An interview with Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”
ReelHeART: Hi, my name is Cassandra. We’re going to play a little game called “20 Questions”. Are you ready? How are you today?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Doing great!
ReelHeART: What are you seeing on your desk right now while we’re chatting? Give me a list…
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: When you Skyped us earlier, we were sitting together at Chris’ “extra desk” which is actually our dining room table. Filled with too many piles to count. It’s a mess but somehow Chris can still make sense of (most) of it. It includes folders for a couple of our next projects, research, possible funding opportunities, bills, as well as a couple of small stuffed monkeys, glasses I wish I didn’t have to wear to read, photos of Vi (the subject of our current doc), and “To Do” piles galore.
ReelHeART: 3-Part Question:
What or Whom inspired you to get into filmmaking?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Mark- Believe it or not watching old TV shows like “David Allen At Large” & “Monty Pythons Flying Circus”. I enjoyed the short films and wanted to learn how to do that. For Documentaries I was inspired by the first Documentarians I worked with at WNED-TV in Buffalo. Fran Lucca & Ron Arnold produced Channel 17 Reports and I was lucky enough to start out as their sound engineer, and worked my way up to Cameraman / Editor. I really learned a lot from them, they were true Journalist.
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Chris- I fell in love with documentaries after making my first one in college for a Media class taught by Dr. William Jungles. When I began to work at PBS Channel 17 in Buffalo, NY, I felt extremely lucky to learn from some of the best in the business: Fran & Ron, as well as my boss, Debbie Pettibone. Working in other parts of media is nice, but making documentaries has always fed my soul!
ReelHeART: What do you hate most about being a filmmaker
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Having to look for funding. We really like the creative side of filmmaking, but do not at all like the business side. (BTW – We would not be surprised if most filmmakers agreed with us).
ReelHeART: What do you love most about being a filmmaker
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Meeting the amazing people we get to document. Spending hours hearing their story (how often in life do we get to sit down and really talk with someone?!) Learning something new every time we do an interview – Wow! As you can see, it’s hard to choose just one thing!
ReelHeART: How did you hear about ReelHeART?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: We were in the very first ReelHeART film festival with our documentary, “Letters to Defiance” and then came back again in 2008 with our 2nd documentary, “In Times of War: Ray Parker’s Story”. Both of those films won awards there (Honorable Mention & Best Documentary Short respectively). We both grew up near Buffalo, NY and Toronto has always been one of our favorite cities.
ReelHeART: When does your film screen?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story” screens on Wed. June 22nd at 7:15pm in Main Program A at Innis Hall, Innis College, 2 Sussex Street, Toronto, and then again on Thurs. June 23rd at 8:00pm in the VENUE PROGRAM at Southern Accent Restaurant, 595 Markham Street, Toronto
ReelHeART: Is this a Canadian premiere?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: I thought Stephen Harper was the Canadian Premiere… Oh – I see what you mean. Yes, this is the first time that WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story will be showing in Canada! (couldn’t resist!) 🙂
ReelHeART: What was the inspiration for your film?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Vi (short for Violet). We heard about her story and once we talked to her we knew we had someone very special whom we needed to share with the world. She is so amazing and so inspiring – and such a firecracker! And the story of the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) of WWII is one that is not widely known – and gosh darn it – it should be!!!
ReelHeART: Did youalso write the screenplay? Or do cinematography or editing? Or Music?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Mark & I do absolutely every part of the filmmaking process, from beginning research to interviewing, and from videography to editing – we even do our own website!
There was no writing for this documentary because we strongly believe that this should be history told by the people who actually lived it, so that you can see it in THEIR eyes, hear it in THEIR voice when they talk about what they went through. With our documentaries, you never see or hear the interviewer and there is no voice-over; just the Veteran telling their stories in their words. It is much more powerful than any flowery words that we could write.
ReelHeART: Tell us a little more about the story and why you shot it where you shot it?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: In March of 2010 the United States awarded the Congressional Gold Medal – the highest award that a civilian can receive from Congress – to nearly 300 women, all over the age of 86. What is it that these women did to deserve such a prestigious decoration? “Wings of Silver: The Vi Cowden Story,” follows one 93-year-old woman’s journey from the Black Hills of South Dakota where she learned to fly biplanes, to flying fighter planes for the Army Air Corps in 1943 & ’44. Vi was among the first women in United States history to fly military planes.
