Get a peek behind the scenes and meet the stars of 'Judas Kiss' in the 'making of' documentary by award-winning filmmaker Matt Bucy.

LOS ANGELES – Get a look behind the scenes at the genre-busting, time-bending 2011 film festival favorite, “Judas Kiss,” the best-selling movie critics cite as taking gay cinema in a bold direction.

Award-winning documentarian Matt Bucy spent weeks on the set shooting footage for “Judas Kiss: Behind the Scenes,” which chronicles the production of the acclaimed film, the first feature by director J.T. Tepnapa and writer-producer Carlos Pedraza via their production company, Blue Seraph Productions.

All four episodes of the series are available now on the Judas Kiss channel on YouTube. The film itself, distributed by Wolfe Video, is at the top of the sales charts in its category on Amazon in the United States and in Europe. Here’s the first episode:

WATCH THE ENTIRE ‘BEHIND THE SCENES’ SERIES

The first episode of the Web series introduces the film’s stars Charlie David (star of Logo TV’s “Bump,” the TV series “Dante’s Cove,” and the feature, “Mulligans”), Richard Harmon (of AMC’s “The Killing”), Sean Paul Lockhart (aka adult star Brent Corrigan) and Belgian TV and pop star Timo Descamps, as well as director Tepnapa and writer Pedraza.

Critics have lauded the film’s high production values, strong ensemble cast, and its ambitious effort to meld drama, science fiction and magical realism; the film has won multiple awards at film festivals for its screenplay and acting. “Judas Kiss” tells the story of a washed-up filmmaker (David) who returns to his alma mater, where he gets the chance to reshape his destiny.

The four episodes:

• Introduce the principal cast and crew, especially the hot young stars getting so much recent press around the United States.

• Document the creative tension at the heart of the partnership between director Tepnapa and writer-producer Pedraza.

• Explore actor Sean Paul Lockhart’s past as controversial adult film star Brent Corrigan, and what it means for his new career as a mainstream actor.

• Offer a sneak peek at the Bollywood-style end musical number, “If I Fall,” performed by the Judas Kiss cast and crew, joined by the song’s composer, American Idol alumnus Brian Lam.

SELECTED REVIEWS AND AWARDS

• “Brilliant production. Excellent cast.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• “Incredibly original and extraordinarily well-made. Transcends all genres, and features solid performances from really charismatic actors.” (Examiner.com)
• “A deep, insightful film that explores the shadows we run from as gay men and the toxic and self-destructive decisions that can change our lives.” (Edge Network)
• “A metaphysical rumination on lost opportunities, Judas Kiss uses magical realism to convey its message. To that end, the film is pure joy.” (Men of Color blog)
• Best Debut Feature (Q Cinema, Fort Worth, Texas)
• Best Screenplay (Q Films, Long Beach, Calif.)
• First Place, Alternative Spirit (Rhode Island International Film Festival)
• Best Screenwriting (FilmOut San Diego)
• Honorable Mention, Youth Jury for Best Picture (Rhode Island Film Festival)
• Rising Star Award, Sean Lockhart (Q Fest, Philadelphia)
• Official Selection, Frameline 35 (San Francisco)
• Official Selection, NewFest (New York City)
• Official Selection at dozens of other film festivals worldwide

WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION “Judas Kiss” is distributed in North America by Wolfe Video, in the United Kingdom by TLA Releasing, in German-speaking Europe by Pro-Fun Media, and in French-speaking Europe by BQHL.

Blue Seraph Productions is a Los Angeles company headed by Tepnapa and Seattle-based Pedraza. Their previous work on the Web’s longest-running series, Star Trek: New Voyages and Star Trek: Hidden Frontier has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, Variety, Rolling Stone, the Today Show, MSNBC, and other international news outlets.

Tepnapa’s short films include the multiple award-winning parody of 1950s teen health films, “Masturbation: Putting the Fun Into Self-Loving,” the comedy “Drag Queen Heist” and the drama about homeless youth, “Begging for Change.”

'Cowboy Creed' shoots this fall, directed by Runic Films' Ben Alpi, and produced by Blue Seraph Productions' J.T. Tepnapa.

LOS ANGELES — Runic Films and Blue Seraph Productions are proud to announce their first collaboration, a Western short film entitled Cowboy Creed.

