We had the good fortune of connecting with Sonya Padalka and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sonya, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I truly think that you can’t live a fulfilling and exciting life unless you take risks. In my life, it turned out to be that the majority of the risks I take are connected to my career choices and creative ideas. It all started with a decision to pursue directing and go to a film school on the other side of the world (Los Angeles), instead of going for a more “usual” path like most of my classmates from high school did. Most of them decided to attend universities back home, in Russia, and started to study business, law, medicine, or science. Not necessarily because of their wants, but because of fears that they won’t be able to do anything else. I’m grateful for my parents, who have supported my life choices the majority of the time, but it wasn’t easy because of the judgment that was continuously coming from my “friends” and teachers. Taking the biggest risk of my life so far and choosing a creative career has resulted in me doing something that I’m passionate about. No matter what you do in life, even if you create art every day and get paid for it very well, it gets hard. But at least, you’ve taken the risk, and at the end of the day it fills you up with satisfaction because you’ve chosen to go for something that lights a fire in your heart.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time in theatre. Either watching different plays or participating in them. Soon enough after that, I discovered YouTube and my theatrical hobby grew into a love for videography and filmmaking. A couple of years in, I started to make actual short films and participate more behind the camera rather than appearing on screen. That’s when “Starbucks Russia” discovered my films and wanted to collaborate with me. I worked with them for a couple of months as a director and director of photography for social media commercials. I’m very grateful for them because this opportunity has given me a jump start to my other collaborations. After that, I made commercials for companies like “Cinnabon Russia”, “Benefit Russia”, “M.A.C Cosmetics Russia”, etc. Once I moved to LA to get my Bachelor’s degree in filmmaking, I put aside directing commercials (for now) and fully jumped into narrative films. So far, I’ve directed two of my biggest short films to this date: “See You Back Soon” and “Stay”. “Stay” is currently in post-production, and I’m very excited to release it, since it’s about domestic violence in Russia, and I hope to change the current situation with the help of my film. When I don’t write or direct, I’m usually a script supervisor on set, which I enjoy doing. Because of this job, I get to spend a lot of time with other directors, learning from them, and improving my directing skills with the help of their advice.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I honestly think that the best part of LA is nature. The center of the city can get pretty overwhelming with so much noise and people around, so it feels nice to get out from time to time. I would certainly take my friend to Malibu or Laguna Beach and rent out a small vacation house for us to spend all day enjoying the sun and the ocean breeze. My friends and I love to go bowling, so that would be one of the activities we do a couple of nights out of the week. As for the food places, I prefer smaller restaurants nearby to support local businesses, so if you’re ever in the Burbank/North Hollywood/Studio City area, the best places to visit are: “Romancing the Bean Cafe”, “HOPE Organic Kitchen”, “Republic of Pie”, “Bonzai Sushi and Ramen” and “Pizza Studio”.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to shout out the movies: “Lady Bird” by Greta Gerwig, “The Farewell” by Lulu Wang, and the series “Feud” by Ryan Murphy because these movies/series and their directors inspire me daily and help me come up with styles and themes for my films. The film director who has inspired me the most is Damien Chazelle. When I was fourteen I watched his big break into the film industry “Whiplash” and immediately fell in love with his work. His newest movie, “First Man”, inspired me to create a film that shows a more personal side of what a child of an astronaut goes through when their dad or mom is gone. This is why I made “See You Back Soon”, a film I directed almost two years ago. When I was twelve years old, I read “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D Salinger, and I couldn’t believe no one had ever made a film out of it. So, I asked myself, what if I was meant to be the one? Since then, I’ve set a goal to do a film adaptation of it and I’m fully committed to doing so.

Website: http://imdb.me/sonyapadalka

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonyareaming/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonya-padalka-168382171/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheSonyaGirl

Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/justsonyasproduction

Image Credits
1 photo – Zack Goodwin 1 photo – Paola Balandra

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