot boy want me Gonna make that hot boy... I

I 'd recorded four songs for Arular and I took it to XL Recordings

and knocked on the door.

She tells it like she knocked on the door and said,

” I hear you've been looking for me". It was a little bit like that.

She did just turn up at the office one day with this demo, this CD

with, like, hand-made artwork.

She seemed to have a very strong vision.

That’s one of the things I always look for

when I 'm meeting artists: vision and ambition.

I'm gonna move all this shit out of the way.

She kinda had both of those things in bucket loads, really.

- We didn't take the reverb off. - Yeah...

When I heard the first song, I wasn't that blown away.

She’s like, ”I'll come back tomorrow and play another song”.

She came back and played me Galang.

I London calling Speak the slang now

I Boys say wha’, wha’ And girls say wha', wha'

I London calling Speak the slang now

I Boys say wha’, wha’ And girls say wha', wha'

I Slam, galang galang galang Gala gala galang galang gala

I Shotgun, get down Get down, get down, get down... I

CLEARS THROAT

It was really home-made, but it's not about production value

or, you know, how much money you have to make it shiny.

Itjust has to come from a real place.

Voila!

BEATS

I had really strong ideas about what music I liked and what made me dance

and what I wanted to say.

All of these things became Arular.

I want to tell you about another singer, Maya Arulpragasm, born in Sri Lanka.

Her father part of the Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Her mom fled with her to England, where Maya grew up in a refugee ghetto.

She's an up-and-coming hip-hop artist and goes by the name, M.I.A.

I Blaze a blaze Galang alang alang lang

I Purple haze Galang alang alang lang I

I Blaze a blaze Galang alang alang lang

I Purple haze Galang alang alang lang I

I London calling Speak the slang now

I Boys say wha', wha' And girls say wha', wha'

I London calling Speak the slang now

I Boys say wha', wha' I And girls say wha', wha'

I Slam, galang galang gala Gala gala galang galang gala

I Shotgun, get down Get down, get down, get down

I Get a, get a, get a down get down

I Too late, you down Dan dan da dan, da da

I Dana dana dana Da na da na da I

NEWS REPORTER: She’s made a debut record on a $300 keyboard

and the assistance of some producers in London.

Sold over 100,000 copies, got picked up by Interscope Records.

REPORTER: She was creating a buzz long before her debut CD was released

and that is in part because of the work of a Philadelphia producer named Dip/o.

I wonder who paid for this remote control?

This makes the shit hot.

It's the crunk button.

- MAYA: Where’s the crunk button? - This one.

This one just has this really amazing sound. Just the snares.

DREAM-LIKE MUSIC

- MAYA: I like the last one too, though. — Kind of space—love song...

Ahh!

M.I.A. is in the house, so M.I.A., come on down!

CHEERING

MAYA: Oh, my God!

- How are you? - They're loud!

Thank you so much. You wanna come and stand over here?

- How are you doing? — I'm good.

- It's a pleasure to meet you. - Good to meet you, too.

- Thank you so much! - Look, my boyfriend‘s out there!

- What one? Is he the one jumping up? - Yeah, yeah.

HOST LAUGHS

That's true love, man. He's jumping up outside. He should come in.

- We'll have him come in. - Come in!

What does it feel like now that you're getting recognition with the press?

Does it mean something to you, or do you not really care?

Personally, I try not to think about it too much.

But I think it's really great for, like, being a Tamil, Sri Lankan, whatever.

CHEERING

It matters to them. The Tamil girls are screaming.

They love it!

- It's gonna kick arse, the whole shebang! - STEVE: Uh-huh?

HAMMERING, WORKERS TALKING

- STEVE: Look at all this! Oh, my God! - MAYA: That's the props. Walkie-ta/kies.

- That's the radio. - Perfect!

(WORKERS TALKING IN TAMIL)

STEVE: Hey! Go, Maya!

(LAUGHS) He's mad!

SMOKE MACHINE DRONES

MA YA: There 's a lot of cookie-cutter videos.

Pretty girls, clubs, cars, guys. People are scared to experiment.

Your video should be a tool to... bring to people

scenes and sights and images that they’ve not seen before.