Lead by writer-director Ben Alpi and producer J.T. Tepnapa, the film goes into production in November. To support the film, the co-production will launch a fundraising campaign Wednesday, September 28, 2011, on Kickstarter.com.

Alpi said about the film: “Cowboy Creed is about Phineas, a young man coming into his own in the strange new world of the California Gold Rush. Social changes from immigration, world cultural convergence and the American Civil War make this an incredibly rich period to set a film in.”

The production brings together a tight-knit group of filmmakers including Alpi, Tepnapa and cinematographer David Berry who all worked together on the award winning Star Trek: Phase II web series.

“J.T. and David just completed a feature, Judas Kiss, which is doing fantastically at festivals. It’s great to be working with them again,” Alpi added.

“I’m really excited about working with Ben and David again, this time on a Western.” Tepnapa said.

Phineas is an 18- year-old who has looked up to the gruff old Sheriff since the boy’s father was murdered. He wants to follow in the lawman’s footsteps, but Phineas’ world gets turned upside down when his lady love is kidnapped.

The filmmakers said they are thrilled to be fundraising with Kickstarter, a great platform that allows anyone to donate to worthy creative projects.  The campaign for funding Cowboy Creed launches September 28, and will introduce some very cool rewards for donors.

“Our Kickstarter companion video will include an exclusive announcement,” Alpi said. “We can’t wait to share the news.”

Stay tuned for more great announcements and don’t forget to check out http://runicfilms.com for the link to the Cowboy Creed Kickstarter.com campaign starting Wednesday, September 28, 2011.

# # #

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Bob Alpi, 818-588-6880
email

Runic Films is an Los Angeles-based film production and entertainment company dedicated to upholding the traditions of mythic storytelling.

CHARLIE DAVID will star as Zachary Wells in Judas Kiss.

LOS ANGELES — Charlie David, star of the popular series “Dante’s Cove” and the recent feature “Mulligans,” is slated to star in the independent film Judas Kiss, the movie’s producers announced today.

David will play the role of Zachary Wells, a washed-up filmmaker who returns to his peculiar alma mater, where he meets his younger self and gets the chance to change his troubled past so he can avoid a disturbing future.

“Judas Kiss” is the first feature film from director J.T. Tepnapa, who has won many international awards for his short films, including the multiple award-winning parody of 1950s teen health films, “Masturbation: Putting the Fun Into Self-Loving,” the comedy “Drag Queen Heist” and the drama about homeless youth, “Begging for Change.”

“I’m excited to work with such a multi-talented entertainer,” Tepnapa said. “Charlie’s experience in front of and behind the camera will add so much to “Judas Kiss’” production values.” For his part, David was attracted to the screenplay’s time-bending drama.

“I was engaged by ‘Judas Kiss” concept of altering the past and future through the choices we make right now,” he said. “Who hasn’t wondered what lies down the paths not taken in career, adventure and love?”

PLAYING ZACHARY WELLS David was also intrigued by the character of Zach. “It’s exciting and scary for me because he has such a troubled past and a present devoid of feeling and passion,” he said. “The script has emotional triggers for me – some that immediately resonated and others that honestly terrified me. Zach is going to allow me to get a little messy as an actor and it’s about time I did that.”

David also joins “Judas Kiss” as an executive producer with his production company, Border2Border Entertainment, which will also act as “Judas Kiss’” sales and distribution representative. “I am very excited to be joining this project as an actor and producer,” he said. “I love the art of telling a good story and Judas Kiss is a really good story. I’m confident our connections at Border2Border Entertainment with international distributors, broadcasters and new media ventures will help Judas Kiss find a large and lasting audience.”

“Judas Kiss” is being produced by Blue Seraph Productions, a Los Angeles company founded by Tepnapa in 2000 to create his short films. “Judas Kiss” was written by Blue Seraph partner Carlos Pedraza from Tepnapa’s story. The film is scheduled to shoot in 2010 in Seattle.Tepnapa’s and Pedraza’s work has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, Variety, Frontiers, Fab magazine, the Today Show, MSNBC, and other international news outlets.

The film has already attracted attention for casting talented and controversial adult film star Brent Corrigan, who recently appeared in this year’s Oscar-winning “Milk” and the comedy “Another Gay Movie.”

