day is done
 

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Film details

Original title: Day is Done*
Original language: Dutch
Subtitled language: English
Homepage: www.newtonfilm.nl/dayisdone/
Running time: 30 minutes
Date of completion: November 2010
Date/ place of first screening: November 2010/ Amsterdam
World Premiere: IDFA 2010 Competition Dutch Documentary
Country of Filming: The Netherlands
Country of Origin: The Netherlands
website: www.newtonfilm.nl/dayisdone / http://dayisdone.newtonfilm.nl

Technical information
Preview copy:
DVD PAL, region 0, 30 minutes

Exhibition format:
Digibeta PAL, 16:9 (anamorphic), 1.66, English sub, color, 31 min, Dolby Digital stereo

 

 

Logline

Day is Done* is an intimate and confronting documentary film about the extraordinary daily routine of a man who hasn’t been outdoors for two years.

Short synopsis

While working a summer job as a domestic helper, the young filmmaker Guido Hendrikx becomes fascinated by Peter Oud, who hasn't been outside for two years. Peter always gives him the same shopping list: "Six packs of strong rolling tobacco, 72 cans of beer, one ham, one cheese." In his directorial debut, Hendrikx offers up an extremely personal, in-your-face portrait of Peter as his life slowly slips away. Peter agreed to be filmed in the most uncomfortable situations, which viewed in hindsight would be his last signs of life. Peter Oud died in February 2010.

Short synopsis (alternate)

Day is Done* is an intimate and confronting documentary film about the extraordinary daily routine of a man who hasn’t been outdoors for two years.
The young director got to know Peter Oud through his side line job at Home- care, where he saw an impressive shopping list when they first met: six packages of strong rolling tobacco, 72 cans of beer, one ham, one cheese.
In an extremely personal way we experience how Peters' life is slowly slipping away. Peter died in 2010.

Synopsis (long)

While working a summer job as a domestic helper, the young filmmaker Guido Hendrikx becomes fascinated by Peter Oud, who hasn't been outside for two years. Peter always gives him the same shopping list: "Six packs of strong rolling tobacco, 72 cans of beer, one ham, one cheese." In his directorial debut, Hendrikx offers up an extremely personal, in-your-face portrait of Peter as his life slowly slips away. In Peter, Hendrikx saw a Sisyphus-like figure, such as the one Albert Camus describes in his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus." Camus concludes with the statement, "One must imagine Sisyphus happy," for "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart." Is the man who puts away enormous quantities of alcohol, always opens the door with the same greeting and always tells the same old jokes perhaps not as miserable as he seems? Peter agreed to be filmed in the most uncomfortable situations, which viewed in hindsight would be his last signs of life. At one point, he tells Hendrikx that "It would be nice to know people could see that there are people living a life like me." Peter Oud died in February 2010.



 
 

 

a NEWTON film by Guido Henrikx
30 minutes, November 2010

director, cinematography & editing
Guido Hendrikx

advise, editing & (post-) production by
Ton van Zantvoort

music composed by
Jacko Oudesluijs
Guido Hendrikx
Martijn van Geffen

special thanks to:
Peter Oud
Martijn van Geffen
Oud’s family
Elise de Groot
and everybody that made this film possible

financial support
Gemeente Eindhoven

copyrights 2010 NEWTON film/ Guido Hendrikx

 
 

‘One must imagine Sisyphus happy’

Sisyphus - a mythological character - was doomed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, repeating this throughout eternity. The gods who condemned Sisyphus had thought there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

The better I got to know Peter, the more I started to see Sisyphus. The house he never left, the typical grocery list, the absurd amount of alcohol and tobacco he consumed, the television he never switched off, the funny way he opened the front door every visit, the humoristic stories he kept repeating: every visit seemed an exact copy of the previous one.

In his essay Sisyphus Myth Albert Camus describes Sisyphus as the personification of the absurdity of human life. Are the workmen of today, fulfilling the same tasks one day after the other, less absurd then Sisyphus? In my interpretation Sisyphus embodies the routine of life.

Camus ends his essay with the sentence 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy'. Because, according to Camus, ‘the struggle of Sisyphus itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart’. Is Sisyphus unhappy at the moments of struggling, walking up the hill, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? Or lays the tragic in his way back, walking down to his rock, being conscious of his fate?

Do we have to imagine Sisyphus happy? It's to you to judge.


 

NEWTON film Company Profile

 

 

About NEWTON film

NEWTON film produces independent creative documentary films with a social, economical or cultural perspective. NEWTON film 's have been selected and awarded on the world 's biggest documentary and film festivals. Films have been co produced with or broadcasted by the Dutch VPRO, Al Jazeera and TV3. The company is founded in 2005 by Ton van Zantvoort, who is the director of awarded films as GRITO de PIEDRA and 'a BLOOMING BUSINESS'.


About the Director:

Guido Hendrikx (1987) is an upcoming talented Dutch filmmaker. Day is Done* is his documentary directing debut, inspired by philosopher Albert Camus and shot between 2008 and 2010. After his secondary education, a two-months lasting study of medicines and a period of traveling and working abroad, Hendrikx went to Utrecht University in 2007. There he studied Liberal Arts & Sciences, mainly following courses on film, media, journalism and philosophy. During these years his interest in filmmaking grew, enrolling at the Amsterdam Film Academy in September 2010. Hendrikx is honored to have the world premiere of Day is Done* at IDFA 2010.


Guido Hendrikx, 04-12-1987, Eindhoven

Education:
2010 - present NFTA - Amsterdam School of Arts
2007 - 2010 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Utrecht University
2006 - 2006 Medicines - Leiden University

Filmography:
Day is Done* (’30, 2010 World Premiere at IDFA 2010)
Sense 393 ( ‘8, 2008, screened at International Amsterdam Film Festival)

 
 
         

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