The Florida Film Festival is an Oscar-qualifying festival for all three short film categories: Animated Short Film, Live-Action short film, and Documentary Short Subject. Each year, an array of amazing short films are submitted and programmed to make the cut. I attended the Shorts #5 Block, titled “I Can’t Help Myself,” and out of the eight films I watched during that screening, one stood out the most: Jenna Kanell’s Spray Bottle.
The film, which premiered at the festival, is a live-action short directed, written, and starring Jenna Kanell. It also has a wide range of producers, including Thang Ho, who attended the festival and represented the film alongside Kanell.
Spray Bottle is about a former stuntwoman who also acts as a caregiver for her neurodivergent brother (Vance Kanell – real-life younger brother) and they end up having the worst possible day ever.
I got an opportunity to speak with Jenna and Thang at the Florida Film Festival about the film.
Spray Bottle. What’s it about? It’s about a former stuntwoman, who is taking care of her neurodivergent brother, and you kind of have the worst day ever?
Jenna: Yeah. Essentially. It’s basically that. It’s an action comedy about our worst day.
What inspired you to write the script for “Spray Bottle”?
Jenna: My actual real-life little brother, Vance, plays my brother in the movie. And he does have autism and cerebral palsy and epilepsy and a number of other things. And I do worry that I will not be efficient as a caregiver. And it’s basically an exaggeration of that fear.
I actually wanted to talk about that because you do tackle a lot of serious issues. Themes in this film, even though there are some funny moments, but there are also some serious topics, whether it is the caregiving, the nuisance of insurance, or even police conduct as well. But I’ll come back to that because…
I’m curious about the array of producers you had for the short film and I’ve always wondered about the process of that and I see that we have a representative producer here for the film so thank you for being here, what drew you to this project or what was your involvement in producing this film?
Thang: Yeah, I think the short answer is that we met each other through the circle of filmmaking in Atlanta, but we met on a porch of an Atlanta film party event. And I’ve always been drawn towards stories. As a producer, I think that the best way that I could say it is that I want to produce because it’s for me to be part of projects that I’m not the right person to tell. And so Jenna, when I read the script, something that I latched myself on to very, very quickly was the fact that she was telling a very special story, like what you were talking about in terms of tackling all these issues without really playing the victim. I’m not a big fan of victim stories. And so I really love the story that she was like, these are just people having their worst day and how they kind of handle it. And coming from that perspective, I was like, oh yeah, let’s make this movie. It’s been a simple ride since then.
No, and I completely agree. I don’t want to spoil anything in “Spray Bottle”, but there’s a decision that you make where, like in most films, you wouldn’t really see that happening. It’s usually like the worst thing possible happens, but I think you kind of standing up for your brother, of course, is like such a very refreshing thing to see in a film.
Jenna: Thank you.
Jason Reitman’s name is attached to this as well. How was he a part of this film in executive producer role?
Jenna: Yeah, he’s our Executive Producer, he was actually the one that pushed me to write the scripts. I was on the circuit with a different film, and he and I had connected because I’m in a feature of his called, The Frontrunner, that came out year ago, and we were both at Tribeca with different projects. We talked about this, and I was there with a different film. He basically said, ‘Well, why don’t you take all of your knowledge as a stunt performer and all of your experience as a stunt performer, and write something that you can also be in’ because I had worked a lot at that point as an actor and as a director separately, but I had never done both at the same time. I had been very purposeful about not doing them at the same time. He said, ‘Cool, get over that. Do both.’ And encouraged us and so he helped us a lot with funding, and then was very involved in the process throughout, essentially, a lot with the script and through post.
How many short films have you directed?
Jenna: This is probably my 17th or 18th short film that I’ve directed.
That’s amazing. Did you run into any challenges in this film that you didn’t really run into in any of your previous short films?
Jenna: I mean, it was hard to act and direct at the same time. But I will say that we had a very, very long pre-production process, and we worked very well together, and we had an amazing team. And so it actually probably was one of the smoothest shorts, given how many stunts we had and how many people were involved. And the fact that my brother is autistic and having sensory issues on a film set is something that we were very sensitive about and accommodated for. There were a lot of ways that this could have gone horribly, and it didn’t.
There is a quote in “Spray Bottle” that I could not stop laughing it’s when you’re speaking to the pharmacist and then you say, ‘How did you know my kink was the illusion of choice?’ And I think that is like the funniest thing I’ve ever heard in my life because I literally had that same issue happen to me with my wife and picking up one of her prescriptions. And I just couldn’t stop laughing.
Going back to what we were talking about earlier, kind of like the comedy and the themes we were talking about, compacting it into a 10-minute short film, I’m sure was very difficult. So the question is, Do you see yourself wanting to extend this into a feature? Because I think this would play very nice. Because I wanted to see more. So is there a possibility?
Jenna: I am so glad you asked that.
Thang: Good tee-up! Lay-Up!
Jenna: Yeah, exactly. Bam! Absolutely, yes. This is absolutely a proof of concept for a feature film. Same title, also an action comedy and it’s already written, and we’re working actually with this short film on the Vanishing Angle post-production grant, and so I’ve been in the writer’s lab since then and we are currently in the process of working, workshopping the feature script. And yeah, the goal is to make it into a feature.
Thang: Thank you Vanishing Angle.
I cannot wait to watch it, conversations just felt so real life and it was just like very quick with the quips and especially your brother was so funny with hitting his marks.
Jenna: Isn’t he great? I’m so proud of him.
I think that actually wraps it up I’m so happy for you guys and I can’t wait for more people to see this.
Jenna/Thang: Thank you so much!
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Ever since my mom took me to go see The Blair Witch Project in theaters when I was 7 years old I’ve been obsessed with not just movies but the horror genre. When I’m not watching movies you can find me thrifting, attending a local horror convention, or collecting physical media. I attended the University of Central Florida with a degree in Cinema Studies and use my degree to rant about movies online.
MY FAVORITE MOVIES: The Cabin in the Woods, Cabaret, Seven Samurai, The Blair Witch Project, Inglourious Basterds