Arts & Entertainment
Get swept away by ‘Sparks Camp,’ the Philippines’ first gay dating show
Landmark series creators discuss impact on LGBTQ representation in country
Whether it be iconic crashouts or jaw-dropping moments of drama, reality television has always had a tremendous impact on queer culture — but few shows have done as much in the fight for global liberation as “Sparks Camp.”
This series has awed since its premiere, with U.S. audiences discovering “Sparks Camp” when the first episode dropped for free on YouTube back in 2023. Focusing on a group of “Campers” who participate in romance-themed challenges while exchanging the titular “sparks of love,” the program made history as the Philippines’ first ever gay dating show. It was a landmark production for a country that still struggles with widespread prejudice against the LGBTQ community. Yet with each season comes increasing viewership and more people (both within the country and across the world) learning from the love on display and the many messages of queer self-acceptance featured in each episode. The Los Angeles Blade sat down with the cast and creatives behind this series as they wrap up their third season, with the “Sparks Camp” team breaking down what this groundbreaking show has done for LGBTQ representation in the Philippines — and how they plan to do even more going forward.
“The journey [to] “Sparks Camp” hasn’t been easy,” said Creative Head Hyro Aguinaldo, as he spoke to the Los Angeles Blade alongside Director Theodore Boborol. The pair detailed the many difficulties they faced in getting greenlit by ABS-CBN — one of the Phillipines’ biggest TV networks — and their fight against an entertainment industry that had never given LGBTQ stories the platform they deserve.
“Most queer individuals here in the Philippines are tolerated, but not accepted,” explained Boborol. “Queer people are usually only relegated to [comic relief], never [portrayed] in any serious way … and that includes, of course, reality shows.”
He describes how impossible it once seemed that they’d actually get to create the program and, now that they’re wrapping up its third season, how heartwarming it’s been to see LGBTQ audiences fall in love with the project. It’s not always a great experience, as the series has been the victim of countless discriminatory attacks online. But it’s undeniable that “Sparks Camp” has become one of the most educational, authentic portrayals of what it truly means to be LGBTQ in the Philippines today … but what is it like to actually be on the show?
While reality series can skyrocket contestants to internet fame, none elevate their cast to international icon status like “Sparks Camp” does for its ensemble. Season 3 stars Andrew, Kim, and Edward spoke about how thrilling it felt to have their attempts at romance get filmed on camera, with Kim saying, “Being there in the camp with nine other strangers, where I have to be as vulnerable as I can!? It was very challenging!” From half-naked mud wrestling tournaments to discussions about healing from trauma, the experience is intense enough on its own, yet it wasn’t until their installment began airing that the men realized just how influential these moments would be in the Philippines’ ongoing fight for queer rights. These were narratives that the heterosexual members of their audience (a demographic that has steadily increased since season one) weren’t used to, with Andrew detailing, “One of the reasons why a lot of people are unaware [about LGBTQ issues] is because we’ve been restricted from talking about these very normal topics.” They all explained how mainstream Filipino culture often discourages discussions about sexual safety and LGBTQ romance, meaning not only are people disallowed from learning about these identities, but young queer folk aren’t able to see themselves represented onscreen.
“Moving forward,” said Edward. “I want queer boys and girls to see their stories reflected in ours.”
Representing your community on such a large scale can be daunting, but these campers take pride in using every scene to show their audience what it means to be gay in the Philippines today. It’s a heavy responsibility for many, but luckily, this show is hosted by someone who truly knows what it means to fight for your found family: “Mother Sparker” herself, Mela Habijan.
When she isn’t advocating for transgender rights or winning international pageants, Habijan acts as the host of “Sparks Camp,” moderating the series and imbuing each episode with her unique brand of self-love. It’s a role she does not take lightly, emphasizing, “Whenever I spend time with [the campers], there’s an assurance that their stories are safe, that this isn’t just a mere reality show about finding love — it’s [a space] for them to find value in themselves.”
It’s an assurance that shows through the screen; whether it’s witty banter at challenges or reminding Campers to love themselves above all else, she brings a level of care to her role unusual for your typical reality host. She describes how this kind of openness is sadly missing in the Philippines, with the country’s deep roots in Catholicism meaning anti-LGBTQ discrimination is the norm in many areas and that there are few laws safeguarding queer rights. It’s because of this that she recognizes just what a huge impact “Sparks Camp” has on their local communities, saying, “I take pride in being ‘Mother Sparker’ because once a young trans person [watches the show], they can say: my future can be in front of the camera.” Habijan, who’d spent her entire career fighting to make easier pathways for other trans artists, emphasized how essential it is for people to see her and her campers being their truest selves onscreen. “The future is bright for [young people], because if they see more and more people who reflect [their] same experiences, then they’ll gain the courage [they need].”
