Vero’s Accidental Filmmaker Barry Nordstrand Poised for a Breakout
- Vero Minute
- 3 minutes ago
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Barry Nordstrand’s Festival-Bound Thriller ‘Bonding’
Vero local Barry Nordstrand didn't set out to make a movie, but to do something interesting with the historic ski lodge he owns.
One offhand comment from his son later, and he was producing Bonding, a $3.5 million thriller that screens at the Vero Beach Film Festival this April 9–12. First-time filmmakers don't usually start with a budget like that.
It began at the site of a defunct resort called the Stoner Ski Area, when Nordstrand's son, who would go on to play a lead role in the movie, looked around and said: "this place is so creepy, we should make a movie here." Nordstrand, a tech industry veteran with no filmmaking experience, decided to take him up on it.
He posted an RFP on a screenwriting site: pitches wanted for a thriller set on the ranch, Hotel California energy.
After getting 20 strong responses, he picked a writer, hired a director, and quickly learned that one good decision leads to a more expensive next one. A strong script attracted serious actors. Serious actors required serious lighting. "It's kind of like hosting a wedding for 45 days in a row," he says.
The film follows three estranged siblings who find themselves covering up the murder of a wealthy sexual predator and, in the process, reconciling with each other. None of them appear purely good or evil. All of them have their reasons. Think Thelma & Louise meets Knives Out.
Jefferson White, who plays Jimmy in Yellowstone, and who is about to play Lee Harvey Oswald opposite John Travolta in the JFK thriller November 1963, leads the cast alongside David Nordstrand and Alexandra Doke.
The road to the festival wasn't the smoothest. An early cut drew tough notes from critics, sending Nordstrand back for reshoots, script rewrites, and an entirely new original score after the re-edit made the old one obsolete. He got there.
As it happens, Nordstrand has been a Vero Beach resident since 2019, steered here by close friends who'd already done the full Florida tour and declared it the best of the lot, and confirmed with a two-day home search with realtor Cindy O'Dare.
Vero Beach is also the first festival to accept Bonding, a fact Nordstrand mentions with genuine satisfaction and local pride.
Bonding screens at the Vero Beach Film Festival, April 9–12. Tickets and schedule at vbfilmfest.org.
