Israel Luna is an American filmmaker, best known for his movies ''

Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives ''Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives'' is a 2010 American rape and revenge exploitation film written and directed by Israel Luna. The film follows a trio of trans women who exact revenge on the men who brutally assault them and murder two of their ...

'', '' Kicking Zombie Ass for Jesus'', and ''Fright Flick''. He currently resides in San Francisco, California.

Early life

Luna first became interested in film at the age of five while watching a movie at a dual-screen drive-in theater near his tiny hometown of

Wellington, Texas Wellington is a city and county seat of Collingsworth County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,189 at the 2010 census. History Sometime in 1889 or 1890, as smaller ranches and farmlands were being purchased, Ernest Theodore O'Neil, hi ...

, located in the Texas Panhandle. During the family outing he was supposed to be watching the movie

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

, but he says his eyes were "glued to the next screen over" which was playing The Exorcist. He was fascinated at how images on a screen could make people scared, laugh or cry. He dreamed of making movies ever since.

Career

As a young adult, he moved to Dallas and began pursuing a film-making career. He produced a couple of segments of a gay-themed soap opera called Boobs, Boys and High Heels for the local public access television network, DCTV. After achieving some notoriety with the soap opera and gaining a great deal of hands-on experience, he embarked on a career as an indie filmmaker. In 2000 he co-founded La Luna Entertainment with his business partner John Maguire in Dallas, Texas. He has since written and directed several feature-length movies and has been involved with many other made-for-TV, stage and internet projects. His movie Fright Flick played at numerous venues on the 2008/2009 festival circuit in the United States and made its international screening debut in Amsterdam. The 2010 film

has been his biggest success to date, although it was denounced as "grotesque" and "exploitive" by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). La Luna announced plans to film another low-budget comedy intended to act as a companion piece to La Luna's film ''Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives'' to be titled ''Kicking Zombie Ass for Jesus''. Willam Belli, Krystal Summers, and Richard D. Curtin were announced as slated to star in this zombie apocalypse spoof in which the only survivors were gay people and church people. The film was intended to begin shooting in late 2012, and La Luna began a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign through Kicktraq, but failed to meet his intended goal. According to Belli, the film begins shooting in October 2013.

Recognition

Recognition of his projects includes: * Winner, Young Filmmakers Award at the Austin Film Festival, for his work on REEL KiDS * Audience Award for Best Feature, for The Deadbeat Club at Dallas' Deep Ellum Film Festival * A nomination for Best Feature for R U Invited? at Dallas' OUT TAKES Film Festival * "Most Memorable of the Fest", for Fright Flick at the B-Movie Film Festival in Syracuse, New York

Filmography

* ''Not It!'' (2002) * ''Is Anybody There?'' (2002) * ''Almost Time'' (2002) * ''The Deadbeat Club'' (2004) * ''I Know Who You Are'' (2005) * ''R U Invited?'' (2006) * ''Drop Me Off'' (2010) * ''

'' (2010) * ''Reunited'' (2011) * ''Fright Flick'' (2011) * ''The Ouija Experiment'' (2011), a remake of ''Is Anybody There?'' * ''The Ouija Experiment 2'' (2014) * ''Dead Don't Die in Dallas'' (2019)

References

External links

*
La Luna Entertainment website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luna, Israel Mass media people from Dallas American male screenwriters Film directors from Texas American editors Film producers from California Writers from San Francisco Living people People from Wellington, Texas Screenwriters from California Screenwriters from Texas Film producers from Texas Year of birth missing (living people)