Damien Hauser’s African Sci-Fi film captures the randomness of life

0:00From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment.

0:13Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. We so often see films that take place in the 90s. The film Memory of Princess Mumbi takes place in the 90s, in the 2090s. It is an amazing film about loss and memory. And I was reminded in some ways in watching it of, gosh, movies such as In the Mood for Love. But rather than being an elegy for memory, it's about the happiness of memory. And its writer, director, and one of its stars, Damien Hauser, is here with me. Damien, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. Oh, my pleasure. And it is a film that's in so many ways about holding on to memories and about wanting to keep the warmth of the light of love on you, even after that love is gone, isn't it?

1:04Yeah, it's very much about how we choose to remember people as well. Like the appreciation of the good memories. I think the appreciation of good memories, because usually those, the tragic memories are always the ones which are overshadowing kind of the simple ones. At one point, Moonby says to the protagonist, if you're going to tell a story about me, it must be from your perspective. And I thought it's interesting because it's a film about being in two worlds, the world of the past and the world of the present. And for you, it's kind of autobiographical. It's also about being in the world of the West and the world of Africa because of your background being both European and African, isn't it?

1:49Yeah, very much so. I mean, those things, those weren't even active choices that I did. It was really so many things. It was also kind of me discovering so many things in that story that I could somehow, that I didn't even know maybe unconsciously. I decided to portray it from certain ways or discuss certain things just because there were things that I was thinking about a lot. But yeah, the film was done very spontaneously. So I never had really the time to kind of shape and sculpture the story. But I was really kind of just creating in the moment and capturing in the moment. Yeah. And therefore it became very personal.

2:36It's funny you said that because at one point your protagonist says, I lost myself in the moment with her. To me, it's about the mundane moments. Like I was trying to capture moments that we would usually cut out of films, like moments that aren't really driven by intention, but really randomness as well. And then, of course, in post-production, I really had to give them intention again for it to work. But during the shoot, it was really about finding those moments. Well, that's really interesting to me, just because it felt, I don't want to say heavy-handed at all, but the choice to make it about somebody who's living in two worlds, the world of the present and the world of the past.

3:28Even the way the film is shot by you, the movie as the director, the way the equipment you use to shoot the film with would be the equipment of the past for the year 2090. So I just like that it's got a foot in two worlds because it's about being in love and remembering love and about thinking about the past while you're living in the present. And again, just because you bring this division of experience to it, I just feel there's something really specific and unique to that. Yeah, I don't know. Somehow, even with my other films as well, I kind of like telling through the perspective of memory things, because memory is something that can keep on shaping.

4:19it's very much about perspective. Even when I wanted to figure out things about the past of my parents or even my grandparents, it's kind of like I got those stories. But in that moment, while they're telling me those stories, I'm creating an image which isn't real at all. There is something about memory that I really kind of love. It's a big interest for me. The film starts off with such exuberance and excitement. And by the time it comes to its end, there is a different perspective on this character. And one of my favorite sequences is this one that has basically a big music number set on the beach that goes from that to then from this African music, which has really got this incredible bounce to it, to this really heavy Western European music, where there's a close-up of your two stars, and then we hear you directing them, and we realize you're shooting them against a green screen.

5:25I mean, if that in four minutes isn't the essence of the film, I don't know what is. I mean, I want you to talk about crafting something like that, because it's really intoxicating. Of course, the film really plays with the ideas of film within a film. And I guess that's basically my life. Constantly thinking of worlds and stories and even maybe creating memories of things that are fiction. And the films that I'm doing kind of are also bringing joy to my life. So I guess inside the film, Moonby's saying. So at first they wanted to do kind of like this film about this war and they are really searching for tragedy.

6:14But then Moonby really kind of challenges them to make something for the people that they would actually like. And like it turns out for it to be more kind of a spectacle. They also say action, drama, but just something that is moving them. and therefore I felt like the musical would be the nicest thing somehow. Musicals also have a lot of exposition inside the songs, but the songs themselves are really just joy and dancing, listening. I also grew up with many Bollywood films, so I always felt the need to do a musical sequence at some point in my life. We're talking about worlds within worlds with my guest writer, director, and actor Damien Hauser, his new film, His Memory of Princess Mumbay, The Treatment.

