SOFIA Camargo HOYOS
“ON YOUR RADAR” IS A WEEKLY GRAD FILM NEWS SEGMENT THAT FEATURES A STUDENT PICKED AT RANDOM.
SOFIA IS CURRENTLY A 3RD YEAR STUDENT AT GRAD FILM. WE ASKED HER A FEW QUESTIONS, AND HERE’S WHAT SHE HAD TO SAY:
1. Where do you consider home and what is it like there?
This is something I’ve asked myself a lot lately. I grew up in Bogotá; the city, my apartment, my parents and my sister, a weekend in our house in the mountains, being barefoot in the countryside, the noise of national tv, latin music, my friends and a dancing party are home. But New York is home too. I read this last week:
“I already feel that it has done me good to go South, the better to see the North”. --Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo, May 1890
Moving to New York allowed me to see the place where I come from, it gave me a sense of self I didn’t have before, some sort of independence or freedom. It’s the first place where I’ve created a space of my own and there’s something really special about that.
2. What is currently inspiring you as a filmmaker?
I love looking at photography books. The work of Justine Kurland, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Joanna Piotrowska and Petra Collins have been great sources of inspiration for my work. In very different ways, there’s a sense of play, a surreal element and an irreverence in their photography that really intrigues me. The short I’m currently writing is an exploration of play, cruelty and religious ritual in adolescence. I’m really excited about this world and these girls, they’re fun and defiant. I’m interested in the counterpoint between the unpleasant and the sensual.
There are also some films I can always go back to: Claire Denis’ Beau Travail, Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, Lucrecia Martel’s La Cienaga or John Cassavetes’ Love Streams.
3. What has been your most rewarding experience at NYU Tisch Grad Film so far?
A lot of people say you don’t need to go to school to learn how to make movies and I think that’s true, but I could have never done it without a space like this. Graduate school gave me the structure and the tools I needed to explore filmmaking. It created a challenging yet very protected space where I was able to explore my creative voice. I’ve met truly wonderful friends and collaborators.
There’s something very mysterious about what we love and want to make as filmmakers--something that reveals itself through the work but that you can’t really name. It’s the discovery of your own fascinations and obsession, even traumas. That’s incredible to me. A couple of my classmates say my filmmaking is about sex. There’s no sex in my films, yet there is. I can’t put my finger on what makes them say that but I get it. If my movies are weird and sexy, I’m happy, I want people to feel something about them.