“It’s very brilliant and bonkers to be here,” said British filmmaker Jamie Jay Johnson before showing his film, “Sounds Like Teen Spirit” at the Blue Note Friday night.
The director went onto express his thanks and pleasure to be at True/False this year. He said he spoke with other filmmakers, “And they were like, ‘True/False is the best festival.’”
The film, which was tagged as a “popumentary” in the opening credits, follows several child singers throughout the Junior Eurovision Song Competition. The competition invites one child from each participating nation to perform an original song, and people from all over Europe call in to vote on their favorite child performer.
Johnson visited with each of the country’s finalists and chose a select few to follow throughout their training.
“(I chose) the ones I wanted to hang out with most,” he said, joking, “It’s not a very scientific method.”
In a question and answer session after the film, Johnson took questions from the crowd about the process of making his “popumentary”.
It took Johnson and his team nearly seven months to edit and sift through roughly 200 hours of film they had from the competition.
In regard to the comedic turn the film sometimes took, Johnson said he was not making fun of the competition.
“I always try and do stuff that is affectionately comic,” he said, adding that the competitors he chose had a certain self-awareness of their comedic timing.
Although few of the children Johnson followed ended up placing high in the competition, he said the personalities of the children made the film interesting.
“I sort of love loveable losers,” Johnson said, “Hopefully it wouldn’t matter if they lost.”
Johnson laughed when a crowd member asked to be his intern and added that he is currently working on his first script for an animated film.
- Megan Ogar
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