Mattie Do, Laos’ only female filmmaker, is making history and shaking up the country’s film industry
- Do’s films include the first ever Laotian horror film and the country’s first submission to the Academy Awards
- She credits her husband, American screenwriter Chris Larsen, for sparking her interest in film
Mattie Do is making history. Since emigrating from the United States in 2010, she has become Laos’ only female filmmaker.
Her debut, Chanthaly, was the first ever Laotian horror film, while her follow-up, Dearest Sister, became the country’s first submission to the Academy Awards. Do’s latest feature, her third, The Long Walk, is even more ambitious, blending Southeast Asian realism with time travel.
Do returned to Macau this month for the film’s local premiere, where she spoke to the Post about launching her career in a country with no existing film industry to speak of.
“I had no interest in film. I was a ballet teacher, and there was no ballet in Laos at that time.” says Do, who moved to Laos in 2010 to be with her father, together with her American husband, screenwriter Chris Larsen. “He dragged me into film kicking and screaming,” she says of Larsen, who has penned all of Do’s films.