We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kase Peña a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kase, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project I have worked on is TRANS LOS ANGELES, the independent feature film I have recently finalized, which took me four years to complete, and that is right now making the rounds in the film festival circuit. This film was not financed by a studio or a streamer, nor did it have the backing of a production company. It was made thanks to a number of grants and scraping a few dollars here and there.
I began writing this film a few days before Thanksgiving 2019 and I finished writing it in late January of 2020. Although not biographical, I have borrowed from my own life to write a lot of the storylines included in it. The idea was to get a bit of money, pick up a camera and just go out and make a film. However, Covid shot down the world in March of 2020 and I had to put my plans on hold for an entire year. I began filming in March of 2021 and, as mentioned above, I have just recently finished it. No different than any other independent filmmaker, I had to wear multiple hats. For instance, I wrote, directed, shot portions of my film and edited, too. My film is mostly in English, but it also includes Spanish and Portuguese and so I did my own subtitles, and built the entire end credit sequence. My film is 82 minutes long and there is a 25-minute section that I shot with my iPhone. Why did I do all of this? Because it was the only way for me to get something of mine produced. Everyone in the industry rejected the film, so in order for it to get made, I had to do it with very little help. Welcome to true independent filmmaking.
As a trans-identifying person myself, this project is extremely meaningful to me because it is my love letter to the transgender community, the most marginalized out of all marginalized communities. That my feature film is arriving precisely at this moment, during these most trying times, thanks to the skewed views of the current presidency, is inherently making my film way more important, relevant and needed than ever before. The trans community is starving for content that accurately and authentically depicts us. And although there have been some films and TV shows made about us, still, the output has not been enough.
The hard work was worth it. TRANS LOS ANGELES World Premiered at a film festival in Madrid, Spain, where it won Best Picture and it won legendary trans icon Carmen Carrera, a Best Actress award. My film will have its US Premiere at a film festival in May, that as of this writing I cannot say which one. Shortly after that, my film will be released on streaming platforms and will be available for all to watch.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Both of my parents were born and raised in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the US many years ago. I was born in New York City, which is where I became a filmmaker. I attended CCNY Film School (City College of New York) and I say that with a lot of pride. I relocated to LA to pursue my filmmaking ambitions about nine years ago. I am an incredibly hardworking, dedicated person. If I believe in something, I do not take other people’s ‘no’ for an answer. Some people have an issue with folks who are as headstrong as I am but in the face of rejection, what was I supposed to do? My film only exists because I willed it into existence and it took me being that way in order to see this project through. In no way was I ever intentional about stepping on other people’s toes but that is how some people take these things. Sometimes, when folks say ‘no’ to you, they just want you to put your head down and accept what they are saying. I have done that so many times in the past, and this time around, I just couldn’t. So, this is one thing I am most proud of. Also that I give myself entirely to the things I commit to. I cannot do anything half-a***, simply because I wouldn’t even know how to. I am a human being. As such, I can be very humble, vulnerable, given and respectful of others there are a lot of people out there who have firsthand seen these aspects of my personality. At the same time, and depending on how others treat me, I can also stand up for myself and I do not mean that in a physical manner. People can stand up for themselves without resorting to physicality. One way I stand up for myself is that I believe in myself to no end, because if I don’t, then who will? A motto I live my life by is, “When no one believes in you, make sure you believe in your own self.” It is how I have lived my life, both as an artist and as a private person.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
My film TRANS LOS ANGELES has a social media presence. For what most deem to be a small film, it has around twelve hundred followers on Instagram and roughly four hundred followers on Facebook. A lot of people do not know that films have two budgets. They have the budget they spent on making the film and they have an additional budget to advertise the film once it is made; their advertising budget is usually in the millions of dollars. Unlike traditional films, my film does not have a budget for advertising. Therefore, I am maximizing social media to get the word out there and it is working! I am treating this as a grass roots movement. As a result, and thanks for the social media strategy my small team has implemented, thousands of people, way beyond those who follow us, know about TRANS LOS ANGELES and are anxiously awaiting its release. My approach is simple… I value everyone. I do not dismiss someone who only has two hundred followers on IG. because I trust that person will inevitably tell three others about my film. And then those three will not only watch my movie, they in turn, will also tell three other people each. This will have a snowball effect and eventually, the word on my film will be out there. I’m betting that hundred of thousands, if not millions of people, will watch my film.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
As I previously said, I became a filmmaker in New York City. For the most part, there is a massive difference between becoming a filmmaker in NYC and most filmmakers in Hollywood, CA. In New York, there is a stronger independent filmmaking scene. It is the reason I became an independent filmmaker because one can only become the things that one can see. Early on, I didn’t have Hollywood filmmakers around me. I had independent and even guerrilla filmmakers influence my filmmaking journey. An independent filmmaker has a total different way of thinking. On the other hand, most filmmakers in Hollywood, even the struggling ones and there are a lot of those, are zeroed in on writing and making genre films. They’re wanting to make the next BATMAN, GODZILLA or JAMES BOND. Allow me to make clear that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with either. This is just an observation I have made and I firmly believe and I am holding onto hope that there is room for both to coexist. I do not want to live in a world where only independent films are made, nor do I want to live in world in which every film produced is a Hollywood extravaganza. Personally, I love both and so I hope both types of films continue to get made.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/translosangeles
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/translosangeles/
Image Credits
The photo of me looking through the viewfinder was taken by James I. Austen.
The rest of the photos (the palm trees, the plane, the moon, etc.) are of my work, so I am the credited still photographer on those. I’d appreciate if you would get this right.