I I bongo with my lingo

I And beat it like a wing, yo

I To combo, to Colombo

I Can't stereotype my thing, yo

I I salt and pepper my mango Shoot spit out the window

I Bingo, got them in the thing, yo

I Now what? I'm doing my thing, yo

I The sun showers that fall on my troubles

I Are over you, my baby

I And sun showers I'll be aiming at you

I Cos I'm watching you, my baby I

VOCAL WARM-UP

We're here at Coachella 2005.

That’s the main stage.

I Ah, that's how I write... I

When Arular came out in 2005, Napster was happening

and a million copies got downloaded for free.

Itjust blew up so quickly.

Like, so fast.

CROWD CHANTS: M.I.A., M.I.A

CHEERING

I I'm a fighter, fighter god

I I'm a soldier on that road

I I'm a fighter, a nice nice fighter

I I'm a soldier on that road

I Bring me the reaper Bring me a lawyer

I I'll fight, I'll take them on

I You treat me like a killer I never hate ya

I I'm a soldier on that road

I I'm a fighter, fighter god

I I'm a soldier on that road

I Slang tang That's the M.I.A. thang

I I got the bombs to make you blow

I I got the beats to make you bang I

Ho! Make some noise. CHEERING

Coachella! Thank you for having me.

It's my first festival in America and I loved it.

WOMAN: One more!

- Congratulations! Wasn't that amazing? — I know. A fucking encore! What do I do?

CHEERING

I I fly like paper, get high like planes

I If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name

I If you come around here I make 'em all day

I I get one down in a second If you wait

I I fly like... I

You should repeat that, so we know the length of it.

MUSIC CONTINUES

I All I wanna do Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom

I And the boom, boom, boom And take your money

I All I wanna do Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom

I And boom, boom, boom And take your money

I All I wanna do Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom

I And the boom, boom, boom And take your money

I All I wanna do Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom... I

MUSIC FADES

HANDBRAKE PULLED

All right. So, I'll see you in a minute.

I I fly like paper, get high like planes

I If you catch me on the border I got visas in my name I

SPIKE: What's that song about?

The stereotype that‘s attached to, like, immigrants and stuff like that.

That they come and take the jobs, the money and everything.

So, it was like a funny... like a spoofy song about that.

It's like, all I wanna do is... (IMITATES GUNFIRE)

and then, ka—ching, and take your money.

- So, what should I say? — OK, one two, three. I don 't know.

- Tell me... - You’re the Hollywood one! Shit!

THEY LAUGH

— Um... - Hi, this is Spike Jonze

recording for PBS.

Uh, all right. Hi, this is Spike Jonze for PBS and we are spending the day with Maya

and she‘s gonna take us out to meet her friend, Afrikan Boy.

And she‘s gonna tell about the new record

she's been working on for the last year that she named after her mom.

I Ooh Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh I

Hey! How are you?

Like, all these new immigrant cultures and stuff, that have settled in the West.

It's so deep and strong

and it's part of, like, the fabric of, I don't know, any city.

But people feel threatened and scared about it, or it‘s like a dirty word.

Yeah. A lot of people are, like, scared to go against the grain.

Yeah, you can't rap about being an immigrant.

It's too embarrassing for people.

- SPIKE: And how did you meet this one? - Um, Myspace.

- Myspace? - Yeah, she just found me. She found me.

MUSIC PLAYING: LIDL BY AFRIKAN BOY

I One day I went to Lidl I was really, really hungry

I I went to shoplift in Lidl Cos I had no money, money... I

THEY LAUGH

MA YA: There ’5 always gonna be something different about us

that isn’t gonna relate to a white experience or a black experience.

There’s always something extra that's...

Something else that you have to go and do, which is connect with, you know...

your, sort of, back-homeness.

Whereas Arular was like coming from there and taking it over here.

Kala was definitely the send-money-home record,

where you're sending the DVD box back home.

Colour TV box and the microwave, d’you know what I mean?

I was able to go back with some stuff this time.

TYRES SCREECH

This is M, this is I, this is A.

Yeah, Maya, MIA.

MA YA: Making Kala was really fun.

Everybody went on the record.

KID BLEATS

Even animals! The dogs and the chickens and the flies.

The kids that were playing in the yard.

One, two, three.

(TAMIL CLAPPING RHYME)

It was just like going back to meet the kid I was when I was, like, six years old

and be, like, what would I want?

