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‘It’s Not My Job’ by Kate Jessop

It's Not My Job animation still by Kate Jessop

Kate Jessop is a groundbreaking UK-based animation director and artist, whose work explores queer perspectives. Her work has been featured in a wealth of international exhibitions and festivals, two retrospectives, and in the 2020 book, Queer Animation. Kate has recently been developing her series, Planet Pussy Willow, at the Berlinale Talent Lab.

Kate has released a new episode of her highly imaginative and topical series, ‘Planet Pussy Willow’. It is inspired by real-life experiences when Kate, having recently been discharged from the hospital, met with successive blocks whilst trying to deal with NHS bureaucracy. The film uses a surreal and absurd approach, in its wonky flat style and camp storyline.

Kate explained that Planet Pussy Willow (PPW) is ‘an alternative universe …where residents include God, unicorns and humans residing together’. The approach to narrative is an imaginative assault on socially prescribed norms, juxtaposing fantastical elements in an absurd response to prescribed bureaucracy.

Set within an Urban Renewal Centre, this episode of PPW follows a young woman, Dani, who is attempting to get a simple document processed. They encounter a corporate culture of Kafkaesque re-direction and time-wasting. The story has echoes of the ludic structure of game worlds, where characters are sent on a cross-platform quest.

The aesthetic follows PPW’s trademark approach of live-action actors with wonkily attached features. This stylization gives the work a crucial distance from mainstream, highly crafted animation, enabling it to sit as an outsider. The episode critiques corporate absurdity from a subjective point of view. The characters in the film are typically alternative and representative of the spectrum of genders and sexualities, as well as neurodivergence, celebrating diversity.

Each worker directs Dani to another desk, leading her ever-deeper into the corporate maze. Towards the end of the film, Dani seems to have an epiphany that acts as a key, unlocking access to a living map of the corporation, which now fills the screen. Evoking a map of a game world is also suggestive of wonky witchcraft. Creatures sprint around the tunnels on the map, people stand still, and a flame burns brightly at the center. The surrealist aesthetic brings a vivid sense of play to highly imaginative work that delves into challenging real-world experiences.

ZF: Can you tell us about the background to Planet Pussy Willow? How did the series begin and what have been your aims in making it?

KJ: I like writing comedy as a way of processing the world and things that have happened to me. Although the series is funny it also addresses serious issues such as misogyny and homophobia. I’m an observer and reporter of the world around me and I’d say all my work broadly is about the human experience realised by an experimental process. In terms of my aims, I guess to a certain extent I felt like I wasn’t seeing my experience on screen and that certain cultural commentaries weren’t being made. Whether it’s catcalling (‘Smile’), the belittling of women’s professional achievements (‘The Astronaut’), or the mansplaining of women’s cultural identity to them (‘The Mansplainer’). I kind of made the first few episodes as a laugh and put them on the internet, and I didn’t realise how many awards they were going to win at film festivals…The first series… was selected for the Berlinale Talent Lab for development. I briefly signed with a TV producer but the feedback from broadcasters was that it was ‘too edgy’ for broadcast which is why it’s back on the internet in its new planet format.

ZF: In making the series, how have you approached reaching an audience, as you have released it via YouTube? What have been the promotional challenges using this approach?

KJ: Yes both online and at film festivals, specifically web series festivals. I think the internet has democratised the creative industries now so that everyone can have a voice meaning more underrepresented voices can now be heard. Years ago when I was first starting out I wouldn’t have been able to make this as there just wasn’t the platform for online streaming etc. This is liberating as it means you don’t have to follow the traditional channels or cross the traditional barriers to make it work. Interestingly a lot of female directors are independent.

ZF: How does your new episode, ‘It’s Not My Job’, fit within the existing PPW universe?

KJ: The episode fits (works) with the same devices of absurdity and exaggeration to tell a story…(and) with the same characters and actors. I decided to shift the premise slightly on the relaunch of the series from it being a fictional British town to a planet for a number of reasons. The writing got increasingly otherworldly… Also, I felt that a planet made it more universal somehow as opposed to a fictional British town which is quite niche in the experience it’s presenting as opposed to more of a universality.

ZF: The narrative involves enjoyably surreal elements, in a camp contrast with the absurd corporate closed-door approach encountered at each desk. What new possibilities do sci-fi and surrealism offer you in telling stories rooted in the everyday?

KJ: The writing has increasingly gotten more surreal from around the second season onwards, ‘Coming into the Station’ had the first surreal moment with the introduction of the Orgasm Unicorn character who now appears at times of climax. In this episode, we’re back with Dani (who was also in previous episodes) as we follow them as they are trying to get a form processed, but at every turn, they have to overcome a new obstacle such as a ride on a white unicorn or travel to the centre of the earth. In general, it’s about navigating the ridiculousness of bureaucracy.

