5 Questions with Iva Gocheva ("Outer Space Love Story")

1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?

I was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria in a neighborhood outside of the center of the city. Basically I got to roam around unsupervised and climb lots of trees. When I was a teenager I remember watching Dreams by Kurosawa and thinking, that film could be a way to see the world. I realized to make a film one gets to go to all these places and meet all these people where the story takes place. I come from an acting and theater background, so I have only been on the other side of the camera in the past decade or so. 

2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?

It all started with Maya Solovey's song, Small Death, that is featured throughout the film. Julia Joyce-Barry (co-writer, actress) and I were at a concert of hers in Brooklyn and Maya performed her song live for the first time. As the hypnotic rhythm of her music echoed in space I grabbed Julia's wrist and told her that I have an idea for a short we have to make together. Right after the concert, right there, together we outlined the story. There were few things we knew for sure: there would be three characters in "violent" conflict, there would be live music, and there must be a space ship.

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?

The film took a couple of years to finish, primarily, because it is a self-funded project. The hardest for me was to keep the momentum when things were on hold for one reason or another. I am still learning a tremendous amount about each stage of the process of creating a film and the post-production on this project, I must confess, was a total mess. I still get really intimidated by how disorganized my project folder is and not to mention my premiere files. I was tremendously lucky to work with people that I look up to creatively and adore as friends. That made everything easy. 

 4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

This May I saw Aleph by Iva Radivojevic, in the cinema. It was already an emotional moment to be sitting in that seat and so thrilled that this was the film I saw. It is a brilliant film, filled with so much emotion, movement and sonic landscape. As Iva said herself, you should follow dream logic when you watch it. 

5) What’s next for you?

I shot my third short this past March and currently editing. It is sort of a continuation of the same themes I explored in the first short I made: longing to belong. I am also in the very early stages of developing a documentary set back home in Sofia. 

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www.ivagocheva.com | IG: @iva_gocheva