Sassy Mohen’s innovative and bold, confident style is full of spirit and has emerged as a pioneer in the genre of female-driven comedy. She has written, directed, produced, and edited multiple award-winning films, TV Pilots, music videos, web tv productions, and commercials. Her latest project ‘How to Hack Birth Control’ will be featured at this month’s FirstGlance Film festival. We had the opportunity to speak to her about the project, her career, and more!
Sassy Mohen, Thank you for agreeing to catch up with Occhi Magazine. Congratulations on your career to date. For readers who are unfamiliar with you, how did you get into the film industry?
Thank you so much for having me! How I got into the industry is a somewhat long story, so I’ll try to sum it up the best I can.
My parents both worked in television my entire life, my mom was an aspiring actress turned tv archivist and my dad is a television audio engineer. He currently works on the hill (the US Capitol) but he was one of the lead audio engineers at CNN for over 20 years. He was their go-to guy for all the big shows and addresses, like the state of the union, any presidential speech/event, the Larry King Show, Crossfire, etc. As a kid, it was so cool to visit him at the studio on weekends and hang out behind the scenes.
There was no shortage of art & entertainment growing up as well, because of my family’s deep roots in NYC (where I was born,) we would go up there whenever my parents could and often saw the latest Broadway shows. My godfather is an off-broadway playwright who later mentored me in screenwriting, but when I was a kid he would just continually encourage exposure to off-the-beaten-path productions.
All of this sort of culminated when I was in 3rd grade when I made the proclamation that I wanted to be a film director and my parents put me in a TV production class at this great facility called the Arlington Career Center. Now, that’s not to say things were at all easy for me or my family, this struggle actually led me to a bigger appreciation for the support my parents have given me in my career my whole life. We never had a lot of money when I was growing up, so taking me to these shows, exposing me to new worlds, and paying for my classes wasn’t easy for my parents to do. And also, it may be a little better now for female film directors, but having your daughter tell you in the 1990s that when she grows up she wants to break into a male-dominated, impossible to get into industry… well they could have just said no, that’s unrealistic. But they fostered my career every step of the way.
The final element was going to a very artsy public middle/high school called H-B Woodlawn. H-B’s whole mantra is about individualized education because no child learns the same way. I told my TA that I wanted to be a director when I was in middle school and I was given so many amazing opportunities to grow that skill while I was there. I directed the high school musical in 7th & 8th grade, directed 5 plays in high school, was able to continue taking TV production classes at the Arlington Career Center for school credit, and perhaps maybe the most fortunate was in classes that I really struggled in (science in particular) I was allowed to make movies about the concepts we were learning. I can’t tell you how invaluable it is to have not just an adult, but your teacher, your high school principal trusting and believing in you and your goals.
So mix all that together in a sassy stew, add in the flavoring of only applying to film schools in Southern California. Throw in some wildcards and here I am!
Who are your biggest influences?
In my career, one of my biggest influences has been my Godfather. He has been doing the freelance writing hustle in the NYC/tri-state area his entire life and built out a really cool career. When I started writing my first script Happy Holidays I hadn’t ever intended to make it. Then, I sent him a draft on a whim and he gave me actual notes. I mean professional, rip it apart in constructive criticism and put it back together. He was the first person to take me seriously as a writer and he has given me so much encouragement throughout my life. Even with How to Hack Birth Control! If you get to see the film, there’s this super fun complicated finale sequence that ends in a dance number that people rave about, (and they should, the actors did a fantastic job!) Originally, that entire 5-minute sequence was one scene in a bar. He read the script and said, (and I quote,) “your ending is TIRED.” This, coming from a 70-something-year-old man. I was like, who are YOU to tell me my ending is tired!! HOW DARE Y- …. actually, F*ck. This ending is tired. So, even though we were in the middle of the auditions, I threw out the ending, wrote a whole new one, added “Dance skills a bonus” on the audition sides, and now Birth Control is a million times better because of that. I think all artists deserve to have that person who can push them with positive constructive criticism.
If we want to get big picture, my other influences are The Marx Brothers, Jane Fonda, Tom Tykwer and the entirety of the golden age of TV from roughly 2000 – 2015.
