Does Your Soul Have A Cold?
Directed by Mike Mills
Mike Mills’ first feature-length film, Thumbsucker, was a bittersweet comedy starring Keanu Reeves that came out in 2005. It had hipster appeal and a major star—quite the debut. But Mills, in his mid-30s when he made the movie, was not gearing up for a single career direction (he’s worked as a visual artist for years). Instead, his next project, which debuts Oct. 22 on the Independent Film Channel, is entirely anti-populist—and not just because it’s a documentary. Does Your Soul Have a Cold? tracks various depressed Japanese youth hooked on antidepressants.
NYPress: How do you compare making narrative films to documentaries?
Mike Mills: They’re formally different, but not really. I have my next narrative thing going on. I wrote it from scratch this time. I’ve been writing it for two years now. That’s the greatest thing—having two things going at once. You’re telling stories—or trying to. In the next [documentary] I do, I’m going to try to get away from interviewing people. I don’t really believe in direct cinema, or cinema verite. In this film, to me, it’s all like a dream. The Thin Blue Line was a really important film to me. I love [director] Errol Morris’ work; it’s really important.
When Thumbsucker came out, were you wishing you made it at an earlier stage of your career?
Yeah. It took me six years to make it. That was a drag. After Thumbsucker, I told my agent that all I wanted was a documentary deal. IFC was cool; they really got it.
What’s your next documentary about?
I haven’t started it yet, but I want do one about “out” gay teens. I want to find some people under 16 who are out, maybe in that all-gay high school in New York. I haven’t started the research yet.
Did you know what types of people you wanted for Does Your Soul Have a Cold?
It’s the same thing as choosing actors. I definitely wanted younger people from a diversity of classes.
Do you speak Japanese?
No, but we had a very complicated system that worked well. They were wearings mics, which lead to another room with a translator. I was wearing headphones, so I only heard the translator. We had a handful of translators, but only one of them was good enough to do it. Then she started having nightmares about depression.
Did any of your subjects ever worry that they were revealing too much of themselves for the camera?
No, which was weird. Traditionally, Japanese people are uncomfortable talking about things that are not harmonious with the whole. I anticipated more struggles than I was actually met with. In one scene, I’m [filming] a woman with her dog, and she sits down and starts crying. She didn’t saying anything. That’s kind of the way it went. They didn’t want to lie. To be depressed is really painful. These people have survived that and have come to terms with the fact that they’re unlike normal people.
The movie engages with the status of Japan’s antidepressant industry without directly taking a stance. What are your feelings about it?
Personally, I deal with depression and have never taken antidepressants. I have really close friends who are on them, and know enough about it to know that it’s pretty messy. But I don’t want to talk down to anybody. That said, I think it’s incredibly unfortunate that multinational corporations are involved in people’s personal lives—and their chemical levels. I don’t trust that at all. It’s a huge mess. There’s no easy answer about how to fix it. You can imagine that, for someone dealing with depression, I don’t want to say, “You shouldn’t be taking antidepressants.” It’s a personal choice that comes from a vulnerable place. It’s a really hard place to be, and however they get out of it, that’s what I want to support.
Directed by Mike Mills
Mike Mills’ first feature-length film, Thumbsucker, was a bittersweet comedy starring Keanu Reeves that came out in 2005. It had hipster appeal and a major star—quite the debut. But Mills, in his mid-30s when he made the movie, was not gearing up for a single career direction (he’s worked as a visual artist for years). Instead, his next project, which debuts Oct. 22 on the Independent Film Channel, is entirely anti-populist—and not just because it’s a documentary. Does Your Soul Have a Cold? tracks various depressed Japanese youth hooked on antidepressants.
NYPress: How do you compare making narrative films to documentaries?
Mike Mills: They’re formally different, but not really. I have my next narrative thing going on. I wrote it from scratch this time. I’ve been writing it for two years now. That’s the greatest thing—having two things going at once. You’re telling stories—or trying to. In the next [documentary] I do, I’m going to try to get away from interviewing people. I don’t really believe in direct cinema, or cinema verite. In this film, to me, it’s all like a dream. The Thin Blue Line was a really important film to me. I love [director] Errol Morris’ work; it’s really important.
When Thumbsucker came out, were you wishing you made it at an earlier stage of your career?
Yeah. It took me six years to make it. That was a drag. After Thumbsucker, I told my agent that all I wanted was a documentary deal. IFC was cool; they really got it.
What’s your next documentary about?
I haven’t started it yet, but I want do one about “out” gay teens. I want to find some people under 16 who are out, maybe in that all-gay high school in New York. I haven’t started the research yet.
Did you know what types of people you wanted for Does Your Soul Have a Cold?
It’s the same thing as choosing actors. I definitely wanted younger people from a diversity of classes.
Do you speak Japanese?
No, but we had a very complicated system that worked well. They were wearings mics, which lead to another room with a translator. I was wearing headphones, so I only heard the translator. We had a handful of translators, but only one of them was good enough to do it. Then she started having nightmares about depression.
Did any of your subjects ever worry that they were revealing too much of themselves for the camera?
No, which was weird. Traditionally, Japanese people are uncomfortable talking about things that are not harmonious with the whole. I anticipated more struggles than I was actually met with. In one scene, I’m [filming] a woman with her dog, and she sits down and starts crying. She didn’t saying anything. That’s kind of the way it went. They didn’t want to lie. To be depressed is really painful. These people have survived that and have come to terms with the fact that they’re unlike normal people.
The movie engages with the status of Japan’s antidepressant industry without directly taking a stance. What are your feelings about it?
Personally, I deal with depression and have never taken antidepressants. I have really close friends who are on them, and know enough about it to know that it’s pretty messy. But I don’t want to talk down to anybody. That said, I think it’s incredibly unfortunate that multinational corporations are involved in people’s personal lives—and their chemical levels. I don’t trust that at all. It’s a huge mess. There’s no easy answer about how to fix it. You can imagine that, for someone dealing with depression, I don’t want to say, “You shouldn’t be taking antidepressants.” It’s a personal choice that comes from a vulnerable place. It’s a really hard place to be, and however they get out of it, that’s what I want to support.
