Serville Poblete is on his way up in the Canadian screen industry. Following the recent launch on Netflix Canada of his first feature, Altar Boy (2021), a warm coming-of-age drama starring Mark Bacolcol as a basketball player delicately balancing religion, first love, and family, the Filipino-Canadian filmmaker is preparing to release his second feature, Lovely. It also stars Bacolcol, who plays a promising young boxer whose dreams of going professional are complicated by the news that he’s about to become a father. Eager to branch out, Poblete is also working on a documentary short for the National Film Board — set, like Lovely, on Toronto’s Bleeker Street and focused, like Altar Boy, on young basketball players — and developing a television series that he hopes will be one of the first Toronto-set mockumentaries.
On the eve of Lovely’s debut at Reelworld Film Festival, TVO Today spoke with Poblete about telling universal stories shot and set in Toronto, working with star and screenwriter Bacolcol, and making opportunities as Filipino creatives in an industry that often leaves talented actors of colour waiting by the phone.
TVO Today: What does a festival like Reelworld mean to you as a filmmaker?
Serville Poblete: I haven't gone to a lot of festivals as a filmmaker, but it’s a cool experience to show your film on a bigger screen and share the moment with friends and family and strangers that you meet by chance who just happened to get a ticket. It’s fun to just get it out there. And it’s great to get the cast and crew and everyone who worked on it to see it and to get it appreciated.
TVO Today: What are some of the challenges or opportunities of telling stories that are made and set in Ontario? Is there a freshness to setting your work in neighbourhoods we don’t see that often onscreen and showing places we don’t typically see on film — places like Wellesley Community Centre, Kikkawa College, and Pizza Gigi, to name just a few?
Poblete: I don’t think it was primarily a creative choice to set these films here. It was what we had available. I think, ultimately, we just try to create stories. I feel like, if Mark and I were not from Toronto or not Filipino, anyone could play those roles or inhabit those characters, but that happens to be who we are. That’s kind of how we wanted to approach these films. Obviously, there are nuances you bring as an individual to those characters that will just come out naturally. At least for me, though, I didn’t intend for Lovely or Altar Boy to be about Toronto — at least not when we were creating the projects.
TVO Today: Rather than deliberately trying to evoke where you come from, then, would you say you’re simply working where you are and thinking more universally about characters and about different kinds of audiences encountering your work?
Poblete: I think so. I grew up in St. James Town, and we were shooting there mostly because we had access to it — we didn’t have the money to shoot somewhere else. I think if someone watched either film and thought, my neighbourhood looks like that, my friends speak like that, my friends look like that, then that offers a natural universal connection point that people can grasp onto. That’s how I view my films right now. It’s interesting, though, to hear people have a different reaction, when you hear talk about how it’s cool to see their neighborhood onscreen for the first time.
TVO Today: Both of your first two features are about masculinity, sports, and Filipino-Canadian identity, though they take very different approaches to those subjects, and they stay focused on their characters. What draws you to these subjects as a filmmaker?
Poblete: Well, I’m Filipino and Mark is Filipino. And, to be clear, while I’m a big collaborator with him in the process, Mark is the writer of the films, so I can’t speak to his process. But we wanted to create opportunities for ourselves. We can talk about the cultural nuances that we see on screen. When are you going to see an Asian film take on an action role, for example? That wasn’t our purpose with Lovely — that just came out naturally because of the story, because of who we are. It kind of came out at the end for me as I realized I haven’t really seen an Asian guy be the star of a boxing film before, unless it was a Manny Pacquiao biopic.
As for me as a filmmaker, I’m so fresh with directing. I’m still learning. But I’ve always been involved in movies. As a kid, I rented movies with my parents at the local convenience store beside my building. The movies have always been with me.
My favourite director is Greta Gerwig. She creates these characters you fall in love with. And you fall in love with the places they inhabit. Take Lady Bird, for example. I’m not a white girl who grew up in the suburbs. But I love that movie. There are so many things I can relate to about that movie — with my mom, with my sister, with my dad, with the way I love my community and I hate my community at the same time. I saw that in Lady Bird. That to me is a movie that maybe is not supposed to be for me, but I fell in love with it and with Greta Gerwig as a director, and she became a huge inspiration to me. So did Barry Jenkins.
ALTAR BOY | Official Trailer HD | NRP
TVO Today: How do you take inspiration from filmmakers like Greta Gerwig and Barry Jenkins, and how do you communicate that inspiration to your funders or your collaborators? Does it help them get a sense of what you’re going for?
Poblete: I think art is always stolen. I don’t think anyone owns art. So everyone is inspired by someone, and whoever started the art form just started the chain reaction of everyone being inspired by everyone. I think someone like Barry Jenkins, his approach to boyhood in Moonlight was really groundbreaking for me. Moonlight really unlocked something for me as someone who was a boy, and helped me to understand my boyhood. And even though I wouldn’t say that we’re investigating boyhood to the extent of something like Moonlight in my first two films, in my more recent work, like a film I’ll be releasing next year, I think it is reflective of wanting to understand who I am as a person and understand my community a bit better and understand my parents.
