KATALOGTEKST - ENGLISH BELOW
Når katastrofen er sket, når bomberne og våbnene er blevet tyste, tænder dokumentaristen Doug Aubrey sit kamera og går ind i ruinerne. De fysiske og de menneskelige. Han viser os de sider af krig og katastrofer som vi andre, langt væk i sikkerhed, ikke vil se. For det er jo overstået. Men det er præcis i det kaos, at kampen for et nyt liv begynder. Og det er den menneskelige råstyrke Aubrey portrætterer. Den udsattes kraft til at rejse sig.

Da Doug Aubrey i en alder af 55 år får konstateret kræft, kastes han selv ud i kaos. Han skal forstå og rumme sin diagnose og samtidig er han flyttet til Danmark. Han kender hverken sproget eller kulturen, der ligger langt fra hans britiske arbejderklasse-baggrund. Aubrey vender kameraet mod sig selv. Mod sit liv. For at finde fodfæste og håb. Men i angsten for fremtiden; om der er en fremtid, ligger også en angst for fortiden. Giver det liv, der er levet, mening? I 'Legacy of an Invisible Bullet' blotlægger Aubrey sit nu. Ensomheden og angsten ved at bære på en livstruende sygdom. Men han graver også ned i sit livsarkiv og kortlægger sin fortid. Og så bevæger han sig konstant mod fremtiden. Han sætter sig op på sin cykel og udforsker sin nye by, København. Der hvor han skal bo, når han er kommet igennem kaosset.

Aubreys fortælling er dybt privat, men gennem kameraet og hans kunstneriske blik viser han det universelle ved at stå i en livskrise med uvished om tabets omfang – om det er tab af liv, faglig identitet, maskulint selvbillede, nationalitet. Ved sin insisteren på at blive i angsten og det uvisse, peger han på, at på den anden side af en krise, venter ikke det liv, vi havde, men en udvidelse af det menneske, vi er. 

Mette Sø, januar 2022

Legacy of an Invisible Bullet by Mette Sø

Doug Aubrey is a post-crisis documentarist. When the disaster has struck and the bombs and weapons have gone quiet, Aubrey switches on his camera and walks into the ruins. The physical as well as the human. He shows us those angles on war and catastrophe most of us, far away in safety, don’t want to see or know of. Because now it’s over. Yet it is exactly in this chaos the fight for new life begins. And it is this human raw power Aubrey portrays: the victim’s ability to rise again.

When Doug Aubrey, aged 55, gets a cancer diagnosis, he himself is thrown into chaos. He has to understand and contain this diagnosis, at the same time as he’s trying to move himself to Denmark. A place where he doesn’t know the language or the culture, which are both far from his own working-class background. Aubrey turns the camera on himself. On his life. To find firm ground as well as hope. But in the fear of the future, dreading if there is a future, also lies a fear for the past.                       

Does the life lived make any sense?

In ‘Legacy of an Invisible Bullet’, Aubrey maps out his now. The loneliness and fear of carrying a life-threatening illness. But he also digs deep into his life archive to illuminate his past. And during this he constantly moves towards the future. He gets himself on his bike and explores this new city, Copenhagen. The place where he’s to live, once he’s through the chaos.  

 Aubrey’s story is deeply private. But, through the lens and his artistic gaze, emerges an extraordinary insight into the universal notion of standing in the middle of a life crisis; unaware of the size of the damage – be it loss of life, professional identity, masculine self-image, nationality. By insisting on staying in the fear and the unknown, he points to the fact, that it’s not the life that we had that awaits at the end of a crisis but an expansion of the human being we are.