Where the Condors Fly

During a master class at IDFA 2006, director Victor Kossakovksy drew up 10 rules for documentary filmmaking. The second of these rules, "Don't film if you have something to say," was discussed at length by Chilean director Carlos Klein and Kossakovsky in one of their talks about documentary as an art form. Just like with fiction films, there are many different opinions - and even sets of rules - on how to make a documentary. Klein explores these limitations and possibilities in a film about how another filmmaker makes a documentary - a film like a Russian matryoshka doll, containing several smaller dolls, as Klein himself describes it. The two directors met by chance when Kossakovsky needed a location scout in Patagonia for his most recent documentary, Klein then followed Kossakovsky around the world as he made the film. The resultis a film within a film, in which the student Klein observes and learns from the playful master Kossakovsky, reflecting on his own approach in voice-over.