Othello Khanh: Always Be Prepared When Building a House on a Mountain

Award-winning writer, director and producer Othello Khanh was born in Paris, France in 1964. Raised in an intensively creative household – he’s the son of fashion icon Emmanuelle Khanh and 20th-century design genius Quasar Khanh – Othello gained confidence to trust his creative instincts from an early age. He studied film theory before diving in film and commercial production as cameraman, editor and director for French TV.

In 1993, Othello moved to Mexico, where he shot, directed and produced the Latino American Studies Association Merit in Film award winning documentary 'Ballads Without a Face' featuring rebel leader Sub commander Marcos. This led him to Los Angeles, where he was active with the Latino community and screened his film at the AFI Film Fest 1995.

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City during a solar eclipse in 1995 – the inspiration for his 2007 Houston WorldFest Special Jury Award winner 'Saigon Eclipse"'– Othello founded the longest continuously-operating private production services company in Vietnam: CREATV.

LBB> What was your first experience of leadership?

Othello> I became the leader of a rock band. The style was “rhythm and news.” This was the late ’80s and I started to write songs about the news. It was the time of Spitting Image and such satirical skit shows using puppets. It was December 1989. I was shocked and fascinated to see history unfolding in real time. It was the Romanian revolution, where dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown and killed. I wrote, performed and edited a music video with all the clips I collected. Then, I convinced my band to go in this offbeat direction, becoming a ‘news jester’ of sorts. This type of “meta” spin on current affairs was a new concept. I went to TV stations – Canal Plus at the time – with the song, but it was a bit too early. We did the same thing in 1991, when The Berlin Wall Fell. I went to the TV station, trying to pass my clips, and trying to get meetings that were “door’s closed, come in by the window.” Eventually, when I saw France wasn’t responsive enough, I went to Mexico and led an expedition inside the jungle where I met the Mexican Zapatista leader and made a one-hour documentary, that was not from gathering images, but making them.

LBB> How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be – or what kind of leader you didn’t want to be?

Othello> On January 1, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) officially took effect. As the then Mexican president said, the door to the first world was open to Mexico.

Marcos and the indigenous peasants of Chiapas uprose into an army and declared war on the Mexican government. Marcos was the first revolutionary leader of the internet era and his most powerful weapon was not the AK he carried across his body, but his old typewriter, on which he wrote stories inspired by ancestral Mayan legends where he shared the third world situation he and his people lived in.

A bit more than two decades later, I returned to Mexico to make a documentary to defend the case of a French woman unjustly serving a 93 years sentence for kidnappings she claimed to be innocent of. The documentary was aired on French TV and shown as evidence to the Mexican Supreme Court. Florence Cassez was freed and sent back to France. My weapon was not a sword like Zorro, but my camera.

Being an independent, a one-to-two-guy show, my leadership was like a rebel-leader, commando-style production of social-political content. That led me to Vietnam, which that was just opening to the world and living its renaissance. I started to direct commercials and develop the first production company in the country. We became the absolute leaders of the market through the mid-noughties. Training dozens of producers over the last three decades.

LBB> What experience or moment gave you your biggest lesson in leadership?

Othello> When I decided to make another personal project, a feature film 'Saigon Eclipse' which I started to write in 2004, based on my journal that I had been writing since arriving in Vietnam in ’95. And decided to adapt it to make a feature film. The film was independently-produced and financed. To make an analogy with building a house on a mountain: nobody asked me to climb that mountain, nobody asked me to build a house on top of it. Nobody asked me to open the window when there was wind. And when a brick fell on my head, that was my lesson. Because I wanted to do my vision, the brick in the face from the press was… I got bashed. I got booted. Lesson learned: want to be a leader? Better be prepared for the bricks that can come your way.

LBB> Did you know you always wanted to take on a leadership role? If so how did you work towards it and if not, when did you start realising that you had it in you?

Othello> I always had wild ideas in my head. My mother used to tell me, I was like my father: I had a little bicycle wheel in the brain, always turning. I had to take that leadership role to accomplish my vision. Being now 60 years old, I can see that most of my best projects took me at least 10 years.

LBB> When it comes to 'leadership' as a skill, how much do you think is a natural part of personality, how much can be taught and learned?

