Saturday, March 12, 2016

What Was Israel Luna's First Film?

So you may have asked yourself, with all of the success that filmmaker Israel Luna has been getting lately with his high-quality films on a budget "what was his first project?" and "did it look as amazing as his current works?" well! According to Israel in an impromptu interview I had with the star, he claims, the independent Dallas feature, Str8 Up, was his first feature-length project.

The movie is described by Luna as a "look into Dallas, Texas' gay nightlife". The project was done with a non-professional production company that is no longer in business. According to Israel, the as-of-now unnamed company "didn't know what they were doing" and it showed, as years later they went out of business; but with that Str8 Up is no longer in circulation, Israel doesn't even have a copy of the film.

Thankfully of few of the movie's stars own it and most likely on VHS. Str8 Up was released direct-to-video in 2001 but was filmed in 1999. It wasn't in the best quality, having been taken "right off the camera" as I phrased it- No sound mixing or color correction I meant.

The only actor to be confirmed (to me) to be in the film, is Miranda Martinez, an actress that has appeared in a couple of Israel's other film projects, including Is Anybody There (2002) and the film's re-make, The Ouija Experiment (2011). The Ouija Experiment and its sequel, The Ouija Resurrection, have been doing very well at Redbox; getting into stores like Walmart nationwide, a first for Luna who has prior to this mainly been releasing his work to online retailers after a few festival screenings.

As of now I do not have a trailer or a theatrical poster for the film. Thank you Israel Luna for the interview!

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