I hope you’re all letting your parents or grandparents spoil you a little this week—you deserve it.

Today, I’m sharing my WIP interview with Kiubon Kokko, a filmmaker deep in the process of creating his deeply personal documentary film. Kiubon opens up about the story he initially set out to tell and how it evolved into something entirely different, requiring him to process his own experiences and truly “go into the lava” (a phrase often mentioned on The Screenwriter Life podcast).

It’s terrifying, but I believe the best work comes from venturing into those scary places.

I love how he reflects on the process of letting the story unfold and present itself organically, and how that openness can lead to unexpected yet essential discoveries. I’m also struck by his focus on not dwelling on the negative (I’m guilty of wallowing myself) and instead channeling energy into finding solutions.

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

Congrats on MAKING your first feature — you're doing it! What's it about and where are you currently at in the process?

Thank you! The film is about my dad's twelve hour swim to Hong Kong to escape communism in the 1970s. Though it's starting to take a different shape and looking more like a documentary musical on how I'm trying to heal from my parent's divorce which eventually leads to me hurting myself more. 

At what point did it start to feel real, like this movie is actually going to happen?

The venture capital firm, O'Shaughnessy Ventures awarded me a $100k USD grant. I've never even dreamt of this kind of money, and that lit a firecracker under the film. They're opening applications for their third class of fellows on January 1st and if you're reading, you should apply and mention my name. (https://www.osv.llc)

What has been the biggest hurdle so far? 

The biggest hurdle has been how emotionally tough it's been to comb through hours of footage of my dad screaming at my family. I thought I had the technical chops and emotional detachment to breeze through the edit regardless of how heavy it gets, but man was I wrong. My college professor has this quote that goes, "There comes a time when you stop working on the art, and the art starts working on you." It's very much been that. Processing childhood trauma is a rollercoaster without any built-in vomit bags. I have lots of room to grow, and I'm finally starting to realize that is an okay thing.

What is the biggest unknown that you're looking at as you move towards the finish line?

I told myself that I'd finish the movie in the fall of 2024. Now, I have no idea when it'll be done, and I'd rather not prolong the process. Though everybody says not to rush your first feature, I'm ready to be done so I can grow from this experience. That's not to say I haven't been enjoying it. It's just challenging in all the right ways. The biggest unknown is, when I do finish it, I hope it's worth watching. Unfortunately I do subscribe to the ideal of wanting my intended audience to think I'm cool and a good filmmaker, so I just hope I can get through the emotional bits to make a film for audiences to impact their own circles with. 

What has it been like directing this deeply personal story about your dad's experience?

It's been illuminating. When we threw an actor in the water who couldn't really swim that well, he had to use the movie prop, an inflatable pillow, to keep afloat. Just like my dad did. Also, my dad lathered on Vaseline to keep warm in the cold waters. And our actor had to too! Finally when my dad was almost to Hong Kong, he would purposely see if he could touch the seafloor with his feet, to check if the water was getting shallower. Little did he know, the seafloor was ladened with sharp oysters that cut up his feet. Me and the actor got cut up too from filming the recreation scenes. It felt so real to relate to a fraction of my dad's journey to freedom, when we were doing it for fun and for art. 

How have grants and mentorships, like those from O’Shaughnessy Ventures and Jim Cummings, shaped your approach to this film?

I subscribe to Mark Duplass's common refrain that the calvary is not coming. But then I remember I have some talented filmmakers with large capacities to love in my corner. A random man I do not know gave me 100 grand! Now he is an ally. So in a way, the calvary did come, just in a nuanced way. Having Jim Cummings, a Sundance and SXSW winning filmmaker give feedback on cuts, teach me about indie distribution, and introduce me to his network, is a deep honor. It imbues me with confidence to know that they believe in me and want to see me succeed. Everyone should apply for opportunities to work with mentors like the Short to Feature Lab. 

What advice do you have for someone on the precipice of commiting to their own feature?

A few things: you can't do this alone. I would tell them to reach out to you, GG, or anyone else making their first feature 🙋

. I would tell them to adopt a practice of mindfulness, whether that be journaling, meditation, or long walks without your phone. Something that I've been trying to do is to abstain from complaining and go fix the problem instead. I would tell them to maximize fun while making the movie. For me that's been writing silly songs for the musical doc to rip the bandaid off the hard stuff and dress it with some humor. For narrative features, that might be having movie trivia on set with $10 prizes, which I learned from listening to the No Film School podcast (so everyone should listen to that). For post production projects, that may be setting time aside to craft a funny edit, a scary edit, an edit that just uses memes to tell the story, anything that takes out of your groove, and on to a new groove that might lead to valuable epiphanies with plenty of fun. 

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Thank you, Kiubon, for sharing. Given how open, candid, and truthful this interview was, I have no doubt the film will entertain and gut us in the best way.