Who is Daddy Blake? Does he really exist? And since everyone is on social media, can we consider ourselves a persona of Daddy Blake, too?
These were the questions raised by award-winning director Jay Altarejos during the media launch of his film Finding Daddy Blake held Tuesday night. The film is in collaboration with Marc Cubales of MC Production House.
“To those familiar with Daddy Blake, he trended on Twitter around 2020. Social media users said that he is a scammer who promised money to good-looking guys in exchange for intimate videos. And these videos got leaked online,” Altarejos started introducing the infamous “scammer” to the crowd composed of members of the entertainment media and the blogging community.
Sure, we have already heard of Daddy Blake and the unfortunate plot that surrounds the videos linked to him (netizens claim that the men featured in the videos never got paid). But why turn this social media content into a film?
“It’s reality. I’m always intrigued by events that happen around us. Whenever I see stories unfold in real life, I always consider them as possible film concepts,” said Altarejos who is known for his controversial films Ang Lalake sa Parola (2007) and Ang Lihim ni Antonio (2008).
“But this story is beyond the Daddy Blake scandal. It’s a social and political commentary, it’s all about the reality we face today. This is a BL film but with a different kind of twist. I can’t tell you much, lest I would be tempted to give all the juicy details,” he went on.
Based on true events that transpired at the start of the pandemic, two teenage boys, Elijah, and a young social media personality, Kokoy, meet to search for a predatory person on the internet named Daddy Blake. While their plan progresses, their feelings towards each other develop. But their budding romance will be marred by a tragedy when they come face-to-face with Daddy Blake.
“Since it’s based on true events, doing this film is very risky. And given the theme that falls under BL genre, we wanted to give it a different twist, make it an entertaining movie while also raising awareness,” Altarejos stated.
The film boasts of critically acclaimed actress Rita Avila, 2021 FAMAS, Gawad Tanglaw and Gawad URIAN’s Best Supporting Actress awardee Dexter Doria, 3rd Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino Best Supporting Actor awardee Gio Alvarez, FACINE International Film Festival Best Actor awardee Oliver Aquino, Riverside International Film Festival (California, USA) Best Actor awardee Carlos Dala, theater actor Jonathan Ivan Rivera, and a batch of fresh talents.
“We plan to have the film exhibited in festivals first, then we’ll have the online streaming after that. We don’t know about the commercial theater showing yet because it will depend on the quarantine alert level in NCR and in the country,” producer Cubales said.
Finding Daddy Blake is an initial offering of MC Production House in cooperation with 2076 Kolektib.
