Dinner with Homework

Interview with Annika Pinske, director of Homework

 The relationship between father and daughter is very moving. Could you tell us about the casting process?
The casting process was quite unusual, because I had my cast before I had the story. In fact, I wrote the script for Tim and Emma. Tim is my boyfriend so, as expected, I know him quite well. I really like how he works as an actor. He always starts with the physicality of a role, that’s also why his body is kind of the centre of the story. I have worked with Emma before and Tim was so impressed with her that it was his wish to act with her. So I started thinking about what relationship would be interesting. Brother and sister was quite obvious, but father and daughter would make him a really young father and that was the starting point. I think that knowing both actors very well was the key to their roles and their relationship.

 What motivated you to tell their story?
I like to break with expectations. Presenting a caring and, I would even say, humanistic father-daughter relationship in a male stripper environment at night is therefore the perfect motivation for me. I have to admit, I also liked the fact that a female director shows and directs a male body dancing like that, a man selling his body.

 The dance sequence is particularly captivating. What would you say are your cinematic influences? Any cinematic coups de cœur in the past year you’d like to tell us about?
I think the scenes work because we see the half-naked dancing father through the eyes of his daughter. It’s her perspective. Her age, she is pre-adolescent, makes it even more curious to watch. My DOP Ben Bernhard and I decided very quickly that we should shoot the scene like that. But the way Ben shoots is all his achievement. I love to work with him, because he never loses the actors over a good picture. Actually most of the time his frames are perfect and he is close to the actors at the same time.
My cinematic influences are diverse. But if I had to choose my favourite movie it would probably be The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson. Homework doesn’t seem to have a lot in common with that movie, but there is a certain theme of dysfunctional families, the way they handle their circumstances and that melancholic desire that interests me and that you can find in all the Anderson movies. I am not looking for a special style or look to copy. I start with a story that interests me and then I try to find the right way to tell it.
My coup de cœur last year was of course the Cannes screening of Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade. I was her assistant for almost two years during the project. It was quite a journey, very intense, exciting and wonderfully exhausting. It’s such a privilege to work so close to a director who really shares her thoughts. I am still busy taking in all the things I have learnt.

 If you’ve already been to Clermont-Ferrand, could you share with us an anecdote or story from the festival? If not, what are your expectations for this year?
It’s my first time in Clermont-Ferrand and I am really excited about it. I hope that maybe one day I will get the opportunity to tell a small anecdote from my visit in 2017.

Are any other releases scheduled ? Are you taking part in other events during the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival? (Espressos, Conferences, other?)
Actually we have a small cinema release in France in 2017. Homework won the Radi Award at the Short Film Corner in Cannes by the Agence du court métrage, Paris, and the award includes the distribution in France as a supporting movie.

Upcoming festivals in 2017:
39th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival28th Trieste Film Festival, Italy
9th Side by Side LGBT Film Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia
18th Landshuter Kurzfilmfestival, Germany

Festivals in 2016:
28th Filmfest Dresden, national competition, Germany
30th Leeds International Film Festival’s Louis le Prince Short Film Competition, UK
29th Annual Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, USA
Exground FilmFest Wiesabden, Germany
9th filmzeitkaufbeuren, Germany
OderKurz-Filmspektakel, Germany
Lausitziale V, Germany
Deutsche Kurzfilmnacht beim Molodist Film Festival, Kiew, Ukraine
38th Biberacher Filmfestspiele, Germany
16th Deutsch- Französisches Kurzfilm-Rendezvous, Strasbourg
Filmschoolfest Munich, Germany

I’ll be in Clermont-Ferrand from 3 to 7 February and I’ll try to see as much as I can and be part of everything. I haven’t made any concrete plans yet. But my third short film called Change is also part of the film market at Clermont-Ferrand. It’s part of the Franco-German cooperation « Soirée allemande – Coup de cœur – Le court métrage allemand » by the Goethe Institut Lyon, short film agency Hamburg, AG Kurzfilm, German Films and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. The screening is on 6 February and there will be a party afterwards. Emma, who plays the daughter in Homework is also playing the leading role in Change.

Homework is being shown in International Competition I3.