HOWW TO WAYT
Directed by Johanna Winters
Screening at IL KINO, July 9th, 2026
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A puppet-protagonist performs her sensuality for the camera while she waits in a motel room for an encounter with an imagined romantic interest. Through a series of tenderly erotic gestures, she is equal parts pitiful, sexual, and disturbing in her appearance and behavior. This ambiguity invites curiosity about her circumstances, and perhaps we recognize ourselves in this self-conscious being.
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The choice to make the protagonist a puppet creates both emotional distance and intimacy. What made you decide to tell this story with a human sized puppet?
I began performing with marionettes and shadow puppets in graduate school, and I was drawn to how these objects became animated through human gesture. There is something equal parts seductive and repulsive in how they mimic our humanness. But there is a deliberate distance between a puppet and puppeteer that I wanted to collapse. I wondered what would happen if I became the puppet–could there be more at stake in the work through this kind of closeness? |
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My training is in visual art, not theater, and much of my understanding of the puppet-woman comes from the embodied experience of wearing the paper-maché costume. It’s stiff and awkward, much like the protagonist herself. I think her near-humaness makes us more curious about her condition and allows us to relate to her as a sensually viable being.
The film is built around waiting. What interested you about that feeling of anticipation?
For me, waiting conjures the possibility of both disappointment and pleasure. When thinking about the protagonist’s circumstances, I picture her rehearsing her sensuality while waiting for a romantic encounter. There’s hopefulness in this anticipation, but it’s also solitary and passive. I’m interested in this lag time as a site for discovery.
For me, waiting conjures the possibility of both disappointment and pleasure. When thinking about the protagonist’s circumstances, I picture her rehearsing her sensuality while waiting for a romantic encounter. There’s hopefulness in this anticipation, but it’s also solitary and passive. I’m interested in this lag time as a site for discovery.
Why did you choose to present the film in split screen? What did that format let you do that a single frame couldn't?
I’m attracted to the visual echoes that present themselves in a split screen format. This format creates a cadence that pulls the viewer’s attention back and forth across the two moving images to encourage a slower or more attentive looking.
In a gallery context, the film has been displayed as a looping two-channel video on separate projection surfaces, which situates the moving images as spatial and sculptural forms. Both this and a split screen format create an ambiguous time that I’m interested in exploring–how much time is passing, is it linear or cyclical, and what, if anything, is resolved within this time?
I’m attracted to the visual echoes that present themselves in a split screen format. This format creates a cadence that pulls the viewer’s attention back and forth across the two moving images to encourage a slower or more attentive looking.
In a gallery context, the film has been displayed as a looping two-channel video on separate projection surfaces, which situates the moving images as spatial and sculptural forms. Both this and a split screen format create an ambiguous time that I’m interested in exploring–how much time is passing, is it linear or cyclical, and what, if anything, is resolved within this time?
The entire film takes place in a motel room, but the space feels really alive. How did the setting shape the character and the mood of the film?
I rented a motel room in rural Iowa for a weekend, a few hours’ drive from where I was living at the time. The crew was made up of me and two of my friends, and the motel room became both our lodgings and the set. I brought along a lot of potential props for the protagonist to use, and the simplicity of filming at only one interior location meant we had a lot of room to experiment with how she encountered and interacted with these objects. I also think the ease of our friendship and the smallness of the space created an intimate and collaborative staging that expand the protagonist’s range of behaviors and encouraged me to perform without embarrassment.
I rented a motel room in rural Iowa for a weekend, a few hours’ drive from where I was living at the time. The crew was made up of me and two of my friends, and the motel room became both our lodgings and the set. I brought along a lot of potential props for the protagonist to use, and the simplicity of filming at only one interior location meant we had a lot of room to experiment with how she encountered and interacted with these objects. I also think the ease of our friendship and the smallness of the space created an intimate and collaborative staging that expand the protagonist’s range of behaviors and encouraged me to perform without embarrassment.
Now that the film has screened for audiences, have there been any interpretations that surprised you?
After a screening at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, a man approached me to tell me how frightening he thought the protagonist was. He seemed truly disgusted. I was surprised by his reaction because I’m so accustomed to feeling tenderness towards her. But I’m interested in the gendered constructs of attractiveness that are present in this work. Others have shared that they feel empathy or pity towards the protagonist or experience her as a sensual body, which resonates with me. She’s equal parts pitiful, sexual, and (I admit) a bit disturbing in her appearance and behavior. I want this ambiguity to invite curiosity about her circumstances, and perhaps we recognize ourselves in this self-conscious being.
After a screening at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, a man approached me to tell me how frightening he thought the protagonist was. He seemed truly disgusted. I was surprised by his reaction because I’m so accustomed to feeling tenderness towards her. But I’m interested in the gendered constructs of attractiveness that are present in this work. Others have shared that they feel empathy or pity towards the protagonist or experience her as a sensual body, which resonates with me. She’s equal parts pitiful, sexual, and (I admit) a bit disturbing in her appearance and behavior. I want this ambiguity to invite curiosity about her circumstances, and perhaps we recognize ourselves in this self-conscious being.
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Johanna Winters is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose creative practice spans moving image, puppetry, sculpture, and performance. A 2025 MacDowell Fellow, she has been awarded residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Corporation of Yaddo, Vermont Studio Center, and the Women’s Studio Workshop residency in Malmö, Sweden. Her work has been exhibited, screened, and performed widely, including at the 63rd Ann Arbor Film Festival (Ann Arbor, MI); the Jumping Frames International Movement-Image Festival (Hong Kong); the Wide Open Experimental Film Festival (Oklahoma City, OK); and the Open Air Media Festival (Iowa City, IA).
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