Johanna Lecklin

There is a Lot of Joy, too DigiBeta, 10'42'', 2008 Finland

Tell me something about you and artistic background.
Johanna Lecklin (b. 1972) studies for a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland. She graduated with an MFA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and an MA from Helsinki University and studied at Slade School of Fine Art, London. Lecklin works with film, video and photography. She has had several solo shows in Europe and taken part in group shows in many countries. Her films have been shown in festivals like Milano Film Festival and PAM Nordic Screening in Kvinesdal in Norway in 2008, Rencontres Internationales in Paris and Raindance Film Festival in London 2006 and in Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- & videofest 2005.

Tell me something about this film, initial idea and work process.
There is a Lot of Joy, too is based on recorded discussions with a boy who has Asperger’s syndrome, which is related to Autism. I worked in an art project, where ten artists collaborated with Autistic people or persons with Asperger’s syndrome. I recorded the discussions that my pair and I had and used them as background for my film script. The script is a fictive dialogue between a boy and his mother. To create the character of the mother I used information that I got from the staff working in the autism centre and talks with the boy’s mother. In the film the boy and his mother never meet on the screen, but are shown next to each other. The boy tells about his dreams and the mother about how it is to live with a different child. The boy wants to become an actor like his idols James Dean or Tom Cruise. On the other hand he would like to be a girl. His mother talks about her son’s sexual identity and the difficulties caused then he fell in love with his teacher. The work has also been shown as a two channel video installation.

Are you working on new projects at the moment?
I am preparing a new film and an exhibition. I will take part in the next Collection Exhibition in Kiasma, the Finnish Museum of Contemporary Art and I will show my work Story Café. It is a work that I have made ten times in seven countries since 2004; I have recorded peoples’ stories in exchange for a cup of coffee. I use some of the stories to make short films of and my next work will be my third film based on the recorded stories. It is called The Cage and it is a story about bulling between children. A ten-year old girl is invited to a birthday party but instead the other children lure her into the forest, lock her into a cage and start to bully her in a cruel manner.

Do you have specific influences in your film/video making?
I am influenced by the strong tradition of narrative video made by female artists in Finland and Britain but I am also fascinated by for example Godard and Truffaut’s and way of directing.

Why is it important for you to show your film/video in a festival?
I am very happy to show my work in Oslo, since I am curious of how Nordic audiences see my work; do people experience them as very Finnish or are there similarities between Finnish mentality and the other Nordics? I myself have very much enjoyed the black humour in Norwegian short films.

What role do you think Oslo Screen Festival should have to promote your work?
I hope that people find my film interesting and it can get more viewers and more opportunities to be shown also elsewhere after Oslo Screen Festival.