The fulfillment of a dream

MANILA, Philippines - Remton Siega Zuasola is now being hotly tipped as Philippine cinema’s next big thing. The 26-year-old Cebuano independent film director is virtually thrust onto the frontlines of an emerging regional film movement, what with the succession of awards his first full-length work Ang Damgo Ni Eleuteria (The Dream of Eleuteria) has generated.

Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria won the jury prize at the Cinema One Originals Film Festival last November, the Best Southeast Asian Film award at the Cinemanila International Film Festival last December, the Special Jury Prize in the International Competition Section of the Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea early this May and the Gawad Urian Best Picture (and directing honors to Remton) last May 17.

Remton laughingly recalls to The STAR that a few years back, one movie critic dared to declare him as the future face of filmmaking. This was sometime in 2009 and he just made his initial foray to filmmaking via a short titled To Siomai Love, which merited him the Ishmael Bernal award from Cinemanila.

He was deeply embarrassed back then and still is very much uncomfortable with the tag. “Maybe because I’m based in Cebu and detached and isolated from the scene that all the positive words don’t really sink in. But I’m really so overwhelmed; I look at the awards as a shower of blessings.”

Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria is about an island lass who is about to leave her hometown to marry a rich old German, an agreement her mother made with a recruiter. Terya, who has a fisherman boyfriend, wants to resist her fate, but she gets wheedled into thinking that the right decision is to go abroad.

The film is shot in picturesque Olango Island in Cebu and features an all-Cebuano cast, whose dialogues and scenes were executed impromptu style. What is also earning raves for Eleuteria is Remton’s long-take-no-cuts technique.

“I love shooting in one long take because the progression of the actors’ emotions are captured better and the suspension of disbelief is hardly being broken since there are no cuts or jumps to distract the audience from the story,” he explained.

“Shooting long takes is being done in European cinema, but very rarely, because it’s not easy for both the actors and the crew. It is physically demanding and very costly.”

Despite the kudos Remton is getting, he still wants to remain in Cebu and to continue doing his indie thing. “I’m going to stick for a while with independent filmmaking because I still need to hone my voice.”

Right now, he’s deep into the production work of his next project, which is social commentary on Filipinos’ fascination over soap operas. They’re also hammering out the details of a European premiere for Eleuteria, following its recent Asian premiere in South Korea.

Remton, who went through method acting and TV directing workshops and has had helmed local programs, admits that like many regional filmmakers, his venture into this field is a reaction to the Manila-centric stories being presented by indies preceding his. This is apart from his belief that certain themes were already exhausted to their maximum.

Cebu and other provinces, for that matter, are bursting with stories to share, he said, that’s why even if he is toying with the idea of moving to the filmmaking capital, he is not keen on doing it soon. He said, “We’ve worked so hard trying to build a filmmaking community in Cebu, and if we transfer to Manila, we feel it’s heading back to zero. Cebu had a filmmaking industry in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and if they were able to do it before, how much more now when digital technology is at our disposal?”

Meantime, very much like the nature of his long takes, it’s still an unending learning experience for this Fine Arts graduate, whose interest in cinema started when he was a child, and his family only had a radio to entertain themselves because a TV set was considered a luxury.

The absence of visuals for his favorite radio dramas fanned his imagination. He used to create cameras out of pasted cardboards and made his brothers act in front of him as he shot make-believe movies.

That childhood dream is unfolding more than he could ever imagine, but the harder work is just beginning. Remton said, “It’s all happening so fast. But an award-winning filmmaker told me, you have now reached a point wherein you don’t need to prove you’ve got talent. This is the point wherein things are determined by who works harder.”