The talented Basco Brothers and family

LOS ANGELES — Anyone who has a Filipino friend must have also met his or her whole family.

It cannot be denied that Filipinos are a closely-knit group especially to their kins. The Basco family, just like a typical Filipino family, is big, loud, boisterous, and very close. They eat together, laugh together, and now even made a film together.

"The Fabulous Filipino Brothers," a movie that features the talented Basco brothers—Dante, Darion, Derek and Dionysio—and the rest of the clan, is the directorial debut feature of Dante.

"My family, my brothers, and the Filipinos were ultimately my original inspiration for making this movie," said Dante, 46, who co-wrote the comedy with his brother Darion, 47.

"This is a love letter to my family, the places we're from and the community I was raised in. I hope people can see a little of themselves and their families in the craziness of my family. I hope that the world gets to experience the wonderful performances of my brothers starring in their own vignettes and more than anything, I just hope everyone has a good time watching the flick!"

Dante, who is best known for his role as Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg's "Hook," told us that they shot the film in 16 days over maybe six weeks in two countries—the Philippines (Manila) and the United States (Pittsburg, California and San Francisco).

"It was pretty ambitious especially for a first-time filmmaker and an independent film budget. But we pulled it off barely, by the skin of our teeth."

Told in four vignettes with cockfights, adultery, romance, food, and family, the movie stars his actual family, friends, and extended family. The movie tells the story of four brothers as they confront their issues with love, family, and culture, surrounding a highly controversial Filipino wedding.

Photo courtesy of 1091 Media

We were able to interview Dante and Darion by Zoom and here are excerpts of our conversation.

How was it working with the family?

Dante: This one was an amazing adventure. We know each other so well and that was our strength. We know how we would shoot the film and we came together to do it. This is really one of those dream projects.

Darion: It was a joy. It was not really challenging with the family because we knew each other so well. And since this is Dante's directorial debut, he already has a shorthand with all of us as actors, and then as writers. Dante and I were able to really craft stuff for each of our brothers and my sister. And then working with my parents was a wild and a crazy experience. That was super emotional and rewarding to have them on set with us all the time. And for Dante to be directing them, and us writing for them, it was just crazy and strange, but at the same time, just so beautiful.

Darion, how was it collaborating with your brother?

It was amazing in many ways. It was our whole lives coming to this movie. We have done other projects together, obviously, but this one was very special because everybody is involved. It's Dante's directorial debut, and all of our siblings and my parents are involved as well. So, it was such a special thing and like a once in lifetime type of experience.

How did you decide on the division of the roles?

Dante: When we developed it, we knew what we were doing, what stories we were leaning on and what the characters were going to be. And then Darion and I, after we sold the project to Cignal Entertainment in the Philippines, banged out the first script in about three weeks.

Darion: This is one of those projects that's been talked about and developed for years. So, we already had the blueprint down for a long time.

How was it filming in Manila?

Dante: Amazing. Filming in Manila was a dream. It was very important for me to have one of the segments in Manila, and it happened to be my storyline. But also, I wanted to really comment about going back home, because I started going back home maybe close to 15 years ago. Consistently going home 14 times just to set up this project with my producing partner, Ron Erickson. It's magical and beautiful, and I wanted to show our homeland in that light, and how it has impacted me and how it felt to be a Fil-Am going back to home; and being welcomed to a place that's kind of foreign, but also feels so at home at times. So, there are little things in there, even though that's not the main premise of that storyline. I hope it's like a little subliminal message to all the Fil-Ams, that they consider going back home and reconnecting.

How did you choose the actresses in the film—Liza Lapira, Crystal Kwon, Cheryl Tsai Perez, and Solenn Heussaff?

Photo courtesy of 1091 Media

Dante: Everybody was suggested by somebody or is a friend of someone we knew. Solenn was originally through Cignal. She was suggested by our friends Matt and Carla Humphries. Cheryl Tsai Perez, who is Filipino-Chinese, portrayed Emily. She played opposite Derek.

And it's all friends and friends. You know how the Philippines is, everyone are friends with someone we know. It's the artistic scene in the Philippines. We knew we wanted one of the big stars. Darion worked with Anne Curtis in another film.

