2025-12-03

MC4D 001: Jonni Peppers

Hello! This is binnie mf with Media Creation for Dogs interviewing the film maker whose work has routinely reminded me that I am not alone. Jonni Peppers is responsible for writing, directing and animating The Blindfold Series, an astoundingly massive and moving series of 5 films, 4 which are out with one yet to be released. The series deals with paranoia, truth, religion, and trying to reconcile living in a world that is ambivalent towards your existence.

She also is responsible for Transfiguration, an annual and international film festival. I watched 2024 online and in this year, 2025, I had the wonderful opportunity to see it in person, you can find my notes & drawings I made while watching and links to watch some of the works here

The interview

0.1 How has the Transfiguration Film Festival been treating you?

It’s been amazing! We just finished our Singapore edition, and had a really passionate and engaged audience, and it reinvigorated my love for curating and showing stuff to people. We’re going to do it again in Singapore and other places in southeast/east Asia next year and I’m already excited- A lot of people in our audience were pretty challenged by what we showed, but in ways that I think will take them to cool places later. I sort of thought this year was somewhat tame, at least by my standards, and was already planning to go crazier next year. But the reaction in general has been really amazing and it’s been really mind-opening as far as what I know we’ll be able to achieve later.

1.0 When it first felt important to you, why did you decide to create films?

I started animating and making films in elementary school, when I was 8. I started with lego animations / brickfilms and then in high school I started experimenting with drawn animation. At a younger age I just wanted to make “lego cartoons” and distract myself from what was going on at the time. I got pretty good at it because I dedicated so much of my waking life to doing it.

1.1 Has your motivation changed much, and if so, what are your current goals as a film maker?

Yeah, I think that’s inevitable when you have a lifelong filmmaking process. I am also someone who goes through a lot of phases as I get bored easily and love to experiment and push boundaries within the ways that I express myself. I would say I have a few Swiftian “eras”- I actually wrote this all out but I decided to retract it all. But pretty much every year of my life has been a new fixation and new goal.

2.0 What about the mediums of film & animation in particular stood out to you?

When I was a child there was an energy emanating from every cartoon I saw

That told me that there was a path to follow

And that if I were to follow this path I would find something so unknowable

That to tell me in the moment would make my body become inverted

And I would start to float

And a Super Monkey Ball would form around me

Leaving craters as I smashed the floor

Causing tsunamis on the coast of Redondo Beach California

So I had to take the arduous path of finding this unknowable thing

And the closer I get to the discovery

The more my back vibrates

The more my jaw starts to ache

And the two holes in the back of my head force me to remember

My past life as a mountain

To which I will return

3.0 Throughout your career, how have you managed to sustain yourself in order to produce the works you have?

It’s fully playing by ear. I had no idea I would ever end up doing what I’m doing now. One of my best skills is listening and finding what I need to do

Right now I am alive because of my Patreon supporters + my gumroad supporters + freelance projects

And I just work all the time and eventually finish my things

And I fund my entire life and stuff I do this way

4.0 What works (of any medium) have left the greatest impact on you?

Many things have come and gone but there’s some current things:

• The long poetic work of William Blake - The Book of Los is my favorite

• Victoria Chang’s poetry - Right now I’m reading With My Back To The World

• My friend Vivian ZH’s writing - https://www.vivian1000.neocities.org

• Sansho The Bailiff

• Jia Zhangke - Especially Mountains May Depart / Caught By The Tides

• Edward Yang - Especially Mahjong / A Confucian Confusion / Yi Yi

• Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Especially Memoria

• Sky Hopinka

• My friends + the work I show at Transfiguration

Best movies I saw for the first time this year so far: Shanghai Blues, The Dark Crystal, Bona, Manila in the Claws of Light, The Missing Picture, A New Old Play, Saving Face, In The Mood For Love, Nickel Boys, Happyend

I keep this blog of random things that make me think: https://www.tumblr.com/subtletynuance

4.1 In a similar vein, where does your inspiration come from?

I am inspired by a lot of things. This is because I am interested in everything and have realized that everything in the world is worth ruminating on

And I am always ruminating

5.0 Do you have have any essential advice for the aspiring film-maker, animator, or curator?

You need to learn how to create efficiently and by any means necessary.

This was something I realized I needed to do early on to be as adaptable as possible.

A lot of what I decided to do in undergrad was to figure out ways to draw/animate/edit /etc as fast and efficiently as possible

And a lot of this is mental

You need to learn ways to get past the hurdles in your mind that make it harder to conceptualize / execute

The way I do this is through meditation and unconscious mind exploration

Another great way was doing improv classes Find ways to bypass the things that keep you from moving

And learn to do everything by yourself with no money

So that nobody can control you

Thank you Jonni for such a wonderful interview !