Wonderland Film Spotlight

Today’s film spotlight focuses on the short film Wonderland directed by Dilara Avgen.

What is the title of your film and what inspired said title?

The title is Wonderland, which is inspired from Alice in Wonderland. Our main character believes that she sees landscapes from “Wonderland” in her daily life, and uses it as her main inspiration for her art.

Tell us a little bit about the story and origins of your film.

Wonderland is a film about a young artist who wants to make a memorable exhibition while struggling with a mental illness that makes her believe she could see Wonderland from Alice in Wonderland. The film takes place after Alice’s incident, where she has to see Dr. Kim, a psychologist.

Any films or filmmakers that inspired this film?

Maybe not a filmmaker, but Van Gogh’s life was definitely an inspiration for this film.

When I read Van Gogh’s letter to his brother Theo, I felt like I got to know Van Gogh as a person rather than one of the most famous artists in the world. His letters show us how he saw the world differently, but also gave a glimpse of his real mental stage while doing them and how much he was suffering inside. I thought about how that might apply to today’s world with an aspiring young artist who is trying to be recognized in a culture where people burn out from a young age.

And of course Alice in Wonderland was a big inspiration as well!

What is the goal of the film for you?

The goal was first to have something made in the middle of this pandemic, and have a project that I can be proud of and remember my senior year by. At the time, I also remember questioning myself as a filmmaker, and I needed to show to myself why I wanted to study filmmaking at the first place. So the overall goal is to use this film as my thesis project, and prepare me to the entertainment industry, entering as a creative.

What has the journey been like getting the film into production?

It definitely has been a process. This film was supposed to be made for a class back in 2020. Right after my script was chosen to be produced, the world went into lockdown. But I knew I wanted to get this project made before I graduated. We started planning in November 2020 and aimed to shoot in February 2021. Most of our planning involved limiting the number of people, or how can we effectively double up the roles on set so we can have less people and more distancing. A big part of the planning was the crowdfunding campaign as well. Because this wasn’t the school’s project, we had to rent our equipment out! We made a detailed budget and a carefully planned campaign. I remember how I excited I was when I saw that we reached out goal, but still people were donating money!

there was also the personal part of the journey as well as it was my first time directing a project that I wrote. I remember how anxious I was during our table read even though it was through zoom! Overall, we spent a good amount of time during pre-production to have the least amount of problems during production as we were living through a pandemic as college seniors!

One thing you learned from this project?

Good things take time! Don’t rush your passions, and trust the process and trust your team. For all I know, Wonderland wouldn’t have been the same if it wasn’t for the amazing and dedicated cast and crew we gathered.

How can folks find you and your film online?

Unfortunately, the film is not available to the public right now as we are in our festival run! You can view the trailer for Wonderland and some of my other projects on my Vimeo page: @dilaraavgen.

Any last pieces of advice for fellow filmmakers?

As a young and aspiring filmmaker myself, I know I have a lot to learn. I always liked the word “storyteller” more than “filmmaker” because I believe that as long as you have a good story, everything else will come through! So however long or short, start writing stuff, and jot your ideas down as all big things start with something small. As Walt Disney himself said once, “It all started with a mouse”.

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