BOX OFFICE PHENOM David is also a gay box office phenomenon. His steamy supernatural soap opera, “Dante’s Cove,” is the No. 1 show for the here! television network in the United States, and the series’ DVD sales continue to be a genre leader worldwide. He also stars in the travel series Bump!, now in its fourth season, airing in more than 12 countries, with more than 50 million households in the United States alone on MTV’s sister station, Logo.

David has had three features released in the past two years: “A Four Letter Word,” “Kiss the Bride,” and “Mulligans.” David also wrote and produced the award-winning Mulligans, which has played at more than 65 international film festivals and garnered worldwide distribution.

David’s first two novels, the film novelization “Mulligans,” and “Boy Midflight,” were published in 2009. Among his many awards are the Out 100 Award (2005); Rising Star Award, Philadelphia Film Society (2007); and Best Male Actor, Festival del Sol Gran Canaria, Spain (2008).

David’s show business career began with the pop band, 4Now, and includes hosting stints on television shows on E!, NBC, Fine Living, and other networks. David’s move from his native Canada to Hollywood generated even more opportunities, including roles in Showtime’s outrageous musical, “Reefer Madness,” ABC’s “Ugly Betty” and the Sundance Channel’s award-winning series, “Terminal City.”

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Links

• Judas Kiss movie site
• Blue Seraph Productions
• Border2Border Entertainment
• Star Charlie David’s IMDB profile
• Co-star Brent Corrigan’s IMDB profile
• Director J.T. Tepnapa’s IMDB profile
• Writer Carlos Pedraza’s IMDB profile
• Additional photos of Charlie David

We’ve moved into preproduction for Judas Kiss, and we’ve got a lot of big news we’ll be announcing in the coming weeks. Judas Kiss continues to attract attention in the industry, and we want to share the news about some important new partnerships that will bring our film closer to reality. This news is so exciting that we thought we should showcase it by offering our fans a new Web site.

THE NEW Judas Kiss Web site offers previews and easy access to the news, blog, podcasts and other media on the site.

This new design allows you to quickly scan and link to all our new content in a more visual fashion.

Virtually all the content from our previous site has been moved from the old site to the new, though a few bits are still under construction, so pardon our dust for the next week or so as we complete the transition.

Keep your eye on the new site for upcoming exciting Judas Kiss news. Trust me, it’s gonna be big. You can be alerted automatically by subscribing to the Judas Kiss RSS feed. J.T. and I both have Twitter feeds, too, so you can subscribe to those, as well. J.T.’s Twitter. Carlos’ Twitter. You can also subscribe to our upcoming newsletter.

ON THE PACKAGE Actors Brent Corrigan and J.T. Tepnapa; photo by Carlos Pedraza; styling by Adam Browne; design by Peccadillo Pictures.

Peccadillo Pictures, a U.K.-based production company, crosses the Atlantic to pick up seven gay short films including our very own film, “In the Closet,” produced by Blue Seraph partner DoorQ Entertainment, and starring Brent Corrigan and J.T. Tepnapa.

Brent is slated to star in Judas Kiss, the Blue Seraph drama now in preproduction. Meanwhile, check out our work in the cover art!

Boys on Film 3: American Boy is now available on the Peccadillo Pictures Web site and at Amazon.co.uk. Peccadillo Pictures has been bringing quality international films to the United Kingdom since October 2000. They have grown over time to become one of the U.K.’s most recognized distributors of art house, gay & lesbian and world cinema titles with an impressive collection of films from Europe, Latin America and Asia.

EXTRA!
Check out Peccadillo’s gallery of high-resolution photos for all the short films that appear in Boys on Film 3: American Boy.

On the DVD

COLLECTION INCLUDES In the Closet – Dir. Jody Wheeler; Dare – Dir. Adam Salky; Area X – Dir. Dennis Shinners; The Young and Evil – Dir. Julian Breece; Dish – Dir. Brian Krinsky; Bugcrush – Dir. Carter Smith; Astoria, Queens – Dir. Kyle Coker.

UNDER FIRE Capt. Kirk (James Cawley, center) narrowly avoids enemy fire while rushing to aid crewmen in Star Trek: Phase II's next episode, ‘Enemy: Starfleet.’

On the heels of the “Blood and Fire, Part 2” release, Star Trek: Phase II has posted the teaser and part of Act 1 of the next episode, “Enemy: Starfleet.”