As for inspirations, I definitely pull things, and I’ll think, I really like how they did that or how they wrote this. When I think of Altar Boy and Lovely, I think of them as my film school. I haven't done traditional film school. I went to a media program, but that's about it. Making those films has been my own film school. It’s a place where I can make mistakes, and no one’s going to say, “Give my money back.” [Laughs] I don’t even have money to shoot anyway, so I can make 20 mistakes, and it’ll all be good.
TVO Today: Mark has been having a big year between this and a prominent role in M. Night Shyamalan’s film Trap. He’s your star; he’s your screenwriter. How does that collaboration work?
Poblete: It’s been great. It’s been so rewarding. He’s an actor, and I like being behind the camera, so I think we just happened to be natural collaborators. I’ve known Mark since I was a kid. So just having that relationship, being comfortable around him and having someone you can trust just adds to the experience. Mark is a really talented individual, and I know we're going to continue to make stuff, but I really hope he continues to get work outside of what we create, because I feel like he’s a top actor and an underrated one who people don’t know yet. I feel like he’s going to get his time, and I hope it’s sooner rather than later.
TVO Today: Does he come to you with projects, or do you spitball them together before they get fleshed out as screenplays? How does it start?
Poblete: In the beginning, we used to ask each other what should we make, and we used to spitball things. But, individually, on our own, we each like to create things. I have stuff of my own that I haven’t produced yet, that I’m hoping to produce sometime next year. As for Mark, he’s an actor, and though I don’t want to speak for him, I do know how hard it is to get roles as an actor, especially as an actor of colour. So I think there was a motivation for him to make things for himself. I think what really fostered these projects is his hunger to act. If he was going to wait and do the traditional path, maybe it would have taken him 20 years to get his first role. Our desire to create for ourselves and not be scared of making stuff has led us to making these films.
TVO Today: What did having Altar Boy on Netflix Canada mean for you as a filmmaker?
Poblete: It was cool to get our little film on Netflix, because we watch so many films on there. I think my mom streams it once a month in the background, so that’s cool, too. [Laughs] It just gave us an affirmation that we can do this. We don’t have to go through the traditional Telefilm path to get our films made; we don’t have to go through traditional distribution sites or streaming services. We can make it, and it can end up there. It gave us the motivation to know we have what it takes to continue in this career for ourselves.
TVO Today: You’re positive about streaming as a way for people to find your movie, but do you still want audiences to have the theatrical experience?
Poblete: The theatrical release is always something I want to experience, and that’s part of what’s great about seeing Lovely at Reelworld. I haven’t done a lot of festivals in my short career, but being able to see your film on a big screen and share that with people is a different experience. So I do hope our future projects get a theatrical release in Canada, in the United States, and worldwide, but I also think streaming services are where we’re at, at this time of consumption. I think the new generation just watches a lot of stuff online. That audience is still out there, still craving independent work and original ideas. I think there’s a market there that I don’t want to shy away from.
Teaser: "Lovely" | 2024 Reelworld Film Festival
TVO Today: Could you speak to developing as a filmmaker between these projects? Do you feel more confident going into another feature, having the first one under your belt?
Poblete: I thought after Altar Boy, it was going to be easy, but, oh, no, it was hard. [Laughs] I think no matter how many films I’m going to make, there are always going to be things I’ll learn. I can say it got easier, but it’s still hard. I think it's just part of the nature of filmmaking that you’re always going to learn something new. It seems like we made Altar Boy so long ago, and in between, there was a lot of learning, and then I learned so much between making and promoting Lovely, too. I just think if I’m always learning and getting better, slowly, I’ll improve as a filmmaker. I’m not afraid to not be at top performance all the time out of the gate, because I think it’s too hard to be perfect.
TVO Today: You’ve made a coming-of-age film and a sports drama. Are there other genres that you're interested in exploring? Do you find as you're stretching with each project that you want to go in different directions?
Poblete: I recently developed a TV show called The Centre in the TIFF Series Accelerator Program. I really love comedy, especially mockumentaries like The Office and Parks and Recreation. So I'm trying to make one of the first mockumentary shows in Toronto, because I haven’t seen a lot in that kind of format, like Abbott Elementary. I'm hoping to get that off the ground. But that’s a different landscape. It's harder to make stuff for TV. I also want to make a horror movie one day because I love horror.
TVO Today: What’s next for you after this, once the festival's done?
Poblete: I’ve got a short documentary with the National Film Board calledKings Court, which is being produced by Kate Vollum. Then I’m in development for a short documentary that I’m shooting in the Philippines with the cinematographer Martika Escobar. And I’m writing two features that I’m trying to make sometime in 2025. But I’ve gotta find money for that. [Laughs]
TVO Today: Are you eager to show audiences in the Philippines your first two films?
Poblete: We haven’t actively tried to show them in the Philippines yet, but I think once Lovely’s done, we’re going to pitch both of them to the Philippines, because I think they’re going to like them. I’m excited to share them with my community down there. We haven’t done the legwork to get them out there yet, but hopefully soon.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
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