Women Texas Film Festival - Call of Cuteness
All that is outsourced gets back to us in this consumerist nightmare. On a global playground the cat’s body is devoured. Objects are fetishized & subjects made into things. They are the natural resource of a luxury they´ll never know. The bodies reveal the causes & effects of power, pleasure & hate.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Brenda Lien
Watch Call of Cuteness on Kanopy and The Criterion Channel
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Currently I am working on a trilogy about different popular internet videos. The first, CALL OF BEAUTY is about beauty bloggers on YouTube, CALL OF CUTENESS is about cat videos and the third, CALL OF COMFORT, which is in the making right now, is roughly about ASMR videos.
Cat videos always have an ambivalent effect on me: they´re funny at first, but at second thought the cats have something melancholic, maybe do to the slap-stick humor or because we´re “feeding” off their cuteness? I guess, the question that initially lead to this film was: how do the cats really feel when we force them into a hilarious Halloween costume? And: can we find this power dynamic in other places of our society as well? I think we can learn a lot about a culture, when we look at how it treats their animals. As I wrote in the synopsis of the film “on a global playground, without bounds, the cat’s body is devoured, exploited and controlled”.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Just like the other films of the trilogy, CALL OF CUTENESS examines why certain videos are so popular online, what effect they might have on our society and in general what their high consumption tells us about our culture. I think a film, or any piece of art, has the chance to ask questions, but shouldn´t necessarily give “the one and only” answer – that´s the audience´s job, to form their own opinion. So, I´d hope that this short 4-minute film leaves at least a question mark in your brain, that pops up again the next time you consume your daily doses of cat-video cuteness.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
CALL OF CUTENESS tells the story of a commodity: from the moment the kitten is born, it is constantly watched, controlled and consumed. When it tries to break free it gets caught back into this system of oppression and exploitation; and as soon as the now grown cat has reproduced, it has reached its “expiration date” and gets thrown into the ocean (with all the other cultural waste).
Personally, I see the cat as a variable for different things. It can represent livestock or individuals that are reduced to data-slaves. It can represent the sweat-shop worker, who works long hours at hazardous working-conditions. It could even represent poor countries that are taken hostage by colonial power dynamics.
What these things have in common are an exploitative or abusive situation, where one party is controlled, internally or externally, and their own needs or interests have no impact. This is just my personal interpretation of the film though – of course every audience member will have their own view and might see different things in it.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The idea started out as a narrative fable with talking cats. Later on, I decided to go for a mostly visual story telling. There was a phase where I considered recording some off-text; but because the film is based on found-footage photos and videos from the internet, I liked the idea to use found-footage for the voices as well. So, the only text you hear is from real cat owners making fun of their pets – which I think makes the whole thing more authentic and creepy somehow.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
It seems like a lot of people notice or remember the film specifically because of the cats – they´re like click bait for the audience. But the film starts out cute and gets really brutal towards the middle. It´s interesting how strongly people react towards violence against “cats” (the animation doesn´t use real ones of course, it´s just plushies and fake blood) although there is so much violence in current movies and video games – there is so much of it, that it´s almost dull and stays unnoticed. But as soon as a cat gets harassed, raped and chopped into pieces, everyone goes crazy. And again, at this point I´d hope that the viewer would switch the cat-variable to another subject of our society and see how they feel about that. People and animals are treated like the cats in CALL OF CUTENESS every day. And the violence they encounter often enables the prosperity of others.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
It surprised me, how many people feel the same way about these cat videos and most of the other topics I´ve mentioned before. To see the film hit a nerve made me very happy or course – but it seems like, although the awareness might be there, the will to take action isn´t?
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
It´s always great to share the film and get a chance to talk about it. It would be interesting to hear, how others respond, as they read this text, if they´d agree or not? I guess the discussion is what interests me most.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
I am glad to have CALL OF CUTENESS with OUAT Media to represent world sales.
As I have mentioned before, I´m currently working on the third film of the trilogy, CALL OF COMFORT, it will be finished at the end of 2017. After that – although all three films can stand alone – it would be great to get a chance to screen them in a row. There are certain elements in the films, that connect and I´d love to see how they intertwine or even bring up something new. It would interest me, if the audience´s interpretation would differ from a single-screening and how the viewers feel after watching the trilogy as a whole.
So, I´d be happy, if there were curators or festival directors, that are interested in the trilogy, or journalists who would like to go deeper into the topics it is dealing with.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
It would be great, if this film could maybe inspire people to think twice, when it comes to their media habits, their consumption of various products, their supposed entitlement to a certain amount of luxury. The film ends by descending into the ocean and we see a cat caught up and strangled in plastic bags, a dead refugee-cat in a life vest, a torn-up mother cat still holding her babies. I guess, the questions could be, how did it come to this and what can I / we do, that it stops happening?
Yes, I know this is a lot to ask from a short film ;) But I've seen many films, that actually inspired me to change something in my life - so I know it´s possible. Film is so powerful. And because of that it´s very important for us filmmakers to know, how powerful it is - it can be used in positive and negative ways alike…
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
CALL OF CUTENESS is a body-horror film about cats, with a lot of gore and splatter scenes. I guess, the first reaction of most people will be: what the f**k did I just see?? And as soon as the first heatwave passes, they´ll start thinking about what actually happened and decode the images.
It was important to me, that the shock isn´t just an entertaining adrenaline rush. I wanted it to leave a mark on your retina and keep you wondering WHY this was so shocking. There are psychological / sociological / cultural reasons, why we think certain things are gross, scary, or outrageous. Maybe experiencing this shock lets these motives come to light.
I guess some of the key questions could also be, why is there violence in this film, why are we watching it, who is acting violent / who is the victim and why? Why is this subject depicted as a victim and what other motives could stand behind this representation?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I´m currently working on the third film of the trilogy, CALL OF COMFORT. This one is about how we quantify ourselves (through new technology) and sacrifice privacy in order to obtain an optimized life. Besides filmmaking I´m also a film-music composer. If you´d like to stay updated on further projects, you can follow me on my social media ;)
Interview: August 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Call of Cuteness
All that is outsourced gets back to us in this consumerist nightmare. On a global playground the cat’s body is devoured. Objects are fetishized & subjects made into things. They are the natural resource of a luxury they´ll never know. The bodies reveal the causes & effects of power, pleasure & hate.
Length: 4min
Director: Brenda Lien
Producer: Brenda Lien
Writer: Brenda Lien
About the writer, director and producer:
Born 1995 in Germany, Brenda Lien works as an independent filmmaker and film music composer. She has won several prizes for her film and musical works and is a scholar at the „Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes“. Since 2012 she studies art at the University of Art and Design Offenbach.
Key cast: cats from the internet ;)
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists)
Social media handles: #callofcuteness #callofbeauty #callofcomfort #brendalien
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lienbrenda
www.facebook.com/callofcuteness
Twitter: none
Instagram: @brenda.lien
Other: www.brendalien.de
Funders: none
Made in association with: none
Where can I see it in the next month?
See Facebook page of Call of Cuteness or http://augohr.de/catalogue/call-of-cuteness
Downloadable Trailer: https://vimeo.com/204913019
Trailer CALL OF BEAUTY: https://vimeo.com/192849368