Dream big and you will never fail completely

Why did I start a film, not knowing anything?

It all began in Copenhagen, where I called home from 2010 to 2014. In a stroke of serendipity, I stumbled upon a free co-working space at the studio of Jacob Aue Sobol, a Magnum photographer driven by a passion I had never encountered before. He was a truly loving human with wounds similar to my own, wounds that seemed more manageable, more bearable, when immersed in creative work.

As I watched Jacob and the others at the space pour themselves into their projects, stubbornly focused on unearthing a greater truth in the intimate moments they captured, I learned that if you look closely enough at an idea, willing to lose yourself in it, you might just find an original angle to tell your story. But knowing and doing are two different things, and what I needed was a project to lose myself in, a way to forget about the pain. That's when I decided to make a movie.

Of course, I had to learn more about the art of storytelling. I needed to shed the misconceptions and fundamental errors I held about story structure, the importance of point of view, the choice of protagonist, and the true subject matter (which, as obvious as it may seem, is often elusive). Having never worked with video before, I knew I had to listen to those around me. In fact, the entire process of making a documentary while simultaneously undergoing a kind of therapy became an exercise in listening, mutual understanding, and collaboration.

Here, I'd like to share some of the lessons I learned from creating Yo Galgo, from music production to thinking big, and the joy of working with incredible professionals on this project. Without them, we wouldn't be where we are today.