7:04I guess as you were saying that, though, clearly it's influenced by Bollywood because not only because of the power of that musical number, and that's not even the first musical number in the movie, but also about the way there's a constant sort of shift of perspective and emotional scale, which is very much a part of Bollywood filmmaking too. I feel like many, maybe not now, But like in the past, many Bollywood films had the structure of being kind of two films in one. Like you had one and a half hours, one section, and then suddenly there was like a huge midpoint. And then there was kind of this other section.

7:45And if you look at the story itself, it kind of follows something similar. but then of course the way I made Member of Princess Mumbi was really it was kind of a mix between so many different things. There is so much going on in the film that it's almost impossible to give it away in real terms because it's really dense and I want you to talk about that a little bit because you were talking about finding it in the edit but I mean in that sequence I was talking about that goes from the dance number on the beach to the studio to when a few scenes later when there's the marriage and then they go from being on the beach to going to an island to going to this sort of cyberpunk junk that takes them off somewhere else and each of the places that they live in have different environments that sequence alone just about how well how much of this is he remembering versus conjuring in his head as he's telling the story and that's what I'm talking about.

8:47It's really active in a way in showing how unreliable memory is. Yeah, I think because most of it is kind of recordings that he did, we get most of it, what we see is truthful, but he gives context to all those scenes through his voiceover. And his voiceovers is really the thing that is more subjective and very unreliable a little bit. But in the edit, so basically what happened was we improvised most of the film. There is actually, I could make a 40-hour version of that film with different conversations. Because we had, I think, 44 hours of footage and most of it wasn't first take, second take, because we never really did second takes.

9:39We were just kind of in the moment, keeping the camera rolling for like even half an hour or a full hour and really kind of finding those moments. And in the edit, the challenge was to, because everything was so random and it was like a person recording his surroundings, to give again meaning to it and a more clear intention was really difficult. But it was also Q's perspective, Q's voiceover that holds the film together as it is right now and makes it more accessible as well. So, and I also think that's why it's so fast paced, because when I had once like a two hours cut and I showed it to friends and other people and it was really more received as a very boring, very boring film because it was so random.

10:37and the goal to me was to make a film that is capturing something very real, that is capturing life, which is so random, but I had to really work on it to make it more accessible again and that we as a viewer, even though it's still very all over the place, have more of orientation again. We will take a break. We're talking to the writer-director and, yes, one of the stars of Memory of Princess Moonby, Damien Houser. It's the treatment. There's more to come. Stay with us.

11:10welcome back we're talking about getting lost in moments with the writer director and yes one of the actors of the film memory of princess mumbi damian hauser it's the treatment well i want you to talk a little bit about the casting of cube and mumbi because am i mistaken is your lead the same guy who's also your line producer uh yes and not line producer but co-producer yeah she was well she came on board after the shoot but she was the only person I casted for this film actually all the other people I already knew they were partly friends and and also partly family even the the lead actor is his uh uncle is the boyfriend of my auntie and it was really moonbeam that I still needed to cast and I found her on Instagram.

12:05She was posting monologues. Really? Yeah, she could really act very well and then I reached out to her like one and a half months before the shoot and was like, are you free for a month in one and a half months? And I was very lucky that she was because also kind of a gamble, like I knew she could act well but I didn't know about her improvisational skills. And those were also so strong. So I was, I have to say, I was very lucky. Throughout the whole filming process, so many things happened that just, that were not planned out. And by embracing them, it really became the film that it is right now.

12:47As we're talking about this, it makes me wonder, does it help for you to be in the movie yourself as yourself because that way you can kind of direct in real time as you're shooting the scenes? Is that really one of the reasons you did that, just because of expediency? I don't want to be in front of the camera, honestly.

13:09But the main reason was I wanted to capture those real moments, to improvise those moments, and I knew if I wanted to say something as a director, I'd have to cut and then say whatever I wanted to say and say action again. And that would really destroy kind of like this flow in the moment. Because I feel like if when the actors can be in their role for even half an hour, they really start disappearing in their role and become kind of like one. So I knew for me to give, like the best way for me to direct this thing is through a character and through the character who is basically holding the camera.

13:49And that's why, especially in the first half, I was basically the person who asked many, many questions because I just wanted to figure out what are you thinking? I was basically also kind of the audience wanting to figure out what does Cube think about Moonby or what are kind of just finding interesting conversations. And I was also able to kind of shape conversations, lead them to different topics that I wanted to address or something. And then in the second half, it was more difficult because my character was away. But I changed my accent and my voice and was playing another guy behind the camera.

