So, yeah, you’re a film professor who gets the chance to live and work in Greece for three months. Are you going to make a film? Obviously. At least one. I am not here for the filmmaking–technically, I am here to teach a course on mythology and the films of Yorgos Lanthimos and other Weird Wave filmmakers–but I am not going to pass up such a singular opportunity. That would feel like a real waste.
Of course, filmmaking is often complex, time-consuming, and expensive. Whatever this project was going to be, it couldn’t be any of those things. It had to be simple, take up virtually no extra time, and cost next to nothing. The very straightforward approach to these limitations would be to make a documentary about our semester abroad program. It is an elegant solution, but it’s not one that I respond to emotionally. I very much appreciate a good documentary, but I have never really thought of myself as a documentarian. Even when I have been interested in a naturalist narrative style, I have never really felt the pull to make a doc.
But, most of you who know me know that I am y0ur man for fake documentary and found footage. When done well, these films tickle some deep interest on my part (the tension, I think, between reality and fantasy). Without a doubt, there are many films that use these tropes poorly, and I respect those of you who have simply been burned too many times by atrociously bad found footage horror. I get it.
But this is what I have to work with, and I think I am working with a very solid and effective premise. It is a fake documentary that is not at all fake right up until the moment when it very suddenly is, and my goal is for that moment to be seamless, invisible. If I can make that moment disappear for the average viewer, then I will be able to deliver the goods when it comes time for the big moment at the end of the film. It is a narrative sleight of hand that requires some basic planning and then some effective execution.
Yes, some of you are asking very good questions about the ethics of documentary filmmaking in this case. The students and my colleagues know what I am doing and are signing releases. Everyone seems excited about it. It makes the students eager to sit for an interview now and then.
I know this description is light on details about the “story,” and I’m afraid it’s going to stay that way. I don’t want to spoil the story at all. Suffice it to say that it is a fake documentary about semester you’ve been following on this blog, but throughout it all, the film professor is quietly engaged in a search for a prop from a famously unfinished horror movie by one of the lesser-known Greek Weird Wave filmmakers. Finding this prop might mean renewed professional prospects, but it also could be very dangerous. It’s valuable to all the wrong people.
Is it going to come together? I have no idea. I have hours and hours of beautiful footage. There is still a lot of work to be done on some key elements. I’m currently in a suspenseful sort of dance/negotiation for the mysterious prop. And there is no script. I’m going with my gut on this project.
If it works, it’s going to be amazing. If it fails, I’m pretty sure it’s still going to be a glorious failure (at least to me). In either case, I did the right thing by taking this artistic chance when I was presented with it.
Also, just because I couldn’t pass up the chance to share this, I include this photo of three whole shelves in the fantasy/scifi/horror section of Politeia Books in Athens. Three whole shelves devoted to Lovecraft in Modern Greek.