Your first independent feature film, Happy Holidays was a surprising success for some. You were denied support from your school because the project was deemed “too ambitious,” but The film went on to turn a profit, screen in indie theaters around the US, and get worldwide distribution with IndieFlix. This is a great story and lesson for others. What motivates you as an artist, and secondly, what advice would you give to other young budding filmmakers?
Oof, and what a lesson learning story that was. I can answer the first question right away though, what motivates me as an artist is to make films that help make the world better for women and also for people who are “other,” as in, those who don’t fit in. Throughout my entire career, I have been marginalized, sexually harrassed, plain ol’harrased, talked over, stepped on, laughed at, and literally had doors slammed in my face. But I always knew, no matter how bad the experience, this is what I wanted to do, I was good at it, and I was going to succeed at it, no matter what. I was lucky enough to have that foundation because I had such supportive parents, grew up in an art-positive affluent community, had an extremely encouraging and accepting middle/high school, and had a state of the art tv production studio at a career center that let kids take vocational classes, all while being in a constantly financially struggling household, being egregiously bullied, and all the other typical growing up problems. But despite all of the bad, I had that positive foundation to always lift me up. A lot of women, I might even wager, most women don’t get that. I want to make movies that help give women the encouragement to be empowered in their decisions.
To budding young filmmakers my advice would be, go make your first movie. Right now. Don’t wait. There will always be someone to tell you not to make a movie. From Happy Holidays, a tiny indie film that for whatever reason Chapman University thought was “too ambitious,” for me to make, through my current film “How to Hack Birth Control,” I have always had someone tell me not to make a film and that I should wait. My answer is always, wait for what? If you think you have a script that is ready, or even if you don’t think your script is ready. Make a movie. The film that I did after Happy Holidays was a mockumentary called “True Perfection.” I had been working on the script for a year, knew it needed more work, but that I wanted to make it. So, I made a test “pilot,” of the first act. That taught me SO much and also helped me get the funding to actually make the feature. And you know what else? The feature went through so many growing pains that it never got released, but, when my managers heard about the concept of it they said, “that is a fantastic idea for a tv show,” and now we’re taking that script I wrote in 2008 and turning it into possibly a network show. You have no idea where your ideas might lead and the only way you can find out is by actually trying.
In the end, Happy Holidays was absolutely a ‘too ambitious’ project for a 19/20-year-old to take on, but I did. I made countless mistakes while we did the project, but I learned so much while making it and got to rip off the training wheels from my metaphorical directing training bike. The worst that could happen when you make your first project is you fall flat on your face, which I also did, (literally, I fell off my bicycle while we were shooting and cracked my front tooth). But then I got up and kept going. Not only did we finish the film, but we also ended up screening it around the country, turning a profit, and got distribution for it. So if you’re reading this and debating making a movie, get up and get started.
From your personal experience, do you see a change in major film distributors and industry stakeholders supporting emergent and indie filmmakers?
Oh yeah, there has been a TON of upset since I really got into this game. When I made Happy Holidays in 2006-2007, the “digital revolution,” was really just kicking off. I remember getting sh*t from practically everyone about how shooting a film on digital wasn’t really, “making a movie,” which is like, *insert my eye roll here.* Also, when Happy Holidays was finished, streaming wasn’t even a thing yet either, and getting distribution seemed more like a pipe dream than something obtainable. One of my BIGGEST regrets was I actually got an offer to put Happy Holidays on Netflix, but I had to create a specific type of delivery that cost about $500, and at the time, I was working as a receptionist/PA where my salary before tax was exactly $500/week. So that was over 1/4th of my monthly income and I never took the opportunity. Now, of course, no one uses Netflix DVDs (except for me, I still 100% do,) and it’s damn near impossible to get a film on there unless it’s made by Netflix itself.
The other amazing change that I’ve seen recently, is in a lot of ways, there’s a lot more power in the hands of the filmmaker instead of in the studios. Don’t get me wrong, studios are still our overlords that dictate our very existence with their billion-dollar franchises built off of spin-offs from other franchises. However, what this sort of class divide in filmmaking has done has opened up a lot of room for people on the lower end of the spectrum to enter. With streaming, cell phones, digital, 4k, it is much easier to make a solid piece of work than it was even in 2006. Also, of course, post #MeToo, suddenly all the overlords realized that women, despite not being men, could also make films! And even a little more recently, minorities could too! Shocker, I know. The industry isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s getting better.
