Q. Allan Brocka
Encyclopedia
Quenton Allan Brocka is an award-winning American television and film director based in West Hollywood, California
. He has directed and written a number of feature films while creating an animated television series for the Logo
cable network. He also writes a column for The Advocate
.
Brocka is of Filipino
heritage and is openly gay
.
. His family moved to the mainland United States, settling in Parkland, Washington
where he attended Washington High School
. He earned a degree in communications from the University of Washington
in Seattle and went on to get a masters in film from the California Institute of the Arts
.
His uncle was Lino Brocka
, a famous LGBT
film director in the Philippines
. His mother didn't know Lino, except to say he was in the film industry. His father didn't know his brother well and the family never went to the Philippines so Allan never got to meet him or find out much about him.
. At the age of eight he discovered it was fun to create simple slide shows from photographs with a soundtrack. At age nine his mother, a saleswoman for Panasonic
, brought home a video
camera and Brocka began creating short films
and sketch comedy
. He found an early fascination with science fiction
but after seeing The Rocky Horror Picture Show
and some John Waters
films as a teen he realized sexuality
was a legitimate subject. Also, while living in Seattle, he directed a queer public-access television
show for several years.
In 1999 the first of Brocka's films seen by the public was the animated short Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All The World
, an irreverent story of a lesbian couple and gay couple who dislike each other, but decide to have a baby together. The short was done as a school project that Brocka then submitted to Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. It went on to show and won awards at seven different film festivals.
Brocka went on to create another short, Roberta Loved, a story of a morbidly obese woman who is fired from her job and learns she will die. Roberta Loved won another set of awards, and Brocka learned that his audience was willing to be disturbed by his subject matter, whether through humor (as in Rick and Steve) or drama (as in Roberta Loved and Seventy).
His next works were iconic
documentaries of popular culture
, Porno Valley, a reality show featuring pornographic actresses from Vivid Entertainment
and Camp Michael Jackson about the encampment of fans and media outside the court trial
of pop-music star Michael Jackson
.
Brocka was approached by Ariztical Entertainment to create low budget gay romances and he agreed, but then insisted on making interesting casting choices and writing that was more than just throw-away entertainment. For the first film, Eating Out, Brocka reached out to American Idol
contestant Jim Verraros
, who had never previously acted, as a co-star. It went on to win several awards, including 2004 Best Feature at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Eating Out has spawned four sequels: 2006's Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds and 2009's Eating Out All You Can Eat, neither of which included Brocka's direct involvement, and Eating Out: Drama Camp and Eating Out: The Open Weekend, both from 2011, which Brocka directed and co-wrote, also serving as producer for the former.
Boy Culture
, Brocka's 2006 feature-length release, has won more than a dozen awards at film festivals around the world, including Best Writing at the 2006 Outfest
and Best Feature Film at Festival del Mar in Spain
.
The Logo
cable network later picked up Rick & Steve as an animated series, which began airing in 2007. Brocka also performs some of the show's voices.
West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...
. He has directed and written a number of feature films while creating an animated television series for the Logo
Logo (TV channel)
Logo is an American digital cable television channel owned by Viacom's MTV Networks division. Launched in June 2005, the channel's programs are geared towards the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community...
cable network. He also writes a column for The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
.
Brocka is of Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
heritage and is openly gay
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
.
Biography
Brocka was born and spent his childhood in GuamGuam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
. His family moved to the mainland United States, settling in Parkland, Washington
Parkland, Washington
Parkland is a census-designated place in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 24,053 at the 2000 census and grew to 35,803 as of the 2010 census...
where he attended Washington High School
Washington High School (Washington)
Washington High School in Parkland, Washington is named after the country's first President, George Washington.-Academics:Advanced Placement courses are offered in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, Statistics, Literature, and History...
. He earned a degree in communications from the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in Seattle and went on to get a masters in film from the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
.
His uncle was Lino Brocka
Lino Brocka
Catalino Ortiz Brocka is known as one of the greatest film directors of the Philippines. Brocka was openly homosexual and many of his films incorporated LGBT themes into their often dramatic storylines....
