CPH:DOX 2013 Closing Award Ceremony
(Possible extract from an impossible book)
I tried putting down my glass, but the table was obscured by some pretty, young things who doesn’t really have anything to do with the documentary business but who always show up at parties like this. I wanted to go and talk to the Swedish director Anna Odell, whom I’d just seen in the crowd, but I never found the courage – partly since the free drinks were over after just one hour.
She didn’t win anything at the award ceremony which took place in this old theatre but I already knew that before I left my house. Somehow I must have been included on a mailing list for press releases or something because while putting on my make-up I received a mail with a list of all the winners.
Well, award shows are always something you want to get over with quickly if you are not up for anything (remind me to turn the prize down, should I ever get one – films are not a sporting event), and this year the arrangers had wisely decided to show us a short film instead of the 100-minutes things you sometimes have to sit through before you can get out in the bar. They treated us with Jørgen Leth’s “Life in Denmark” from 1971 which is rather swell (but am I the only one who thinks that we don’t exactly have to put Jørgen’s face on milk cartons like a missing child anymore? We must hail the masters, yes, but maybe we should give the man a small rest now?)
Anyway, I got rid of my glass without looking at any of the girls in particular, and luckily I’d taken my old pal who holds a real job so he sponsored the next couple of drinks. There were some loud music (live, it seemed) but the acoustics made regular conversation impossible, so a lot of people went down to the lobby.
My assignment was as usual to avoid saying stupid things to commissioning editors, magazine editors, producers and directors in case you’d want to work with them in the future. So luckily, I didn’t talk to Anna Odell, and luckily I pulled a Houdini when everybody moved location to the local bars.
See you all in 2014
I tried putting down my glass, but the table was obscured by some pretty, young things who doesn’t really have anything to do with the documentary business but who always show up at parties like this. I wanted to go and talk to the Swedish director Anna Odell, whom I’d just seen in the crowd, but I never found the courage – partly since the free drinks were over after just one hour.
She didn’t win anything at the award ceremony which took place in this old theatre but I already knew that before I left my house. Somehow I must have been included on a mailing list for press releases or something because while putting on my make-up I received a mail with a list of all the winners.
Well, award shows are always something you want to get over with quickly if you are not up for anything (remind me to turn the prize down, should I ever get one – films are not a sporting event), and this year the arrangers had wisely decided to show us a short film instead of the 100-minutes things you sometimes have to sit through before you can get out in the bar. They treated us with Jørgen Leth’s “Life in Denmark” from 1971 which is rather swell (but am I the only one who thinks that we don’t exactly have to put Jørgen’s face on milk cartons like a missing child anymore? We must hail the masters, yes, but maybe we should give the man a small rest now?)
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| These are pretty, young things with something to do with the business and therefore not the ones mentioned in the text. |
Anyway, I got rid of my glass without looking at any of the girls in particular, and luckily I’d taken my old pal who holds a real job so he sponsored the next couple of drinks. There were some loud music (live, it seemed) but the acoustics made regular conversation impossible, so a lot of people went down to the lobby.
My assignment was as usual to avoid saying stupid things to commissioning editors, magazine editors, producers and directors in case you’d want to work with them in the future. So luckily, I didn’t talk to Anna Odell, and luckily I pulled a Houdini when everybody moved location to the local bars.
See you all in 2014
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