You have a successful commercial directing career, working with a variety of film production companies and brands. Name one experience you’ve had in this industry that has significantly shaped your appreciation of filmmaking?
That’s such a hard question to answer, but I’ll go back to a story from wayyyy before I was in the film industry. When I was younger, my Dad used to take me to a lot of soccer games. We went to the world cup when it was in DC and then lots of in-door soccer games when the weather was bad, (which was like always in the DC area.) I remember one game we went to when I was about 9 years old, I don’t remember who was playing but I remember it was a packed stadium and there were riled-up fans from both sides. Everyone was shouting and insulting each other and cheering and just getting really into it, which was kind of intimidating for a 9-year-old girl. Then there was the halftime show, which in this game involved playing songs from movies. I remember they played the “Summer Nights” sequence from Grease. You know, it started with that bass line, ‘buh, buh-buh, buh-buh, buh-budda-budda-buh.’ And suddenly everyone in the stadium stopped shouting and talking and like magic (to me anyway,) started singing along, dancing, laughing, and having a great time. I remember looking around and seeing all these people totally transfixed and united by this scene from a film and I thought, if movies can make people feel this way, I want to be part of that. Shortly thereafter I signed up for my first TV production class.
Your short film, ‘Fear Actually’, was released in April 2020 to rave reviews. Were you surprised by its success, and how has it impacted your career and support as a filmmaker?
To be honest, I never know what to expect when I make a film. You always go into a film hoping that people see your vision the same way you do. Fear Actually was especially different because it was the first film I directed that I co-wrote and also we shot it in August 2017 so a lot of time had passed. I made it with a super talented writer friend of mine named Kyle Sullivan who I approached in the summer right after I finished Weedland telling him that I was itching to direct a film and did he have any ideas. He told me about this funny concept script he’d written about Pennywise the clown going through an existential crisis because he was no longer scary due to how scary politics in America had gotten, which I thought was hilarious. We workshopped the script a bit and then within less than a month we were filming!
Overall, Fear Actually was a pretty easy shoot to pull off. We had a little bit of money to play around with, and I’d already lived through maybe every single possible ultra-low-no-budget disaster that could happen on a shoot, so I was able to avoid all of those. Then after the shoot, you know, life happened. My commercial directing career started picking up, Kyle got married to one of my closest friends and moved to Florida, all the while I was quietly chipping away at the film unsure if it would ever be finished. Well, it did finally get finished at the end of 2019 and I planned to send it to festivals then the pandemic happened. So I thought, everyone’s at home right now, a lot of people are bored, scared, and looking to escape, this is the perfect time for Fear Actually to be released.
What was particularly exciting to me about Fear Actually, was when it started getting good reviews and people started really responding to it, I realized that it had marked my graduation from low-budget scrappy indie filmmaker to an actual player in the world of film. In terms of the actual shoot, there wasn’t anything particularly challenging for me in it, pretty much all the “risks,” I had done before to some degree, but prior to this, I had been restrained by budget from pushing the envelope even further. Fear Actually showed me that I was ready to really challenge myself because if I could do this without blinking, I couldn’t wait to see what I could do when I really pushed myself, which is exactly what I did with my next project ‘How to Hack Birth Control.’
Please tell us more about your latest project ‘How to Hack Birth Control’. Please tell us more about its origins, what viewers can expect, and how you came to produce it?
I am so glad you asked! Rewinding a bit, I came up with the idea for How to Hack Birth Control in 2019. Around that time my freelance directing/producing/writing/editing career was really starting to gain momentum, and I kind of fell into doing all of those positions for social media commercials, and eventually social media commercials for big brands. The thing is though, about social media commercials, they’re not very memorable …or good. They’re largely algorithms based on what moments people scrolling stop and pay attention to, what different age demographics pay attention to, etc. I know that commercials are like this in general, but at least on TV you get room to be creative. However, a lot of these commercials I do are kind of “hack,” based, like hack your Christmas with these easy & delicious recipes from Blue Diamond! And I had this lightbulb moment, (which usually happens with every project I do,) where I thought “How to Hack Birth Control,” that I would use all these tips and tricks you use for social commercials but in a comedic and educational way.