, a famous LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
film director in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. His mother didn't know Lino, except to say he was in the film industry. His father didn't know his brother well and the family never went to the Philippines so Allan never got to meet him or find out much about him.
Filmography and awards
It was in Guam where Brocka first discovered filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
. At the age of eight he discovered it was fun to create simple slide shows from photographs with a soundtrack. At age nine his mother, a saleswoman for Panasonic
Panasonic
Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
, brought home a video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
camera and Brocka began creating short films
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
and sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
. He found an early fascination with science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
but after seeing The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
and some John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
films as a teen he realized sexuality
Sexual identity
Sexual identity is a term that, like sex, has two distinctively different meanings. One describes an identity roughly based on sexual orientation, the other an identity based on sexual characteristics, which is not socially based but based on biology, a concept related to, but different from,...
was a legitimate subject. Also, while living in Seattle, he directed a queer public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
show for several years.
In 1999 the first of Brocka's films seen by the public was the animated short Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All The World
Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World
Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World is an American-Canadian stop motion animated sitcom created by Q. Allan Brocka, who also acts as director. It is a spin off from Brocka's 1999 short film of the same name, and debuted on the LGBT focused Logo network in July 2007 and on the...
, an irreverent story of a lesbian couple and gay couple who dislike each other, but decide to have a baby together. The short was done as a school project that Brocka then submitted to Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. It went on to show and won awards at seven different film festivals.
Brocka went on to create another short, Roberta Loved, a story of a morbidly obese woman who is fired from her job and learns she will die. Roberta Loved won another set of awards, and Brocka learned that his audience was willing to be disturbed by his subject matter, whether through humor (as in Rick and Steve) or drama (as in Roberta Loved and Seventy).
His next works were iconic
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
documentaries of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, Porno Valley, a reality show featuring pornographic actresses from Vivid Entertainment
Vivid Entertainment
Vivid Entertainment Group is an adult video producer, featuring a catalog of VHS and DVD titles and internet content. In 2006 it was described by Reuters as one of the handful of studios that dominate the U.S. porn industry....
and Camp Michael Jackson about the encampment of fans and media outside the court trial
People v. Jackson
People vs. Jackson was a 2005 trial involving recording artist Michael Jackson. The accuser was a boy, Gavin Arvizo, who was 13 years old at the time of the alleged crimes...
of pop-music star Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
.
Brocka was approached by Ariztical Entertainment to create low budget gay romances and he agreed, but then insisted on making interesting casting choices and writing that was more than just throw-away entertainment. For the first film, Eating Out, Brocka reached out to American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
contestant Jim Verraros
Jim Verraros
James Conrad "Jim" Verraros is an American singer/entertainer and native of Crystal Lake, Illinois who is most notable for being one of the top 10 finalists in the first season of American Idol...
, who had never previously acted, as a co-star. It went on to win several awards, including 2004 Best Feature at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Eating Out has spawned four sequels: 2006's Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds and 2009's Eating Out All You Can Eat, neither of which included Brocka's direct involvement, and Eating Out: Drama Camp and Eating Out: The Open Weekend, both from 2011, which Brocka directed and co-wrote, also serving as producer for the former.
Boy Culture
Boy Culture
Boy Culture is an award-winning LGBT film adaptation of the 1995 novel by Matthew Rettenmund. It made its world premiere in the United Kingdom at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival on April 1, 2006, and made its debut in the United States at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2006...
, Brocka's 2006 feature-length release, has won more than a dozen awards at film festivals around the world, including Best Writing at the 2006 Outfest
Outfest
Outfest is an LGBT-oriented film showcase and festival in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1982 as the "Gay and Lesbian Media Festival and Conference", the name was changed to Outfest in 1994.-Programs:...
and Best Feature Film at Festival del Mar in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
The Logo
Logo (TV channel)
Logo is an American digital cable television channel owned by Viacom's MTV Networks division. Launched in June 2005, the channel's programs are geared towards the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community...
cable network later picked up Rick & Steve as an animated series, which began airing in 2007. Brocka also performs some of the show's voices.