Artist and Director, Sonya Burke discusses her debut Short-film “Bond, Trauma Bond” and her journey to becoming a director
We sat down with Sonya Burke…
Her offbeat, unique voice and vulnerably contagious smile is enough to draw you in as she quotes Hunter S Thompson and Werner Herzog. We found this out when we sat down to talk with her about her debut short-film “Bond, Trauma Bond”.
What is Bond, Trauma Bond?
She sat in the sun looking up at it and smiling as she dove into a story so close to her heart.
In her words
“BTB is a film about dating in a world where people wear their traumas on their backs in the form of other people. The traumas in this case are represented by life size puppets.”
A Little about Sonya…
Sonya is first and foremost a writer but has engaged with lots of other art disciplines including painting, costume, sculpture and performance. More recently film has become her main creative avenue. When asked what took her in this direction she said:
“Really it’s always been my favorite. Family life was tough growing up but movies always brought us together. Especially the big pop TV giants of the 90s like Independence Day and Tomb Stone. And Zorro. Zorro is incredible.”
Early Film Influences…
Her favorites as a child were A Little Princess and Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women. She was fascinated by the strength of Jo March and Sarah Crewe.
She pauses and looked at me as she continued.
“It’s confusing to be born into a rigid power structure. If you’re a woman you’re automatically inferior to half of the population. It was hard when I was very young to find women that I could see my own independence and animal fierceness reflected in. So every female character I found who had that fire, I really latched on to. I’m still in love with Winona Ryder for that role.”
Although first influenced by 90s TV movies, later she discovered the films that would inspire her art-heavy filmmaking style such as The Darjeeling Limited and Across the Universe.
“It was a big deal to realize there were people like Wes Anderson out there who treated film kind of like a carnival. He builds the tone of his story with his fully encompassing visual aesthetic. I’m just a little pink balloon, completely emotionally driven. Tone is everything to me, and for me it’s largely informed by the visual world that a story takes place inside. In its level of detail. As a kid I’d watch a scene shot in a character’s house and I wanted to know whose job it was to fill the junk drawer full of junk, just in case the actor wanted to interact with the drawer. It’s so important to be able to trust the visual world of a film that deeply. A story can be told with very subtle detail.”
On facing her fears…
“I am constantly overcoming my own feelings of inadequacy. Like so many people I had kind of a rough start, and my biggest enemy is myself. As an artist (whatever that means) you don’t really fit in anywhere. Any place, or cultural faction, you don’t fit into any of those. You’re different. You have a different shape and a different understanding and different values. I don’t have a bone in my body that cares about making money but we have to and it’s hard. You don’t really get a choice. (Laughing) I heard that Cormac McCarthy was married like five times and all of his ex wives were frustrated because he just didn’t work. I mean I’m sure that was the least of their problems, he was a flagrant misogynist. But he didn’t give a f*ck about working. Then somehow he wrote some of the best novels. Fitting into society is an ongoing struggle. I just don’t see my place in it.”
What is something you want to remind yourself of in ten years?
“In an age where you can so easily access the interior of everyone’s lives on social media it’s easy to forget where you started and what you have to work with. In ten years I hope I’ve gone farther than I thought I could but I also hope I can still remember where I came from and how far I’ve come from that place and that I’ve done my best. And that’s good enough. It has to be.”
When asked what she is most proud of she said …
“I’m most proud of this film I’m working on! It’s currently in post-production in the hands of a sound wizard. It’s difficult for me to verbalize how important it is to be doing this. I've wanted to make a film my entire life. And this is just the first one! It was a conquest of epic proportions for me. Specifically I’m most proud of the people I was able to work with to make it happen. That group of people, so many of us were new and just really jazzed to be making something together. Collaborating with that many minds is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Stills from her debut Short-film…
What does “Trauma, Trauma Bond” mean to you?
“I have one of those nightmare exes, he was extremely narcissistic. He drank a lot and used to joke that I would have to carry him back from the bar on my back. He was a big guy and we used to laugh about that, his feet dragging behind me. Luckily I was able to get myself out of that situation, it was hard but I was able to do it. It’s funny because for a long time afterward I really was carrying him around like that. Metaphorically. On my back. That’s where the concept for BTB came from.
What’s on the horizon…
Bond, Trauma Bond is currently in post-production having a score put over it but you can contact Sonya for more information and updates at weatheredthreads@gmail.com
Beyond that…
“What’s next? Making that was the best experience of my life. I just have to figure out how to do it again. I’m fully addicted at this point. I’m doing some research for a documentary. I feel really excited about the creative relationship I developed with the director of photography of my first film. I’m not a cinematographer and I need someone I can talk to and explore with. There is a town I lived in off and on for years that has more than its fair share of ideologies. They coexist together in a really small space. There are many different angles this thing could take but if we’re able to make it a feature I’d like to explore the frailty of white identity and the need to appropriate other cultures. As well as explore some traditions and ideologies that we CAN rightfully claim and how they’re being celebrated. Then again, maybe we’ll just make it about a quest to look for one normal person living in this town. Inevitably we’ll have to explore the limits of that adjective.”
“If you look at anything closely, no one is normal. “
-Sonya Burke
“Bond, Trauma Bond” is directed and produced by Sonya Burke and stars NYC musician Madelina Ecclesia who plays opposite up-and-coming actor Diego Rigales. The film is currently in post-production but you can contact Sonya for more information at weatheredthreads@gmail.com, or check her website for updates at sonyaburke.cargo.site