Meet Beatrice Ho of Dustbunny Pictures in West LA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Beatrice Ho.

Beatrice, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I graduated high school, I moved from Taipei, Taiwan to Orange, California, to pursue my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Producing. A lot of people comment that I do not have an “accent,” which I find strange because everyone has an accent. Whether it be Americans in the South or British English. In Taiwan, I grew up learning both English and Mandarin. So, I never really fit in Taiwan or the US because of this duality.

That’s why I loved immersing myself in different worlds through books and movies. Because these mediums would question things like personal identity and what society defines what you “should” or “should not” do. I was fascinated by this power of worldbuilding and visual storytelling; from playing Super Nintendo with my two older siblings, scrapbooking with friends, discovering short films on YouTube to producing my own short films in college.

When I graduated college in 2018, I worked a few different jobs to explore various creative interests of mine before returning to filmmaking. I currently freelance as a producer and production coordinator for digital series and music videos. My friend and colleague, Wendy Wang, and I work together at her company, Dustbunny Pictures. We produce indie music videos and are currently looking to expand our work to collaborate with more up-and-coming artists.

Due to the pandemic, productions have slowed down, and taking this opportunity knowing that everyone is staying at home – we started a podcast as a side project to our feature documentary, Things I Never Said.

Has it been a smooth road?
I explored a few different creative interests before continuing my path as a creative producer. I have worked at an art foundation, Marciano Art Foundation, which shut down after refusing to give employee’s union rights. I then worked at an ad agency in an administrative role, and during that time, I met Wendy and decided to try to freelance in film production full-time.

I think whether you choose to be “creative” full-time or not, everyone’s career path and life path is never linear. I also believe that we are all creative regardless of your career because every choice we make is creating a new opportunity for us to grow and learn. This is part of what makes life challenging and also fulfilling. Without having gone through different creative jobs to explore the fine arts, marketing, and now independent film productions and the digital space; I wouldn’t know the process of curating art shows and the instability of art foundations, I also wouldn’t know what it takes to put together a marketing campaign.

Even though I never went down the path of fine arts or marketing, I now use that knowledge and the skills I learned from these environments to lead and manage a team of creatives to produce music videos and films.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Dustbunny Pictures – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I’m most proud of our feature documentary, Things I Never Said. This documentary focuses on the lives of four Asian American young adults and their mental health journeys. As well as commentary on how intergenerational sociocultural differences continue to contribute to the stigmatization and lack of education on mental health in Asian American communities.

Dustbunny Pictures is a platform for diverse voices and artists to have their voices heard by showcasing their multidimensionality. For Things I Never Said, we not only brought Asian American voices on-screen but also employed crew members of color to work on the pre-production and production of the film.

We are proud of this project because it has brought together a variety of Asian American creatives and has become a general platform for everyone who is interested or new to mental health to come together. As freelance creatives, Wendy and I are experienced in quick problem-solving and working with new groups of people.

Until circumstances are safe for both our crew members and interviewees, we will continue production on Things I Never Said. With that being said, we are still accepting financial and in-kind donations to our documentary as we need all the support we can get to be able to pay for travel to researchers and professionals around the country, fund our post-production costs, and host an art installation in LA that is a part of our documentary. All proceeds go directly into this film and please feel free to contact me directly with any questions or comments you have.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thingsineversaid.org
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thingsineversaidfilm  
• Other: https://linktr.ee/thingsineversaidfilm

Image Credit:
“Beatrice Ho – Personal Photo” image by: Diego Lucas; “BH – TINS Filming 0” image by: Justin Guo; “BH – TINS Filming 1” image by: Justin Guo; “BH – TINS Livestream” image by: Hana Tanaka; “BH – TINS Story” image by: Amy Hoang; “BH – TINS Cover” image by: Film Still from TINS

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