Ever since I can remember my mind have created stories and alternate universes in which I both could understand and elaborate on each and every experience I had. I never really understood precisely, what was happening around me.
For most of my youth I thought that I was the only one who didn’t get the memo, and that everyone else inherently knew the codes of human interaction. I know now, that I’m not. But back then it felt like constantly wandering an unknown world as a tourist, and only through my imagination could I establish some sort of explanation.
In that sense, storytelling became a matter of survival.
To this day, I still encounter sensations of not understanding anything around me. By processing those sensations through my work, I have a chance to feel like I somehow belong in the world. And maybe, hopefully, my audience will feel the same thing.
Johan Knattrup Jensen started his career as a stage director in 2003 with the critically acclaimed ‘Rabbits Scream’, about 3 youths exploring their sexuality, while encountering conflicts of shame, doubt, and euphoria.
The same year he began working on his first short film as writer/director with a professional team of actors and film workers.
Through the following years Johan worked on both stages plays and short films, while gaining experience and knowhow.
In 2009 Johan was accepted at independent film school Super16, where he made 3 short films, ‘Skinke // Meat’, ‘Road To Paradise’, and ‘Verdenssøn // Copenhagen Love Story’.
In 2013, after film school, Johan teamed up with producer Mads Damsbo, whom he’d met during film school, in spear heading the innovative film studio, Makropol.
During the next seven years, Johan made a household name of himself, as director of some of the most exiting film installations in the world, using cutting edge technology, such as stereoscopic cameras, game engines, and VR headsets.
The installations during this time was highly successful and exhibited all over the world on the most influential festivals and galleries. Among these celebrated works of art was ‘Skammekrogen // The Doghouse’, Ewa, Out Of Body’, and ‘Anthropia’ to name a few.
Although theatre wasn’t the center of attention during the intense years of Makropol, Johan was still invited by theatre companies to write and direct stage plays. This lead to both ‘The Shared Individual’ at the Royal Stage of Denmark in 2017, and the adaptation of the 1961 Ingmar Bergman film ‘Through a Glass Darkly’ on the Swedish theatre Regionteatern in 2018.
From 2020 Johan wanted to return his attention towards classic cinema, and subsequently he left Makropol, to work as an independent writer/director.
With the release of the short film ‘Hjemfærd // Homecoming’ in 2023, Johan is currently preparing to debut with his first feature film.