The director expressed concern that younger generations lack a complete understanding of the systemic judicial failures surrounding the 1989 tragedy.
"My kids’ generation … they’ve never really understood what happened at Hillsborough. Kenny just stayed strong.
He didn’t leave, he didn’t go off to another club. He stayed and for him, it was all about the community," said Kapadia.
Kapadia recalled pitching the low-key production format to Dalglish during an in-person meeting at a European Champions League match.
"I said ‘I have a very particular way of working, Kenny, I don’t have a camera. We just meet.
We have a chat. I’ll record the sound.
I’ll ask you questions. You give me answers.
I go off and make it’. He goes, ‘no cameras?’
I’m like, ‘yeah, yeah, really low-key’. That was it," said Kapadia.
The filmmaker developed this specific archive-constructed methodology while working on his 2010 sports documentary about Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna.
"I spent a lot of time researching, and I just thought, there’s a better film here. There’s a much more original way to make a film," said Kapadia.
Kapadia avoided filmed interviews during his subsequent Oscar-winning project, Amy, to build trust with the late singer's inner circle.
"[Filmed interviews] would have been the worst thing ever. No one would have talked to me," said Kapadia.
The director utilized intimate audio and home videos to explore the complex factors surrounding the singer's untimely death.
"I wanted to show how amazing she was, and also to show how the industry and the media and family and boyfriends, that everyone somehow is involved in this very complex story," said Kapadia.
