INTERVIEW MED SOFIA BOHDANOWICZ
Beatrice Loayza, 2024
Beatrice Loayza: Audrey Benac is the protagonist of several of your films. What made you want to return to this character once more?
Sofia Bohdanowicz: Audrey Benac is both a family detective and historian. Veslemøy’s Song is about seeking out a recording and the materiality of that object. In MS Slavic 7, she is assembling a literary estate with Audrey’s great-grandmother’s letters, and trying to understand how all the written parts she produced come together. Never Eat Alone is about locating Audrey’s grandmother’s long-lost love. All these films are about a kind of detective work; about trying to shape things into language or a form that feels whole and legible. Yet that’s a goal that’s never really achieved in any of these films, and that’s intentional. I tried to keep things very loose and open, whereas Measures for a Funeral is a departure from that approach. I decided to continue Audrey’s journey because I felt she needed to officially end her odyssey; finally finish her work and put a cap on all of her research. We go on this journey with her where we really feel her suffering and deep isolation and disconnection from others, but also see that she’s succeeding in something marvelous. She’s finally able to hear the voice and output of this incredible artist who was long forgotten.
BL: The artist you’re talking about is the Canadian violinist Kathleen Parlow, who is also a subject of interest in previous films of yours like Veslemøy’s Song. I’d like to hear more about what drew you to her in the first place.
SB: Kathleen Parlow has always been this ominous figure in my family. When I was younger, my grandfather, who was a violinist, really wanted me to play. Because he died when I was very young, playing the violin made me extremely sad. It reminded me of him and his career, which ended so abruptly. I was weighed down by the pressure of him giving me this instrument in front of our whole family, and I could never bring myself to play it — I chose the piano instead. When I was young, I’d go to the Toronto Symphony and watch him perform. Those are some of my most powerful, pride-filled memories. He wasn’t a famous violinist; he was second chair, though he did play in the Toronto Symphony, with The Guess Who and Glenn Gould. The point is, he had a career, and he was able to raise four children on a violinist’s modest salary, and he achieved this in part because of what Kathleen Parlow had taught him. Kathleen was the first woman admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory as an international student. She was also the first woman to do sound tests with Thomas Edison on the cylinder phonograph. She had this incredible, decorated career, but she also had terrible luck because her career was interrupted by World War I. After the war, she was no longer an in-demand performer, so she had to sustain herself through teaching. Her finances weren’t properly handled, so her life became quite difficult toward the end. On paper, you’d think she was a failure: she didn’t marry and she died in poverty, and yet, in my mind, she led an incredibly successful life because she was able to do what she wanted with her time. She had this courage and stubborn persistence that I find very beautiful. Frankly, I don’t know why someone hasn’t already made a film about her.
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BL: You’ve collaborated with Deragh on several films but this is obviously your biggest project together in terms of length, resources, and budget. How did that affect your collaboration and Deragh’s approach to Audrey, if at all?
SB: It was wonderful to see Deragh evolve and adapt to this huge role, which was very dialogue-heavy, not improvised (which is how we’re used to working) and required her to remain in this dark and difficult place for a long time. But the magic of working with Deragh is that across all these Audrey films, in one sense she remains the same, but she also reinvents herself. Because the camerawork is very static that also demanded a rigorous approach to performance. Then there’s also the fact that Audrey is in her own orbit, and that’s an energy that the other actors have to contend with. She’s the pillar of the film; the only element that remains constant.
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