14:36But all my friends, they say it's very obvious. Well, the voice you're hearing is a voice you'll hear in the film, Memory of Princess Moonby. It's his writer, director, and one of the stars in many of the voices, apparently, in the film, Damien Houser. It's the treatment. But as we're talking about this, I'm reminded of so many things. I mean, I find myself thinking with your star who plays Moonby, who's a movie star by natural right, and the way she talks about playing with the medium herself. I mean, that's the fun thing about it is so often in the film, Cube and Moonby are confessing things about themselves to the camera and she talks about wanting to act.

15:22And at one point somebody says about Cube, in fact, it's her, he loves drama. I think I was really moved by the fact that you let these, your performers basically getting back to this duality that we talked about in the first half of the interview, where they're playing sort of two things at once. And her embrace of being a star, but also talking about acting at the same time, is really affecting. It's very meta. Maybe it's also because I'm, you know, I'm constantly in that surrounding of, I feel like so many of my, most of my friends are actors. But I find there is something really beautiful in that dynamic between just filmmakers generally and wanting to make films together and disagreeing on those films and on certain decisions.

16:15And film is eventually, you're constantly depicting something that is kind of like real. So there also comes kind of responsibility with it. It really challenges you to think also in a philosophical way, basically, about the things you're portraying in a responsible way. And so those discussions that the Cuban movie have in the film is something I'm encountering constantly while making films and I think it's something that is very beautiful. It shows a lot about who you are as a person. It's also a film about survivors, because you mentioned it's the aftermath of a war, and we're reminded of that at the beginning of the film and also the end of the film is this thing that frames the movie, this idea of generational trauma and surviving that and finding the things that matter.

17:13And I want to ask you where that comes from because it's such a powerful artifact that the film uses, that you use as a way to build the story and to frame the story with. Yeah, I mean, this whole theme was something that was really, it was really something that I thought about, thought a lot about during that time. Because shortly before the film, I lost my little brother. And that was also basically the reason why I felt like needing to make a film right now, because it was kind of almost a way to distract myself to to try to do something that brings me joy and that's why somehow even though i made it kind of like unconsciously inside the film i constantly address this this conflict of is tragedy like a constant part of our lives or or are we able to break free from from this this constant tragedy of life.

18:21And I feel like QV is really a person who really believes in conflicts and tragedies is a part of humanity and it will never change. And I think if you look at wars, if you look at the history of wars, that might be even true because it seems that wars seem always to be with, like there was never a time where we humans didn't have wars. But throughout the film, he really learns also kind of like through Mumbi a little bit that the tragedy might be always a part of our lives. But it's how we go through life that defines how we experience life as well. And by focusing on the little beautiful things, like by focusing on the mundane, you kind of can also experience a more beautiful life.

19:17You can have a s*** day, but if you relive this s*** day a second time and focus on the little nice things that happened in that s*** day, it might be also a beautiful day. So that was kind of the core of this film, I guess. And then that's why it also, theme-wise, it might be all over the place, but then even the theme of depression is also, of mental health is directly intertwined with this thing of tragedy being kind of a part of us. Our brains kind of like almost trained in this way where we always have to have something happening to us. Well, there's plenty to talk about here and plenty to see in the film.

20:04The film we're discussing with my guest is writer, director, and one of the many actors in it, because he acts so many roles, is Damien Houser. The film is Memory of Princess Moby. Thank you so much for doing this, and congratulations on the film, Damien. Thank you so much. Thank you as well. Here you come again Just when I've begun to get myself together You waltz right in the door Not only does Damien Houser perform several off-camera voices in his new film, Memory of Princess Mumbe, he wrote, directed, and co-stars in the fantasy romantic comedy drama. If that didn't keep him busy enough, he toured the movie through a 2025 film festival circuit that included Venice, among others.

20:55Keep up with creators who wear many hats, such as writer, actor, and director Vera Drew. at the archive, kcrw.com slash thetreatment. New installments of The Treat, in which artists talk about their inspirations, are at kcrw.com slash thetreat. This week, it's actor and co-star of The Invite, Edward Norton, who found joy in the solo project of A Chili Pepper. There's new joy here most weeks from Rebecca Mooney, who produces and edits the show, and Katie Gilchrist, who mixes it. To better days, everyone. I'm Elvis Mitchell. It's The Treatment. Here I go

21:53All you gotta do Is smile and smile And therefore I'm mine and then