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What compelled you to make this piece? How does this work address issues that are important to you or close to your heart?
I had three goals in making MOUSE: I wanted to explore an act of everyday cowardice; I wanted to present Asian American characters in non-stereotypical situations; and I wanted to play with horror movie conventions in an unexpected domestic context.
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| From MOUSE. |
How does living in the New York metropolitan area affect your work?
I love New York. Every day I bump into someone else's drama. Just this weekend, I overheard a couple flirting outside my window, saw a man weeping on the subway, and watched a tyrannical child scolding her mother on the train. I don't know any other town which provides such a constant, public display of private pain and humor. It's a great place for a writer to live.
In including your work in REEL NEW YORK, do you think your piece in any way pushes the medium of television, or the viewing audiences' expectations of that medium?
Asian Americans on television tend to appear either as annoying racist stereotypes or boring educational role models. MOUSE breaks both molds by presenting an edgy story about a flawed, funny Asian American couple grappling with universal problems of love, sex, and cowardice.
What about access to the tools of production and post-production?
Since MOUSE was one of my NYU thesis films, the costs of production and post-production were partially subsidized by the school. Now that I've graduated, it's become much more difficult to scrounge up the dollars to start new projects.
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| From MOUSE. |
Why did you become a film/video artist/maker?
Filmmaking is the most completely satisfying work I know. It's a great, contradictory combination of headwork and physical labor, careful planning and seat-of-the-pants spontaneity, cold reasoning and raw emotion. And it has potential for enormous impact. I still believe movies can change the world.
Do you feel the New York independent film/video community has changed in recent years? Do you find support living and working in such a large community of artists?
Film Video Arts, the Millennium Film Workshop, and the Association of Independent Film & Video Makers are great resources for New York-based filmmakers. FVA's cheap equipment rentals, Millennium's affordable optical printers and animation stands, and AIVF's comprehensive festival listings have helped me enormously as I've produced and distributed my films.
Do you have any interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the making of this particular work?
I bought ten mice for the shoot. Two of them turned out to be great performers, and filming went relatively well. The only problem was that by the end of the production, the mouse population had grown to fifty. Fortunately, the pet shop agreed to take the mice off my hands, but I still have tanks, exercise wheels, water bottles, and a couple of pounds of mouse food, if anyone's interested.
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