I would have wanted this person to come and give me free key rings,

like the ones I had.

And buy me some candy, throw the best party

and give me some money at the end ofit.

MUSIC AND BEATS PLAY

It was like doing a little Rubik’s Cube and I just kind of, like,

started throwing more and more colours onto the side of this cube.

I think you should play loud.

MUSIC: EXTRACTS FROM ‘BOYZ'

I went to practically every continent.

We kept working on the same song in every country.

I started recording music in Trinidad.

You had to make it make sense to the Trinidad/ans so, it would change slightly.

And then record some stuff in Jamaica.

'BOYZ' CONTINUES TO PLAY

We would have to adjust it again when you bring him to Brooklyn.

I Can we go riding up a dirty track Up in Laventille

I Will you show me before I make it back

I Somewhere I can chill I

The kid in the village where we shot the 'Bird Flu’ video

and the kid in Liberia playing on that playground

is exactly the same.

And they have nursery rhymes and they play games.

They have an opinion about what kind of hairstyle they want

and what T-shirt they're gonna put on in the morning.

And they have dreams and they have, like, an idea of what they wanna be.

Can you turn my mic up, please.

I Road runner, road runner

I Going hundred miles per hour

I Road runner, road runner

I Going hundred miles per hour

I With your radio on

I With your radio on

I Road runner, road runner

I Going hundred miles per hour

I With your radio on

I With your radio on

I Somalia, Angola, Ghana, Ghana, Ghana

I Hey India, Sri Lanka, Burma

I Bamboo banga Hey

I This the bamboo banga Whoo hoo

I I said bamboo banga Whoo

I This the bamboo banga Whoo hoo

I I said bamboo banga Whoo

I Yeah, I‘m knocking on the doors Of your hummer hummer

I Yeah, we‘re hungry like the wolves Hunting dinner dinner

I And we're moving with the packs Like hyena ena

I I'm a road runner

I I'm a world runner

I I'm a road runner

I I'm a world runner

I I'm big timer

I It‘s the bamboo banga Bamboo banga

I I'm big timer

I It‘s the bamboo banga Bamboo banga

I I'm big timer

I It‘s the bamboo banga Bamboo banga

I I'm big timer

I It‘s the bamboo banga Bamboo banga

I I'm big timer

I It‘s the bamboo banga Bamboo banga

I I'm big timer

I It‘s the bamboo banga Bamboo banga I

REPORTER: Rolling Stone put out its annual list of the top 50 albums

and it shows the diversity of modern music.

The number one album, according to Rolling Stone magazine,

is notAmy Winehouse's 'Back to Black’, it's ’Ka/a’ from M.I.A.

who’s British by way of Sri Lanka.

Popular. LIGHTER CLICKS

Fucking popular.

MAN: CHUCKLES Fucking popular! That's wicked.

- Fucking popular! — Fucking popular!

I I go to the club and I‘m popular I stay at home and I'm popular

I I get phone calls and I'm popular... I MAN LAUGHS

- I On Myspace, you know I'm popular I - MAN: Fucking popular!

I Popular, I'm fucking really popular Popular, I'm really, really popular

I It's hard, it‘s hard It's really, really hard

I I'm popularI

MUSIC PLAYS

Stay!

TURNS MUSIC OFF

SEWING MACHINE CLACKS

RAIN POUNDS

TV IN BACKGROUND

Basically, Tamil Tiger boys entered Colombo and they’ve bombed the airport.

This is Colombo. This is meant to be the government—controlled safe zone.

GUNSHOT

I really felt as though this is gonna be the end of the war.

It's in fact stuck in the middle.

The army and police are scared of the Tigers

so they're allowed to shoot who they want.

And, because it's a war zone... they‘ve got...

they've got the right to do anything.

"The most gruesome, that of Koneswari, was a grenade was exploded inside her vagina

after being raped and killed, to remove all traces of the sexual offences."

Hm? Terrible, uh?

Terrible is not the word.

And what this... bloody world is looking at this and reading, I don‘t understand.

Nobody's interested.

The Americans are not interested. The whole world is not interested.

The more I learn about things

the more I feel I have absolutely no control

because it's happening in the masses. That's the only reason.

