“The Kid Lukas Forchammer grew up in a hippie commune, where he writes a song called 7 Years that he believes to be a hit. His record label doesn’t agree and won’t release it. Lukas proves them wrong as the song becomes a massive world hit and earns him 3 Grammy nominations. A victory like that should make most people happy but while Lukas grows into a father and man he struggles a lot with that and dealing with the ambivalence of success. Maybe it has to do with the loss of his own father who he set out to do this with?”
So you’re back at HotDocs this year! Tell me about your previous visit here and what your experience was like.
Back in 2006 I filmed The Red Chapel in North Korea and edited into a film that premiered at HotDocs in 2009. Mads and I had a great time in Toronto and it was such a great city and festival to hang out in. I especially remember this mexican punk rock bar that had the hottest wings in town…and nice tequila. So yes I have been before but this is my first movie as a Director at HotDocs. Very Excited – I wish I could physically go.
How did you get your start in the business and what have you worked on in the past?
I grew up skateboarding and playing music myself and have pretty much managed to expand from that scene. Some of my friends made a living out of music. I did their videos and got enough attention from that to make it into the Danish National Broadcast which became a great playground and professional start in the business. They believed in me and gave me a lot of freedom. I still often work with music, performance and comedy and I put great honor into keeping filmmaking my passion as well as my bread and butter.
How did 7 YEARS come together?
I love music docs like Bob Dylans DON’T LOOK BACK, Red Hot Chili Peppers FUNKY MONKS and Kings of Leons TALIHINA SKY. Ever since I started shooting docs I’ve been on the look out for the right subject and story to unfold in a feature length. By coincidence I found Lukas Graham very early on in their musical career and once I started shooting, their journey took off in totally unpredicted ways. I convinced Lukas and his management to keep going and 7 years later I thought we had footage enough to put a pretty epic story together.
What keeps you going while making a project? What drives you?
I must admit that I’m often driven by reality and how a character’s life unfolds. I’m not a fan of staging scenes and prefer not having to tell in retrospect. At best I believe documentaries are Cinema Verite so I often spend a lot of time waiting for the right moments to occur and often follow paths that lead nowhere. So when magic happens and scenes unfold in perfect little patterns and fits into larger sequences it just feels so rewarding for me.
What was your biggest challenge with creating this doc, and what was the moment that was the most rewarding to you?
I think it was really hard at first to figure Lukas out as a character. He was an actor as a child and can easy try and pull tricks on you and take the lead. At the same time he is very shielded so to win his trust and let me do things my way took a while but then he is very loyal. I believed in the song 7 Years as much as he did so for an instance when Rob Knox calls it out as an evergreen before it’s even recorded. THAT was an amazing moment. Maybe not so much at the time as seen in retrospect and I still get emotional now and then watching it.
Let’s get technical! Tell me about the cameras-slash-equipment you used and the post-production process.
I started shooting back in 2013 and I had built a pretty good setup out of my 5D Mark III with a Tascam sound recorder attached underneath. But when you then add a shotgun mic on top of that and put it on a monopod with a movable head it becomes almost a little wobbly totem stick with many unpredictable flaws. A few years later I was happy to move on to a Sony FS7 where sound and image were ones again integrated in the same machine. I still believe some of the best looking scenes were shot on the 5D though and some really crucial scenes were actually shot on my phone..!!! Sound and everything. I’m not going to tell which ones cause if you can’t tell you shouldn’t know. Editing was done on Avid as all the editors coming out of the Danish film school are working on Avid. Sound and color wise I can’t remember what programs we were using this time cause when it comes to that I’m all “Rick Rubin” sitting in the chair attempting to channel ideas through to my patient sound and color artists. I love that part of the process and I had a party doing foley and other fun stuff with our sound designer Jacques.
What are you looking forward to the most about showing your work at HotDocs?
HotDocs is our international release and I’m very curious and excited about the response. Danish cinema is often believed to be very up and close and I think it goes for my movie too. I believe internationally there has been a tendency of “showing it all” these last couple of years especially in music documentaries but even that can feel staged to me. I mean the mindset of wanting to do something honest and real from the “VIP lounge” has become so accepted. So it’s very hard to do something honest and real now as people are so self aware. I think that tendency comes from social media where it’s come il faut for famous people to show it all by now. But when that “filterless” self revealing becomes staged and self aware, is it really that real then?
I’m not sure where I’m going with this but I feel I got the best of a very trusty and open Lukas shot taking off during a time where that was less common. He has for sure revealed a big part of his soul to me when we had no idea where it was all going. We can now share that with the world and I hope people will be amazed by the mind blowing journey it has been.
Of course this is an unpredictable time having this show virtually. How do you feel about movies being shown in this format & do you feel this is right, or do you wish to have a more traditional theatrical release?
From an ego centered view I would just have loved to be in Toronto and in the cinema to watch the movie with the audience. That is always super special and rewarding to feel and hear the laughter and emotions unfold simultaneously in the room. I’m sure though that something good will come from this and hopefully I’ll feel the feedback from elsewhere.
Where is the doc going next?
As Lukas Graham has a global audience I believe the movie should be out everywhere. I have his fans write to me from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Korea etc etc.all waiting for it to come out so I believe it’ll have a long and wide life just as his music.
What is the one thing that you would say to someone wishing to get into filmmaking, either short or long format, especially now as things are changing at such a fast rate?
If you’re not familiar with editing, then start editing your scenes as soon as you start shooting. Don’t just shoot a bunch and hope for someone to put it together at some point. I personally benefit a lot myself from diving into the material through editing. It’s like jamming with a band and you’ll always discover unforeseen things while going through material that’ll inspire your paths and development throughout the story. To me it’s mind blowing that you can basically shoot a movie on your phone that’ll look great blown up on a cinema screen. So if you believe you have a story, you’re basically good to go…GO!
And finally, what is your favourite documentary of all time and why?
Oh, tough one! I would almost say some of the docs mentioned earlier but in 2003 Spike Jonze and Ty Evans did a masterpiece called “Yeah Right!” It’s a mix between performance, doc and little fictional skits. Spike’s early playfull directing also seen in “Mouse” and his music videos have just been such an inspiration to me so if that goes as a documentary that will be my answer this time. I also believe Roman Gavras’ “A cross The Universe” to be super entertaining but is that really a documentary? …so maybe after all one of the ones mentioned earlier. Funky Monks, direct cinema, Black & White 16 mm from 1991? YES!
7 YEARS OF LUKAS GRAHAM is now streaming on HotDocs!
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