ZF: How do you approach building stories and characters in Planet Pussy Willow? And what kind of audience response have you received online and at festivals?

KJ: The world-building and characters are based on real experiences … at times pushed to an absurdist extent. About half of it I’m relaying observations of the world and maybe making protagonists out of people who don’t usually get voices. Like 'Coming into the Station' is about the invisibility of the sexuality of older women. The experience of being informed how to pronounce your own name like in 'Mansplainer' (usually by white cis men) has been relayed to me before from partners or friends who are WoC. It’s an unbelievable and infuriating condescension that I’ll never have to go through but more common than you realise. When I sent the script to Peyvand (Sadeghian) she said ‘Oh this has happened to me’. Comedy is a really good tool to highlight peoples’ experiences in a digestible way thus starting difficult conversations about challenging topics.

But it’s important for people to address some of the viewpoints represented in the characters. I’ve been told a lot of the episodes are quite close to the bone. I guess I have an underlying motivation to hold a mirror up to society. BAFTA qualifying festival London Short Film Festival has described it as “A tonic for the soul”, describing Smile which won at their festival as “A powerful, witty and relevant statement on what it means to be a woman today.”

I guess it’s the first time some of these topics have been written about and presented on screen. Then I have some people say they find it quite painful to sit through which I think is equally valid, a lot of people saying they find it quite close to the bone. A strong reaction either way is good though because then you know you’re reaching people and making them feel something, even if it’s discomfort. I’d be more concerned if people were ambivalent.


ZF: Can you tell us about your distinctive and humorous technical and aesthetic approach? How do you go about making each episode and why have you developed this specific aesthetic?

KJ: I decided to work with a mixed media realisation I’d previously pioneered in a music video where I filmed the actors’ heads against a green screen and then composited them into animated bodies and worlds. I love the interaction between actors and wanted to keep that element so decided to keep the live-action/ animation hybrid. It makes the situations a lot more relatable having a ‘real’ character, but then adds to the slightly surrealist moments having it in these animated worlds. Humour-wise, I was always influenced by 'Smack the Pony' and 'The Fast Show' (Caroline Ahern was amazing in general) because I think that was the first time I’d seen the world portrayed through a female lens. Pussy Willow is very much the world through a female lens. I also love the 'Mighty Boosh' for the absurdist world that it creates.


 ZF: How big a team do you work with, and which roles, ie producer, sound artists? Do you write alone? Does this present challenges?

KJ: I always write alone but often send the scripts to friends for feedback. In terms of production, I spend a day in the green screen studio with a DoP filming the actors wearing green swimcaps. This allows me to composite them into specially designed hairdos. I then key and mask the footage and composite it onto animated bodies in animated worlds. Animator Leo Crane joined me in season 2 and has worked on some of the animated sections.
 
ZF: Finally, what future plans do you have for PPW?

KJ: At the moment I’m working on adapting the scripts to 20-minute episodes, which is what I was working on in the Berlinale Talent Lab. It will still be sketch-comedy but collated in a more Smack the Pony format. I’m writing more sketches, and developing more characters. In addition to the Time Travelling Mansplainer, there is the woman who can never find the end of the queue and more of the Secret Lives of Lesbians Cats. There will be lots of belly laughs, and then some thoughtful contemplation. Ultimately it would be great to pitch it to broadcast, the treatment and world bible are ready to be sent out if any adult animation producers are reading and would like to work on developing this with me!

Watch 'It's Not My Job'

About Kate Jessop:

Kate Jessop is a multi-award-winning animation filmmaker who has had hundreds of international exhibits and has 5 international distribution deals including Shorts International and Amazon Prime. She represented the UK in the Best of Women in Film and TV and was selected for the Berlinale Talent Lab both with her portfolio as a director and with her comedy series chosen for development in the Project Lab. She is regarded as a pioneer of Queer Animation, creating groundbreaking award-winning films showcasing the queer perspective through animation, such as Little Elephant and Queer Heroes. She has had retrospectives at the USA Gilbert Baker Film Festival USA and in the Czech Republic’s Anifilm. Her work was written about in the first-ever book on Queer Animation: On LGBTQ2S Animation published by Quickdraw in Canada, in 2020.  She has worked across narrative film, comedy, illustration, live visuals, music video, and motion design and utilizes 2D animation, stop motion, and live action in her work. Instagram: @katejessopfilm 

contributed by: Joseph Norman

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