Sandra Oh champions diversity in animation
Grey’s Anatomy actress voices young Chinese-Persian poet in Window Horses film
Sandra Oh remembers growing up without seeing people like herself reflected in popular culture and wants to ensure her two mixed-race nieces don’t have the same experience.
That’s one reason Oh decided to make Window Horses, an animated feature in which she voices the character of Rosie Ming, a 20-year-old Vancouver poet of Chinese and Persian descent whose life changes when she’s invited to a literary festival in Iran.
“In animation and animated films, there still is not enough representation at all. So from a personal point of view, I wanted to tell this story and get this character on screen,” Oh said in an interview when the film screened during September’s Toronto International Film Festival.
“My nieces are mixies, two great girls growing up in North Vancouver, and I want to tell stories for them, to see themselves reflected even in an animated character.”
Oh, best known for her role on the hit TV medical drama Grey’s Anato- my, is also an executive producer for the film, which blends multiple animation styles.
At the heart of the film is Rosie, who lives with her overprotective Chinese grandparents until she travels to Iran to perform at a poetry festival. There she begins to learn more about the father she believes abandoned her.
The film subtly deals with cultural sensitivities, generational divides and elements of feminism at a time when discussions of Islamophobia and national identity often dominate.
Written and directed by JapaneseCanadian filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming, Window Horses weaves poetry as a common thread through the story and features works from lauded Persian poets as well as Rosie’s own creations.
The story was years in the making, Fleming said, and ended up including a number of autobiographical elements.
“Things that have happened to me, my life, people I know, stories I’ve collected, everything in the film is true,” she said. “It’s almost a love story to all of the people that I’ve met.”
Window Horses opens in Toronto and Vancouver on Friday before expanding to other cities.