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FUTURE FRAMES 2021

Jerry Hoffmann • Réalisateur de I AM

“Je n’arrêterai pas de travailler sur des histoires dont je pense qu’elles comptent”

par 

- Le réalisateur et acteur allemand nous parle de son court-métrage nominé pour les 48e Academy Awards des étudiants, et de la création d’une industrie du film plus inclusive et diversifiée en Europe

Jerry Hoffmann  • Réalisateur de I AM

Cet article est disponible en anglais.

German-born actor Jerry Hoffmann has appeared in a number of high-profile productions including Burhan Qurbani‘s Shahada [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film
]
and Dietrich Brüggemann’s Heil [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Dietrich Brüggemann
fiche film
]
, which premiered at Karlovy Vary in 2015, and will soon be seen in the upcoming Neflix Series A Submarine Story. Whilst appearing in front of the camera, Hoffmann has also been cultivating a career behind the scenes. As a Fulbright he attended the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles before moving to Hamburg to finish his MFA in Directing at the Hamburg Media School.

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Six years after attending Karlovy Vary as part of the cast of Heil, Hoffmann will return to the festival as part of European Film Promotion’s Future Frames. There he’ll present his short I AM, which tells the story of the grieving Noé who comes across the android Ela and the two form a bond. A powerful and meditative examination of grief, loss and what it means to be human, I AM flirts with classical genre tropes to tell both a story of the future and one grounded in the everyday fears and worries of the present day.

Cineuropa: What inspired you to make I AM?
Jerry Hoffmann:
When we started to develop the story for I AM we already knew about our mutual fascination for Artificial Intelligence. The DP, author, producer and I had previously produced a short addressing gendered toys and their impact on kids.

The fact that most technical sciences are still dominated by (white) men seemed connected. Voice assistants like Siri, Alexa and co. are not only submissive, they also all carry a female voice. The first humanoid robots were white female androids built by white male scientists. The amount of outdated gender roles created by white men in AI is obvious and - from our point of view - very problematic. Telling this story was hugely important to us for many reasons, especially to give black actresses and narratives a spotlight and to address the lack of diverse and female casts and crews, and to help envision a different future for Europe.

How important was it to you to balance the genre elements with the more low-key, realistic moments?
I am grateful to be part of changing images and outdated narratives. It was our goal to tell an emotional story of two woman meeting in a fateful coincidence that feels real and contemporary.

There is a mysterious interest and fascination from both sides. Noé might be the first female and the first black being that Ela has ever met in her life. And Noé has a natural interest in machines and technology. It takes time for her to see this machine as a living being.

Breaking the conventions of a genre intentionally - in this “sci fi horror thriller”- seemed adding to suspense and surprise for us. It was about changing sympathy, trusting and mistrusting both the human and the android. The genre elements helped show these shifts.

How did you find the two leads?
During funding a potential investor was doubting that we could find two great black actresses for this movie in Germany. But we got over 150 e-casting submissions from breathtaking German-speaking actresses from Austria, Switzerland and Germany and we were shocked that we hadn’t heard of so many of them. It was a revelation that made us feel both angry about the industry for willingly ignoring so many talents, and motivated to change this by producing this movie. Finding our main actresses Sheri Hagen and Melodie Wakivuamina was a true gift.

It was interesting and a lot of fun, especially for Melodie and I to explore how Ela uses her voice when communicating, and how the character develops over time. Ela starts motionless, like a puppet, and her voice is very digital and robotic at first. But over time she adapts, changes and becomes more life-like. At the end you can’t tell the difference between her and a human being. It was the biggest challenge to build a character that is relatable, yet robotic, alien and strange, when at the core it's about self-worth.

Your background is as an actor. How do you think this affects your approach as a director?
I know what an actor and actress goes through at different stages of production. I focus very much on making this process as pleasant and creatively free as possible. I deeply believe that a dominant patriarchic environment is toxic and outdated, and does not produce better results. On top it harms everyone involved. I try to build a safety net, a welcoming environment, for everyone but especially the actors and actresses, to be vulnerable, to ask, to search and to put down the armor, to be authentic. Overall I won’t stop working for a more inclusive industry, working on stories that I feel matter.

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