“Sparks Camp” stands out not only for its historical impact, but because it does something that few reality shows are able to: it offers an amazing show, with an even better message. As each of the team expressed in their interviews with the Blade, this program and the few others like it are bringing LGBTQ stories to the Philippines like the country has never seen before. It’s helping to not only start vital conversations surrounding the respect and rights of queer communities, but fosters a kind of inclusive, love-filled influence that any viewer, no matter what country they’re watching from, can benefit from. In the last few moments of her interview, Mela Habijan perfectly encapsulated the core of what “Sparks Camp” is truly about.
“The value of their being queer … that’s what matters most. When you create and enrich the love that [the Campers] have within [them] — even if they don’t find the spark at the end of the series — they will end their journey at ‘Sparks Camp’ with so much pride in themself.”
It’s a pride that LGBTQ people worldwide can use now more than ever, and luckily for all, it’s a pride that anyone can watch three seasons of for free online right now.
Out & About
Archuleta to host book signing in Rehoboth Beach
Entertainer to meet with fans at Browseabout Books
David Archuleta will chat with fans and sign his book “Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself” on Sunday, Sept. 6 at 2 p.m. at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach.
The book is an inspirational account of his transformation from a closeted Mormon teen singer to a pop star who is comfortable with his queer identity. For additional information on this event, go to browseaboutbooks.com.
Archuleta will also be in Rehoboth Beach to headline the “Night of Entertainment” on Saturday, Sept. 5 for CAMP Rehoboth’s SUNFESTIVAL weekend, which includes the Night of Dance Sept. 6.
Visit camprehoboth.org for more information.
Friday, August 28
Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Happy Hour” at 7 p.m. at DIK Bar.This is a chance to relax, make new friends, and enjoy happy hour specials at this classic retro venue. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
Trans Discussion Group will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This event is intended to provide an emotionally and physically safe space for trans people and those who may be questioning their gender identity/expression to join together in community and learn from one another. For more details, email [email protected].
Saturday, August 29
Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ+ community, including allies, together for delicious food and conversation. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
Sunday, August 30
“Nellie’s DC Drag Brunch” will be at 12 p.m. at Nellie’s Sports Bar. Come get served like a queen by a queen. Join Sapphire Blue, Deja Diamond and their team of amazing drag performers for the most fun you’ll have all weekend. Tickets cost $58.51 and are available on Eventbrite.
Monday, August 31
“Center Aging: Monday Coffee Klatch” will be at 10 a.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more information, contact Adam ([email protected]).
Tuesday, September 1
The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center will host a drop-in session to share resources, provide service navigation, connect with community, and gather feedback. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website.
Wednesday, September 2
Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom upon request. This is a weekly job support program to help job entrants and seekers, including the long-term unemployed, improve self-confidence, motivation, resilience and productivity for effective job searches and networking — allowing participants to move away from being merely “applicants” toward being “candidates.” For more information, email [email protected] or visit thedccenter.org/careers.
The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center will host “Movement for Healing” at 3 p.m. This trauma- and yoga therapy–informed class is designed to help guests gently reconnect with their body and their breath. Through mindful movement, somatic awareness, and grounding practices, guests will explore how to release tension, increase mobility, and cultivate a deeper sense of safety and ease within. For more details, visit the Center’s website.
Thursday, September 3
The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the Center. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5 p.m. if they are picked to receive a produce box. No proof of residency or income is required. For more information, email [email protected] or call 202-682-2245.
Virtual Yoga Class will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This free weekly class is a combination of yoga, breath work and meditation that allows LGBTQ+ community members to continue their healing journey with somatic and mindfulness practices. For more details, visit The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center’s website.
Movies
‘Teenage Sex and Death’ has never been more entertaining
Come for the jump scares, but stay for the tour-de-force filmmaking
If any movie title can be said to describe exactly what it is going to show us, “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” would have to be it – and yet, it doesn’t communicate anything to prepare us for what we are going to see.
For that, you’d have to already be a fan of the creator behind it – transfeminine, non-binary filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun – and the surreal, dysphoric, and meta-formal nature of their previous work.
A horror fan since childhood, Schoenbrun spent their teen years frequenting online message boards for popular horror shows, writing fan fiction, and going to see punk bands in basements; a bachelor’s degree in film from Boston University paved their way into the world of “indie” cinema, and their first directorial effort was an online documentary about the phenomenon of “Slender Man” (look it up), which explored the way media and reality can blend together in the cultural imagination.
That blending has continued to permeate their films: their first feature, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” about a lonely teen who is drawn into a creepy online challenge, tells its story entirely through video clips she and the other participants share online; their second, “I Saw the TV Glow,” is an eerie and devastating tale of two teen friends who form a bond over their shared obsession with a paranormal television show and drift apart when it is cancelled, only to be drawn together again when buried memories of it begin to infiltrate their “real” lives. Both are driven by themes of gender identity, social isolation, queer awakening, and transformation – the stuff that resonates deeply with queer and trans audiences – and Schoenbrun didn’t bury the subtext in the story; instead, the subtext was the story.
