Sophia Carr-Gomm

Director, Freelance

Director Sophia Carr–Gomm grew up watching movies on repeat, glued to the screen in a bid to work out exactly how films worked. Aged 10, she was committed to becoming an actor, eventually enrolling in drama school and later taking parts in BBC drama Shetland, The Inbetweeners Movie 2 and CBBC drama World’s End.

But somewhere along the way Sophia says she was hit with an existential crisis, prompted by the passing of a close friend. “I felt upset, and I knew I was grieving, but the balance was disturbed in some way,” she explains. “I got a deeper feeling that acting had served a purpose but wasn’t quite right.” Sophia left London for Brighton, which is where she wrote her first short film The Wider Sun. Having rallied her friends in the film industry, she travelled to the Isle of Skye to shoot the film which is a story partly inspired by her love of 1994 fantasy movie The Secret of Roan Inish. “It must have really influenced me as a kid,” she explains. “I’ve always loved the sea, and the idea of someone yearning and longing for something. The sea is a metaphor for death as well, so it’s also about freedom. Often the selkie story is quite horrible, about a woman forced to marry someone and it’s driven by power and control. So I thought, what if it’s completely innocent, and it’s a friendship between children?”

After finishing the project, Sophia was completely hooked on the experience of being behind (rather than in front of) the camera. Reminded by her mum of her childhood fascination with how movies were made, Sophia says the change from actor to director perhaps wasn’t entirely surprising. “That’s what I love about filmmaking now,” she says. “The magic of the tricks that you do to make something look a certain way. The how, the whole process. As a filmmaker, you’re so all-consumed. There’s the words, the colour-grading, the edit, the challenge of finding the pace of a narrative. Shooting a story feels like a kind of choreography to me. I also love working with actors. Having been one myself, I find that prior experience invaluable. Creating the right set-up to help them flourish and play. I love to know what makes people tick and I find character-driven stories particularly compelling – people are endlessly fascinating.”

Now based in Eastbourne, the director has had her work screened at festivals around the world, won Best Director at Oslo Independent Film Festival, directed several short films and music videos, as well as two episodes of a satirical web series. She’s currently working on a drama comedy short about a couple trying to get pregnant with the help of a sperm donor, starring Ncuti Gatwa (Netflix’s Sex Education), as well as a dark comedy entitled Murder Me. She’s exploring documentary too; interested in the traditional Tarantella dance of Southern Italy and how body work can heal.

She says there’s part of her that’s drawn to the folkloric part of storytelling, but an equally significant part that deeply appreciates humour. “I’ve got these two sides – one that is sensual, meaningful, earthy and sort of ethereal … but I’ve got this other side as well, that just loves to laugh,” she says. “I think both in filmmaking and in life, finding the light within the darkness is essential.”

Interview by: Emma Tucker

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