The short film 'Stay' from Filipino Canadian filmmaker King Louie Palomo premiered at the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival. It was the only movie about queer love to be included among a group of films that focused mainly on women. This report from Rowena Papasin. #TFCNews Like and follow TFC News Facebook: https://facebook.com/TFCNewsNow Twitter: https://twitter.com/TFCNewsNow Website: https://mytfc.com/news News website: https://news.abs-cbn.com/tfcnews Subscribe to the ABS-CBN News channel! - http://bit.ly/TheABSCBNNews Watch full episodes on iWantTFC for FREE here: http://iwanttfc.com Visit our website at http://news.abs-cbn.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abscbnNEWS Twitter: https://twitter.com/abscbnnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abscbnnews #TFC #TheFilipinoChannel #TFCNewsBritishColumbia #ABSCBNNews #TVPatrol #Stay #KingLouiePalomo #VancouverInternationalWomenInFilmFestival #VIWFF

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Filipino-Canadian filmmaker King Louis Palomo is excited that his short film Stay was included as one of six offerings of the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival on International Women's Day.

Although Palomo had other projects that earlier premiered in other Vancouver festivals, he said this is special as it is his first in-person screening since the pandemic.

His short film Stay is top-billed by renowned Canadian drag queen Kendall Jender.

After all these long, long years even of creating this story and making this film, shooting the film, editing the film, pero yun po yung para sa akin yung pinaka-importante part, aspect ng filmmaking is to see the audience reaction.

Stay tells the story of a touring drag queen who finds herself falling for a young artist.

Palomo said that although the story of finding love is universal, he wanted a film that filters love through the eyes of a gay couple.

I just want the audience to see two gay people falling in love without having a problem or having an issue with the LGBTQIA community on how we love, who we love, and who we are as a person.

Jen Weiss, whose drag persona as Kendall Jender, was cast as the film's main character, Caleb, before Canada went into COVID-19 lockdown.

Weiss said he can relate to some of the experiences of Caleb, who goes by the drag name Ivy Diamonds, in the film.

There's a lot of scenes that I have actually been in those situations before. I remember them very specifically.

So it was obviously playing a character to an extent, but definitely things that I've been through as a person.

The film's co-writer, Stephanie Cardona, said her main goal in writing is to show queer people as being not much different from normal people.

Cardona, who is an immigrant and a queer filmmaker too, said she is happy that Canada has given her the space and freedom to share these stories.

Being able to be here in these spaces and be able to share and feel safe and feel accepted and loved is amazing.

It's why I love this country and why I hope that we continue to push forward with queer issues and see more projects like this come to life because we need it.

Other films that were included in the festival came from different countries and featured stories that centered on women.

Stay is the only film that featured the queer community, and the filmmakers noted the significance of their inclusion on a day that is meant to celebrate women.

If you are celebrating Women's Day, you have to be able to include trans women as well, right?

You can't just be specifically talking about cisgendered women. It has to be under the entire umbrella.

And I think that right now in the social climate that we're in, when it comes to trans rights in the States and all that kind of stuff,

it's very important to remember to support your trans brothers and sisters and women of all different types and walks of life.

If you go back to the Philippines, the gay community is still not accepted. There's progress, but still we're not there.

We also can fall in love. It's normal for us to fall in love, and it doesn't matter who we love. At the end of the day, it's love and acceptance.

Palomo and his co-writer Cardona hope to be able to turn Stay into a full-length film in the future.

Rowena Papasin, ABS-CBN News, Vancouver.