With “Camp Miasma,” their third and (thanks to its win of the “Queer Palm” at Cannes) highest profile feature film to date, they carry their creative obsessions forward into a surreal narrative that exists around the border between reality and media-manufactured fantasy, and brings them into the the world of queer adulthood. Even more boldly, perhaps, it’s a comedy (albeit a dark and grisly one), a satire of the movie industry itself – which gives the director plenty of cheekily self-referential opportunities to make this their most “meta” film yet. After all, it’s about a young non-binary director working on a horror film, and you can’t get much more “meta” than that.
The onscreen director who serves as Schoenbrun’s semi-autobiographical avatar is Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder), who has been tasked by a studio with remaking its classic slasher movie from the 1980s (“Camp Miasma”), in hope of generating an updated reboot of the once-lucrative franchise it spawned. Kris, who loves the original film, hopes to coax the actress who starred as its “final girl” – Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson) – into returning to the screen for the new one, though she has been retired from acting and living as a recluse ever since. Managing to get a meeting with her at her secluded home in the Pacific Northwest, Kris arrives in a snowstorm to discover that Billy now lives in the same abandoned campground where “Camp Miasma” was filmed four decades ago. She also has seemingly developed the unsettling eccentricities of an aging once-famous scream queen who has faded into obscurity and spent decades dwelling in memories of the past.
Despite some initial misgivings (on both sides), the two hit it off, and Billy agrees to help Kris develop her ideas for the reboot. As they work, their shared obsessions around the original film and its horrifying mythos draws them closer together into a more intimate kind of relationship – even as Billy’s unconvincingly “tongue-in-cheek” insistence that the franchise’s iconic killer is a real entity, waiting to be reawakened for the next massacre, begins to creep into Kris’s own psyche.
Ingeniously mixing fan nostalgia for vintage “Friday the 13th”-style slasher films with the Lynchian surrealism of modern horror cinema and the campy-but-transgressive absurdity of a movie that wants us to be “in” on the joke, “Camp Miasma” takes Schoenbrun’s broodingly ironic Gen-Z sensibilities and spins them into something that works on multiple levels. As a horror film, it relies on the familiarity of its tropes and gleefully manipulates our reactions, yet undercuts its own formula to turn it into a blend of parody and homage that somehow elevates the genre by way of its own deconstruction. As a piece of postmodern cinema, it precludes attempts at analysis by transparently analyzing itself as it goes as part of its own self-aware scenario, turning intellectual interpretation into just another trope of its own. As a queer allegory, it nullifies the standard critical interpretations by wearing them jokingly on its sleeve. As a love-letter to cinema, it brims with callbacks to iconic masterworks like “Sunset Boulevard” and “Psycho.” It uses the irresistible darkness of its milieu as a vehicle through which to express a liberating, sex-positive celebration of queer joy, unencumbered at last by a confrontation with the fear, shame, and insecurity forged by social constructs that are so often used to suppress it. It even works as a romance, turning the age gap between its two leads into a bridge that overpasses any notions of conformity and eliminates false sentiment by framing it as a sexy kind of cross-generational mentoring.
At the center of it all is the powerhouse pairing of Einbinder and Anderson, whose dynamic together works so well we never bat an eye over that age gap; they sink their teeth into the material and deliver it with a fearlessness that feels a bit like pure glee, and they give what might just be the two best screen performances of the year.
There are also some winking cameos, like “Kids in the Hall” alumnus Kevin MacDonald as a local hotel clerk who was once enlisted as a supporting player in the “Camp Miasma” franchise, and veteran character actor Dylan Baker as the facile-minded studio exec who simply wants Kris to create something commercial enough to turn the franchise into a cash cow again. Jack Haven (the trans co-star of “I Saw the TV Glow” opposite Justice Smith) commands our attention as Camp Miasma’s weirdly air-duct-masked slasher – named “Little Death,” a phrase which, translated into the French “La petite morte,” is a euphemism for orgasm, just in case it wasn’t already clear that the movie operates as a psychosexual drama, on top of everything else.
Ultimately, though, it’s Shoenbrun who is the real star; much in the way that Alfred Hitchcock turned his own unique milieu into a kind of star power that eclipsed even the draw of the big name actors who populated his films. They come into their own with “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, creating one of the best films of the year so far and cementing their reputation as one of the most excitingly visionary filmmakers of the post-Millennial era.
In other words, come for the blood, gore, and jump scares, but stay for the sublimely entertaining — and entertainingly original — tour-de-force filmmaking that raises this one to the level of pop culture masterpiece.
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