As a writer and director of short films, Selina Sondermann has already made a mark as a woman in horror from Germany.
Please introduce yourself:
My name is Selina Sondermann, I am a filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany.
What is it that attracts you the horror genre for your chosen field of creative work?
Ever since I was a child, I have always questioned things. “Just because,” was never an answer I was satisfied with. I didn’t understand the need to divide things into “perfectly acceptable conversation topics” and “things we don’t talk about”. In short, there are a lot of social conventions that I didn’t or don’t feel comfortable with. So, I guess what draws me to horror is the boundarylessness of it. There is no pretence in this genre, no expectation of people-pleasing, no taboo you can’t explore. I wouldn’t classify my work as exclusively horror, though. I like to empathize too much to vilify anybody, so I would refer to my films as dramas with elements of horror. It actually makes it even harder to find funding. I try to pitch my project and producers are like, “what do you mean, it’s a story about cannibalism but it’s not horror? How would we sell that?”
Who inspires you in your work and in life?
A wide range of people inspire my life and my work. I hope it doesn’t make me a bad feminist to narrow down my three biggest influences growing up to Stephen King, David Lynch and Bela B. Felsenheimer. But as a child, there were no visible women for me to look to, who explored the macabre and the strange like these men did in their respective forms of art (literature, films, music).
Later I discovered Karin Slaughter and Jilliane Hoffman, who both write crime novels – not quite horror, I know – but whose female characters were finally of the sort I wanted to see. Their protagonists were not celestial beings, above profane emotions and making all the right choices. No, in these novels women could do equally fucked up things as men, without it coming at the cost of their femininity. I guess this discussion finally became more mainstream with Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl – another favorite of mine, along with David Fincher’s adaptation.
When I got into filmmaking myself, I fell in love with the versatility of Antonia Bird, who sadly passed away in 2013. I am in awe that the same woman, who directed the brilliant cannibal horror flick Ravenous also created one of the most heart-wrenching gay romance dramas: Priest. This multifacetedness is something I aspire to.
Lynne Stopkevich is another filmmaker whose approach I’d say is somewhat similar to my own. I wouldn’t really have called Kissed a horror film, but it was recently screened at a film festival alongside my short, Dedication, at Final Girls Berlin. This is what I mean by “drama infused with horror” – you take an element of otherness, something morbid, but you don’t stigmatize or demonize it; rather you try to understand the person behind it.
What are your passions, cinematic or otherwise?
My interests and passions are quite varied. I guess I fall into the definition of “Jade of all trades, master of none”. I love traveling. I like listening to music, rarely anything newer than turn of the century. I try to be an avid reader, it’s mostly audiobooks these days because I can focus better on the spoken word. I dabble in writing, but have never finished any of the novels I started. Film is the one thing that encompasses it all. Location is part of it – I don’t like filming in studios. Finding music
is part of it, be it diegetic or a creating a playlist for an actor to get into character. Cinematography is certainly a form of visual art, and a good script is literature.
Considering this is 2022, why do you think we still need a movement like Women in Horror Month?
Of course, in the past years there has been progress in the feminist movement in general, as well as for women in film. But we are still far from achieving equality. As long as women are still shamed – also by other women – for experiencing and expressing “unladylike” feelings, such as rage, bitterness, frustration, we are not on equal footing. I was shocked and hurt to see some of the posts in Facebook groups specifically for “Women in Film”, when Titane won the Palme d’Or last year. People were saying things like, “there are enough violent films by men, we don’t need women to stoop to their level”, instead of celebrating this historical win for a female director. It’s not helping anyone to deny women the full bandwidth of human emotion, or to limit what kind of art they should create.
In film school, I was subject to similar criticism by one of my tutors, who tried to discourage me from making a film about a female serial killer. His argument was that women don’t act out with violence, when I disproved this by presenting a substantial list of female murderers, it shifted to “women don’t kill other women”. Of course, women are at their best, when we support each other and have each other’s backs – but this is unfortunately not always the case. If we don’t see that reality represented as well, if we don’t talk about it and gloss over any inconsistencies to our theories, how can we learn to do better?
What are your favorite bits of helpful advice that you have received about your work or your field?
Through that experience I actually leaned a very important lesson: research, research, research. If you can back up what you are trying to say with data, with facts, you are unstoppable! Of course, this isn’t applicable to every single film, but even when exploring the fantastical, it helps to have a guideline. Are your vampires of the sort that turn humans through a simple bite, or do they need the human to drink their blood? There are few things I enjoy less than films or shows that incorporate magical elements without a clear logic or system to it (*cough* Charmed *cough* – okay, I still love the seasons with Prue).
Another helpful piece of advice I received and always share is to make the films you want to see. Those are the most fulfilling creations, even if you have to fight harder to make them happen.
Once you’ve learned what kind of films your teachers like, it’s easy to tailor to them in hopes of getting a good grade. But I can assure you, nobody cares with which GPA you finished film school, people want to see the work you created. And if you’re not happy with your films, if they don’t represent you as a storyteller, you wasted a crucial opportunity.
In a world, where there is so little we haven’t seen before, authenticity and originality matter all the more.
In honor of celebrating Women in Horror Month, who do you believe viewers should keep an eye on in terms of the creative ladies in horror?
At the risk of giving a generic answer, Julia Ducournau is definitely a creative lady in horror to keep an eye on. Also, the German collective LOST, made up of Nabila Bushra and Farah Bouamar, who seek
to dismantle racist and sexist structures through their horror shorts are doing excellent work. AnnaLynne McCord’s post-90210 filmography is speckled with indie horror gems, so I am always excited to see what she is up to – I would love to see her direct one of these some day. Finally, I’d recommend any of the female Dollar Babies, who adapted Stephen King’s work through his one-dollar-deal: Jackie Perez, Jennifer Trudrung, Nicole Jones-Dion,…
What do you have coming soon that you can talk to us about?
I am working on my first feature production. It’s based on one of my short films from university, but obviously takes plot and characters much further. Anthropophilie is a love story about consensual cannibalism – after all, isn’t that the only ethical way to consume meat?
What do you hope to leave behind in your legacy as an artist?
There is an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that proclaims, “You cannot grow a conscience.” I respectfully disagree. People aren’t born inherently sensitive – in fact children can be downright cruel because they don’t understand how their behaviour affects others. In my own experience, it was books and films and series that made me much more aware of the struggles other people might be facing. I guess this is the legacy that I hope to achieve with my work: that people just judge a little less. Our differences are not something to feel threatened by. Love t
Pop them links to follow your work here:
Instagram: @selinasondermann
Twitter: @SondermannFilms