Embracing Matt

An interview with Matthew Abaya, director of "Embracing Madness," "Home," and "Earthworms" 
 
A VC FilmFest 2001 Report

07.13.01 -- At the VC FilmFest 2001, the San Francisco based director of the wildly experimental but equally entertaining "Earthworms," the "Chinese Ghost Story"-influenced "Embrace Madness," and the provocative documentary "Home."
 
AAF - Describe your style.
 
MA - I'm definitely trying to invent a style of my own with inspirations from various sources. I feel like a lot of my work in regards to editing is inspired by Eisenstein's methodologies. Stylistically and genre wise, it is a mix of horror and sci-fi and what I call "the avant-absurd" which is a play on avant-garde because I feel we can get a lot of important messages out there through indirect meanings. 
 
AAF - Much like subliminal messages
 
MA - They're like symbolic meanings. They are not necessarily spoken directly. I would like to give credit to the Japanese director who made "Tetsuo: The Iron Man". It is a very inspirational film to me because I feel like it was very physical in a sense that it allowed you to watch the film very objectively and not just passively. It made you feel like you are part of the moment with a lot of the graphic cutting.
 
AAF - Your work has been diverse in that you have a simple narrative film like "Embrace Madness" and then you have "Earthworms" and the Mutant Clown series, which are very experimental. Which direction are you headed in the future? Are you going to be mass-friendly?
 
MA - I really want to go with the mass-friendly, especially as I approach working on a feature project. One thing in particular that I feel is that horror and sci-fi is a crossover genre. It is a genre that I am politically choosing in order to move images of Asians and Filipinos on the mass media. By choosing to do a horror film with our own language, it will definitely defy a lot of norms and it will make our work special but when we market it, it will be marketed as a horror film.
 
AAF - Who or what are your influences? I see a lot of Hong Kong horror influence.
 
MA - Definitely Hong Kong and some Filipino horror mixed in. I find them quirky, sick, and twisted. It's an honor that my films are compared to the Hong Kong flicks. It is not always necessarily intentional but an honor nonetheless.
 
AAF - Let's talk about myths and legends. Obviously, the Filipino culture is full of these stories. Some are even exclusive. Will you be trying to incorporate some of the Filipino monsters and legends to your future work?
 
MA - That is the plan. Particularly my feature film "Duwende" which means dwarf. It is my next project. I will be trying to break it down into a deeper and a more perverse theme. It is all allegorical and not so "in your face" saying that this is a Filipino-centric film but merely directed towards a fantasy film and it just happens that the characters and the creatures that they are dealing with are Filipinos. A lot of these dynamics manifest themselves into this piece.
 
AAF - So this is a crossover, incorporating a Filipino myth into an American myth. You understand that there are people out there who will not necessarily agree with you with the fact that you are taking from the Filipino culture and turning it upside down in hopes of mass acceptance and commercialism.
 
MA - I definitely see that but as an artist I need to take chances with what I do. It's like every time I put out a film. I'm not expecting everyone to like it. Some of the pieces are very difficult for some people who are not used to this particular genre. I feel like I'm speaking a language that I have invented. Acceptance is always going to be a problem. I'm just fortunate that some festivals and the Filipino community have been open to what I have had to offer.
 
AAF - You made a comment that we are not sociologists but merely filmmakers. It's a very good battle cry for Asian filmmakers who are being forced to stay within the "Asian box." Care to elaborate?
 
MA - Right now I'm getting a degree in Asian American studies so I'm very aware of the social issue. Part of the reason I'm studying this is so I don't have to deal with these issues. How could you present the social issues but not make that the beginning theme of the move? The social areas of the movie should be something that deals with the subtext. You create a plot, which is the horror film, and you use that as a vehicle to discuss whatever other things you want address. That's all subtext. It should be something that needs to be addressed but you also have to be careful that you don't turn off your audience.
 
AAF - So when they say Matthew Abaya, what voice or vision will they see?
 
MA - I want to break ground by making innovative works. I don't want to be pigeonholed to one particular genre or category even though I probably excel in one genre. I've done films that are not horror or fantasy related. I thought that "Home" was a break for me. I want to be known as someone who has versatility.
 
AAF - What do you think of the state of Asians in films? What do you think needs to be done and where do you think it's headed?
 
MA - It's headed towards an exciting arena because we have recently seen a lot of digital pieces emerge from this festival. We've come to realize that we actually have an audience out there willing to "tune in" over the Hollywood alternative which does not represent us. That's a strong voice that we have here. For the Fil-Am filmmakers, it shows that there just might be a market out there. We're going to get more attention from Hollywood with this significant market trend.
 
AAF - Speaking of digital, the explosion of Filipino filmmakers is partly due to the digital explosion. Is it the future or just a fad?
 
MA - It is definitely not a fad. It's something that is giving us the ability to do things in an inexpensive way. It's pretty much taking over 16mm right now. We should take advantage of this technology. 

"In this world, I am immortal".