Cinema monsoon
That time of year again, late July when it rains films at the Cultural Center, the annual event better known as the Cinemalaya film festival now on its fifth edition, a la cinco, where the loyal denizens and cineastes seek refuge from the storm and other monsoon hazards, from Gorio to Huaning to Isang, to sit and watch moving pictures on the screen saved from the slipstream.
Among the features this year, out of competition, are a Brocka retrospective, a selection of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender movies, some kids’ treats and the recent series of Sine Direk films that made the rounds of the commercial circuit in the past weeks. This was of course aside from the regular fare of 10 features and 10 shorts in competition, which more likely than not would again rearrange the landscape of local cinema as we know it, based on the one full-length feature that we’ve seen, Astig directed by GB Sampedro, whose co-producer is Boy Abunda and which features cameos by several strangely familiar-looking actors.
Some names that might ring a bell in the independent circuit have full-length features in competition, namely Alvin Yapan and Pepe Diokno. Yapan, a Tagalog writer of note, is a past finalist in the shorts category, but now he stretches out in Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe with Irma Adlawan in the lead role. Diokno does Engkwentro which has camerawork that triggered blog discussions. Second cameraman Miguel Fabie had mentioned that he was being tapped to work for the project in Davao some months ago.
In the shorts section, suki Hubert Tibi again makes his presence felt, having been shortlisted and finalist in both shorts and full-length in past independent film festivals, not necessarily Cinemalaya.
The Sine Direk series in good measure helps revive the careers of the old guard — Joel Lamangan, Soxy Topacio, Lore Reyes, Peque Gallaga, Maryo delos Reyes, Mel Chionglo — as they are allowed to reinvent themselves courtesy of the digital medium.
Four out of five of the films reviewed by the Cinema Evaluation Board got the highest grade A, which may augur well both for director and digital as they can feed off each other.
Topacio’s Ded na si Lolo is a refreshing view of Filipino mores during the wake, hilarious without being slapstick, and could qualify also for the LGBT section of the festival.
Litsonero by Reyes has the director finally breaking out of the shadow of his mentor Gallaga, with a plot built on a dare on who can cook the better lechon. Nice to see Karylle again up on the big screen after Ligaw Liham some two years ago in Cinemalaya.
The master’s back in Agaton and Mindy as Gallaga explores teenage romance among the upper middle class, his heartfelt tribute to young love. Although the leads may not exactly be the best dancers, the film still works, driven by the sensitively portrayed dysfunction of proceedings.
Delos Reyes shows his usual strengths in Kamoteng Kahoy, based on a real-life situation in Bohol some years back where schoolchildren were inadvertently poisoned by treats sold by a kindly old woman, and the aftermath of healing and forgiveness that must necessarily ensue. For my money, it’s a toss-up between this — Delos Reyes’ most compelling work since Magnifico — and Ded na… for the best of the Sine Direk series.
Bente by Chionglo combines social realism and activism with political thriller and action sequences, complete with elements of the unfaithful wife and a gripping chase scene at the end. Iza Calzado is reliable and beautiful as ever, Richard Gomez plays with disturbing poise the cuckold, and Jinggoy Estrada is likable and in-character as the hard-hitting radio commentator. Their lives are intertwined in the unlikeliest of manners, yet the cryptic title suggests a common denominator of sacrifice.
Independent cinema in these here parts has been typecast as predictably grainy and even crude, but the annual shelter for hard-driving filmmakers at the CCP has succeeded in pushing the envelope, ratcheting up the technical finesse gradually and making the shortcomings work for the finished product. Like the band Sonic Youth intentionally having strings out of tune to come up with a sound of distortion and sustain, the local indies work with what they have and try to fill in the gaps as best they could, the blank unresolved space left to the imagination of the viewer.
There will be the usual debates and blogspots about the recently concluded Cinemalaya V, whether it was better than past editions or what, but the one thing clear is each festival is different and has its own character, even as the characters that fill the lobbies and make the beelines are probably the same gaggle of loyalists and students and budding filmmakers.
And what Cinemalaya would be complete without a Lav Diaz marathon as closing film, in this case the eight-hour Melancholia, which has roughly the same cast and crew as Death in the Land of Encantos of two years ago, both films wowing the audience in the Venice festival such that — we have it on good authority — long limbed blondes trailed the director and his minions to their hotel rooms, hanging on to their every word, or more than just their word.
After the seaside cinematic orgy the festival or a truncated version of it moves usually to the UP Film Center, where the Diliman youth and their accompanying angst can watch. By the way, on the second to the last day of July also at Diliman was scheduled the Philippine premier of Kinatay by Cannes-winning Brillante Mendoza, another legend in the making, another brilliant in the ’hood scandalizing us with what else but sweet subversion.
