“Bermuda,” the new 70-minute feature film by writer-director Laura Valtorta, is meant to be a wacky comedy. It tells the story of Mildred, a poet who’s determined to do things her own way. She’s decided she wants to take a vacation to Bermuda, and come hell or high water, that’s what she’s going to do, even if she has to use shady means to get there.
If that means she has to kidnap her wheelchair-bound son and use his disability checks to fund her vacation, so be it. It's only after her son, Little Willie, makes his escape that Mildred’s plan gets more complicated, and all manner of hijinks ensue.
“Mildred is kind of like a freight train,” said Laura Valtorta, the film's director. “She sees what she wants, and she goes after it. It’s a film that makes the point that sometimes women have to break the law to get what they want, so that’s the core message.”
“Bermuda” is Valtorta’s ninth film, and one can sense a little bit of Mildred’s character in Valtorta; she decided she wanted to do something and didn’t stop until she did it.
“I started (filmmaking) when my father died in 2011 ... because he was the type of person who saw what he wanted to do and just went ahead and did it," she said. "I’ve always loved all types of film and I wanted to do it for a long time. And when he died, I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to do it. I’m just going to do it.’”
“Bermuda” was filmed entirely in South Carolina, with outdoor scenes done in Newberry, interiors in Columbia and with Beaufort subbing for Bermuda. Valtorta praised working with Newberry and the city’s Newberry Literacy Council for offering up assistance in the filming.
The cast, led by Pat Yeary as Mildred, is a local affair, as well. Trustus Theatre actor Rob Sprankle appears in “Bermuda” as does Ursula Robinson, drama program coordinator and professor of drama at South Carolina State University, .
Valtorta said she found her cast through trusted friends and good word-of-mouth. Those included Arischa Conner, a South Carolina actor who got her start working at spots like Trustus and is now acting in major productions like “Dopesick,” and fellow filmmaker Lesharn Hopkins.
Conner connected Valtorta to Urusual Robinson, who plays Karen, and Peri Susanne, who plays the character Jackson.
“I just asked a lot of friends who were into playmaking and playwriting and filmmaking to recommend actors,” she said.
Valtorta is an avid film lover who alternates between directing documentaries and narrative films, but her day job is in the law; she’s an attorney by trade.
“I always knew that I wanted to get involved in films, but you have to make a living, right?” she said.“But I think that being a lawyer is a wonderful way to get material. You can’t get a better source of material because you’re meeting people all the time.”
Ultimately, Valtorta said that she hopes films like “Bermuda” will help people realize that they don’t have to go to Atlanta or Charlotte to make movies.
“I think we have a lot of talented people in South Carolina,” she said. “You can film in South Carolina and be really happy with the result. I love how it came out; it came out exactly the way that I wanted.”
“Bermuda” is available on Amazon and Tubi.
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