It's happening in the masses.

I've got a feeling someone's at my windowsill.

I'm gonna just go and investigate.

So, while I was in the room taping myself, this boy...

This guy had been standing there and watching, maybe 45 minutes.

Watching through the window you, and also watching me through this thing.

And he got panic. He thought there is something is going on behind his back.

And he wanted to... He came and he asked me,

‘Do you know you're supposed to tell me what's going on in this house', you know.

Today, I got on the bus with my mum and I completely got surrounded by soldiers.

And they came in to the seat and stood in front of my mum and me.

And every time when the bus was, like, bumpy

they would fall on top of me and, like, grope me.

And so, I started crying. And my mum was like, ’If you open your mouth,

they will stop the bus. They will drag you into the jungle '.

'And then, they’re gonna kill us both in the jungle and no—one’s even gonna care.’

And I was looking around and I’m like, ’Who do I ask for help?’

Like, 'Who is that person ?' And there’s nobody else.

So then, you start looking out the window, going,

’Somewhere in that fucking jungle, there's somebody who's fighting for me'.

I'm not gonna forget... what I'm hearing over here.

It's becoming a part of me and it's becoming a part of my life.

And I kind of feel like I‘ve opened a can of worms

and I don‘t really know how to control it

and how it's gonna manifest inside my head.

CLICK

BIRDSONG

I miss home. WHIRRING

And I miss making curtains.

There's Steve, who's had his first day at Interscope (GIGGLES)

You're on camera!

Whoa! Seriously, this is ten seconds?

LAUGHTER

Holy shit! That's crazy.

And you know, you do 20 minutes and basically,

it‘s the equivalent of doing an hour and a half in the gym.

How much does one of these cost? LAUGHTER

And you come out so pumped, you know? GROWLS

I I'm a Shake it to the ground Bring it back up

I Twirl it all around Yeah, you know what's up

I I'm a Shake it to the ground And bring it back up

I Twirl it all around Yeah, you know what's up

I Shake it to the ground I

In 2009, the biggest contradiction in my life

was being a mum who’s about to give birth...

CHEERING

...versus a famous person who's been nominated for an Oscar and a Grammy.

And I thought that was the predicament.

I I fly like paper, get high like... I

EXPLOSION

But then, the war in Sri Lanka began to escalate.

An aid worker says nearly 400 people were killed by government shelling

in what is supposed to be a no-fire zone.

A no-fire zone, an area to keep civilians safe as war rages around them.

These pictures, purported/y from that zone,

show that innocent people are still being caught in shelling.

The United Nations has been critical of the Sri Lankan government

and the Tamil Tigers for putting civilians in harm ’5 way.

The outside world has little knowledge of what civilians are up against.

It's like the Tamil people are invisible.

M.I.A. is a talented singer, songwriter and hip-hop artist

who has the rare honour of being nominated, get this,

for an Oscar and a Grammy in the same year!

Grammy, Oscar, same... That's huge!

Being the only Tamil, you know, in the western media

I have a really great opportunity to, sort of, bring forward

what‘s going on in Sri Lanka.

The more successful I'm getting,

the direr the situation in Sri Lanka‘s getting.

I think the simple thing to explain it as, is, under the guise of fighting terrorism,

there's a genocide going on.

REPORTER: A naked man, blindfolded and bound.

His last human contact, a kick in the head.

GUNSHOT

Extrajudicial killings by government soldiers and paramilitaries

have been documented in Sri Lanka for years.

But there’s never been evidence like this.

IS the government of Sri Lanka engaged in genocide?

M.I.A. is a great artist. But, sorry, I think she is misinformed.

And it‘s best that she stay with what she is good at, which is music.

CROWD CHANTS

REPORTER: There is no doubt she infuriated many Sinhalese Sri Lankans

when she reported/y accused the army there of committing ethnic cleansing

and systematic genocide against the Tami/s.

Anyone who's against the government

is getting assassinated, killed, jailed, whatever - kicked out.

So, it's really difficult to get that information, you know,

that you can share with the American public, to go, 'This is what‘s going on‘.

And tell the American public why,

if you're from this island nation, you sound like Mick Jagger.

LAUGHTER

Well, I'm just one of them! Like...

But that's not what they all sound like, right?

