Sissel Morell Dargis would have never thought that she could make games. Now she's a DADIU fairy tale story

Since graduating in 2021, Sissel Morell Dargis has had great success as both a film and game director. But she could just as easily had taken a very different course, because the idea of applying to the National Film School of Denmark seemed more like a fantasy than anything else. In this interview you can read all about Sissel and her defiant creativity, how she learned to swim with sharks, and how she has starting to appreciate the role of the loner.

Not long ago, DADIU launched a graduate survey to find out how newly graduated students from the animation program at the National Film School of Denmark were doing. How did unemployment rates look like, and what about diversity and growth spells in the industry? The survey showed that more than 81% of all graduates had found a job within the first year after graduation. Not many other creative education programs can match those numbers.

The result is a sign of the enormous attention that the gaming industry is enjoying these days as both cash flows and political risk-taking are greater than in the film and TV industry, for example.

But the study also highlighted a gender imbalance in the industry and showed an increase in the proportion of graduates seeking work in other industries.

That's why it made sense to test the results of the survey and find out what the transition from student to full-time game designer and director is really like. How do you experience the growing interest? What is the industry looking for? And which of the program's competencies have proved particularly useful in meeting it?

To find out more about these questions, we met up with Sissel Morell Dargis at The National Film School of Denmark on a windy afternoon. She is currently on an international wrap tour of her award-winning documentary 'Balomania'. The film had its international premiere at last year's CPH:DOX, and looking from the outside, it would seem that Sissel has been on one single trajectory since: up.

She was in Denmark for a few days before the film premieres in Brazil, and then it's off to New York. So there's plenty to do. Nevertheless, Sissel Morell Dargis set aside time to return to the place where it all started. Or maybe “started” is a bit inaccurate. The National Film School of Denmark is not actually the starting point for Sissel.

“I started at the film school in Cuba as a documentary film director. I graduated in 2017 after three years. And people who graduate from that film school don't stay in the country afterwards. There is no money in Cuba. And you don't learn how to become part of a global industry. You learn how to produce, but in a way where you have to trade eggs for actors. It's technical, it's hustle and very guerrilla-like.”

And you don't have to spend many minutes with Sissel Morell Dargis before the idea of a teenager from Amager studying at the Cuban film school seems like the most natural thing in the world. And the idea of attending the Cuban film school was first and foremost a practical matter for her. A necessity.

“I went to that film school because I wanted to make the balloon movie and I didn't know how. Most of what you see in 'Balomania' was filmed before I started. I had just filmed things with a small camera and I thought, 'Okay, I can learn it here'. But I didn't like the documentary industry because I wanted to make movies that my friends could look at and be inspired by. And how was I going to do that if my films were only shown at some obscure film festival?”

A part of the cultural elite

So like her fellow students in Cuba, Sissel Morell Dargis left the country upon graduating. She returned home to Denmark, with no money in her pocket and no idea what her next step would be. But slowly, the idea of applying to the National Film School of Denmark began to take shape.

“I always had a mythical idea of how exclusive it was. As something I could never achieve. So much so that I went to film school in Cuba. And then I happened to go to a workshop that Simon Jon Andreasen [animation teacher] gave, which was a storyworld workshop about how to think in other worlds.”

So it was one thing that the toilets at the National Film School of Denmark had actual toilet paper which in itself was different to what Sissel was used to. But this first encounter also opened up a wealth of new perspectives:

“I just thought: 'Wow, I can be part of a world where there is VR, where there are games', and I couldn't believe that you could actually do that. Now I was suddenly able to envision that I could make balloon games, because it fit perfectly into all these ways of thinking.”

Suddenly, Sissel Morell Dargis realized that the footage she had shot on a cheap handycam in the streets of Brazil could have a longer life than she had ever imagined. And the game format also offered the opportunity to reach different and more varied people than in the closed circuits of the documentary world.

In this way, Sissel differs from other animation and DADIU students, because games and the possibilities of the medium have not been a year-long obsession for her. And there's a specific reason for that.

“It's the same with films. I never thought you could even do that. It's just been so far removed from my reality that it's never been something you could think of doing. And that's also a problem in terms of diversity. Because if it never occurs to you that you can make movies or games, that you have that access, how are you going to get the idea to aspire for that education?”

