A conversation with Stine Goya and Elvira Lind, the renowned Danish documentary filmmaker based in NYC.

1. Is there a feeling you recognise when you know someone’s story is yours to tell?

To me it feels very clear when I’m are in the right collaboration, but it’s also an enormous commitment. You need to carefully consider if you’re ready to spend years with this person and if you can stay curious about them the whole way through. That’s crucial. 

Everyone I have made a film about has stayed in my life and somehow become part of my own story.

2. Is intimacy something you cultivate consciously, or is it just how you move through the world?

I think it’s very much part of who I am. I started doing the work I do, where intimacy is such a central part, because that’s what happens when I grab a camera. That’s what interests me. I like honest, raw emotional stories. I’ll let other people do great sci-fi and action. That’s just not my strength.  

3. Before you had a camera, how did you express yourself?

Being a story teller was always part of who I am. From as early as I can remember I was drawing and telling stories and doing theater. I would write little plays and silly cabarets and force my friends and cousins to act in them for an audience. When I was a teenager my grandfather gifted me an old Nikon still camera and my world changed. I have been wanting to make films since. 

4. What does getting dressed say about you that your films don’t?

When I work on a shoot I dress practical, I am often a one-woman-band with many lenses and mics and I need pockets for my gear, I need to be invisible and to not overheat. Black sleeveless dresses with pockets are my go to. 

Then when I am done shooting I often like to wear bold colorful outfits to counterbalance being a fly on the wall.

5. I work to fixed seasons and deadlines. How do you hold space for a story to unfold on its own terms?

I used to let my work and my films define and pretty much dictate my life. I would patiently listen to where the story wanted to go and then chase them. But after becoming a mother to my two boys I changed my approach which has been challenging to adapt to but also inspired me to begin writing scripts and venture into narrative filmmaking.