PUP is the first and probably the only “pupumentary” as of today which introduces the scene of pup-play by documenting Master Skip and Pup Tim’s journey to compete in the 2002 International Puppy Contest or IPC (the former body of International Puppy and Trainer Conference or IPTC ). “This is a film not just about a little-known fetish or contest in a sub sub culture…” said Antonia, director of PUP, it is “about two men who live the integration of sexuality and spirituality in their own lives”.
We start from peeking through the lens to learn about Pup Tim’s critique on the gourmet treat of mike bone, while Master Skip further explains His determination to compete with Pup Tim in IPC. The camera follows the pup and Handler to Huston throughout the weekend event, where Pup Tim is first examined in vet station by the judging panel. Every move on the stage displays seamless communication to the judges and audience, which their integration as a team marked the event being renamed as International Puppy and Trainer Contest.
Antonia recalled, “when I first met Pup Tim and Master Skip, I was most blown away by the fact that I could be helping them with a flogging demo on stage at a huge leather title contest one night, and, less than twelve hours later, be sitting next to them, singing beautiful music in church. I was moved to witness two lives in which such seemingly disparate elements coexisted with peace, playfulness, and ease.” 
Since the premier of PUP in 2005, the documentary had been screened at various K9 or BDSM events and lesbian & gay film festivals. It was awarded the Best Documentary Short in CineKink NYC in 2005. PUP is an independent short documentary produced by Antonia Kao of Wise Orchid Productions. Check out PUP’s site for more information and ordering your copy of PUP.
TDH: Arf~~~, woof woof_ woof woof woof, wooooooooof ? (wags***)
Antonia: Woof! :)
(Okay… it seems like she didn’t pick up too much pup’s language from Pup Tim)
TDH: Hi Antonia, could you share with us about your personal and professional background? Also, how did you become an independent filmmaker?
Antonia: I began as a writer/ print journalist. After college, I was living in Taiwan and writer's blocked. A friend recommended Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. In the course of working through that book, I realized I'd always been drawn to film/video as a medium but had been intimidated by it as it felt inaccessible. I began making baby steps in that direction, first through unpaid internships, then a few short-term classes. Finally, I applied to film schools and ended up going to the University of Southern California Graduate School of Cinema-TV in 1998. Becoming an "independent filmmaker" came out of that training ground.
TDH: K9 (pup-play) is a niche sub sub-culture, how did you cross your paths with the world of K9?
Antonia: I was hanging out in the BDSM scene in Los Angeles during graduate school out of personal interest and bumped into a workshop on K9 (pup play) given by the gay leather family that ran leatherdog.com, one of the early and more comprehensive resources for the community. I remember being caught by the affection I witnessed between them, and also lit up when I heard about the International Human Puppy Contest. I thought: How fun would it be to follow a few contestants through that contest?!
TDH: How did you come up with Pup Tim and Master Skip?
Antonia: I met Pup Tim through "casting" for the film. Sir Michael Daniels, who ran leatherdog.com, sent out word for me within the community for folks who'd be up for participating in a documentary. I felt an immediate resonance with him when we met for dinner the first time. He very much has 'pup energy' and feels very approachable.
I met Master Skip through Pup Tim. At first he gave his blessings to Tim to participate, but was not interested in participating himself. It was only after spending some time with me and getting to know me that he eventually got a "hit from the Universe" that this little project was going to be far bigger than perhaps either of us originally imagined. It was following this "hit" that resulted in his choosing to also participate.
TDH: Why a pupumentary? What message do you want to tell in this film?
Antonia: Oftentimes, we can get at the universal through something very specific. Mostly I was following my own, inner attraction to integration of seemingly disparate elements in Life. Pup Tim and Master Skip live life in such a way that spirituality and fetish are not compartmentalized and 'in conflict', but integrated and whole. These aspects of life exist peaceably with each other, even enriching each other. This, at the time, was revolutionary and moving to me because I felt so many aspects of my own life were shattered apart. So, in many ways, I did not set out with a "message" but simply explored what I felt drawn to and told what was there to be told.