No, but we'll never know, cos they keep killing them all.

Really? They could all have Cockney accents in Sri Lanka? That's interesting!

MA YA: They dismissed me.

M.I.A., everybody. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Good luck with that. I know it‘s a difficult situation.

Like, go home, little girl! They shut me down.

GENERAL CLAMOUR

REPORTER: Tell us what you were frustrated about with the CNN piece.

I wanna be, like, checking the fact that...

Ijust wanna know why I was edited out

when I said there's a genocide going on in Sri Lanka.

We talked for 45 minutes and they edited it out,

made it about me and my song, and...

You're the first person that we’ve interviewed that says,

’The piece was too much about me’. People mostly want it about them.

I know. It‘s not about me because...

MAYA: People were just like, ’This is ugly news. We don’t wanna talk about death.’

’We don’t wanna see blown-up babies.’ You know, ’Talk about Beverly Hills.’

It was very hard being two things at once.

I tried to do it the way they wanted me to do it,

which is, learn the script,

learn the five sentences you wanted to repeat in the news.

Go on the news and be successful.

But... I couldn’t.

I literally felt like I was exploding.

GUNFIRE

So, I did it my way.

EXPLOSION

Boo!

Sit down and shut the fuck up!

Get off this bus trip!

Let‘s go! Go! Go! Go! Move!

Move! Go! Go!

GUNSHOT

EX PLOSIONS

GUNSHOT

RADIO HOST: M.I.A. on KROQ, 106.7.

Every time we call that, we get frantic emails from people

who say M.I.A. is a terrorist and KROQ are bad people for supporting her.

Maybe there’s a connection, maybe she’s sending money.

I don ’t think that’s a bad question to ask.

CALLER: I agree.

MA YA: What they’re doing is dragging me into it and associating my name

and my achievement and my career and whateverI do

to, again, the same words: M.I.A., Tamil, Terrorist.

Like, respectable news outlets are... doing lazy journalism.

But when you put out Born Free, that video,

you don't put that out without knowing that it's gonna cause a stir

and a lot of people are not gonna like it.

Uh, what part of that didn't they like, by the way?

- It was just ketchup and fake blood. — Too gratuitous.

That was what blew my mind.

It was like the real execution video I Twittered two months beforehand.

No one gave a shit. No one even talked about it.

The real thing. Yet when you make a video...

Two months later, I refilmed that with some ginger people

with fake blood and it‘s the most horrific thing people had ever seen.

- You think you're a victim of censorship? — Yeah, of course!

What experience are we allowed to share from these places

that makes you comfortable and makes it easy for you to digest?

If you come from the struggle, how the fuck do you talk about the struggle

without talking about the struggle?

PEOPLE TALKING AT ONCE STEVE: If she can get Maya on the cover,

why hasn’t she stopped them slandering Maya before?

You have to see it like this. If we do get the cover,

it’d be the first time a Tamil's been on the cover.

We can be so blind.

Are they gonna do a smiley

when they get a dude representing the Sri Lankan government

to come on TV the next week and say, ”Oh, M.I.A. She should stick to music”.

We need to know these moves.

They're not gonna give you what they’re gonna do after.

You just have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

If they're gonna fuck you over, the worst thing they could do

is make you irrelevant with your, like, political position.

And just go, 'This doesn't mean anything. Yeah, whatever.’

'You're just another artist coming out on Interscope this month

and we wanted a story on the musician.’

GENERAL CHATTER

MAYA: We were just saying you don ’t like technology.

- I don’t. - It's a bit loud and it's nine minutes.

OK, good! All the better.

I like loud. I like nine minutes.

Oh, my God! Did you hear me screaming?

MAYA: No, I wanted to just leave you in your element, there.

Really amazing! Very upsetting, but very amazing.

ROMAN: You can say if you don’t like it.

I would say ifI didn't like it. I think it's actually quite brilliant.

I really do.

- Thank you. - You're welcome.

- MAYA: Did you like the song? — You know I love the song. (LAUGHS)

REPORTER: The scathing profile in the New York Times Sunday magazine

in which the writer Lynn Hirschberg pointed out some inconsistencies.

REPORTER: M.I.A. comes off as a woman trapped by a need to make

politically-charged pseudo-important statements

but who comes off as little more than an airhead and a hypocrite.