An eye for differences

The workshop turned into an application, which turned into an entrance exam, which turned into starting school in the animation program in Winter 2018. And perhaps unsurprisingly, Sissel Morell Dargis felt like landing with a bang when she first walked through the doors at The National Film School and stood face to face with her new fellow students.

“There were some things where my classmates were just so far ahead in intelligence and experience. They were all really talented. And it was intimidating. I hadn't had internet for three years and I needed help setting up an Instagram account.”

So Sissel had to find strength in the things she knew she could contribute with, and just like her audition, her unique profile was based on a life story and the things she had seen and experienced. And that cultivated and stimulated by the teaching environment she now found herself in.

“I was very lucky to get in when Simon and Thomas Howalt were running things. And although it was difficult for me because I came from a completely different type of life, I got very, very strong support from them. But it was hard to shift down a few gears to Denmark and suddenly be part of the creative elite.”

Sissel describes how the teaching was characterized by the fact that everyone was seen for what they could do, which created an atmosphere where you could be yourself. And that people's differences were used as a strength in the creative work. And this was only reinforced throughout the semester at DADIU.

“At DADIU, we learn how to make games, and as game directors we are put in a position where we have to deal with large teams with very broad experience. And we definitely learned a skillset that I didn't know before. How to juggle the different disciplines. Especially when you have to communicate with programmers who have to communicate with other programmers. And it was definitely a good way to learn that.”

The interdisciplinary aspect and the idea of co-creation across the artistic and technical is the very idea behind a program like DADIU. And although she will hardly admit to it herself, Sissel is a prime example of everything that both DADIU and the animation program are designed for, because she seems to move in and out of different media and platforms effortlessly. However, there is one aspect of the Danish gaming industry in particular that she calls unique.

“With games, I've been lucky enough to meet great people who have been in important positions that have given me very valuable feedback. And the film environment is perhaps a bit more closed off. But with games, there's a huge sharing of knowledge and people want good things for each other. There's a strong sense of community and it gives you confidence to know that you're not alone.”

In over her head

With the experience that the National Film School of Denmark had given her, Sissel Morell Dargis would have been ready to face life on the other side of the safe confines of the school. Only, Sissel Morell Dargis was already on her way to the top before she graduated.

“My case is probably a bit different from many others, because my graduation game ('Cai Cai Balão') was nominated for IGF [Independent Games Festival ed.] So my entry into the industry was to be thrown in at the deep end. 'Go ahead, see if you can swim with the sharks'.”

Of course, entering the global gaming market as a graduate takes its toll on you, and such a task requires both a stiff upper lip and sharp elbows.

Or as Sissel herself puts it:
“Once you've had to pitch in San Francisco, you just think 'holy shit! Have you ever had to negotiate with some Americans about something? They are ice cold and people play dirty. If you want to go out into the world, you have to learn the rules of the game.”

Adjusting to the rules of the game in the big wide world has been an eye-opener for Sissel, and this is one point where the global gaming industry works in a different way to the Danish one. And then we're back to the sharks again.

Because it quickly became very clear to Sissel who was in charge of the coffers, and she experienced a huge gender imbalance in terms of how the industry's most powerful seats are distributed.

“I was in shock when I came to GDC. There are lots of women in the room, but all the business people, publishers and private investors are men. There are just 200 white men in suits at some hotel at a conference doing business. There are no women. And then I was just like 'Goddamnit, I want to do it too! Why can't I learn it? I want to negotiate too.”

And so she did. For Sissel, the experience was a turning point, and she became determined to take care of the more business-like aspects of game production.
“You have to know your numbers,” she says, referring to an aspect of artistic creation that is probably not prioritized in the same way as the creative side.

But if there's one thing Sissel wants to pass on to future game creators before she heads out into the world again, it's that:

“I don't think you can be a game director and only direct. That doesn't exist in the game genre. You have to become your own producer, you have to learn how to pitch and budget. You have to get the business side right. And you have to learn that. Another good thing about my education was that it instilled an attitude that you have to seek out knowledge, research what's the latest, how can I learn it. You really have to try to hold on to that.”

Facts:

DADIU was founded in 2005 by The National Film School of Denmark and a number of other university programs and art schools across the country. Today, the collaboration consists of 10 educational institutions.

Every fall, around 100 students, including students from the animation program at the National Film School of Denmark, gather for a joint semester of interdisciplinary teaching and development courses, which concludes with a longer game production.