David Lynch

During my final exam in my documentary class my professor came up to me.

" Sorry for interrupting your test writing but I was wondering if you knew David Lynch is looking for someone to make a documentary about him?"

Me: " Yea I did read that. I like his new blues music"

Prof: " I really think you should enter the contest based on the work I have seen."

Me ( shocked face, opened mouth, blank stare):" umm Do you think I can move from student films to a documentary about David Lynch ? Do I have the skills necessary ? I mean this is THE DAVID LYNCH."

Prof: " Yes it is. I will email you the link today."

Me inside my head: David Lynch What? Me and David Lynch??? WHAT?!?

The rest of the day while toiling away at my work. Even during thethe incident when the film projector broke down and almost ate my current documentary film. ( which is about the ground.)
I was having daydreams of what kind of documentary I would make.

First I started off with things I would not do:
-Film digitally
- do some Cinema Verite bullshit where I just follow Lynch around then edit it. To quote the all mighty Herzog "the so-called Cinema Verité is devoid of verité. It reaches a merely superficial truth, the truth of accountants."
- No interviews with a static camera where people who know Lynch talk about him.
- NO REALISTIC FLASHBACK FOOTAGE. Where I make Lynch tell me stories of his past then I re -enact it.
- No B-Roll footage of excerpts of films past. I mean you should just go watch his films because there is no reason for you not. They are good I swear. Especially Eraserhead watch that one twice.

Then I moved into things I would do:

- Get Lynch to sing his "new blues" as the soundtrack. I mean he should make the music to his own documentary.
- Footage of me and Lynch filming weird stuff with old school cameras. Maybe get ahold of a old russian 35mm camera I have been fantasizing about.
- footage of us in doing transcendental meditation then a surrealist experimental short where we explain transcendental meditation with images strung together.
- Voice Over will only be of me or Lynch and weird poems we will write together. Through mediation on an array of subjects that mean something to us or mean absolutely nothing. Regardless it will be there. everywhere, all the time.
- Then Lynch and I could develop the film together by hand. Maybe put in random chemicals in the buckets or hand paint some frames.

So really these are the reasons why I should probably not do a Lynch documentary. I would piss off alot of people because I would make a Lynch documentary where me and Lynch do Lynchy things together. Not autobiographical but in the moment exploring. People will want other things. People will want narrative, they will want lynch history and they will want Lynch facts.

All I have in my heart is this fantasy of me and Lynch in a sort of Lynch at cinema camp where we eat smores, meditate and do filmy arts and crafts.


My professor sent me the email 10 minutes after talking to me. It follows:

"Here you go, Kim: http://genero.tv/

A suggestion: make the film anyway. Even if you don't enter it, it could be a good exercise.

Hope you're having fun with the exam.

Mitch "


These are the exact three faces I have been making since learning about this opportunity: