Tawau-born Soon King Yaw, who is now a US-based budding filmmaker, talks about his award-winning animated documentary
BUDDING filmmaker Soon King Yaw excels in stories about Asian-Americans and the challenges they face.
Most recently, he came up with All I Did Was Smile and Say Hello, a brief animated film based on the true story of a friend who faced racist responses while adapting to the "new normal" in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Soon, 28, is based in San Francisco. His animated documentary was selected as the opening film of the KQED Homemade Film Festival that happened last month. It was selected out of 500 submissions across the United States.
KQED, a major public media outlet in the San Francisco Bay Area, is part of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network.
Soon's five-minute documentary follows Michelle, an Asian-American pharmacist who has a racist encounter at the airport. During the incident, a mother and daughter distanced themselves from her and shouted that because of her, they had to wash their hands immediately.
Film critics such as Randy Myers have described Soon's film as "soulful and poignant with first-rate animation and a moving voice-over narration".
His last short film, Something Carved And Real (2017), won National Best Picture at the Campus Movie Fest (the largest student film competition in the US), a feature spot on Virgin America Airlines for Best of the Web and the opportunity to represent Campus Movie Fest at the Cannes Court Metrage 2017 in France.
Below is a recent interview with Soon.
Tell us about your background.
I was born in Tawau, Sabah in 1992 so that makes me 28 this year. I grew up in a single-parent family. I have two younger brothers. I think we got our creative genes from our mum. My middle brother and I were in a lot of painting competitions from a young age and my youngest brother, who is nine years younger than me, is a talented singer. Mum supported all our creative endeavours.
Both my primary and secondary school years were spent in Tawau. After graduating from high school, I participated in the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (YES) exchange programme in the US where I spent six months with a family in South Carolina in 2010.
After winning the Malaysia Top 10 Young Artists Awards (an annual national art competition organised by The One Academy), I received a full scholarship to study in The One Academy (TOA) in 2011, majoring in digital animation. That is how my creative journey began.
From TOA, I went on to pursue filmmaking in the US. I graduated summa cum laude from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Arts (Cinema) in 2018 and got a job as a video editor at Electronic Arts in Redwood City, California.
I'm the first person in my family to venture into the creative industry. My youngest brother is studying music so he may be the second person. He is the music composer for my documentary All I Did Was Smile and Say Hello. It was our first collaboration and I'm so proud of him.
Anyone in your family inspired you to become a filmmaker and artist? Was it a childhood dream?
While I majored in digital animation, I was not cut out to be an animator. But I discovered my passion for video and film editing.
Christopher Low, a famed local commercial director and a guest lecturer at TOA, noticed my talent in storytelling and encouraged me to pursue filmmaking.
It was a tough conversation to have with my mum. By pursuing the art of filmmaking, I felt I would be wasting time and money. No one in my family was a cinephile. We didn't watch films at all. I wasn't sure if I was going to be any good at it. It was a step towards the creative unknown but my mother was supportive all the way.
Tell us about your days at TOA. What was the most important thing you learnt there which helped you in your career?
TOA was rough but in a good way. I was there for a little over three years from 2010. At times, the assignments were tough. Being a perfectionist didn't help with the workload.
Some days, my friends and I would be at the animation lab the whole night, going out for a quick bite at 2am before heading back to work. We would sleep in the lab for a few hours on the chairs and go to class in the morning.
I think the most important thing I've learned are post-production skills.
TOA focuses heavily on tangible technical skills whereas US colleges focus more on concept and theory. I was able to get a job at EA because they were very impressed with some of the school projects I included in my demo reel.
How long have you been living in the US? Tell us more.
I came to San Francisco in the fall of 2015. I was a film student at San Francisco State University for three years. I have only lived in San Francisco throughout my years here.
I worked as a graphic designer and video editor for my school throughout my studies here. It was always a rush between classes and work. Sometimes there was no time for lunch but I needed the job to support myself.
I was fortunate to be hired by EA right after graduation. I worked on commercials for The Sims 4, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, FIFA Mobile, NBA Live Mobile and Command & Conquer: Rivals, among others.
I worked on freelance projects on the side, mostly film posters and marketing kit designs. My clients were mostly independent filmmakers in the bay area and I love to make things happen for their films.
Why did you choose California?
I'd like to think that San Francisco chose me. I applied to many film schools around the world and most of them didn't recognise the credits I had at TOA. San Francisco State University was the only one that allowed credit transfers.
California is a great place for artists. The diversity of San Francisco is a constant source of inspiration. The culture here appreciates and encourages art-making. Its close proximity to Los Angeles, the film hub of the world, helps to nurture aspiring independent filmmakers. The abundance of talents, opportunities and platforms pushes me to be a better artist.
Tell us about the background to All I Did Was Smile and Say Hello. How did you get to know Michelle?
Michelle is a friend I met at church. I first heard the airport story from Michelle when she shared it over a group zoom call. It was before the city announced its "shelter-in-place", something like our Movement control Order (MCO).