TDH: The essence of K9 has a lot to do with some very fundamental spirits, namely loyalty, security, affection, trust, and of course, innocence. It is an intimacy that most people cherish, but have lost. What’s wrong in our daily life?
Antonia: I'm not sure I'd say there's something "wrong in our daily life" but I do think many people are drawn to finding ways to experience affection, trust, intimacy, nonverbal energetic connection, etc. in ways beyond the scope of usual, everyday interactions. Some discover that experience in K9 or other forms of animal play. Others find it in movement forms such as contact improvisation or Authentic Movement. 
TDH: If being an openly gay Chinese could already well serve as a family gossip topic among Chinese aunts for years; being an openly gay kinky Chinese would be like opening 10 Pandora’s Boxes in front of your family at once. Do you find it particularly hard, as a second generation Chinese-American, to have an open and intimate bonding in a Chinese / Asian family?
Antonia: This is going to be a long-winded answer! ;0)
Actually, I identify as Taiwanese-American ('cuz both sides of the family immigrated to Taiwan many generations ago) and am currently married to a soulmate (who is a straight man) and pregnant with our first child. I identified as lesbian, then queer or pansexual for a period of time but, these days, feel pretty straight. Open, but basically straight.
Identity is an interesting thing and, for me, part of the journey of integration that began during the making of the film is: I no longer put myself in boxes much. I don't walk into rooms and calculate demographics as I used to do. I'm just Spirit, as is everyone else. Kink is a part of my life but I don't attach to that particular aspect of my life as an identity. And, truth be told, my fascinations and "identities" have changed so drastically throughout life that I pretty much feel that they are just malleable things for me.
That said, part of the journey of making the film was moving through some "dark nights of the soul", particularly around my relationship with my family and cultural background.
I felt like my life was "always" a choice between "realizing my potential/Calling" or "honoring/loving my family". This "crisis" was particularly acute during the making of the film because my family was helping to make it possible for me to even work on the film, and, yet, I felt the subject of the film would "kill" them.
In the process of working through this stuff, I actually spend a year and a half trying to make the film a feature length, autobiographical piece integrating footage I shot of myself, plus of a bondage model I felt compelled by that I followed for a period of time.
In the end, a respected colleague gave me the feedback (that I knew inside) that, if I were to make the film autobiographical, I'd really need to film my family directly, not just myself without them. I did not want to ask this of them and had a breakdown, giving up on the film ~ a project that had been my life for about 4 years at the time.
I was lost.
A few months later, I suddenly realized I was ready to complete the film, as just the third-person short film on pup play that I had originally intended, and that I was going to finish it by the end of the year.
We pretty much did that. And premiered at a meeting of Pup Tim and Master Skip's People of Leather Among You group at the Metropolitan Community Church in West Hollywood a few months later.
In retrospect, I think I 'needed' to go through the year and a half and breakdown because there was no way I was going to make a film about out, queer, kinky folks and not stand beside it, out myself.
These days, I don't feel that conflict that used to be so painful much. I'm not sure when/how it dissipated but it is mostly gone. As I grow older, my parents become increasingly like just fellow human beings doing the best they can with whatever histories and understandings they have. I love them and they love me and that's that.
TDH: Did you learn anything from the filming of PUP?
Antonia: Oh ~ gosh! I guess just read the long-winded response above!
I came to peace about all the different aspects of my life existing hand-in-hand. I no longer feel my life is "always" some invented binary between realizing myself and loving my family.
TDH: Will we see the making of another BDSM-related film? What about PUP II?
Antonia: Honestly, I was really done with the topic when we completed the film! So, no, I've moved on to other topics at this time.
TDH: What is your next project?
Antonia: I am ongoingly exploring life as an artist and, lately, have been exploring mixed genre art (painting, sculpture, photography, movement, etc.). You can see those ongoing explorations at http://www.divine-eye.com
TDH: If you were to be a pup, which breed would we meet and why?
Antonia: I can't think of what breed I'd be as I've never identified as a pup. For a while, I identified as a baby ~ then teen, then adult ~ black panther. These days, I'll sometimes just joke-play with my husband, slipping in and out of whatever creature/animal feels right at the time.
Thank you.
Behind Pupumentary