She’s about to marry an heir of the Seagram’s fortune.

She’s living a pretty high-level, cushy existence,

yet here she is, singing about these rebel causes on her record.

REPORTER: The kind of symbolic object the piece seizes upon is,

M.I.A eats a truffle fry as she says:

WOMAN: ”If people call me a terrorist, let them. ” Something like that.

MAN: Right. As she crunches into a truffle fry which, as it turns out,

Lynn Hirschberg ordered.

I Yo, what's up everybody

I This is M.I.A.

I I moved to Brentwood

I I got a baby now

I This one goes out to all the ladies Whose values have changed

I And are looking for some stability Love

I And pilates on the beach

I All I wanna do is... And a...

I Invest my money

I All I wanna do is... And a...

I Check out my Monet

I M.I.A. investing in Third-world democracy

I These shades Were made in Sri Lanka

I Don‘t you dare Write anything else funny about me I

They want to go, ’It doesn’t mean anything.‘

'This girl, everything she says is shit. None of it‘s authentic.‘

'Her experiences are not authentic because she’s a musician, or she lives here.’

You know, this shit. They feel that I have way more responsibility

to be this, like, global world poster child who's just like,

'Hi, I‘m the starving child from the mud hut that made it,

and I’m always going to stay that way, just for you.‘

You know, ’Just so you get the message‘.

This is from... I have to link this.

This is from New York Times three days ago, on 8th January.

This is from New York Times... today.

31 places to go in 2010.

STEVE: So, what? They’re saying now the war’s over

it’s OK to go back there on honeymoon again?

MA YA: It’s fucked up.

MUSIC: M.I.A. - BORN FREE

I Yeah, man made power Stood like a tower

I Higher, higher, hello

I And the higher you go You feel lower

IOh

I I was close to the ants Staying under cover

I With the nose to the ground

I I found my sound

I Got myself an interview tomorrow

I I got myself a jacket for a dollar

I And my nails are chipped but I'm eager

I And the car doesn‘t work So I'm stuck here

I Born free

I Born free

I Born free I

CHEERING

I loved America.

Even the footage you have coming up to 2001,

got, like, a pair of American Converse on and an American jumper.

There's an American poster behind me.

I didn‘t have issues with America. I loved America.

Yeah, and since then...

you know, they've been chiselling away at me, bit by bit.

HAMMERING IN BACKGROUND

How do you manage an artist who’s unmanageable?

LAUGHTER

I‘m opening this question out to the board, which consists of me and you.

- DYANA: Jesus fucking Christ! — What are we gonna do?

I mean, Maya, you’ve gotta give a little. You’ve gotta trust a little.

- You’ve got to communicate. — Dyana, can you manage me?

LAUGHTER

- Can we get a song on the radio? — DYANA EXHALES

Can we get Double Bubble Trouble on the radio

cos it's the most radio-friendly song? Can I have any of them on the radio?

You need drivers. It all adds up. That’s how we get there these days.

Especially when it’s not, you know, Katy Perry. You know?

Yeah, I'm gonna go back to school. That's what I wanna do.

STEVE: What kind of school?

Maybe I need to be, like, a nautical engineer

and design boats.

Or maybe Ijust need to work in the capacity of rescuing refugees on the sea.

- Madonna rang. - STEVE: So, you're in Whole Foods.

CHILD GIGGLING

I'm in Whole Foods cos I was in West London. I get a phone call.

GIGGLING AND CHAT IN BACKGROUND

- STEVE: People! - And it was Scott.

Basically, Madonna wants to do a track with me and Nicki Minaj

and she's gonna sing at the Super Bowl in January and she wants me to do it.

WOMAN: Oh, my God!

With Nicki Minaj, too? Oh, my God! That’s crazy.

Italian, Sri Lankan and African American. Wow, that’s real crazy!

STEVE: So, what’s Madonna’s video about?

Everything American.

Haven‘t you realised? The candles in this room are called Yankee Candles.

I'm dressed as a cheerleader in a Madonna video

and it's sponsored by Coca-Cola.

- Is it? - And it's about NFL.

I was scheduled to appear in Madonna's video.

But I was already working on my own video.

And itjust so happened they both came out the same day, within ten minutes apart.

