It has been seventeen years in the making, but the film Moe, directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela and adapted for the screen by Evelina Fernandez from her GLAAD Award-winning play, Dementia, will finally have its World Premiere on June 3 at The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival In Hollywood.

Moises (Sal Lopez) — his friends call him Moe — is throwing a going away party because he’s dying of AIDS. He’s a theater artist working on a one-man, or rather, one-woman… show. He invites his closest friends over for his “going away for good” party, but his plans go awry when his best friend, who has given himself to the Lord, and his ex, whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years, show up. All the while Moe’s alter ego, a torch-singing drag queen, wants to take him for “the ride of his life.”

Moe is the long-anticipated feature film by the team that brought you Luminarias (1999), the Latina Sex In the City feature also written by Fernandez and directed by Valenzuela.

When produced for the stage in 2002 it was entitled Dementia, and it went on to win the GLAAD Award for Outstanding Theater Production in Los Angeles, and garnered four Ovation Award nominations.

Lopez originated the role on stage, alongside fellow Latino Theater Company members Geoffrey Rivas, Lucy Rodriguez, and Fernández. Also appearing in the film version are Tonantzin Esparza, Pepe Serna (Life is Art, With Love), Richard Coca and Renée Victor (With Love).

“It took 17 years to bring Moe to the big screen,” says Valenzuela. “We shot the film in 2005 on 35mm, with a very limited budget. It was only the generous support of our friends, colleagues, and community, who remained passionate about reaching a wider audience with the story, that enabled us to finally bring it to the screen.”

Burro Squad Productions, the film division of L.A.’s Latino Theater Company produced the film. The premiere is set as part of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival to screen in the Chinese 6 Theatre on Saturday, June 3 at 5:30 p.m.

For more information, go to www.moefeaturefilm.com.

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