I was moved by her story — how she responded to the discrimination with self-contemplation, and the spirit of love and forgiveness. There was no hate nor fear.
The story stuck with me and I wanted to make an art piece to document her spirit.
It's not a jab against racism and the fear of this virus. It's a gentle reminder that we're all humans, that it's okay to be scared and that we still can be good to each other.
Michelle was unsure in the beginning. She didn't know if her story was worth sharing with the world. We worked on the voice-over together. A pharmacist in real life, she's a great storyteller. There's so much we can learn about ourselves when we open our hearts to each other. It was a beautiful human experience through storytelling.
How long did it take you to complete it?
I was in a rut because of the lockdown and it took a toll on my creative spirit. I was miserable. I saw the KQED's Homemade Film Festival as an opportunity to create. I completed it two weeks, just before the submission deadline in May.
Did you face similar racist encounters?
Yes, definitely. San Francisco was interesting and I initially felt I could blend right in because the Asian-American population here was high. But I quickly learnt that there was a lot of negative bias that came with being a yellow-skinned person in the US.
Certain experiences made me realise that racism was everywhere and it could be as small as an implicit bias.
I was conscious of my Malaysian accent whenever I spoke in class. I felt I wasn't taken seriously by others because I couldn't speak fluently. Once, while leading a film project, a group mate mocked my accent and mimicked how I talked in a very belittling way. That drove me over the edge. I hated being confrontational but I stood up for myself. She only apologised after being prompted by other group mates.
Of all the films you have made, which is your favourite? Which is closest to your heart?
That's a hard question! It's like choosing a favourite kid — you may have one but you can't say it out loud.
I guess I'll have to talk about my very first film, Something Carved And Real. It's a short documentary about scars. I combined the footage with my watercolour paintings. To be honest, I thought it would be a bad student film that no one would be interested in. But I was wrong. The film won the National Best Picture at Campus Movie Fest 2017 and Naomie Harris, the actress in Moonlight and the recent James Bond films, presented the award to me during the ceremony. It was surreal.
I also had the opportunity of a lifetime to go to the Cannes Film Festival that year because that film was chosen to represent the Campus Movie Fest showcase at Cannes Court Metrage.
The film taught me to believe in myself and that I could make it as a filmmaker if I tried hard enough.
The film that is closest to my heart would be my narrative short, My Mother, Myself & I.
Initially, I wrote the film in English but my film professor challenged me to "dig deep" into my culture and use my mother tongue.
I hated the idea at first because I couldn't see how the script could be translated into Mandarin.
I'm so glad that I listened to his advice. It gave the film much more character. The film premiered at the Oscar-qualifying film festival, Cinequest, in 2019. It was selected at CAAM Fest, the nation's largest film festival showcase for new Asian-American and Asian films, and was later acquired by PBS KQED for public TV broadcast.
Tell us about your upcoming projects.
I shot a narrative short last year titled When I See The Wind. It's currently in post-production. The story was inspired by an incident when I was back in Malaysia a long time ago. Someone actually jumped off a bridge in front of me.
There was no one else around and I chose to just walk away as quickly as possible. I never knew what happened to her.
Writing When I See The Wind was a way to purge myself of the emotions that lingered from this traumatic experience.
My big dream film would be a feature film. I have some ideas, nothing concrete yet, but I would love to shoot it in Tawau.
Being away from my hometown helps me to appreciate it in a new light. I moved a lot during my childhood and stayed in many different houses — a tiny office apartment, a haunted house and even one where the neighbourhood gets flooded every time it rains. It would be cool to revisit these childhood homes and make something beautiful out of the whole experience.
List five of your biggest inspirations in filmmaking.
Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up, Carlos Reygadas' Stellet Licht, Pixar's Up, Qiu Yang's A Gentle Night, and Yasmin Ahmad's Sepet which is as poignant and captivating as any international picture. It really helped me to appreciate the beauty of Malaysian cinema, the intricacy of Bahasa Rojak and the honesty that it offers.
Have you ever worked with any major actor or filmmaker before?
The closest experience I had working with a major actor on set was when I worked as a video production assistant on the set of Birth of the Dragon.
Billy Magnussen (Into the Woods, Game Night, Aladdin, and the upcoming No Time To Die ) was in the cast. He was very friendly towards the crew members and he even said hello to me.
The cinematographer in my upcoming film When I See The Wind is Andres Gallegos, an acclaimed filmmaker whose work has been shown at Cannes, Raindance and Mill Valley. It's an honour to work with people like him.
What do you miss most (or do not miss) about Malaysia?
The food! Nasi lemak, nasi kuning, Penang laksa, beef rendang, teh ais, roti canai. I can go on and on.
One thing I certainly do not miss are the mosquitoes. Somehow my blood attracts them. I'm always covered with mosquito bite marks when I'm in Malaysia.
* Soon's short film is available at www.kqed.org/arts/13880026/all-i-did-was-smile-and-say-hello.