Othello> I always say “trust your instinct, don’t be afraid and there are no coincidences.” Of course, growing up in a home where I learned the creative process wouldn’t happen by itself, I’m one who believes that one has to set it in motion what they intend or wish for.

As for taught and learned, I can only express the conclusion I’ve arrived at regarding coincidence: it doesn’t exist. If you’ve ever followed a creative inspiration, you shouldn’t be surprised where you end up. Every step you made took you to the place you end up at one point of your life. If you still see it as a coincidence, you may have missed your life.

LBB> What are the aspects of leadership that you find most personally challenging? And how do you work through them?

Othello> Being a Libra, when my wife asks “would you rather do this or that,” my usual answer is “yes”, “oui” in French. The most charming word in my mother tongue, I believe. When I was still an editor, before the digital era, I would always preview, preview… one frame, two frames before making final cut, especially when it was film and you’d lose a frame in the bin. Of course, I take decisions every day, but always through the filter of a perfectionist.

LBB> Have you ever felt like you've failed whilst in charge? How did you address the issue and what did you learn from it?

Othello> The only way to learn is to fail sometimes. If you’re lucky enough not to fail at one point, you will fail because luck cannot be with you on your side all the time… at the moment when you’re out of luck, then that’s the time to learn. If I can’t learn by myself, I work with people I trust and most of the time, for their recommendation. Although I have my idea, before deciding, I will make sure that we – my fabulous team – agree, whether it be on the creative, technical or financial aspect of the business.

LBB> In terms of leadership and openness, what’s your approach there? Do you think it’s important to be transparent as possible in the service of being authentic? Or is there a value in being careful and considered?

Othello> It’s important. But sometimes I should be more careful and considered.

LBB> As you developed your leadership skills did you have a mentor, if so who were/are they and what have you learned? And on the flip side, do you mentor any aspiring leaders and how do you approach that relationship?

Othello> Apart from my parents, I’ve had three mentors, who arrived each at key moments in my life.

In France, there was underground, indie filmmaker Jean-Henri Meunier – very crazy artist. He was from the ’60-’70s and died recently. This man showed me that if you really wanted to do something, you do it. He had this passion. I was his Assistant Director for feature films. When he failed, he didn’t care. When he lost his producer, he went to get a camera, get some film, a location… convince some actors and do his stuff. When he got older, he went to live in the countryside, but still, he kept his camera and made wonderful films. His passion and creative leadership truly inspired my career.

Then, in Mexico, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos – the rebel leader and poet I mentioned earlier.

During the time I’ve worked in Vietnam, there’s been a multi-Emmy Award winning cameraman, producer, director, whom I met in the early 2000s when he came to film his first of many shows in Vietnam. An independent spirit, but with huge success and very large productions. In every country to which he has brought his travelling reality show, people have taken notice. I would say the same about his beautiful wife and the co-creator of the show. Their creativity, enthusiasm, professionalism and leadership inspire me every day in my work – not to mention every fixer the world over who’s followed their global trail admires them.

LBB> In continually changing market circumstances, how do you cope with the responsibility of leading a team through difficult waters?

Othello> Since the restart of international production after the pandemic, what motivates me to come into the office early day in and out, is the vision to convince people to work with us, through our CREATVAsia initiative.

Where I lead my team is in pushing our new CREATVAsia vision to promote filming in Asia.

LBB> As a leader, what are some of the ways in which you’ve prioritised diversity and inclusion within your workforce?

Othello> Maybe it’s by virtue of being in field that attracts intensively creative people, from incredibly varied backgrounds – or of the incredibly cosmopolitan milieu of Ho Chi Minh City where our office is located – but our workforce and client base are organically diverse.

LBB> How important is your company culture to the success of your business? And how have you managed to keep it alive with increases in remote and hybrid working patterns?

Othello> Since the end of the pandemic, we found very few wanted to return to a 9-5 routine at the office. Furthermore, the type of jobs that we were getting, overwhelmingly, had no need for full studio and soundstage facilities. We are now a small team working online between our office in Ho Chi Minh City, corresponding with colleagues and affiliates all across the globe, from Jakarta, Manila, Seattle, LA, and more.

LBB> What are the most useful resources you’ve found to help you along your leadership journey?

Othello> My BIC four colour with a pencil and eraser.