We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joshua Koh. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joshua below.

Hi Joshua, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Definitely “Disease”, the short film we just finished shooting yesterday. It’s the most meaningful for me not only because it’s the biggest thing I’ve done but because it’s the most personal creative endeavor I’ve embarked on. The origins of “Disease” is my true relationship with Vernon, a friend of mine who I met last year. I’m a student at NYU Tisch’s film program, and in my summer filmmaking class last year my crew cast Vernon to act in our projects. At the time, he was homeless and struggling with substance abuse. He played Redman, a superhero in a goofy spandex superhero suit that would fight crime in my short films for class. As time went on our relationship deepened and we became much closer friends. We got to know each other on a more fundamental level; Vernon became much more than the label of just the “homeless person” I put in my projects. Unfortunately, later on that year, Vernon overdosed and almost lost his life. He checked himself into a rehabilitation center to get clean. The first month or so of 2024, my co-writer/director Matthew Chun and I would frequently visit his center to check in on him and discuss the movie. All three of us definitely wanted to create a movie about everything that happened and say something with it. Our meetings entailed deliberation on his life, my life, our relationship, and much more.
After thoughtful reflection, we wanted to raise questions with the movie that force us to examine and reckon with our privilege and the invisible injustices within the fabric of our daily lives. An exploration of the dangers of the false sense of safety we feel because of our unconscious othering of people on the fringes of society. “I can never be like them.” On that line of thought, the then perhaps unconscious and passive participation in larger systems of suffering that we may participate in today. It’s probably more fitting to say that the reason this project is the most meaningful to me is actually because the project was the afterthought. “Disease” wasn’t like most of my projects where I start by wanting to make something so I think of what I want to say. I went through an experience, I learned something, I reflected on my life, I wanted to explore it, and it led me to make a movie about it. You can stay updated through @diseasefilm on Instagram.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Joshua Koh. I’m 21 years old and I’m a filmmaker in New York City. I’m currently a junior at NYU Tisch studying Film & TV Production. I’m a director and my focus is on directing films, shorts, music videos, etc.
I actually don’t have the typically fabled “I wanted to make movies ever since I was a kid” story. I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a large part of my life, but I had an affinity for stories and art, even if I didn’t know it yet. Music was a big starting point for me in middle and high school. I vividly remember listening to Kendrick Lamar and Kanye albums, realizing that I could analyze them the same way I did with the texts and books in English class. It was formative for me understanding how powerful and enjoyable art was. It was during the pandemic when I started to watch more and more movies, at times two or three a day, and I recognized how much this medium could provide. Not only narratively, but also how the marriage of audio and visuals allowed for so much abstraction yet so much specificity at the same time. I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I want to utilize the audiovisual medium to make and say meaningful and interesting things. I think art, and especially cinema, has the ability to say and provoke things to create and impart a feeling like no other medium or format can.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think it’s that fulfillment comes naturally from what you do. Art and creativity is what we as humans live for; it’s our lifeblood and “purpose” in a sense. To quote Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society”: “And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” Being an artist is viscerally embodying and living this philosophy everyday. I’d choose the stress and pain I sustain from making movies, being creative, etc, no matter how burdensome it is, over the stress and pain from a job or something I would hate doing. I’m doing what I love and I receive fulfillment from that, and that’s what is most rewarding, that’s what matters most at the end of the day for me.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My family moved to Korea from Seattle when I was 13. At the time, it felt like the world was ending and my entire life was getting totally uprooted, which in a sense, it was. Friendships and your social life are everything in your teenage years, so it felt like my life was being suddenly and violently ripped to shreds. To my surprise, life went on, and I adjusted to my new environment. That’s one of the biggest pivots I had to make, and something I learned early on. These pivots are going to keep happening in life, and you just need to learn how to adjust. I have friends who have lived in a single place, single home, and went to the same school and had the same friends their entire lives, so when they enter college, their first “pivot” so to speak, they had an extremely difficult time. Knowing how to adjust and deal with discomfort, knowing how to be uncomfortable, is something really crucial I learned.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshhuakoh/?hl=en

Image Credits

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