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It is, in fact, quite a feat that a little indie film in which the overriding protagonist is the coffin-laden town of Colma has garnered such significant buzz. “It's a testament to today's world that you can do something small and it can shine through,” says Wong. “Colma got rejected by a lot of the big fests à la Sundance, but people have forgotten that it's not the only road.” Wong attributes the success of the film to the dedicated and close-knit Colma family who worked tirelessly to bring his and Mendoza's vision to life. “Everyone [working on the set] was really passionate about the project,” says Wong. “Although we had very little money or help, there's nothing more humbling than seeing those who were there take on so many different responsibilities because they believed in the script. We did everything we could to make it bigger than it was.”

The sheer scope of 13 choreographed song-and-dance numbers would have scared off most neophyte filmmakers, but not the men behind Colma, who didn't see the project as work to begin with. Moreover, the fact that Colma marked Wong's directorial debut, Mendoza's first professional film experience and Kolsanoff's premiere as a feature-length producer makes their love affair with this musical seem even more like a match made in heaven. “It was the kind of thing where heart meant more than experience,” Wong says.

For his part, Wong does have many years of Hollywood experience under his belt, including working as a video engineer on the critically acclaimed Fox series Arrested Development. He considers Arrested to have been “the pinnacle of watching and learning for me. Television is nuts; people work like in a factory.” He confesses to being overly analytical: “I've sat next to directors for the past five years, meticulously observing them and thinking about the reasoning behind each creative decision they make. I wanted my turn in the chair.”

The opportunity finally came to him one night when speaking with Mendoza over the phone, with 10 years having passed since the last time both had touched base. Mendoza, broke and in Philadelphia, asked Wong to listen to a track he recently composed as a birthday gift to a friend. As soon as the songwriter placed the receiver against the speaker and Wong heard the song, he said, “It hit me like lightning that this would make a great movie.”

Over the years, Wong had become increasingly wary of turning into one of those 45-year-old, married film and video technicians who originally moved to Los Angeles with high hopes but became caught up in the spokes of the Hollywood dream wheel. Wong, immediately convinced there was a feature to be made out of this, told Mendoza to go ahead with his idea of a “concept album driven by a story,” and one song quickly became 13. A mere week after giving Mendoza the creative push he needed, the songwriter had woven together a first draft, and the buddies rapidly amassed a $1,500 phone bill.

The film has been called the best musical since Hedwig by some critics, an honor Colma's makers aren't quite sure how to take. “That's crazy,” Wong says. “H.P. would faint if he heard that. I just hope he [Hedwig's director, John Cameron Mitchell] reads this because I just want to meet him!” Among the inspirational forces Wong credits with altering his understanding of the art form are West Side Story, The Thin Red Line and The Godfather, “all films that changed the way I read movies, because there were no bad guys — everyone had motives and was human.” Wong categorically refused to spend the weeks leading up to the shoot watching musicals for inspiration. “I had seen very few musicals prior to making Colma, because I didn't want an amalgam voice.”

His next film will be another collaboration with Mendoza, and he sums it up as a neo-noir musical. With this next project, the Wong-Mendoza duo intends to prove further that diversity reigns supreme in the musical genre. “ Oklahoma, Hedwig and Cabaret, for instance, all use music in completely different ways, with unique aesthetics.” He argues that by-the-book musicals are greatly to blame for the death of the musical, prior to its sudden resurgence a few years back. “I think that's what killed the musical — it was put in a box. People felt that after seeing one bad musical, they had seen them all. It's like saying that you didn't like a drama, so you don't like dramas.”

Wong argues the same reasoning applies to gay and Asian films. “I don't think that gay movies always have that coming-out formula or that Asian ones need the Asian generational gap recipe. H.P. [who also plays the character Rodel in the film] was really aware of it. Colma is not about that. It's about these three teenage friends, one who happens to be gay and two who incidentally are Asian. We're not trying to point it out, because that's not the point. These kids aren't homophobic or racist; their identities are just a part of daily life — it's not alienating to them. But I guess it's alienating to some that we're not even trying to point that out.”

Therein lies another of Colma's undeniable strong suits: When it could have easily fallen into the trap of justifying its characters' woes by their outsider status and making the focus of the piece a classic identity struggle, it chose not to. “Coming out and Asian generational gap stories are important. There's a place for them, but they've already been done so well, so at some point there's a need to tell other stories.”

Distribution companies, however, would seem to believe otherwise. So far, Colma has been turned down by all gay distributors on the basis that the film is “not gay enough.” This opens up a whole new can of worms and hints at a debate that inevitably must take place to redefine what constitutes a “gay film” in 2006. Times are changing, and thankfully LGBT film festivals seem to be paying attention, as most have broadened their mandate to include not only films about queer identity but also those featuring gay characters whose sexuality is a nonissue. “With every step comes perspective,” Wong says, “and even if it's baby steps, they need to be taken because progress is important. There's nothing worse for a community than standing still and not evolving.”

Visit colmafilm.com for information on
upcoming festival screening dates.

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