Hey, America!

I L... U... V... Madonna

I Y... O... U... You wanna

I I see you coming And I don't wanna know your name

I L... U... V... Madonna

I I see you coming And you‘re gonna have to change the game

I Y... O... U... You wanna I

I Live fast, die young Bad girls do it well

I My chain hits my chest When I’m banging on the dashboard

I My chain hits my chest When I'm banging on the radio

I Get back Get down

I Pull me closer If you think you can hang

I Live fast, die young Bad girls do it well

I Live fast, die young Bad girls do it well I

AMBIENT STADIUM SOUNDS

BACKGROUND CHATTER

CHEERING

This is like being at school. Back of the class. Back of the school.

Back of the line. Always the last one. Really late. Still getting dressed.

I L... U... V... Madonna

I Y... O... U... You wanna

I Sw sw swag Shh No one gives you this

I It‘s supersonic, bionic, uranium

I So, I break 'em off tricks

I I pray that it sticks

I I'ma say this once, yeah I don't give a shit

I Don't play that stupid game Cos I‘m a different kind of girl... I

The New York Giants just won the Super Bowl,

but it was rapper M.I.A. who has a lot of people talking.

She flipped off the audience during her Super Bowl performance with Madonna.

That's why she got me in, cos I can say the shit she can’t.

Exactly, it’s true! I'm the fucked-up part of her brain.

LAUGHTER

Everyone give the finger.

WOMAN: I Every record sounds the same You’ve got to step into my world

I Give me all your luvin' Give me your love I

— Hi! — Hi, we’re with the NFL.

- Hello. - Hi!

We just needed to talk about that.

MA YA : Yes?

MAN: It means everyone’s gonna be talking about it.

MAYA: Can Ijust get...? We 're still getting dressed.

- Can we get just like five minutes? — We're just waiting for my manager.

She's still changing her clothes.

TV AND COMMENTS IN BACKGROUND

LAUGHTER

We just ran out.

WOMAN IN BACKGROUND: Let me... I need to put you on to her.

Sugu, you don‘t understand how fast we dashed there, with bodyguards.

We got all the bodyguards to cover us.

WOMAN: Maya, Dyana wants to talk to you.

— Dyana! — DYANA: Hi!

- Come here! Did you see me? - No.

Did you see me on the stage, dancing?

- No? - No.

BEN: What? We said, ’There’s Mommy, there’s Mommy, there's Mommy! ’

I was crying.

You just wanted to leave and see Mummy?

Yeah, I don’t like the Super Bowl.

- You didn't like the Super Bowl? - No.

(CHUCKLES) That's my boy! Come here and give me a hug.

Well, the Super Bowl doesn‘t like me now. ALL TALK AT ONCE

They just stood in our dressing room. They went, ’We're here to talk'.

We were like, 'What about?’ And they go, 'This‘.

BEN: People liked it. SON BABBLES

It was pretty epic.

- What have I done? - I think it’s cool.

That's what I do. I have a song out this week called Bad Girls.

I think it’s appropriate.

Oh, my God! All right. So, we‘ve done that.

WOMAN: Hold that down. Put your foot out. Good boy! High five!

Dyana just gave me a bollocking. She was like, ’Don't talk to no one‘.

SIGHS

Are people just gonna freak out at me in the street?

STEVE: No, I think what Dyana was saying is, this is a really special thing.

Which... as she was talking, it kinda surprised me.

But apparently, yeah, it is.

REPORTER: What motivated her to do such a thing? Who was she mad at?

Why don‘t you wave? Just wave at everybody. Or wink.

FEMALE REPORTER: Where do you lay the blame? Is it NBC, the NFL or... ?

- Or anybody else. — Orjust flat on M.I.A.

Joining us to discuss this and other topics, pro bowler, Josh Blanchard.

- Thanks for being with us. — Thank you for having me.

- Did you see the show? - I did.

- What did you think? — A little shocking. It was blatant.

Everybody could see it, like she did it on purpose.

It was disturbing to me and my wife.

Madonna has this opportunity to be in front of the world again.

She looks amazing, she is an amazing performer. We all love those songs.

And she chooses M.I.A.? Not even an American.

Give me a break! Did you see Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert?

