Lunch with Wannabe
Interview with Jannis Lenz, director of Wannabe
Firstly, could you tell us about the actual Coco Channel on YouTube? What was the strategy you had in mind? How long are you planning to have it open?
For me, it is very important to find the right format that relates best to the idea I want to explore. Because YouTube has played an important role in Coco’s story since the very beginning, it felt absolutely natural and necessary for me to carry out my idea as a cross-media project. The video clips, watched as a playlist on Coco’s YouTube channel, describe the story of the short film from another perspective with different insights. So the audience can reconstruct directly how this young girl builds herself a fictitious world on the internet and the viewers also have the possibility to become part of the story by leaving comments, rating the video clips and taking an active part in discussions on the Coco Channel. An important issue to me, besides narrative aspects, was to reach a wider audience with this filmmaking technique. I wanted to try to reach those kids who don’t even know that something like short film festivals exist but watch movies and video clips on the internet all the time. I don’t think releasing films that are made for cinemas on the internet is the right strategy to achieve that, so I tried something else, relating to the topic of my film. And I can say now that it works very well. There are people from Austria to the US who get in touch with us via the Coco Channel and from that, they get interested in the short film and the cross-media concept. And because there is more and more interaction around the YouTube videos, our story is developing on its own. This is a very organic process with lots of surprises. We still have some unreleased videos we want to share with Coco’s followers and we will see what happens in the near future and how long we will keep the channel online.
Would you say that Coco’s decision to film her breakdown is cynical? Did she anticipate she would gain a following by broadcasting it?
This scene is very important for the film and a turning point in Coco’s life. The pain she feels isn’t fake, it’s the result of all the problems and humiliation she had to deal with during the past weeks. However, she decides to film herself in this very private moment and to post it on the internet. It wouldn’t feel right to give a simple answer to such complex emotional turmoil, there are so many aspects that should be considered. In addition, or better in contrast to the short film, the videos on Coco’s YouTube channel give you a very good idea of her character and the inner conflicts she has to deal with. Because one of the main themes of the film is manipulation in mass media, it is very important to me and for the concept that in the end, each single viewer is free to decide what they think about Coco, her intentions and her behaviour, in the film as well as in the video clips on YouTube. All I want to do as an author is try to ask questions as precisely as possible and to create some confusion that hopefully will make other people think about these questions.
What motivated you to tell her story?
In 2014, I casted lots of girls of Coco’s age for another short film. Most of them had no acting experience. So when I asked them what interests them in playing a role in a film, it seemed to me that for many of them it was more important to get attention and a special lifestyle than to share a certain talent with other people. This attitude fascinated me because I couldn’t understand it or where it came from and so it all began with these conversations in casting situations. Of course there is this huge theme of self-presentation in Wannabe, which I think is familiar to everyone who works in this kind of business and that becomes more and more important for all kind of artists in the times of social media. So the story also contains my own experience and insights I collected as a young filmmaker over the last years.
What cinematic projects do you have in the pipeline?
At the moment I am working on two short films. One is an experimental documentary. For that, I worked with women who were participants in the “Next Top Model” TV Show in Austria. While Wannabe tells the story of a young girl before she gets famous, this one will ask the question of what can happen after you’ve already had your 15 minutes of fame but you are still young and ambitious. The other one is a chamber play with two actors. One of them is Anna Suk, the main actress of Wannabe, and the other one is Ahmet Simsek who played the leading role in my last short film Shadow Boxer. Here I picked up elements from the classical Austrian “Heimatfilm”, like countryside idyll or unconditional love, and challenged them with topics such as social exclusion and vigilante justice. Besides that, I have two concrete ideas for feature length films, so we will see what happens next.
Any cinematic coups de cœur in the past year you’d like to tell us about?
The two films that inspired me the most with their great characters and cinematic power were Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade as a feature film and in the short film field, A Man Returned by Mahdi Fleifel.
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 at the festival but I’ve heard a lot about it. A friend described it as “Disneyland for short film makers”, so I am very curious and looking forward to an exciting week in Clermont-Ferrand.
Are any other screenings scheduled?
We just had our national premiere at the Max Ophüls Preis Film Festivalin Germany a few days before Clermont-Ferrand and if you are interested in the next screening dates you find them on our homepage and of course you can watch all the video clips online and free on our YouTube channel and become part of Coco’s story: www.youtube.com/cocochannel99
Are you taking part in other events during the Clermont–Ferrand Short Film Festival? (Espressos, Conferences, other?)
Yes, I am really looking forward to the Espressos and I will take part in some other events, as well!
Wannabe is being shown in International Competition I13.
