Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, July 13, 2012 Page: 21 of 36
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screen
Haunted
filmmaker
H.P. Mendoza's musicals were
too gay for Asians and too Asian
for gays. So he made a horror film
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES I Life+Style Editor
jones@dallasvoice.cqfp
The tragedy of the film industry is that
once you are known for one thing, it's
difficult to get people to see you in a
different light, Thaf s certainly been an issue
for H.P. Mendoza.
Ever since 2006's Colma: The Musical, Men-
doza — who wrote, composed and co-starred
in the film — has been known as "the musical
guy." While he preferred that to "people see-
ing me as either the gay filmmaker or the ASIAN-AMERICAN HORROR STORY | H.P. Mendoza, inset, admits that once he added a wig to his Japanese
Asian filmmaker," he says, the resistance he leading lady, the look of 'I m a Ghost' took on qualities of a Hong Kong horror film. But that wasn't his intent,
has encountered trying to break out of the
pigeonholes people set for him has been frustrat-
ing.
"After Colma, I had straight, Asian friends say
to me, 'Have you thought about making films
where people weren't such outliers of society?'
What they meant was 'queer.' But at every gay
film festival, someone would come up to me and
say, 'You need less lotus blossom/chinky peo-
ple.' I was shocked! I even had one Hollywood
producer — who is gay! — say to me, 'Oh, H.P.,
you're a good writer, but Asian faces don't sell
and will never sell.'" (The producer later apolo-
gized.)
Almost in defiance of the haters, Mendoza's
follow-up to Colma (which he also
got to direct) was another musi-
cal, Fruit Fly ... which he made
even more gay and more Asian
than Colma. It worked — Fruit Fly
won best film at Fort Worth's Q
Cinema in 2009. ("I was really
flattered by that," he says.)
But ever the contrarian, Men-
doza has gone in an entirely different direction
with I Am a Ghost, which plays at the Asian Film
Festival of Dallas this week. Basically a two-char-
acter period film about murder and the occult, it
seems to have nothing in common with the mu-
sical genre for which he became famous.
"No, it definitely does not," he says. "I found
this Venn diagram online where one circle was
'People who love musicals' and the other was
'People who love horror films;' where they met
was 'Serial killers.'"
Mendoza hasn't killed anyone — yet ...
though he's probably been tempted to. (Remem-
ber his encounter with the gay producer?) But he
also sees more in common than at first appears.
"Colma does not have a happy ending and
Fruit Fly is about how perkiness disappears. I've
ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
The Asian Film Festival of Dallas
runs through July 19 at Magnolia
Theatre, 3699 McKinney Ave. I am
a G/iosf screens July 16at
9:45 p.m., with Mendoza in
v attendance.AFFD.org. j
had friends tell me I should make a non-cynical
musical, but I don't think my musicals are cyni-
cal. It's just that we all have our good times and
bad times; the typical musical is nothing but
good followed by a moment of sadness. That's
not reality" Mendoza says.
Still, there are some moments of levity in his
musicals; I Am a Ghost is unrelentingly dark.
"With I Am a Ghost I decided not only am I
gonna do a horror film, but make it very experi-
mental and tribute the haunted house films of
the 1960s and '70s," he says.
The premise is that a ghost named Emily, ap-
parently murdered in her home a century ago,
spends the entire film communi-
cating with a present-day clair-
voyant, who is trying to exorcise
her and free her from her house.
Even this film, though, was a
reaction against what people ex-
pected of him.
_ "There's a reason I called it I
Am a Ghost. I was tired of how,
after The Sixth Sense, there were a lot of knockoffs
where the twist was the character was dead. I de-
cided, we'll know from the first frame that she's
dead and talking to a medium." That doesn't
mean there aren't twists; it just means Mendoza
is more concerned with pushing boundaries.
With initials like "H.P" (short for Henry
Patrick), you might think Mendoza was destined
to make horror movies; one of the pioneers of the
horror story was the writer H.P Lovecraft.
"It's just coincidental," Mendoza insists, "al-
though I love horror films. I never thought about
what people might think when they see a horror
movie by a guy named H.P. I love Call of Cthidhu
and Danse Macabre, but I think most people don't
even know who H.P. Lovecraft is; when I say my
name, I usually add, 'As in Hewlett Packard.'
Most people do get that, sadly."
Interestingly, although Asian (his heritage is
Filipino), Mendoza was not inspired by Hong
Kong or Korean films in making I am a Ghost.
"I love Asian horror films — how slow they
are and deliberately creepy, as opposed to jump-
ing out an scaring you. But when I was writing it
and shooting [this film], I was thinking most
about [the Australian drama] Picnic at Hanging
Rock. I wanted everyone to see it as a haunted
horror film by way of Bergman or Kubrick."
That may have been the plan, but once he
choose a specifically anachronistic hairstyle for
his leading actress, it transformed the look.
"With that '70s wig on, because she is Japan-
ese, she looks kind of like a character from Ringu
or The Grudge; thaf s just a happy accident," he
says.
Mendoza is also pleased that I am a Ghost has
been a hit not only in Asian and fright fests, but
also among gay festivals.
"I submitted it to a queer festival in Mexico
and just heard it won an award," he says. "I was
scared people would walk out since there is no
out queer content, but they all thought it was re-
ally queer. There's a lot to be said about a gay
sensibility. I'd say most gay men between ages
35 and 45 will guess it was written by a gay man
I can't hide it. It comes out in subtle ways."
(There are gender identity questions in the film
but thaf s also where the spoilers lie.)
Mendoza may not be moving away from the
horror genre and back to musicals just yet.
"I was talking to a producer who was asking if
I have any other horror movies in me," he says.
"I'd love to tell The Exorcist from the perspective
of the demon."
The producer didn't seem to think it would
work. That might be exactly why Mendoza will
try it. ■
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CUDDLE ON
THE TIGHTROPE
THROUGH SEPT 9
Nasher Sculpture Center
nashersculptureceriter.org
Dallas Arts District
Official Airline Sponsor
Colleen Borsh and Aja Martin enjoying Ernesto Nelo's Kink.
2012. Aluminum, crochet, polypropylene baits, air, wood, (ell,
and rubber, 14' 3" x 66' 8" * 13' 8*. Courtesy of Ihe artist and
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. Photo: Kevin Todora
07.13.12
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Wright, John. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, July 13, 2012, newspaper, July 13, 2012; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth308875/m1/21/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.