DOComedy Now

At the annual seminar for the Danish documentary community at European Film College in Ebeltoft this weekend, there were – as usual – a lot of good films, guests and discussions. The seminar was closed with an “oral essay” by renowned editor  Niels Pagh Andersen  (" Betrayal " (1994),  " The Act of Killing ” (2012) and many, many other great films): “Have We Become Too Good at Telling Stories?” He was addressing the notion that maybe the urge to tell a story is overshadowing other aspects of documentary film making. This "song" was inspired by the seminar and I cannot really explain why I had to do it as lyrics to a song. But maybe it’s a blues…(så passer versefødderne også lidt bedre)... and surely I should have been working instead. Story With a Capital S (Semi-fast blues in F minor) A drama is quite entertaining Documentaries much lesser so So we brought on the techniques of Story But is Story reality’s foe? We dramatize life in our movies...

Drifting clouds – either as a metaphor or anything else (maybe unless it’s actually a film about clouds). Footage out the window of a moving vehicle (there must be other ways of illustrating movement). A voice-over saying things we just learned or will learn in a second. Waves (same as with clouds). Someone looking out of a window in a concrete apartment building on other concrete apartment buildings. Music that sounds like a John Williams-score. Music by anyone with a hipster beard if they need to be in the frame. Time-lapse footage of anything. A dog looking cute and forlorn. Things I will really try to get into a documentary : Someone making a fool of himself (myself included). Naked people (nothing to do with the above - or maybe everything to do with the above). Pigs - preferably with wings. Illegal surveillance footage of the hoodlums outside my windows. My one remaining testicle. Sense (if applicable) Poetry (...