Telling ‘Her Story’: An Interview With Aaron Au

Meet Aaron Au: Award-winning stuntman, fight choreographer, producer, director. And on a mission to expose the truths behind human trafficking. 

Aaron Au is an award-winning producer, director, and fight choreographer who has worked on such films as Watchmen, 2012, TRON: Legacy and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Along with these roles, he’s a talented movie producer on a mission to expose the truths behind human trafficking. Hailing from Vancouver, Au’s The Tea Master, Suffer, and Her Story have garnered loads of good publicity. Most recently, he signed on to produce the movie version of Pamala Kennedy Chestnut’s book More than Rice: A Journey Through the Underworld of Human Trafficking. He took a break from the set and from flying through the air to answer some questions for us here at The Good Men Project.

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Aaron, it’s clear from the movies you’ve produced that you’ve got an artist’s eye for the large stories contained within life’s subtleties. But what’s your story? Can you tell us a bit about the man Aaron Au?

I’m a Canadian-born Chinese and grew up in the East side of Vancouver. Considered to be one of the bad parts of town, I grew up around a lot of gangs, but having a good family and a martial arts upbringing really kept me on the fringe of it all. There were many times in my teenage years where I could have went down a very bad path. To this day I accredit my martial arts for a lot of my success. I started at the age of 9 and achieved my black belt at age 13. I was an assistant instructor by 15 and lead a team of over 30 performers in public demonstrations and completions. It brought me all over North America, and I even got to spend a summer training with a provincial wu shu team in China. In 1999, I won a World Championship and it wasn’t long after that I decided to pursue a career in film. Right from the get-go I wanted to be a director. I love telling stories. But you can’t just jump into it, so I used my martial arts to establish myself as a stunt performer where I could be on set and learn about the film making process.

You’ve been working stunts with big-name stars and movies for well-over ten years now—even with Halle Berry in Catwoman back in 2004. However, throughout your career you’ve been a lead writer, a director, a producer, and an actor. Do any specific roles standout to you or are they all equally fulfilling? Do you see your career transitioning to favor one over the other and, if so, why?

Stunts and fight choreography definitely have to be a standout so far. Being able to follow in the footsteps of your idols is every kid’s dream. I’ve been so fortunate to have lived that dream and now move onto another.

In 2008 I decided to make the move behind the camera and wrote my first short film The Tea Master. I searched around town for someone to produce it for me as I only wanted to direct. But I couldn’t find anyone who had the interest or the time, and I refused to just sit and wait. I decided to produce it myself, which, at the time, I had no idea what producing was. I ended up loving it, the perfect combination of art and business. Much like every job I’ve done in film, it makes me a better director, and that’s always been the end goal.

What really interested me about you is that you explore the many facets of human trafficking. Television often exclusively deals with the sexual side—it sells—but you’ve been using your talents to show that slavery is not just an overseas issue, that it’s happening here in our own backyards. You’ve written about how a poster at the Salvation Army that read: “There are more slaves today than in any other time in history,” sparked your curiosity, but what has fueled this curiosity and direction over the years?

It wasn’t that long ago that I was introduced to the topic, I’d say spring of 2009. It was the poster that sparked my interest, but it was the research that really ignited the fire. Learning the facts about what’s going on was shocking.  I’m constantly looking for powerful stories to tell, and this was a given. I quickly found that not only can I make a great film, I can make a difference.  The impact it made on people who haven’t even seen the film was amazing. Once I discovered how powerful and loud the film could speak, I knew I had to go further. That’s when I reached out to Pamala Kennedy Chestnut about her novel More Than Rice.

Her Story, in all honesty, is the best and most important short film I’ve watched in recent years. The film opens with a close-up on the face of a woman, the slight jolting of her face makes it clear that a man is on top of her, using her. It’s a scene that occurs at various intensities throughout the film. Rather than show the full-on assault, you were able to show it more powerfully while using less. Can you give us a glimpse into your thoughts regarding your development of this scene?

I had to be very careful with the subject matter. Being a male telling the story of a young female enslaved in a brothel, I knew I’d be criticized if there was any gratuitous nudity or violence. This led to a challenge I was very excited about, and it forced me to emphasize strong storytelling.

The entire film was designed around the mentality that less is more. In film, a monster in the dark is much more scary than a monster than you can see. Our imaginations are more powerful than anything a filmmaker can put in front of us. I use this knowledge as a tool in making the audience envision what is going on off screen. By using only sounds, which trigger emotions and memories better than visuals, each viewer will have their own experience with the film and therefore it will impact them more on a personal level.

Lastly, what’s next for Aaron Au?

I’m currently focusing on the screenplay for More Than Rice with my partners Kimani Ray Smith, Dylan Collingwood, and Robert Mitchell at Titlecard Pictures. We hope to be in production of this feature-length film in spring of 2013. In the meantime, we’re lining up an action/horror based on our short film Suffer and a mockumentary comedy titled, Gay Like Me.

Her Story has been submitted to Sundance in hopes of world premiering there in 2012.

Aaron, thanks so much for the work you do and your insights here.

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Aaron Au is currently accepting donations to help finish the production of Her Story. He’s currently at $1,400 and the goal is $12,000. Pre-screen the film, reflect on what this man is giving to our world, and please consider donating.

Cameron Conaway is the author Caged: Memoirs of a Cage-Fighting Poet.