Addicted to that rush

You got it right, it’s addictive.

Midnight somewhere in the garden of good and gruesomeness, with the burns of the day crammed in ashtrays (or scattered thereabouts like Charles Mingus’ existential ashes over the Ganges), you get a bad case of the craves. You just got to have it. Not something illegal. Not something that will have you wearing orange once you get caught. Not something that’s bad for you (well, according to politicians who make speeches in surreal epilogues of ’80s Filipino action flicks — “Drugs end all dreams” or such). Yet still hallucinogenic and habit-forming.

Cinema.

Pardon me for using this line (which George Carlin probably would’ve loved to be banished along with hippie beads and friendship bracelets): Dig it.

What could be more exciting than to dust off the sofa, brew some java, and watch a film on DVD by a master like, say, Alejandro Jodorowsky with his allegorical toads and frogs and cloned Christs, or Guillermo del Toro with his fairy tales shot in the twilight zones between Mexico and the void.

One gets hooked for life. Even in death cineastes most likely would love to get a chance to see a Buñuel or Bergman flick with their own two dead eyes.  

In Manila one has to contend with the celluloid equivalent of Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana songs (blast-fests of transforming robots, corny love concoctions featuring Jennifer Aniston or Garner, formulaic action with Nick Cage sporting a wig), but for several weeks we get a lot of cinematic treats from France and Germany, and the rest of Europa. And from Oct. 1 to 3 at chosen venues in Metro Manila (Greenbelt, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the College of St. Benilde), we get Spanish cineaste magic.

Film buffs have it so good. Instituto Cervantes de Manila brings back the biggest annual Spanish film festival in Asia billed as “Película.” This year, more than 40 films are featured in the festival with the theme “Locos por el cine” or “Adik sa Pelikula.”

Instituto Cervantes director José Rodríguez says that last year around 20,000 moviegoers attended the festival. He adds, “What’s great about ‘Película’ is that we try to be different each year.”

Rodríguez expects an increase in this year’s figures and reveals Instituto Cervantes’ plans to expand the reach of the festival by holding screenings and performances in Cebu and other cities outside Manila to share Spain’s cultural and artistic language.

“This is the role of the festival featuring contemporary cinema — to show Filipinos what the people in Spanish-speaking world are doing, so that we can know each other better,” explains Rodríguez, adding that he expects the blending of ideas, a sort of cinematic synergy.

One of the components of this year’s festival is the photo exhibit on Pinoy filmmakers by renowned Spanish photographer Óscar Orengo from Oct. 7 to 31 on at the CCP. “Filipino Filmmakers” features the fundamental figures of Philippine contemporary cinema such as Peque Gallaga, Jose Javier Reyes, Eddie Romero, Joel Lamangan, Maryo J. delos Reyes, Brillante Mendoza and Jeffrey Jeturian.

According to the exhibit notes: “Over the years, Orengo has tried to capture the character of various film directors through his camera. Just last year, he brought to Manila his series of 44 black-and-white pictures of Spanish filmmakers. It was then that he realized to take advantage of his stay in the country and begin a series of pictures of Filipino film directors, which, he said, is an interesting subject for exhibit and for the promotion of the Philippine cinema to Spain.

“The quality of the first pictures and its attractive potential for the Filipino and Spanish audiences inspired us to start the production of a new exhibit: ‘Filipino Filmmakers,’ which would be exhibited in the Philippines and Spain,” Orengo said.

For his Filipino Filmmakers series, Orengo took photographs of 44 local directors and actors. He said the series is a good way to document an exceptionally creative period of the Philippine cinema as well as to strengthen the Spanish-Philippine cultural relations through cinema and photography.

The accolades are so richly deserved. These guys — from Peque to Brillante — are voyagers. It is not enough for these guys to just churn out glossy-looking flicks with titles lifted from Ogie Alcasid or Ariel Rivera songs. 

I just find it funny how — according to a CNN feature — Brillante Mendoza received a medal from Malacañang whose very agents have disallowed the public exhibition of some of Mendoza’s movies. Anyway, I digress.

Also. Running at the De La Salle University- College of St. Benilde (DLSU-CSB) from Oct. 1 to 31 is a photo exhibition on the evolution of the Spanish cinema. Tagged as “Crónica Visual del Cine Español (A Visual Chronicle of Spanish Cinema),” the exhibit will be divided into the three periods of the Spanish cinema, aiming to recreate the journey of the films from the old Europe and Latin American tradition to the current contemporary style. Alongside the exhibits at the DLSU-CSB will be a series of workshops on scriptwriting and editing as well as the showcasing of Latin American indie films. On Oct. 14, 12:30 p.m., Chilean director Oscar Cardenas will grace the DLSU-CSB for the Asian premiere of his film Rabia.

I’m looking forward to watching the Mexican film La Zona (The Zone), a Rodrigo Plá movie about “walls and surveillance systems,” about “vigilantism and middle-class panic.”

Radiohead has a song about climbing the walls. A line goes, “Open up your skull and I’ll be there.”

Most of us have scenes from classic cinema lodged forever in our crania.

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For more information, call 526-1482 or visit http://manila.cervantes.es or www.Película.ph. Instituto Cervantes de Manila is at 855 T.M. Kalaw St., Ermita, Manila.