Petersen Vargas and His Journey So Far as a Filmmaker

"I wanted to make the films that my younger self felt like he needed to watch," Petersen Vargas looked back on the mindset he embraced in his 20s after graduating from the University of the Philippines Film Institute. "And I grew up gay in the probinsya, so I was really making all these queer-themed works." His dossier includes short films How to Die Young in Manila, Swirl, and Lisyun qng Geografia (his undergraduate thesis film that won Best Direction at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival).

Films can incredibly influence or even shape viewers' values, beliefs, opinions, and attitudes as they grow up. That's why representation in cinema is important; you'll never know who it will inspire and how life-defining it can be for someone. When Petersen reached a position where he could communicate with an audience through his work, he pushed for films that resonated with his journey and mirrored the reality of many others. 

Reaching for the star

Petersen grew up watching Star Cinema movies, and they influenced him so much that he aspired to become part of the film production company's roster of storytellers. "My first essay in my first film class in film school… I think the essay was [about] what you want to do after you graduate, and [I wrote] 'I want to write the perfect Star Cinema screenplay,'" he recalled. 

He recognizes the significant contribution of Star Cinema movies to the local culture and the Filipinos' mindset about certain topics or aspects of life. Petersen mused, "I think they shaped how a lot of Filipinos think about how to fall in love and how to be hurt and how to deal with hurt." These may seem like mundane things, but when they're magnified through the lens of filmmakers, they speak of relevance and relatability that move and inspire audiences.

Petersen's coming-of-age feature debut, 2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten (written by Jason Paul Laxamana), stars three high school boys (portrayed by Khalil Ramos, Ethan Salvador, and Jameson Blake) in post-lahar Pampanga, where he hails from. This was released in 2016 when the BL (or Boys Love) genre wasn't as popular as it is today. The film premiered at the Cinema One Originals Film Festival where it received the Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Supporting Actor (for Jameson Blake) awards.

Building his career with a narrative he's familiar with as the foundation eventually led him to the company he's always wanted to work with.  

A star director on the rise

"What was beautiful when I look back is, it was this insistence on making queer works in my 20s that got me into ABS-CBN in the first place. I remember the pandemic happened and nu'ng 2020, there was like a BL, like Boys Love, boom because of the Thai series 2gether. And 'yun, because I had this filmography and body of work in my 20s, that I was one of the few that was just exclusively making gay-themed works, naglakas-loob talaga ako lapitan 'yung ABS-CBN [and tell them] na 'I think it's time for you guys to do a BL and I want to be the guy who will direct ABS-CBN's BL," Petersen recalled.

He ticked an item off his bucket list through the 2020 web series Hello Stranger, under Black Sheep Productions, starring Tony Labrusca and JC Alcantara; and, it felt like a small yet significant step in his commitment to his younger self and the LGBTQIA+ community. The series had a full-length film sequel in 2021. 

The following year was a huge career boost for Petersen, as he dabbled in the rom-com genre with two of the most sought-after young artists in local showbiz. Starring Donny Pangilinan and Belle Mariano, An Inconvenient Love marked Petersen's debut project with Star Cinema. To make things even more special, the movie also won Best Asian Feature Film at the 2023 ContentAsia Awards. 

He followed this up with the indie gem Some Nights I Feel Like Walking, which he wrote and directed. A movie about a rich teenage runaway and a group of street hustlers, it was selected for Cannes Cinefondation Atelier, Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), Locarno Open Doors Hub, and the Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC).

Petersen's collaboration with Star Cinema continued with the black comedy thriller film A Very Good Girl starring no less than Asia's Superstar Kathryn Bernardo and internationally acclaimed actress Dolly de Leon. The buzzworthy film earned him a Best Director nomination at the 72nd FAMAS Awards. 

"An Inconvenient Love, it was like such a straight-up rom-com that's just going to make you feel good and make you feel kilig. And then A Very Good Girl, it's a dark comedy but it's also the thrill of seeing Kathryn Bernardo take another form, so there's also thrill in that," Petersen looked back on his first two projects with Star Cinema. 

The joys of creating a film

For the third year in a row, Petersen had the opportunity to collaborate with Star Cinema again, this time for the reunion/comeback project of Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto, Un/Happy for You. He's always wanted to work with JoshLia一think of it as the power of manifestation or fate at work, but Petersen got what he was aiming for and he couldn't be more grateful for it. After working with DonBelle, Kathryn, and Dolly, he asked himself who he wanted to work with next, and it was really JoshLia that was top of mind. "Ang galing! It felt like it was meant to be," he said.