The concept of ‘How to Hack Birth Control,’ is simple enough, it’s satire infotainment like Samantha Bee & Jon Oliver, mixed with the energy and outlandishness of shows like Schitt’s Creek or 30 rock all with a modern Tik-Tok GFX/animation style. …So actually not that simple haha. The series is a comedy educating women on how to navigate birth control in America today but all told through hysterical dialogue and awesome visuals so you don’t realize you’re actually getting fed information. We have a seriously phenomenal cast & crew that are all up-and-comers and some who I would even say have definitely already arrived.
The series deals with the facts of different types of birth control but also, how and where to hide your birth control, how to deal with a pharmacist that won’t sell you the morning-after pill, and how to deal with crazed right-wing protesters on your way into a women’s clinic. It’s what the title says: How to hack birth control. Being a woman today has tremendous freedoms and choices that weren’t around even 10 years ago, but all of that comes with a ton of hidden and not so hidden negative stigmas & deterrents from society. As a kid (if you’re lucky) you’re taught how to use a condom, but no one teaches you how to deal with a guy you really like trying to coerce you into not using a condom.
I had originally planned on shooting the film in the middle of 2020, but then ya know, a pandemic happened. I went on writing & workshopping the script anyway, especially because my fiance, Vince Yearly, at the time was furloughed, so I started teaching him how to edit, produce & write (he’s now a full-time editor!) Vince has a hysterical sense of humor, so it was great to be able to bounce jokes off of him like “Is this funny enough?” “Does this word work?” And also just to get his input as a man on the script, because I didn’t want to ostracize half of the US population, (if only men were as considerate…) in June of 2020, I had put aside my hopes of doing the project when I had a convo with one of my best friends. During the first two years of the pandemic, she was one of the organizers behind the District of Columbia’s covid response team, specifically dealing with the female homeless population and how to keep them safe & healthy. When I told her that I had sort of given up on the hope of making this she told me point blank, “You can absolutely shoot it if you do it safely and with a plan, and I will make one for you.” So thanks to her kindness and guidance, we were able to do a 10-day shoot in Nov of 2020 with a 60+ cast & crew where not a single person got sick. Ironically, it was probably the smoothest run set I’ve ever done, (ironic considering we were in the middle of a pandemic and a super tumultuous election cycle.)
Women’s rights have always been incredibly important to me, and my purpose with filmmaking has been and always will be to try and make the world better for women. Even Fear Actually, it’s not quite as heavy-handed as How to Hack Birth Control, but I purposefully had the women’s character roles on an equal playing field to their male counterparts and gave their struggles of individuality the same weight as the men’s. I would have killed to see more stuff like that when I was a kid/pre-teen/young adult. Any content where the women’s problems, if they were part of the story at all, weren’t ditzy, materialistic, or written as trite. The issue for women isn’t and shouldn’t be whether or not to have sex, the issue is, how to do that safely with your income/living situation in a way that doesn’t put your health or livelihood at risk. So ladies, if you want to learn how to hack your birth control, check it out! It’s playing at a bunch of film festivals coming up: www.BirthControlHacks.com
As you mention, the series is part of the 2022 festival circuit and already picked up awards for Best Comedy Trailer at Film Fest @ LA Live (2021,) Best TV at the Hollywood Comedy Shorts Festival (2022), Female Perspective Award at Hollywood Int. Diversity Film Festival (2022), and is an official selection of Cinequest (2022) NewFilmmakers NY (2022) & Harlem International Film Festival (2022) I congratulate you on its success so far but what is your proudest achievement as an artist to date, and why?
That is such a tough question. There are little things that I am very proud of, like re-teaching myself to edit and then using that as a route to get to paid directing work, or figuring out how to pick myself up literally after being hit by a car in a hit and run and not being able to walk for three months, yet somehow still figuring out a way to never give up on my ambitions.
As far as bigger things, recently ‘How to Hack Birth Control’ won BEST TV at the Hollywood Comedy Shorts Film Festival two weeks ago. It was actually my first big-ish film award that I’ve ever won. I got a trophy with the name of the film on it and everything. That festival was an amazing experience to be part of, and having my film play at the Chinese Theater was of course a dream come true!
