Arena

Episode Synopsis

Born in Sri Lanka in 1943, educated in Dulwich and now living in Canada, Michael Ondaatje has criss-crossed the world in a search for what he calls the 'unofficial story'. Ondaatje takes mythical characters like the outlaw Billy the Kid and the mysterious Buddy Bolden , father of New Orleans Jazz, and reconstructs their stories using 'prose, white space and photographs' with a style that has won him critical acclaim from all over the world. It is a style that has been described as 'cinematic, like a dream and like the notes that stuttered out of Buddy Bolden 's cornet'. Rob Walker , director of Dead Head and Blind Justice, evokes the elusive world of Michael Ondaatje through dramatisation and testimony from the author himself.