AN INTERVIEW WITH SOFIA MONZERRATT, DIRECTOR & WRITER OF "VISUAL POETRY: SELF LOVE"
Multi-Award Winner: December 2021
INTERVIEW
Hello Sofia, nice meeting you. How did you become a filmmaker?
I became a filmmaker when I moved to NYC around seven years ago, went to film school and shortly after started writing and directing my own work.
Have you found that men and women reacted differently to your film?
I didn't really notice a big difference in reactions between men and women, everyone is different regardless of their gender, some people take the message of the film more personally than others.
In this (almost) post-pandemic time, while many start to address the effects of this 2-year traumatic experience, especially regarding mental health, do you feel like sharing more with the world on the topic of self-love/self-care?
I definitely think that the pandemic drove people into a deeper connection with themselves (whether for better or for worse); forcing people to be trapped in their homes made many question their priorities and state of being, which is why sharing more on the topic of self-love and self-care might be refreshing and even necessary for many.
You worked with a small crew. Was it a deliberate choice, because of your topic and how you decided to treat it?
We worked with a small crew because Visual Poetry was a very last minute/impulsive project that I'm glad we got done while I was visiting California; honestly, we didn't need a larger crew, since the people already involved were extremely talented and smart.
For Martha's Day, the crew was larger, yet small compared to the industry standards but again, we didn't really need more with the amount of talent we already had on set. Most days, we even wrapped earlier than planned! I'm eternally grateful for everyone involved.
Where and how would you like to show your film?
I don't really have expectations of where and how to show my film, I'm open and flexible to what comes, all I want is for it to reach the people who will listen and resonate with its message.
As a woman filmmaker, what do you think of the New York "scene"? Advice for up and coming women filmmakers?
There's definitely a gap; as a women filmmaker, I see way more men than women in this industry most of the time, and yes every now and then I do encounter a sexist individual, but it's truly not as often as I thought. New York has very open minded professionals who are ready to bridge the gap and support all genres in film. If one door closes due to my gender or for things out of my control, then I do make sure to build and open my own doors. That would be my advice for up and coming women filmmakers: build your own doors if you have to.
Would you like to travel the world with your camera and experience filmmaking in other cultures?
YES! I'm a backpacker, so traveling is one of my passions. Now, traveling for filming is of course the ultimate goal.
BIO
Sofia Monzerrat
DIRECTOR & WRITER
Sofia Monzerratt is a human artist who loves to calmly elude the endless black hole of innovative self-existential calamities by transmuting them into meaningful storytelling and visual expressions.
She was born and raised in the Andes mountains, located in a small yet very beloved country called Venezuela. Now based in New York City, since 2015. The primary goal in every project is to create content that resonates with the audience not only in a superficial manner, but in a deeper, creative and even psychological sense.
Sofia has written and directed several films such as Martha's Day, The Last Dance, Visual Poetry: Self Love, Blue, The Medicine, Mane, and more.
She was also the cinematographer of Hannah's Little Secret film and the award winning film Calf Rope.
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