The episode marks Blue Seraph director J.T. Tepnapa’s debut as Lt. Cmdr. Sulu, and Carlos Pedraza’s turn as First Assistant Director. Blue Seraph cinematographer Dave Berry served as Director of Photography for this episode as well.

Watch preview of ‘Enemy: Starfleet’

STARFLEET SCIENTIST Jenna Yar (Denise Crosby) exposes herself to danger.

Star Trek: Phase II released the second part of “Blood and Fire,” directed by David Gerrold and co-written by Blue Seraph’s Carlos Pedraza.

The episode also features J.T. Tepnapa’s first appearance as Mr. Sulu, Dave Berry’s turn as cinematographer and Joël Bellucci’s amazing visual effects.

Look for a cameo appearance by J.T. Tepnapa as Mr. Sulu in the cafeteria scene.

The new episode is available for both download and streaming here:

Streaming

• Playlist on YouTube
• Online streaming at startrekphase2media.com

Downloads

• startrekphase2.de
• phase2trek.com
• trekwebmaster.com/ (read page and follow links to downloads)
• http://trekminal.no-ip.org

Torrent

• phase2.us

Carlos and J.T. on NDB Media's show on BlogTalkRadio.

You can listen to Carlos and J.T.’s upcoming BlogTalkRadio appearance and ask them questions live. They will be appearing on NDB Media, Sunday, September 27, as part of the BlogTalkRadio network.

The broadcast will cover our work on Star Trek: Hidden Frontier and Star Trek: Phase II, and will expand into discussion about our production company, upcoming film projects, and the struggles of making movies in Hollywood.

NDB Media (NoriegaDotBiz) formerly known as NDB Radio is an internet based radio program that covers science fiction and fantasy entertainment. NDB Media recently joined forces with MBL Entertainment. They boast a wide range of guests from Star Trek’s Jonathan Frakes and novelist Andy Mangels to Battlestar Galactica’s Richard Hatch.

Be sure mark your calendars and catch our internet broadcast live on Sunday September 27 at 7 p.m. PST at http://www.noriega.biz/. Guests will be able to call in during the live broadcast.

See you there!

UPDATE The broadcast link and live call-in phone number are now available here.

Link

• NDB Media

I don’t know what J.T. keeps complaining about. I don’t have any problems with Tim.

TIM THE INTERN pitches J.T. his idea for a viral online campaign for Judas Kiss.

Poster art for 'The Child' by Jeff Hayes.

ATLANTA — The latest episode of Star Trek: Phase II, “The Child,” had its world premiere Labor Day weekend at Dragon*Con, America’s largest fan-run scifi and media convention, featuring the work of Blue Seraph’s Carlos Pedraza and J.T. Tepnapa.

A rough cut of the episode, featuring most of the finished visual effects, was screened as part of the Star Trek track at the 23rd annual convention. On hand for the presentation were Carlos, J.T., Ben Alpi (of Blue Seraph’s partner, Runic Films) and James Cawley (Phase II’s executive producer).

This year was Carlos’ fifth as a guest at Dragon*Con. He appeared on panels for both the Star Trek and Writing tracks at the convention.

Carlos edited the script with its original author, Jon Povill, who penned the teleplay for Paramount Pictures’ Phase II series in the 1970s. In addition, Carlos served as a producer and first assistant director of this production.

J.T. appears as a series regular, Mister Sulu, and worked as an on-set acting coach.

Povill also directed this newest production. Another version of “The Child” was produced as an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) during the 1988 writers’ strike.

Povill, not a fan of the TNG adaptation, wanted to helm a production that was true to his original story, which introduced the Deltan race that was later seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Phase II News

“The Child” is still in post-production and isn’t likely to be released on the Web until sometime in 2010. Still up for release this fall is “Blood and Fire, Part 2,” written by Carlos, along with longtime Trek scribe David Gerrold.

Further down the Phase II pipeline is:

• “Enemy: Starfleet,” which Carlos co-produced and assistant directed, and in which J.T. stars as Sulu. The episode awaits additional principal photography this fall, though some of its post-production is complete.
• “Kitumba,” which Carlos story-edited, and which was shot this past summer.

For more information, see the Star Trek: Phase II Web site.