Janna Ji Wonders

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Janna Ji Wonders (born 1978 in Mill Valley , California ) is a German - American film director and singer in the band YA-HA !.

life and work

Janna Ji Wonders is the daughter of the German photographer Anna Werner and the American Jazon Wonders. After spending the first few years of her life in the United States, she moved back to Germany with her mother at the age of four. She grew up in Munich-Schwabing and on Walchensee , south of Munich , interrupted by further stays with her father. Through her mother, she was part of the so-called harem , an experimental community of five women and Rainer Langhans, during her childhood . In the documentary Walchensee Forever , which will premiere during the Berlinale 2020 , she portrays the women of her family, starting with her great-grandmother Apa, who opened an excursion café on Walchensee, which still exists today.

After graduating from high school, Janna Ji Wonders first went to Berlin , where she lived in an occupied house in the Prenzlauer Berg district. She then studied at the University of Television and Film Munich and began to experiment musically with laptop and midi keyboard during her studies, produced beats and wrote her first own songs, influenced by New Wave, Gothic and bands of the 1980s. During this time she also began producing her first music videos as a director. In 2008 she founded the rap formation YA-HA !, together with Flo Schuster from the hip-hop band Blumentopf, which released a debut album in February 2012.

Her documentary films Bling Bling about the gangster rap scene in Los Angeles and Children of the Sleeping District about young punks in Moscow suburbs were shown at international festivals and have won multiple awards.

Her medium-length feature film I Remember was shown at the 2015 Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section.

Filmography (selection)

  • 2002: Bling Bling (medium-length documentary) - co-director with Neelesha Barthel & Heike Woosey
  • 2003: Waiting for Summer (short documentary)
  • 2005: Kinder der Schlafviertel (medium-length documentary) - co-director with Korinna Krauss
  • 2008: Holy Home (short feature film)
  • 2015: I Remember (medium-length film)
  • 2020: Walchensee Forever (feature documentary)

Awards and nominations

  • 2002 German Young Talent Award at the Sehs Bäumen Film Festival for Bling Bling
  • 2003 award for young women journalists for waiting for summer
  • 2005 Award of the Duisburg Film Week for children in the sleeping quarters
  • 2006 Starter Film Prize Munich for children in the sleeping quarters
  • 2006 Best documentary at the Sehsuchten Film Festival for children in the sleeping quarters
  • 2006 Best documentary at the Tau Film Festival in Tel Aviv for children from the sleeping quarters
  • 2006 WDR short film award kurzundschön for I love you
  • 2007 Local Movies Jury and Audience Award
  • 2015 Youth Jury Award at the European First Film Festival for I Remember
  • 2015 nomination in the category best medium-length feature film of the First Steps Award for I Remember
  • 2015 nomination in the category Best Director of the Starter Film Award Munich for I Remember
  • 2016 Berlinale : Made in Germany - Perspective Award for the Walchensee Forever concept
  • 2020 Bavarian Film Award 2019 in the documentary category for Walchensee Forever
  • 2020 Berlinale : Compass Perspective Award for Walchensee Forever

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Flo Schuster: YA-HA! Biography. In: last.fm. July 6, 2009, accessed February 2, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Sina Kampe: Pop singer Janna Wonders: My childhood in the hippie commune. In: Berliner Kurier . February 6, 2012, accessed February 2, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Biography: YA-HA! In: laut.de. Retrieved February 2, 2020 .
  4. ↑ asb / pm: June 19-21: Wendland-Shorts, the ninth. In: wendland-net.de. June 6, 2015, accessed February 2, 2020 .
  5. ↑ "Made in Germany - Perspective Award" for Janna Ji Wonders. In: filmportal.de. February 15, 2016, accessed February 2, 2020 .
  6. ^ Sarah Hoffmann: Prize winners in the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino. In: berlinale.de. February 28, 2020, accessed February 28, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Wonders, Janna Ji
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American film director and singer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Mill Valley , California