“At first I meant for the film to be about OCD as I felt a need to illustrate how it feels. I wanted people with the condition to feel represented and understood, and I wanted others to see that it is not something we can simply let go of and that we are not just being overly sensitive and dramatic. Gradually I realized that the film was about fear and emotional distress in more ways than one. Whether it is OCD, anxiety, stress, or something else, we share both symptoms as well as a surrounding taboo and stigma,” director Jenny Amdi Sørensen said of her new film, this is how it feels to me.
A trained photographer and graduate of the Danish School of Media and Journalism, Sørensen has ventured into the world of film via a position as a visual researcher at Scandinavian production company Bacon. Her debut was a contribution to Bacon’s 30-film collaboration with Norwegian electronic legends Röyksopp, the Nowness-featured Cutting Cords. Now she is ready to follow up with her very personal and visceral sophomore project this is how it feels to me.
“How come physical pain is deemed acceptable to talk about, but emotional pain is not? We are completely fine telling someone we have a headache while it is much harder to share that we are sad. I think this is because most of us haven’t learned to handle ‘negative’ feelings and thus they become nearly impossible to handle in both ourselves and others,” the 28-year-old director said, adding, “Perhaps we are afraid that if we let the feeling in, it will stay. But in actuality, we create a vicious spiral by pushing feelings away. I think that acknowledging and accepting this as well as talking about it is the first step towards understanding and healing.”
Once again created in close collaboration with Bacon, the film contains both footage from two days of shooting with a dedicated team in Denmark including DP Stephanie Stål as well as personal shots from Jenny’s archives.
