Boston Underground Film Festival 2023: Bond | Interview of Kam Duv
Bond is a bold and powerful short horror film that stands out of the 2023 Boston Underground Film Festival’s lineup. We were happy to connect with director Kam Duv to discuss the making of her short.
Kam Duv is just one of the filmmakers who were privileged and lucky enough to have her short film Bond (Unes) shown at the 2023 Boston Underground Film Festival. Her film Bond was selected to be a part of the Trigger Warning shorts program playing alongside eight other films. Bond also got to be shown across the world at other film festivals including the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival and will also be shown at the Fantasposa-Fantastic Film Fest. The French short film is a feminist piece that follows a woman who tries to break away from a serious toxic relationship with the help of the power of sisterhood. Duv’s film was self-produced and was helped put together with the support of 129 donors, the French Ministry of Culture, the Institut de l’Engagement, and feminist French media. Bond is a bold and powerful short horror film that definitely stands out of everything screened at the festival. I had the opportunity to connect with Kam to discuss her short film featured at the festival.
Kristin Ciliberto: What inspired you to create Bond?
Kam Duv: Bond was born in response to the increase in domestic violence during Global confinement. With my co-screenwriter, we wanted to talk about the unconscious repercussions of patriarchy on women’s lives and the patterns of subjection that are difficult to deconstruct. We analyzed a lot of our behaviors in front of men, in intimacy, in family, at work… During this period, a very close friend was subjected to daily psychological harassment and although she had appealed to justice several times, she has never been protected – like most victims in similar situations. I already knew that women must rely on sororities to free themselves from this kind of insidious violence… That was the beginning of Bond, which can both translate into the “sororal connection” but also the “chains”, the “attachment” which can tip the relationship into the grip.
KC: What was your biggest challenge while filming?
KD: The most complicated was probably to “depend” on the owners of the slaughterhouses where we decided to film men who underestimated our approach by calling us “babes” for example. How to remain professional when at each location you are thrown remarks like “if you need an actor for your porno movie, you can call me”. Filming in this environment of men was a powerful mirror effect for our film which precisely highlights the balance of power. Even by shielding myself and anticipating as much as possible, I was dependent on their moods, especially with the owner of the cold room who, 24 hours before the shoot, refused my calls on the pretext that he was playing golf! Apart from that, we supported freezing places, lifted 50kg flowerpots with our bare hands, and shot with a very beautiful vintage car completely dilapidated inside and impossible to drive, let alone by an actress who didn’t even have her license… But with a solid, motivated, and passionate team, we can surprisingly overcome the biggest difficulties and even move mountains!
KC: This project is definitely about sisterhood, please talk about the casting process of finding your perfect leads.
KD: What could be better to embody sisterhood than to ask my ‘heart sisters’ to play the lead roles? Aloïse, Prisca, and Margot are my three best friends whom I met at different moments in my life. From the moment I started writing, I heard the voice of one or the other, and the female characters naturally took shape with their personalities. From the writing, I heard the voice of one or the other and the female characters have been naturally written with their personalities. It was something really strong and moving for me to bring all three together in the frame of my camera!
KC: Do you have plans to turn Bond into a feature-length film?
KD: There are so many subtexts in this 15-minute film and a solid backstory of characters that I haven’t been able to develop properly in such a short time… Indeed, I think I could consider making a feature film to exploit all this material! Any producer interested? Ahah.
KC: Where do you see yourself in five years as a filmmaker?
KD: Thank you for this question which forces me to project myself for real… I hope to have directed one or two other short films in more comfortable conditions with financing and production. And why not be in preparation for my first feature film? In the French mentality, we put a lot of barriers and limits on ourselves, but my time in Boston allowed me to connect to something larger and dare to say to myself: you can do it!
Acknowledgements: Kam Duv, Flo Pernet, Sara Agutoli, Noémie Coissac.
Bond stars Aloïse Sauvage, Margot Del Sordi (also co-writer), Louka Meliava, Anouchka Csernakova, and was DPed by Marion Raymond-Seraille.
