Thursday, 18th February, New York: documentary time
The reason that we’re back here in New York is to have our brains scanned once again with Dr Helen Fisher and Dr Lucy Brown to see what has changed in the way that we feel about each other after all this time on the road.
In addition, we are being filmed by a Canadian documentary crew doing a programme on marriage. Specifically, ‘why do people still get married?’. They are talking to experts, and focusing on 3 young couples with different ideas about marriage. One of whom is little old us.
We land in New York, after a hideous 20 hour flight marathon from BA via Santiago and Toronto (?!), crash out then head out to meet Sue, the documentary producer and John, the cameraman, for dinner.
The dinner was exactly what my neurotic head needed. Having been very concerned in Buenos Aires that what we had done was of little interest to the outside world, Sue and John asked lots of questions, and listened to us chat and basically vent our concerns about what we are making as a documentary. Having both being in the documentary field for over 20 years, they soothed our troubled minds. Sue reassured us that noone really knows what they are doing (and anyone who pretends they do is not to be trusted…); that it’s vital – even though very very hard – to watch over every second of footage that you have shot because what you remember is always different from what you captured and you’ll be surprised (though it will take you ages); that we should give ourselves a break – and celebrate what we have, rather than berate ourselves for what we don’t. They listened, seemingly focused (thank you Sue and John) not to only our worries, but our naive methodology, and all in all, the dinner was the most useful and soothing that could have welcomed us to the city. After winging it throughout the trip, finally, we could have a heart to heart with the professionals.
