“It is actually recorded throughout almost all 12 provinces of the Netherlands,” the director says about the geographical reach of the film, which is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund. “I tried to avoid more familiar places, like the bigger cities, that is why most of the material comes from the borders of the country, close to Belgium and Germany.” His stalking grounds are all places where film crews are rarely, if ever, seen. We actually never see the director, but we do catch a sight of his shadow.

“I believe the vast majority of documentaries today, including those that are labelled ‘creative’ or artistic’, to me are mostly exploring extraordinary subjects using ordinary forms,” Hendrikx reflects. Often, such documentaries are solemn, unself-conscious and predictable. He wants to “subvert’ and “satirise” the form. The project has its roots in experiments he conducted 10 years ago in Belgium when he would film bypassers on the streets. Now, he ventures towards subjects’ homes.

“What is the meaning of this?” perplexed householders ask him when he turns up at their homes. He does not answer. They look at him in bemusement. Some shut the door in the face. Others laugh, are intrigued or even offer him coffee. His one rule is that once they open the door, they are the ones calling the shots. He does what they tell him. Some invite him inside, with encounters sometimes lasting for hours.

“The first time I did it, I felt an exhilarating mixture between shame and power,” Hendrikx describes his feelings on ringing the bell of the first stranger. There was instant excitement regarding the encounters, but the director also wondered if he was being intrusive and immature in approaching all these people he had never met and knew nothing about. 

“Every time I would appear on someone’s doorstep, there was always this voice in my head saying ‘what kind of immature nonsense are you up to?"

Yes, there are ethical issues. These subjects never agreed to be filmed. However, this is the whole point: they could not know if Hendrikx would approach them. “That was kind of risky, as I could not obtain release forms any time before we were already quite far in the editing suite.” However, when he later explained his concept to them, the subjects all eventually gave permission for the footage to be used. The director was surprised, and relieved, that he generally was not met with aggression.

“Of course, there were exceptions,” Hendrikx says, as he talks about the odd occasion when somebody attacked him and another tried to take his camera away. However, it was far more common for him to be treated with old fashioned Dutch hospitality. There were also some surreal moments, as somebody left Hendrikx alone at his home, while he went off to do something else.

“I would say this is the most personal work I have been involved in so far,” Hendrikx says, as he reflects on A Man and a Camera. “When I was filming, it was also kind of like a performance for me. I tried to be like a robot, but when I was in these situations, I really had to act out of intuition much more than any other films I had made.”

The documentary was made by Aventura Film, which was recently found by Hendrikx together with sales agent Wouter Jansen and director Ena Sendijarević (Take Me Somewhere Nice), and Boondocs. Sales is done by Square Eyes. Hendrikx currently works on ideas leaning towards fiction and plans to release his new documentary Rules Of War, which is co-produced by Lemming Film and Aventura Film.
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SEE NL spoke to Guido Hendrikx in April 2021 on the occasion of the film's premiere at CPH:DOX. This interview has been updated for the IFFR June edition.