Recently, the San Pedro Film Festival was held in one of the most beautiful and majestic art deco old movie theaters in the whole of the Los Angeles area. Built in the 1930’s, the Warner Grand Theater, funded by the Hollywood mogul Jack Warner way back in the day, is located in the port city of San Pedro. San Pedro feels like an isolated area of Los Angeles as it sits far from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood and Los Angeles itself. But it continues to remain a thriving and very diverse community. Once a year, it features a film festival for short films of diverse backgrounds. This year one of the more interesting BLs for 2023 was chosen to be honored. That was “STAY”, which stars Sebastian Castro as Andre and Ellis Gage as Joshua in a contemporary and perhaps distinctive love story, yet all too common for a city like Los Angeles. I reviewed this series and enjoyed it considerably when it came out. But there is something still so magical about seeing films on a big screen with the booming sound, and forgive me, eating popcorn.

The creators of this efficacious series are the directors, writers, producers and editors, Dexter Hemedez and Allan Michael Banez. This quiet, unassuming duo are making the rounds in the Los Angeles area and surrounding cities with their dynamic, relevant, and contemporary reflections on life in ‘the City of Angels’. At the end of these showings, four of the five creators of these fabulous shorts had a chance to be asked questions by the moderator and the audience. And I also had a chance to ask them several questions as well. It was a pleasure to meet and greet rather down-to-earth individuals who took whatever accolades were given to them with an almost embarrassed look and with the notion that it was all a big collaborative effort on not only their part but by all the individuals, actors, and crew who took part in this production.

A critic from one of Los Angles’ major newspapers took special note of the scene in this series where there was a reference to Asian bullying with Andre being beaten because he was ‘Chinese’ (which of course he is not – he was Filipino in the series). She thought that was a thought-provoking and critical element to this story and was deeply appreciative that it was in this series with the whole idea that Asian bullying and abuse is an issue and to address it in such a fashion was unique and an attentive detail that she appreciated in the story.

The moderator asked a series of questions of each presenter, with the most intriguing question for Dexter and Allen being what they are currently working on.

“They are currently in development of two feature films and two series, one sitcom and one BL, as well as some concept stories that are on the drawing board.”

I had a brief chance to ask them some questions privately that I was particularly curious about, and they were gracious enough to sit down with me to answer my questions.

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INTERVIEW

BLBliss Author: “Will there be a Season 2 of STAY?”

Dexter/Allan: “At this time, we have no real plans to have a Season 2. Sequels sometimes tend to lose the essence and magic of the original. It is hard to recapture the original moment. If, however, the opportunity was to arise that we could come up with a storyline that is as substantial and as interesting as the first season of STAY, if not more, then we would be happy to do so. The characters that we created were well-loved by the viewers from various parts of the world, so it would be interesting to explore more about their respective journeys. Even the supporting characters had their special moments in the series. Spinoff is more probable, but there is no definite plan for now. And unfortunately, we have not recuperated any of our expenses from creating STAY. Filming in LA is very expensive, in fact, it is one of the most expensive filming locations in the world. We need to realign our priorities to keep our business running since making films and series involves a lot of money. And we are just independent filmmakers, not backed up by any studio, big or small. We have lost a huge amount of our personal savings by doing this series. We need to be wiser and more practical with our plans to create future projects in order for our production to survive and thrive.”

BLBliss Author: “How did you secure your funding for STAY?”

Dexter/Allan: “Wow! A bit painful. We had a major donor for this project but at the last moment he backed out. And so, we had to pull our resources together and therefore, this project was totally self-funded. It was for us a real labor of love as trite as that might sound. But it’s worth it, since the response to this creative endeavor has been overwhelming, and humbling at the same time.”

BLBliss Author: “I wanted to follow-up on the comment on the critic from the Los Angeles newspaper about the scene where Andre who is representing the Filipino community is beaten up because he is Chinese (Asian). I thought the whole series in general so earnestly captured the everyday essence of living and working in Los Angeles with a profound depth and sincerity. I commend you for capturing in detail the everyday spirit of living in LA.”

Dexter/Allan: “Thank you. We tried to show a tempered love story based on the realities that are unique and honest to this city. It is a city of hope where dreams sometimes do die, or if realized, are paid at a very high cost. We live here; that reality has to be reflected. Both its good qualities and sometimes its painful ones as well. We have all experienced them.”

Unfortunately, I was unable to ask any more questions as they had other engagements to attend. However, I was profoundly grateful to them for being able to spend a few minutes with me to share on a more personal level the development of this series. These two guys are richly charming and show immense pride in this short BL series of theirs, which obviously captured the heart of the San Pedro International Film Festival. They were honored along with several other incredibly unique and diverse short series. Kudos to a BL series named STAY for being so honored at this prestigious film festival. If you have not done so, I would highly recommend you take the time to watch this pensive BL series.

The BL Xpress would like to express their gratitude to Dexter Hemedez and Allan Michael Banez for this exclusive. We are also grateful to BL Bliss Author for being our avid correspondent for this interview!