They were fantastic! Why can ’t we have some America in our football?

MA YA: I was centre screen for approximately 15 seconds.

And they want 15 million for it.

It‘s worse than being a murderer.

A brown person...

standing up there, who is not sucking dick

is more offensive... than murdering someone.

They want me like Aziz Ansari. Like... MIMICS AZIZ ANSARI: Love it!

STEVE: What’s the official... line from you on why you did it?

There isn‘t one. I was like, ‘It‘s a spiritual gesture‘.

(CLEARS THROAT) And was it?

It was a bit insane, you know.

Seeing Madonna, who I grew up looking at as, like,

this person who is supposed to be a strong female,

be like bossed around by these cowboys.

You know. And like, 'spin around, bend over, spin around, change your shoes‘.

You know, 'I‘m not sure about that outflt'.

They were sexist, misogynist, racist. You know, they were all of these things

and I thought, 'Wow, if no one else is gonna fucking do it‘. You know.

And be like... And own it...

And be like, ‘What is going on?‘

Then fuck all this shit, I wanna go home.

Yeah, when Mummy was your size, Mummy drank this all the time.

— I want one. - No, that‘s how I lost all my teeth.

- What does it taste like? — It tastes like... It‘s just too sweet.

- What does it taste like? - It tastes like medicine, actually.

If you eat it now, you‘d think it tastes like medicine.

Ooh, look! Food!

Yum!

Yum!

- For me and you? — Mm.

My dad.

PRESENTER: The United Nations has said the death toll

in those final months of war in Sri Lanka could reach 40 to 70,000 Tamil civilians.

A staggering number, considering the size of the terrain.

Our first reading is by the British Tamil artist, M.I.A., who speaks on behalf

“I was returning alone from shopping.“

"My husband was at home looking after the child."

"I saw a white van parked in a lane by my house.“

"Though I thought it‘s odd a white van was there,

it didn‘t cause me any concern at that point."

“As I passed the van, four, five men got out and demanded to know my name."

"I started to scream, but they put a cloth over my mouth

to silence the noise."

“I started to scream and yelled, 'You can't take me. I have a child‘."

"When I got to the UK, I called my relative here

and she came to see me within two days of my arrival.“

"I told her, in general terms, some of the things that had happened."

SHE BECOMES TEARFUL

"And...“ (CLEARS THROAT)

"We started with my war experiences and I was confronted by her response."

"And I told her that I‘d been kidnapped, burned by cigarettes."

"She could see scars on my arms."

"And I told her that I was raped, hit with a wire, head shoved in the water

and a plastic bag with petrol put over my head, and kicked with boots."

"I actually didn‘t tell her everything because she was already crying."

(WHISPERS) Thank you.

This is my first time at something like this.

- So, that's why I wasn‘t really... - WOMAN: An activist?

- I don’t know this world at all, so... - You don ’t know the world of...?

- The world of behind-the—scenes activism. — You did a goodjob.

I‘m the one that goes out and shouts loads of stuff and gets in trouble.

It was very real and it was very human and that’s what matters.

Thank you.

As a first-generation person that lived through a war

came as a refugee, that is now a pop star, what are the goalposts?

It’s amazing that in one lifetime you have to come and figure out so many things.

But... I’ve made it all fit together.

HORNS TOOT

The whole video is planned for one song called What’s Up With That.

It’s all about refugees.

So, first verse, second verse... ending. Right?

All the pictures you see are real, of them actually trying to cross.

Everybody about them like they don’t have a face

but there is millions of them.

GENERAL CHAT

Yeah, Jerry? We're just getting all the green ones over there.

- All the...? - Green ones. Those ones.

I need to keep the immigrant story in all my work.

Always. Because that is what I ’m trying to make sense of.

We’re used as a scapegoat for Brexit. We ’re used as a scapegoat to build a wall.

But people have always mixed and mingled and moved

and interesting things happen because of it.

You don’t know. That kid could access a 505 machine and a microphone

and become Michael Jackson. You don’t know.

WORKERS TALKING

(SPEAKS TAMIL)

We ’re leaving. Back to London.

And I feel really nervous.

Kinda don't wanna go to the land of The Spice Girls. I’m just not ready.

(SINGS IN TAMIL)

Subtitles by Screen Language, 2018