Learn More about ANTONIO'S SECRET

Filipino filmmaker Joselito (Jay) Altarejos is set to attend ImageOut 16 to reveal more of ANTONIO'S SECRET, one of our ImageOut There! feature selections. Applying for a US travel visa in the Philippines is never an easy task. You have to produce all kinds of supporting documentation before the US Consulate grants you a visa ... if you are lucky. So I'm quite pleased that an official invite from the Festival was able to facilitate the procurement of the necessary travel documents for Jay that will allow him to attend the International Premiere of his film here in Rochester. ImageOut is just soooo international!

I would love to just sit down with Jay and have a quick update on the state of filmmaking in the Philippines. I haven't been back there for 12 years. And going by the screeners I have been receiving from Filipino filmmakers and distributors, it has gotten quite progressive. Back then, flashing female breasts on the big screen was already a huge deal and frontal nudity, especially of the male kind, was just unthinkable. I remember when the closest thing to a legitimate homosexual storyline in movies (and I don't count the flamboyant and stereotypical portrayals of screaming queens in the fashion and beauty industries) is two men bonding behind prison bars.

So it's quite refreshing to see my "pinoy" brothers going at it with gusto onscreen. Even more impressive to me that actors are willing to drop trou and show their, as the great Lady Chablis calls them, tootsie rolls for the sake of art (at least that's what I think they are doing it for). And ANTONIO'S SECRET has them all.

Join me in giving Jay a big American welcome on Monday, Oct. 13 at 9:45pm. Tickets are still available.