Dinner with Sousaphone

Interview with Flo Linus Baumann, director of Sousaphone

What is your interest in the sousaphone? Is this an instrument you play?
No, I don’t play the sousaphone nor any type of brass instrument but I’m fascinated by them. Besides the inherently comical shape of it, playing such a heavy, large instrument such as the sousaphone, needs quite a bit of dedication. That was key to me to swiftly establish the struggle a musician goes through, after his beloved instrument goes mute. Furthermore having an instrument that literally wraps itself around the body of the main protagonist seemed the perfect visual metaphor for his dilemma.

What gave you the idea for this story?
Two things really. On the one hand, this story is a very personal one. My father and thus my family struggled quite a bit after he was forced into retirement and during the writing process, I discovered that a lot of my own questions and answers were finding themselves on the page. Secondly though, my main intention from the start was to tell a story about loss and having to get over it. What the sousaphone stands for is irrelevant. At times I found it to be loss of creativity, writers block, life etc. Having to accept the loss of anything we love is such a classic human dilemma that we’re all familiar with, and no matter how hard we try, the only healthy solution is to accept it. I’m drawn to those kind of stories and many of my previous shorts have explored similar themes.

Can you tell us about the casting process?
The casting process was pretty straightforward and finding eight sousaphones turned out to be far harder than finding talented actors in New York! Who would have thought! Donavon Dietz, who plays the main actor, and I have worked on a little and strange short before that took place mainly on a giant trampoline. Once I finished the script to Sousaphone and decided to actually make this, I thought: “Who would be up for carrying around a Sousaphone all day long and not hit me over the head with it after the second day?”. I think Donavon did a fantastic job, we had a great time on set together, and he recently won “Best Actor” for this role at the Sapporo International Film Festival in Japan. Carrying all this weight has paid off.

I see the film is listed as a Swiss/US production. Can you tell us a bit more about your background and your filmmaking experience?
Yes, the project is a Swiss/US production. I’m originally from Switzerland and studied film at the Zurich University of the Arts and worked extensively on film and commercial shoots there. In 2012, I moved to New York to continue my studies at NYU Tisch and have been living in the States ever since. However, my goal is to find ways to make and produce films on both sides of the Atlantic. Sousaphone was a first experiment and first-time collaboration between Emily Iason, an independent producer based in New York, and Rajko Jazbec, a good friend and producer from Zurich, who also happens to be the head producer of my feature film that’s currently in development and a coproduction between Switzerland and Canada, that we’re hoping to film in 2021.

Are there any works of art or films that have inspired you?
For this particular short, I believe the films of Aki Kaurismäki have been a major influence. I like the simplicity and stylization, yet his stories of everyday people are so human and speak straight from the heart.

Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
Certainly! The biggest reason for making this short, was to break free from a script that I have been working on and off for over five years. At times there were a lot of producers involved and navigating different opinions was tricky and not very enjoyable. Writing something short in which the stakes of failing or succeeding are not as high, makes the short film format a wonderful tool to regain your inspiration and passion for film, while experimenting and mastering the craft of filmmaking.

Sousaphone is part of International Competition I8.