The Essential List: Hannah Bon
Hannah Bon was born in Japan and raised in Holland, the UK and Brazil and is currently based in Los Angeles. Her cinematic work is inspired by her Japanese heritage, bold colour, fashion, and surrealism and leans into an unconventional, strange, and sensorial world.
Hannah is able to toggle between eccentric tongue-in-cheek and subtle and visceral style. Constantly exploring new techniques to incorporate into her work, she's currently obsessed with 3D animation/modelling.
Hannah has worked with Warner Records, RCA and Columbia Records and has recently directed music videos for artists such as Q, Ricky Montgomery and Isaac Dunbar.
Her film, 'Paired Flowers' (組の花), received a Silver at the 1.4 Film Festival and her film, 'REPLICA', won Best Fashion Film at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival. Her work has been featured in publications such as PAPER, Hypebeast, Nowness, Shots, Beyond the Short and Boooooom.
Hannah speaks English, Dutch, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
Lifestyle
- Place of birth: Kamakura, Japan.
- Hometown: Don’t really have one as we moved around quite a bit as a family so I didn’t get to settle in one place for very long, but it's between Campinas, Brazil and Wassenaar, Netherlands.
- Vacation: Buzios, Brazil.
- Pet: Three cats; Bobby, Tumnus and Momo (^•ܫ•^)
- Place of work: At a very messy desk where I work from home as a freelance treatment designer (when I’m not directing) next to my hubby who is also a freelance treatment designer (who has a very clean desk).
- Place of workout: The living room mat. Youtube home workouts are better than a gym membership in my opinion.
- Good Habit: to-do lists and counting macros
- Bad Habit: social smoking and eating too many Altoids
- Mode of transport: a 2016 xc70 Volvo wagon in seashell metallic
- Bonus Travel Essential: this very used and taped up Thoth tarot deck.
Culture
- Artist: René Magritte, Toshio Saeki, 3d artist icons Claudia Maté and OZBREN.
- Musician: There are too many: Gorillaz, Grimes, Tame Impala, Khruangbin, Chet Baker, Chico Buarque, Céu, Tyler the Creator, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Vince Staples, Solange, KAYTRANADA, Crystal Castles, Ratatat.
- Commercials / music video director: Camille Summers-Valli is a genius, Oscar Hudson and CANADA.
- Film director: David Lynch, Luca Guadagnino, Hayao Miyazaki, Paul T. Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, Quentin Tarantino and Akira Kurosawa.
- Photographer: Cho Gi-Seok, Boris Camaca, Alex Webb and Gregory Crewdson.
- Film: Recently, it's an 11/10 for 'Poor Things', 'Perfect Days' and 'Challengers' (and also obsessing over its incredible soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). 'Climax', 'Phantom Thread', 'Spirited Away', 'Dreams' and 'Twelve Angry Men'.
- Series: 'Attack on Titan' / 'Twin Peaks' / 'Nathan For You'.
- Commercial: Burberry - 'Open Spaces'
- Music Video: BADBADNOTGOOD - 'Beside April', 'Invisible Light' - Scissor Sisters, 'Locket' - Audrey Nuna and recently watched Justice - 'Generator' and it blew me away.
- Video Game: All the Sims but particularly 'Sims 1', 'Gen III Pokemon' (on the Gameboy Advance), 'Stardew Valley', 'Mortal Kombat', 'Fortnite', 'Rocket League' and 'Animal Crossing'.
- Board Game: Does Chess count? Codenames and Cranium.
- Book: Recently, I’ve been loving 'Can I Ask You a Question?' By Jennifer Venditti. Also, 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus.
- Podcast: 'Astrology with Alice'
- Obsession: Embroidery, Blender and most recently Bryce3d (a vintage 3d program from 1994 and was used to make a lot of the rave posters in the 90s).
- Bonus Culture Essential: Twitch
Food and Drink
- Breakfast: Not a breakfast gal.
- Restaurant: Raffi’s Place in Glendale, CA. Or Wagamama in the UK!
- Cheap bite: Altoids
- Working lunch: Avocado toast + a boiled egg and some everything bagel seasoning.
- Dish: Arroz feijão com frango e mandioca frita (A Brazilian dish AKA beans, rice, chicken and fried Yuca) or a tortilla de patatas (A Spanish dish for potato omelette)
- Snack: Lays BBQ Chips (but the best Lays chips are in the UK, the Cheese & Onion flavour 🤤)
- Guilty Pleasure: Häagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream
- Bar: 4100 in Silverlake
- Booze: Ranch Water (specifically from Lone River)
- Not Booze: Sprite
- Bonus Food: Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatballs)
- Bonus Beverage: a Moscow Mule
Kit
- Phone: A red iPhone 13
- Computer: a very dusty and dearly beloved custom built PC.
- Camera: don't have one but I like to steal my husband's Mamiya RB67 for random shoots :)
- Where you document an idea: Notion or in my mini Moleskine notebook.
- Casual Clothing: Baggy pants and an oversized button down shirt.
- Smart Clothing: Something either all black or all colourful & patterned.
- Footwear: my (cat) scratched up Filas.
- Accessory: Not really an accessory but nail art has become an essential part of expressing myself 💅🤓 (This is what my nails look like rn)
- Collection: Crystals and rocks
- Home comfort: Our super cosy fluffy UGG blanket
- App: Astroseek / Chess
- Website: are.na / Youtube
- Work program: Mainly Blender / InDesign.
- Digital work tool: a Keychron C2 keyboard with custom linear switches (that sound soooo smooth when you type on them ⌨️🧈).
- Morning grooming / makeup essential: Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen 🧴
- Bonus Kit Essential: Jo Malone Blue Agava & Cacao Cologne / Altoids.
