Jannik Splidsboel was nominated at Berlinale 2009 for his documentary HOW ARE YOU. We spoke to him about his latest contribution to the Berlin Film Festival, MISFITS, an LGBT coming-of-age documentary set in conservative Tulsa.

Jack Toye: Starting with the film’s title, MISFITS: “someone unable to adapt to their circumstances.” Now, the circumstances in question here for the subjects, is that the Christian bible belt, or their sexuality? They didn’t feel like misfits to me. They felt quite normalised.

JS: They feel normalised. But people from the outside looking in, they see them as misfits. They don’t belong in this conservative society and this is why they go to the youth centre. This is why they have a small safe haven of their own where they’re not being treated as misfits.

JT: As the film opens, I see it’s been backed by the Danish Film Institute. I’m curious as to how a Scandinavian director like you ends up in Oklahoma with a group of LGBT teenagers. What’s the journey that took you from Denmark over there?

JS: I read an article in an American newspaper about this place, “Coming Out in Tulsa” or something like that, with a picture of this very tiny youth centre squeezed in between two big churches. It made me curious to find out who were these kids. How come they don’t wait? Where do they find the strength and the power to come out at 13 or 14 years old? I needed to go and check it out.

“can I out them in front of the parents with this?”

JT: What was the process of picking the three leads? Did they come to you? Or did you have to go through a rigorous selection process?

JS: I had a line-up when I arrived, the youth centre helped me. And then I did different interviews with different characters. This has been a two and a half year process of researching and filming. I had around ten characters when I went back to Copenhagen and then we went back and filmed some more. I needed them to be one hundred percent sure that they wanted to be in the film – because it’s a long process. Sometimes they were really tired. I also needed them to have a long-term development, not something that happens tomorrow, because I might not be filming them then. In the end, we ended up with these three characters. There were a couple of other characters I wanted to use, but their parents didn’t know that they went to the club.

JT: That would have opened up a whole other kettle of fish?

JS: Exactly. I didn’t want to be dealing with difficult questions like “can I out them in front of the parents with this?”. I didn’t want to do that.

JT: In terms of emotional impact, it was interesting at the start of the film, that interview you use with Ben’s family. It left me bleary eyed. What was the thinking behind placing that interview right at the start?

JS: When you put together a documentary it’s like a puzzle. You have all these scenes, and then you put them together. We definitely wanted to use this scene, but were wondering where would it go. In a very logical world, we would have put it towards the end. We didn’t feel we could build up to that scene though. But what we could do is to show what this family is going through and this is why they want to be in the film. From there we could build up the relationship between the two brothers, which we do. Also I think it sets the emotional journey for the film. These characters, they have children, they have come out, they go to the centre, but they do have a lot of issues still, and it’s painful for them.

JT: One of my favourite scenes in the whole film was the emasculation and feminisation of Larissa and Ben before they go out. Was that a natural night out for them? Or were some elements of the documentary staged?

JS: No, they just did that and we were there filming. I always talk to my characters about the scenes that we’re going to film. I ask them, “what are you going to do, what would you like to do here?”. In that moment, Larissa just went into the bathroom and started painting a beard on and I loved it. Then later on in the same day, we went to Ben’s house and there he was sitting with his friend, trying on wigs. It’s something they do.

JT: On a gender identity note, for the performance night, I was aware that D was there, and Ben, but I wasn’t aware that Larissa was there until it was pointed out to me. I found it amazing, almost like wearing different masks in shamanistic terms. She became someone else on screen for me.

JS: The fun thing is she’s a lesbian and she doesn’t feel like a woman, but then she drags up as a woman, this beautiful woman we see in that scene.

JT: Early on in the film, the God Question scene, it struck me as perhaps very different from your upbringing? Was religion a factor in your upbringing?

JS: I think maybe in some countries. I lived half of my life in Italy and unfortunately there’s quite a lot of bullying there now if you’re a teenager who’s gay. So growing up in Italy can be quite hard with the Catholic church. When I was a kid, I didn’t have the religious thing, but I was mugged in school as a gay kid, and I felt that I was different and didn’t know who to talk to. So I can definitely relate to those kids in Tulsa. But what I found in Tulsa, in this youth centre, is a concentration of it all. I didn’t have to travel to Italy or the northern part of Denmark, or where in England or Russia where this happens. I had everything in Tulsa. The love and hatred and religious part to the story.

I asked him why he was here and he said “Because I’m pansexual.”

JT: Can I ask you about D? Is his name just one letter because of his age? Or is this his identity?

JS: Well, he calls himself D, but his name is Derrin.

JT: When you found him, you’ve got a sixteen year old guy who identifies as pansexual. He looks young, but has a real world-weariness about himself. What were your thoughts when this guy walks up and wants to be part of your documentary?

JS: I actually walked up to him. He was sitting alone in the club. I said “Hi, how are you?” and he said “I’m D, I’m 15.” So I asked him why he was here and he said “Because I’m pansexual.” And at that point I knew I had to have him for the documentary.

JT: Thank you so much and I wish you all the best for your film on the festival circuit. We’ll have to see if we can get you to Cambridge.

JS: That would be lovely. I’ve never been to Cambridge before!