Victoria Shefer talks Before I Sleep
Written and directed by Victoria Shefer, Before I Sleep has been having an excellent Festival run. Before I Sleep is based on the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, a poem published in 1923. We asked Victoria why this poem? and she told us – “Why this poem? The simple answer is – because of the huge metaphorical potential. The honest answer is – this poem is quite special to me. I came across it in a hard, transitional period of my life. Cold and dark days, I lost people I loved, I lost friends, I had self-doubt as well as doubts about the world around me. I was often asking my self: am I sleeping or is it all for reel now? But no, I wasn’t sleeping. At all. And one sleepless night the last lines of the poem suddenly started to play in my head: And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. There is always a special mental response when you find an echo of your thoughts in someone else’s thoughts in books or in movies. You just suddenly feel that you are not alone. I thought back then: I should be waking, since I couldn’t be asleep. Ms. Barrow does the same, you know? She remembers her favorite lines in her “darkest evening of the year”. Probably it helps her to stay awake, not to give up, not to kneel before the challenges of life? I don’t know. But I hope so. And I wish one day my films will help people beat the feelings of loneliness and give them hope and power to do the right things”.
The short was filmed in Ahrenshoop, Germany and only with only a Blackmagic Pocket 4K camera the results are very impressive, especially considering no additional video equipment was used. Victoria made the most of her budget of just €3,000 which can be seen by the finished results.
Victoria is already busy working on her debut feature film which is in post-production and is going to be released this year. We are expecting big things from her so make surfe to watch this space.
