Curiosity Drives Creativity for Director Jessie Zinn

A career as a storyteller feels as though it was inevitable for director Jessie Zinn. Born and raised in Cape Town by her mother, a theatre journalist, she says, “my exposure to the arts started from a very young age, arguably before I could even talk or communicate. I was surrounded by actors and creative people, and I think that's definitely played a very important role in my upbringing.” 

Attuned to the intricacies of performance, conveying human emotion and capturing an audiences’ attention, Jessie’s ability to transform her theatre experience into on-screen moments was something she uncovered a love for in her second year of university. “I was really bored over a summer period, and there was a free course called Stepping Stones which was a documentary accelerator workshop, in terms of how to use a camera and how to edit.” She explains, “So I did that and immediately fell in love with the form and the medium of film, and ever since that time, I've been attached to filmmaking, one could even say obsessed with filmmaking – I haven’t stopped it since.” 

Introducing her to the world of filmmaking, she began to work on documentaries – a creative outlet from which to investigate her curiosity about the world and people around her. At the same time, Jessie began to work in the commercial space as a creative researcher in production, working on a wide range of jobs including “a lot of Pampers commercials.” Looking back, she reflects, “I've done some really interesting jobs, and I'm really grateful for all of them, because they've all taught me something that I've used in my directing.”

Continuing to forge a path in the documentary space and put her own work out into the world, a transformative moment took place when she “miraculously” secured a place at Stanford University on its MFA in documentary film programme. 

Shaping her into the filmmaker she is today, she notes, “all my love for the form, in terms of documentary filmmaking, was cemented through that process, and I made some films that I’m still very proud of to this day.” An example of this is ‘Drummies’, a documentary short produced in association with the Stanford MFA programme and acquired by the New Yorker. It explores the importance of sports in post-apartheid South Africa, documenting a group of aspiring drum majorettes as they look to the future.

Beyond honing her approach to documentary work, it taught Jessie a wealth of skills that directly transferred to the commercial realm too. “It was a formative experience for me, not just in terms of documentary filmmaking, but also from a commercial filmmaking perspective, because it was very rigorous in the sort of training that they did with us, especially in terms of ‘selective filming’.” She continues, “Documentary, I think, has a bad rep as a ‘spray and pray’ medium, and the Stanford documentary programme really teaches you how to undo that and to not work from that space. So from a commercial filmmaking perspective, I think that actually aligned very well because, with commercials you've got 60 seconds to tell a story, so understanding that was really helpful.”

Whether in the documentary or commercial space, Jessie’s desire to uncover and tell real, human stories remains, “I’m drawn to anything that has a sense of human truth in it, in terms of my storytelling and background in documentary filmmaking. But to be honest, I think that any story in any script has a human truth – it’s about finding it and fleshing it out.” 

To do this, Jessie looks to uncover the ‘voice’ embedded in each story, using this as a platform to shape her own interpretation of the script. She explains, “as filmmakers, we often speak more than we should. So, it sounds a little bit weird, but listening to a brief and listening to a script is really important in terms of adapting my approach according to what the piece needs, because every piece needs something different.” 

Reflecting that for her, “creativity is innately bound to curiosity”, Jessie’s work spans a range of subject matters that often centre around coming of age stories, girlhood and womanhood. Looking at the reasoning behind this, she says, “as a woman director and a woman myself, I’m drawn to these kinds of stories. Especially growing up with films that didn't necessarily have very nuanced portrayals of girlhood and womanhood, it's always been something that's been a big part of me. And I've always wanted to explore those types of stories, especially through a female gaze.” 

Beyond this, she reflects that it’s important to not become pigeonholed to one type of genre or focus – it’s about finding the messages and topics that speak directly to her creativity. “Always remaining curious and open to stories that are exciting and that need to be told, I think is really, really important, and that also is what fuels us as storytellers.” She adds, “Because in order to keep on going and to expand and grow, we need to also be pushing ourselves, whether that's formally or in terms of content and stories.” 

Now part of the roster at Avocados and Coconuts, her first directorial representation outside of South Africa (where she was previously repped by Giant Films and now Bioscope Films), Jessie remarks that it feels like a “natural progression” for her career, which has seen her have “one foot in the US, and one foot in South Africa” after spending time studying in Boston and Stanford. 

Describing the opportunity to join the roster as “fate,” the union happened after Biosope’s founder and director, Hylton Tannenbaum, introduced Jessie to Dalia Burde, founder and executive producer at Avocados and Coconuts. 

Jessie had followed the company for a while, explaining that she was “drawn to the work it did from a storytelling perspective, whether it was in the documentary world or in the commercial world, it all felt really grounded in a sense of human truth, and there was a real beauty imbued in every piece they put out, and still continue to put out – and that I think is quite rare to find in a company.” 

So, when the pair finally met in Cape Town, Jessie says, “It was like an arranged marriage, where you meet in person and realise, we do love each other!”

“It was like going on a first date, even though you’re already betrothed,” adds Dalia. The decision was made after she’d watched Jessie’s reel and realised, “she’s entirely in Avocados and Coconuts’ world and realm”, thanks to her nuanced and often poetic storytelling style, displayed in projects including ‘Can I Please Go to the Bathroom?’ and commercially for the likes of Four Seasons and Sonnenglas. 

Stepping into the US market for representation in commercials and branded content, Jessie’s unique style and perspective “perfectly complements” the other directors on the roster, which include Spencer MacDonald, Jenny Macnamara and Christopher Newman. 

Looking ahead, the pair are full of excitement about working with one another, evidenced as Dalia says, “I feel like it's the start of a relationship where everything's exciting, and I feel like it has legs to become a long, sustained, really beautiful relationship. But I'm excited as we’ve been on our ‘first date’, so I'm excited for the first project.” 

“And the first baby!” Adds Jessie.