To be a little cheesy though, my proudest achievement still to this date is finishing ‘Happy Holidays.’ It’s not like that film is particularly great or anything because it’s not. I wrote and directed it when I was 19 and it smells, looks, and tastes like a film written and directed by a 19-year-old. But, to actually finish a huge film, and not just that, a film that almost everyone you know told you that you would never be able to finish, that’s the type of experience that will make you believe you can do anything. When I made it I was a broke college student living off $100 every 2-weeks, I didn’t own a car, (so I bicycled everywhere,) I was overloaded with 18 units of classes at school that I went to on Monday & Wednesdays, Rehearsals, prep, meetings, and getting my homework done were on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Friday’s and then we shot almost every Saturday & Sunday for October-December then again February & March. Not to mention, the entire time we were doing this film, I was getting push back from every imaginable corner while simultaneously having no idea what I was doing because I’d never done this before. So, there really wasn’t a lot stacked in our favor with finishing this film, but I did because I knew deep down that I could and that this is what I was meant to be doing with my life.
And funny enough, making that film did actually get me my first job at a prominent production company …as a receptionist/PA, (of course.) I later found out that I was hired because of my “look and vibe,” meaning I was an artsy indie filmmaking chick who they could go, “we’re so artsy and cool, even our receptionist makes movies.” Let me tell you, that job was awful. It paid very little, I got treated like crap and continuously overlooked while the male PA’s and assistants around me got ample opportunities to move up. But, during the three years at the position, not only did I make great connections, make another feature, 2 shorts, and a web series (which would all get me my next job,) but I was able to withstand the financial crash of 2008 which happened right after I finished college a few months earlier AND get a job right after the writer’s strike. A significant portion of my friends and classmates didn’t survive that because no one was hiring, especially fresh out of college kids. And also because of Happy Holidays, I was able to get better actors, better crew, better everything to make my next project, and the one after that, and the one after that. I even remember talking to the AD on my next project and thanking him for all his hard work and apologizing to him for having such a low budget that I couldn’t pay him, (everyone was working for free,) and he said, “Nah, it’s cool. You made Happy Holidays.” Meaning, that he knew the project would get finished, seen, and probably wouldn’t be bad, which is a lot more than most people can say. So the moral of the story is never stop believing in yourself and never stop taking risks. Oh and also, always remember to learn from your mistakes.
What other projects are you currently working on?
I’m so glad you asked! Right now, ‘How to Hack Birth Control,’ is pretty much a full-time job. It’s playing in a pretty sizable chunk of festivals which is amazing, and also a beast of a project within itself. I remember when we had the first cast & crew screening of the pilot, my fiance said something like, “What are we going to do now that the film is done?” And I laughed and said, “Done? This is FAR from done.” There is a whole other process once your film/pilot/project is done that is just as crucial as making the thing in the first place. It’s an exciting part of the process, but still a full-time part of the process nonetheless. Also, Birth Control is going to be at one particular festival this June that I am particularly excited about, but I can’t publicly release the info yet. It was my top #1 festival I wanted to get into, so it’s kind of like a dream come true.
Aside from that, I am developing the ‘How to Hack’ series with my management team Mojo Management, (which btw, I did get signed last year right after we finished Birth Control!) They’re a very cool, talented, supportive team that I am thrilled to be working with. In addition to the ‘How to Hack’ series, we’re also developing two other shows. One is re-hashing that pilot I did in 2017, ‘Weedland’, and also turning that 2nd feature film I did, “True Perfection,” into a really exciting, raw, and funny TV show as well. The plan is to be pitching all of these shows to networks this fall/winter.
One other thing to add, I am especially grateful to be able to bring ‘How to Hack Birth Control,’ to a broad audience today considering everything going on right now surrounding women’s rights. It’s truly saddening to see a (mostly male) minority group in this country push their beliefs on the entire population at the expense of so many women’s lives and futures. However, there are so many steps that you have the power to take everywhere in this country, (at least as of May 2022,) to prevent even needing an abortion, and the main one is using birth control! So, in addition to making people laugh I really hope and will continue to strive for ‘How to Hack Birth Control,’ to reach as many people as possible so that women around the world can remember that you’re not alone and there are cost-effective and accessible ways for you to get access to birth control and continue to have control over your health and your future.
Where can our readers find out more about you and your projects? Note: please provide website and social media links.
Absolutely!
Website: www.sassymohen.com
How to Hack Birth Control: www.birthcontrolhacks.com
Facebook: @sassymohenfilms
Instagram: @sassymohen
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ArdentLifeMedia
Images provided, courtesy of Sassy Mohen
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