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PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Davis Guggenheim transformed by making ‘Malala’ documentary
SANDY COHEN
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Davis
Guggenheim has made
movies about world lead-
ers (Barack Obama, Al
Gore) and rock stars (U2,
Jimmy Page, Jack White),
but it’s his new film about
a girl and her dad that af-
fected him most.
Of course, Malala Yousafzai
is no ordinary girl. Guggen-
heim spent a year and a
half with the Nobel Peace
Prize winner and her family
to make the documentary
“He Named Me Malala,”
opening Friday. He came
away deeply moved.
“She’s my favorite,” the
Oscar-winning documen-
tarian (“An Inconvenient
Truth”) said. “You’re not
supposed to have favor-
ites, but she’s incredible.
I’ve fallen in love with this
family.”
Even more than Malala’s
activism, Guggenheim was
inspired by the Yousafzai
family dynamic, how they
value tradition, education
and fun.
“I wanted my family to be
more like their family,” said
the 51-year-old filmmaker,
who has three children
with wife Elisabeth Shue. “I
wanted my family to have
Clooney, Coen Brothers at
‘O Brother’ special screening
JOHN CARUCCI
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — George
Clooney joined the Coen
brothers and stars Tim Blake
Nelson and John Turturro at
a special 15th-anniversary
screening of “O Brother,
Where Art Thou?” at the
New York Film Festival.
Clooney remembered he
had just left a successful
television series when the
opportunity came up.
“Listen I was an actor com-
ing off of ‘ER,’ so the idea
that the Coen brothers
said, ‘Do you want to do
a movie?’ And I was like,
‘Yeah, I’ll do a movie with
the Coen brothers, are you
kidding? They do great
films.’ I just couldn’t believe Clooney and I have no
my luck,” Clooney told The
Associated Press Tuesday
night after arriving at the
In this Dec. 17, 2013 photo released by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, director Davis Gug-
genheim appears in Birmingham, England with Malala Yousafzai, and Ziauddinuddin Yousafzai
during the filming of the documentary, “He Named Me Malala,” released in U.S. theaters on Fri-
day.
this joyous love for each
other, this very expressive
sense of love.”
“He Named Me Malala” is
a personal portrait of the
teen activist, who was shot
in the head by the Taliban
in 2012 for advocating for
girls’ education in Pakistan. my daughters are mysteri-
She recovered and contin-
ued her work globally, ad-
dressing the United Nations
in 2013 and winning the No-
bel Peace Prize last year.
event.
Clooney admits he felt a
geographic familiarity with
the characters.
“I grew up in Kentucky and
I kind of know these guys a
little bit,” he said.
Ethan Coen and his brother,
Joel, wrote the screenplay,
based on “The Odyssey”
by Homer, and directed it.
Ethan talked about what
inspired them to make the
movie.
“Three guys chained to-
gether, that’s a kind of a
genre and we just tried to
picture three dogs chained
together, escaping from
the chain gang,” he said.
“I tracked it through Tim
Blake Nelson and George
idea why that struck us as
funny or appealing, but it
did,” Coen said.
The film centers on Malala’s
close relationship with her
father, Ziauddin Yousafzai,
a teacher and public
speaker who knew his
daughter’s gender didn’t
limit her potential.
“I have two daughters, and
ous to me,” Guggenheim
said. “I want to know what
he did, what she did in
that relationship. I want to
unpack that relationship
While the film was critically
acclaimed and enjoyed
moderate success, the
soundtrack was a smash
hit. Produced by T Bone
Burnett, it was made up of
artists from the American
roots music scene that in-
cluded Alison Krauss, Ralph
Stanley, Gillian Welch and
Emmylou Harris. It sold 8 mil- the music of ‘Inside Llewyn
lion albums and earned a
Grammy Award for album
of the year.
“It had a really lasting qual- from the film, “I Am a Man
ity,” Clooney said.
Coen loved how the music
and the film unexpectedly
came together, but also
discussed the tricky mar-
riage of the two.
“It works well together,
when it works. And we’ve
always been enthusias-
tic about certain kinds of
music, like the music in this
Thursday 1 October 2015
Army in 1880 and was killed
for being so outspoken.
He followed Malala and
her father as they traveled
to Kenya, Nigeria and Jor-
Associated Press dan to support children’s
rights. Guggenheim also
somehow.” filmed Malala at home,
He learned about Mala- where she does her home-
la’s family history of public work, teases her brothers
speaking: Her grandfather and blushes as she looks at
was a cleric and her dad pictures of Roger Federer
has long defended educa- online.
tion and liberty in the face But even after hundreds
of religious extremism. The of interviews and count-
filmmaker learned about less hours spent with the
the Pashtun heroine she’s Yousafzai family, Gug-
is named for: Malalai of genheim says 18-year-old
Maiwand, a brave young Malala is still “a complete
woman who rallied Afghani mystery to me.”
troops against the British “Clearly, she’s a combina-
tion of all these wonderful
things: her father’s dream
for her, her mother’s in-
tense spirituality,” he said.
“But also (it’s) just who
she is.”A world icon and a
regular teenage girl, she’s
Guggenheim’s favorite.
“This movie has been my
favorite movie because it
really has changed my life.
It blows me away,” he said.
“I want what they have. I
want to be the father that
Zia is. I want my daugh-
ters to feel the love that
he gives Malala. I want
them to feel that love and
respect.”q
Actor John Turturro, left, actor Tim Blake Nelson, director Ethan
Coen, actor George Clooney and director Joel Coen attend
a special 15th anniversary screening of, “O Brother, Where Art
Thou?”, during the New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall on
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015, in New York.
Associated Press
movie,” he said. “It’s kind of Turturro, does not include
American roots music and Clooney’s voice. It was ac-
tually bluegrass musician
Davis,’” which Coen said Dan Tyminski.
is kind of a descendent of
that. One of biggest hits Clooney told reporters
he originally recorded the
of Constant Sorrow,” sung track, but after he came
by the fictional Soggy Bot- out of the recording booth,
tom Boys, which included producer Burnett just put
Clooney, Blake-Nelson and his head down and looked
away. q