Asif Kapadia on Co-Directing Roger Federer Documentary ‘Twelve Final Days’: ‘It Felt Different to Anything I’ve Done Before’
12.06.2024 - 00:21
/ variety.com
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Producer Joe Sabia first encountered tennis legend Roger Federer in 2019 for Vogue’s “73 Questions” series. Sabia enjoyed the interview and kept in touch with his team. Three years later, as Federer looked to retire from the sport as a professional player, Sabia was brought into his offices.
Federer was planning to officially announce the news via his Instagram page with an audio message accompanying the post. His team pondered if Federer’s retirement should be filmed. But Sabia responded, “Yes,” believing “it’d be a mistake not to.’” As conversations went back and forth, the idea was that the video would be stripped back, private, under the radar, and like Federer himself, effortless.
So, Sabia used two cameras, and the idea was to shoot an 8 to 12-minute film. “If Roger doesn’t want anyone to see it, I’m completely fine doing this, knowing that it’s going to be just for friends and family,” Sabia said. The next day, he rushed to the B&H Photo store and bought $15,000 worth of camera equipment and hopped on a plane to Switzerland.
Along with filming the announcement, Sabia ended up filming Federer’s last twelve days on the court as he said farewell to fans at the 2022 Laver Cup tournament in London. But that moment turned into something bigger: “Federer: Twelve Final Days,” coming to Prime Video on June 20, is an intimate and emotional portrait of those final days on the circuit as a professional player. Enter documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia.
Normally, Kapadia works solo; this was the first time he’d have a doubles partner in Sabia. “It’s fun to do things differently. Joe had done all that work, had the relationship, shot it, was there in the room, cut it, and then did a version of a
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