A Man and a Camera

Imagine this: the doorbell rings, you open it, and in front of you is a man with a large video camera pointed at you. He waits for you to break the silence. In the experimental documentary A man and a camera, exactly this situation is the starting point. What to do? Wandering through Dutch residential areas, director Guido Hendrikx investigates how far he can go. A polite rejection, a door slammed shut, an invitation for a cup of tea; again and again the question is: how to respond to the uninvited guest? We see several front doors open and slowly an uneasy feeling bubbles up. Is it the camera that is disrupting, or the fact that the man behind it isn't talking? And is it appropriate to look shamelessly at people in these unguarded moments? This is how Hendrikx sucks his audience into the film. Because A man and a camera questions the relationship between man and camera just as much as the power relationship between maker, subject and audience.