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were not only crucial to the war effort during World War II, they were instrumental in changing the course of Women’s history.
When the Country needed every man – She answered the call!
Why did we shoot at the Air Museum? Vi knew so much about the planes that she flew and we knew folks would be even more impressed with her when they saw her tiny frame up against all these big ole war birds! Vi being Vi, has some very amazing and well connected friends, and they came through when we needed it most. Where other museums were telling us they would have to charge us a very pretty penny, Vi mentioned she was on the Board of Directors for the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, CA. When we called them, they immediately said “Yes.” They let us film there for free for over 4 hours when the museum was closed. It was awesome to be among all of these remarkable planes and to know that everyone of them was airworthy!
ReelHeART: How long did it take from pre-production to post production ?
A year and a half.
ReelHeART: Do you have distribution for this film yet?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: No.
ReelHeART: Where there any pitfalls?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Some of the shots that we thought would be the easiest to get were actually the most difficult.
We spent a couple of months trying to get the video of a hawk flying to illustrate Vi’s comment about wanting to be up in the sky flying like them. Even though there was one that would fly over our house – he/she seemed to be very camera shy. We finally captured one on film right near Vi’s house.
And then there was the tough time we had trying to get archival footage of the P-51. We spent many weeks searching the National Archives online, but to no avail. The footage they had listed was all combat footage – and the WASP did not fly combat. We finally ended up taking a road trip to the archives in Arlington, West Virginia, so that we could go through their footage in person (not all the archival footage is listed online). We were extremely lucky to find what we wanted after only a couple of hours of searching (we had been warned it could take days of hunting through their stacks). Yay! Success! 🙂
ReelHeART: Were there any happy surprises?
The final scenes of the film (we don’t want to give away the ending). We were amazed by how easily it came together and how kind and generous Vi’s friends are.
ReelHeART: What pleases you most about your film?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Getting to share Vi with so many people who would have never had the opportunity to meet her otherwise. Even after her death (April 10, 2011) she can continue to do one of the things she loved to do most – inspire people to follow their dreams and never give up… and to always reach for the skies!
ReelHeART: What displeases you most about your film?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: More people haven’t seen it. We have been lucky enough to get into 18 festivals. We have won 10 awards (5 of those are Audience Awards) out of the 16 festivals where we were in competition. We really feel that this is an inspiring documentary and would love more people to see it.
ReelHeART: What’s your next project?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: We have 17 other veterans of World War II whose stories we have already captured. Each one of them is just as courageous and incredible as the last. We would love to make them into a series and share them in the school systems so that the children of today (and later generations) can learn about history from the people who actually lived it!
ReelHeART: What sound or noise do you hate?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: The sound of a tape machine eating a tape! Just thinking about it makes my stomach turn!
ReelHeART: What’s your favorite curse word?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Dang. (Does that count as a curse word?) – I think Mark’s is “Crap”! Always makes me laugh when he says that, so it’s hard to take him seriously… then again, he is ALWAYS smiling!
ReelHeART: Finally, Is there anything you’d like to mention in this chat, knowing that it’s published on the Internet and will live on forever :D?
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Mark- The “In Times of War Documentary Project” (www.intimesofwar.us) takes up all our spare time and a lot of our savings. We both believe that it’s worth it! I am so lucky to be able to work with someone I respect and love! Christine is amazing!
Christine Bonn, Mark Bonn, co-directors “WINGS OF SILVER: The Vi Cowden Story”: Christine- Ditto! It is really so amazing to work with someone who respects you and lets you know when you are doing a great job. I’ve been lucky to have that most of my life, and to get it from someone I revere and love just means that much more. Also, these Veterans (of ALL wars) just make me feel so proud to know them and to be able to share their stories with generations to come. We don’t want their stories to die with them and we are losing WWII Veterans at a rate of 740 a DAY here in the States. Each story is just as unique, brave, strong and triumphant as Vi’s – each person deserves our respect and honor, and to be remembered for how hard they fought and sacrificed for our great Nations.
Thanks so much, Cassandra! This was fun