The boys who loved rakenrol

MANILA, Philippines - I distinctly remember it being nearly the end of the summer of 2007. I was an incoming junior in Ateneo and I just received word from my film org’s mailing list (do students still even use those things?) that Quark Henares was doing castings for his latest film. All I knew was that it was about a fictional rock band, and the female lead, Irene, was the vocalist and the guitarist, Odie, falls in love with her. The title of the film was Rakenrol.

Conceptualized and written by Quark himself and his friend, Sandwich guitarist, Diego Castillo during their days as co-DJs on the now-defunct radio show Let’s Fun on NU 107.5, Diego says, “We’re both from and into the local music industry and I guess a lot of our mutual friends started off in the scene and we both thought it would be a good idea to chronicle the things that we’ve seen over the years.”

Another major lead role that was up for grabs was the character of Jacci Rocha, which went to an obscenely hilarious Diether Ocampo. Legend has it that Rocha’s lines in the film are so good, it would have been impossible for Quark and Diego to make them up. “Almost every line by Jacci Rocha has actually been overheard in real life, though not necessarily by one person,” Quark says. To give you an idea of how riveting Rocha’s line are, Diego offers, “We’re hoping that after saying the film, kids will trade their favorite Jacci Rocha lines with each other.”  

Odie (Jason Abalos) and Irene (Glaiza de Castro) listening to Cambio  

Years passed since my audition. Around six years to be more or less exact.

“We wrote the film in 2005/2006 and shot it in 2007, so we really wanted to focus on artists who were important during that time. Urbandub was definitely one of the most important ones, so a major scene was written for them,” Quark says. The years 2005 to 2007, as it happened, turned out to be one of the greatest in the local rock scene.

“For a while we were afraid that the film would become dated, or laos. And honestly speaking, it seemed like that for a while. Now, however, the film is really a time capsule of a really great time in our lives. Big Sky Mind isn’t full of people waiting to watch Urbandub flown straight in from Cebu anymore, and people don’t wait in the rain outside Mayric’s to catch a glimpse of Slapshock. If we can bring people back to that time, I think we’ve done our job,” Quark says. “I know for a fact that my band has seen it, and (Sandwich vocalist) Raimund Marasigan said ‘Ganun na ganun talaga ’yun, a. Galing.’ which to me felt like validation that we had done what we set out to do,” Diego adds.

Posters made by some of the Philippines’ leading graphic designers of fictional gigs in the film. artists include CJ de Silva, Inksurge, Cynthia Bauzon, Electrolychee, Arnold Arre, Nelz Yumul, Apol Sta. Maria, Everywhereweshoot and Arnold Arre

With so much that happened during the process of filmmaking, it seemed like the film would never be released until Rakenrol had its world premiere in Milan, Italy for the Udine Far East Festival last May 2. Ever the proud mother, Vicki Belo tweeted that they had wanted her son, Quark’s film to screen there so much, they paid for all his expenses. Three days later, it won the award for Audience Award for Fiction Favourite in the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, a feat that caught the two by surprise because they were afraid that the film would be “too localized” for foreign audiences. “Apparently, the rock n’ roll experience is quite universal, and that was really shocking to us. Italians came up to me and said that they related to the fact that you can go to a cafe and the barista serving you is in a band. Fil-Ams said that randomly grabbing a drummer out of the blue who has temper problems is something they’ve all experienced. It’s been really great, how people find it a generally entertaining film but there’s kind of a secret handshake going on between musicians,” Quark shares.

Apart from Milan and LA, Rakenrol will have special screenings in San Francisco and hopefully, New York. As for when it will screen here in the Philippines, regrettably, the two can’t give an answer since they are having difficulty getting play dates here, especially with it being summer blockbuster season.

A band shot of Baron Münchausen fronted by the legendary Jacci Rocha (Diether Ocampo) and backed by notable rock personalities Bogs Jugo, Wincy Ong and Mong Alcaraz

In the end, what started out as a project that two friends did for fun turned out to be a chronicle of the relationships they had with other people who loved and made the same music that they did. “The movie really is our love letter to the local rock scene. Especially since in many ways a major era has passed in its history,” Quark says. At the same time, it serves as the Almost Famous or 24 Hour Party People for this young generation of local rock fans, which begs the question, how would they introduce the film to their grandkids? Quark answers in typical Quark fashion, “Hey kids. Look at how hard your lolos and lolas used to rock.” Now that’s something I need to see.

* * *

Rakenrol will have its Philippine premiere hopefully sometime 2011.

Hapipaks, the main band of Rakenrol right after their first practice session