And so, we really love the talent out there, and we're so, so fortunate. And I feel very fortunate for Solenn to come and do this film with us. Crystal is a longtime friend and colleague, so that scene with Dionysio is something that's somewhat legendary in our circles so she had to do it. But they had developed that scene in different ways, but we brought that on.

Darion: Liza Lapira was kind of like by chance, because the great thing about Liza Lapira, who's brilliant and we're lucky to have her, is her agent... his son is on the same baseball team of Derek, our eldest brother, and his wife Emily. They're teammates on a baseball team, their sons. So, they would talk to each other, and her agent and Derek and Emily were like, "I have this client, Liza. She's Filipino. She wants to do more Filipino stuff." And then we happened to be developing this project, and we were like, "Okay, well, we should try to get Liza if we can." So, then it worked out by coincidence, by chance it worked out.

Dante: A lot of good luck chances on this film for sure.

Darion: Very true.

Did you do a lot of extemporaneous scenes in the film?

Darion: Not really. The crazy thing is we wrote most of that.

We wrote everything since we had a small budget and we had to have everything on the page. That being said, we planned everything. We stuck to a lot of stuff that was on the page.

Dante: We did the rewrites with our sister Arianna. And so, all of the extraneous and the fun stuff was in the writing process, about what's in and what's out.

Darion: So, we had to do that experimentation before actually shooting.

Dante: Once we got on set, and we got to go and shoot!

Was there anybody in the family who said, "No, I don't want to be in the film?"

Photo courtesy of 1091 Media

Dante: No. Surprisingly, nobody said no.

Darion: Even our extended family members wanted to be in the film as well. They were all happy to be in the movie. It was great!

Was there a point in the filming where you almost gave up on the project or was frustrated?

Dante: There was only one day. Out of all the shooting, there was one day that was very trying. It was close to the end of the shoot, and it was our longest day. There was a lot of stuff going on. We were shooting 13 pages in one day. It was so much. And so, yes, there was a moment in that day we thought we weren't going to make it, but we got through it. We somehow got through it.

Darion: The average in filming is usually 5-8 pages in one day but this one was a 13-page shoot. Yes, during that day, we thought we would not make it. But we did!

What does this movie mean to you to have a Filipino film, made by Filipino filmmakers, and acted by Filipino actors making this representation in Hollywood?

Dante: It means a lot. We're in a very pioneering time for Asians in Hollywood, the highest profile we've been in the history of Hollywood, and I really wanted to have our Filipino story as part of this movement going on right now. And so, to put four Filipino leading men out there in the world all holding their own, being delineated very different, even though they're brothers, was really important to me. And I really wanted to show Hollywood and the world what these guys could do, what I could do on film. And I think we accomplished that. I think when you watch this movie, I don't think anyone's ever seen any Filipinos on screen like this ever in Hollywood or in the Philippines. Like, you've never seen characters like this, Filipino characters like this ever. And so, yeah, I can't wait to see how people think about it-

Darion: It's important. It was also so important to us that we put the Filipino right into the title as well. That was important to us to have it right up there in front, but like this is who we are, this is us. We're just going to let you see us, flaws, and all, but this is who we are as Filipino Americans in this country. It's very specific to us, and our family. We're a very Filipino American family. So, I feel it's a good representation of that.

Both of you are really spreading your wings not only as actors but as filmmakers—writing, directing, producing. Shall we see more projects from you coming up in the future?

Dante: Yes, we will do more projects on film and television. There is a slate of things coming up. We look forward to it. Hopefully, we can make this the biggest success for us so we can open doors for us to produce more things in the future.

Are you planning to join more film festivals?

Darion: There will be no more festivals for us for this film particularly. We are still bringing it around to different Fil-Am communities around the country. We are going to the East Coast later this month to a few dates in Philly, New York, DC area, Virginia Beach, and other places.

Dante: And on February 8th, our release date here for everyone to the film in North America, we are having a big screening. That's already sold out, sold out nearly instantly here in Los Angeles. So, we've done a year of festivals, and now we're really urging, it's time for commerce. Part of the success of this film is the impact of this film. I'm trying to get 100,000 people here to download the film and to really let Hollywood know that our stories are meaningful and are marketable, and there's an audience, and there's space to make more of these stories. And so that's really the goal right now. Hopefully, we could start the fire within the Filipino community and hopefully we can go viral outside the community and beyond.

—MGP, GMA News