A movie about exes, Un/Happy for You, Petersen hopes, is something that will tug at people's heartstrings. "Meron kaming parang goal na sana umiyak sila kasi ang honest and ang heartfelt ng ginawa namin sa Un/Happy for You. So parang, alam mo 'yun, there's this base emotion and hopefully we can communicate that in the theatrical experience," he told Metro.Style.

Premiere nights and block screenings, especially, are such precious experiences for a filmmaker and storyteller like him because, there, he gets to witness firsthand how people react to his work. Petersen gushed, "I feel like there's just joy in seeing your film watched by so many people. Na parang at the end of it, we're creating films and we're telling these stories kasi ikukuwento mo siya sa mga Pilipino or sa audiences namin, parang extending yourself to these people, making yourself known through these films… Ang takeaway is it endeared me into pushing myself to get to know more of the audience as well, na parang when we do premiere nights or we visit the block screenings and you get these loud reactions inside the theater, that's something that you don't get when you watch at home alone or with friends, parang this theatrical experience that Star Cinema still commits to pushing."

The Filipino filmmaker on the rise circles back to his high regard for Star Cinema and how honored he is to share its mission to reclaim the relevance of cinema post-pandemic and keep producing excellent, compelling cinematic works despite the challenges in the industry.  

Digging deeper into filmmaking

There's also immeasurable joy in having the privilege to work with people you only admired from afar before. For Petersen, director Jade Castro was the first to make an impact on him. Jade's work on the horror comedy film Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington fascinated Petersen: "And the first thought I had was 'How did they even think of that film and pulled it off?'" 

He added, "When I was discovering his filmography, he was jumping from indie projects and personal projects and then mainstream studio projects. And I kind of wanted that for myself, na parang I could navigate the industry and tell stories for different audiences. I owe it to Jade 'yung lahat ng what I know on the set, as a director, I owe to him." Petersen's feature film, Some Nights I Feel Like Walking, was produced by Jade Castro alongside Alemberg Ang.

With the film industry ever-evolving, Petersen also keeps looking for inspiration, welcoming different approaches to ultimately define his own signature style. Post-graduation, back when his goal was to work with Star Cinema, he familiarized himself with the directors who were making waves in mainstream romance at the time. And the two names that stood out to him remain as sought-after creatives in the industry today: Antoinette Jadaone (Love You to the Stars and Back, Alone/Together, Fan Girl) and Irene Villamor (Ulan, Sid & Aya: Not a Love Story, Five Breakups and a Romance). 

Paying tribute to these directors, Petersen said, "Tonet is so in touch with the Filipino audience. Na parang everything she writes, I feel like that's how the generation back then talks and how they hurt and how they fall in love… As for Irene Villamor, she breaks a lot of rules, and yet she has a big audience for her film. I'm just amazed at how she doesn't follow how mainstream romance films should look like and she makes them her own." 

Inspired by how these two top directors tell stories for the big screen, Petersen hopes he could also incorporate his own voice into his films and communicate with younger audiences with a shared mindset and point of view. 

Petersen, a millennial, also pointed out how there was a conscious effort for him to bring to the table his voice while considering how Star Cinema should look, feel, and sound like in the 2020s. That was an approach he and his team embraced for Un/Happy for You, for which he collaborated with cinematographer Noel Teehankee who was also behind the classic Star Cinema film One More Chance. 

Petersen enthused, "I'm working with Noel Teehankee who has been shooting with Star Cinema for the past 15 years. He shot classics like One More Chance and all of those things. And I'm working with him but in a way, parang the visuals that they're putting out also feel different. Parang we're trying to capture and update the look as well. So I hope my films, when people watch it, they feel like it's a new way of watching a Star Cinema film as well. And para ma-encourage din natin the younger market, the younger audiences, the Gen Zs, parang kumbaga kinakausap pa rin namin sila, 'yung audience na 'yun. Na they're all part of it, and that's how Star Cinema keeps its tradition na we're still that, we could capture how we fall in love even in the 2020s." 

"I'm happy with what I've been doing for the past three years with Star Cinema," he continued. But the growth, learning, and efforts to push boundaries never stop. "My dream is sana we get to make a Star Cinema gay rom-com. I'm holding onto that idea that we could make it kasi it's been done in Taiwan, it's been done in Thailand. And I feel like we could do it and I could do it with Star Cinema. They already did In My Life and that was in 2009, so why not? Sana mangyari siya uli." If and when that happens, it's something his younger self and even the young queers today would surely thank him for.

Lead photos by Shaira Luna

Creative direction by Eugene David

Grooming by Ryan Panaligan

Styling by Joey Espiritu, assisted by Gi Gumapac, Saurit Bibares, and Takuya Morita

Shot on location at Grapevine

Interview by Janelle Paraiso