Movie queens, have mercy on us

Cinema creates nation, the spectators its citizens. Inside the movie house we all sit silently and partake in a community ritual: we see visual cues, follow the narrative, understand ideas, and formulate ones ourselves. What about getting propelled into action? The electorate might be watching Pinoy Big Brother, so that could limit post-screening enactment to texting, malling or singing to the soundtrack. There is suspension of disbelief inside the d

arkened theater, and the movie’s various meanings, they arrive to us in dribbles the moment the doors open and the harsh daylight hits our eyes. These are all in slow mo of course. And when the dissolve comes, expectant of the next film scene, well, it’s all fade out to bleak.

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Historical inaccuracy gives birth to confusion and anxiety. Historical amnesia kills memory altogether. With the disappearance of great Filipino classics like Dalagang Bukid, Ina Ka ng Anak Mo and Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo, comes a dream-like state of national emergency. No visual history of the past in sight; no insight of the future, except dreams, wishes and a long line of ghosts.

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Dream Number One is of Hilda Koronel in Insiang.

Dream Number Two is of Susan Roces in Gumising Ka, Maruja.

Dream Number Three is of Amy Austria in Brutal.

Dream Number Four is of Edna Luna in Dyesebel.

Dream Number Five is of Cherie Gil in Bituing Walang Ningning..

In Dream Number One, Insiang rapes her mother’s lover Dado and wins a brand new house. In Dream Number Two, Nina commits suicide after getting married to Fritz Infante. In Dream Number Three, the Amy Austria character does not kill her husband but instead helps him run a drug ring. In Dream Number Four, Dyesebel falls in love with the sea witch Diannga and turns Fredo into a siyoke. In Dream Number Five, Lavinia Arguelles pours pig’s blood all over arch rival Dorina Pineda and then sets herself on fire to the audience’s wild and hearty applause.

Movie queen dreaming – particularly for someone whose memory of national cinema remains precisely just that – is in its own right a film within a film culture-in-progress.

I dream of movie queens because, like Cleopatra, they can raise and shatter whole civilizations with the bat of an eyelash or the prick of a fingernail. They in turn dream of me, a faithful subject, whose memory and ardor of their power will continue the work for them.

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In an effort to save the vanishing Filipino film heritage, another faithful subject – Mowelfund director Nick Deocampo – has gathered films starring the country’s top movie queens in order to raise funds to set up an industry film archive where films can be restored and preserved.

This year’s "Pelikula at Lipunan Film Festival," currently running at the Cineplex in Gateway Mall until March 19, takes up the task of creating a public consciousness on the continuing disappearance of the country’s film collection. A challenge is being posed to us by Deocampo: "With these films representing our culture and identity gone, who are we as a people? With the loss of these films, we Filipinos are being deprived of our own inheritance of a visual past. We are being denied our tradition in moving images. Worst, we are being turned into a country without a history if film were to be considered a document of our past. How are we to face our future?"

Bringing home the long-lost classics Darna, Dyesebel and Ang Banga ni Zimadar from where he discovered the films in an archive in Bangkok, Deocampo unveils his treasured collection in this year’s festival. Rosa del Rosario, a stellar name in pre-war and post-war movies, stars as the first Darna in this Mars Ravelo fantasy classic. The beauteous Edna Luna appears in the original version of the mermaid tale. Mila del Sol makes a name in the second film that is an epic story of love and romance. They are just three of the movie stars whose films will be shown. They will join the illustrious list of female personalities who will be given a salute for their contributions in enriching Filipino film culture.

Among the stars and their films to be shown include Susan Roces appearing in Gumising ka, Maruja; Amalia Fuentes in Aguila; Gloria Romero in Dalagang Ilokana; Nora Aunor in Nakaw Na Pag-ibig; Vilma Santos in Relasyon; Nida Blanca in Waray-Waray; Mona Lisa and Hilda Koronel in Insiang; Anita Linda in Sisa; Lilia Dizon in Sanda Wong; Jaclyn Jose in Private Show; Sharon Cuneta in Bituing Walang Ningning; Maricel Soriano in Hinugot sa Langit; Gina Alajar in Orapronobis; and many more.

It will be our nation’s actresses who will lead the way in saving the country’s visual legacy. It is the movie queen who will make us remember, and punish us for our contemporary culture’s languor.

Blessed Virgin Mary, save us from the fires of hell.

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WAKE-UP CALL: Jose Tence Ruiz @ SM Art Center, Jonathan Olazo @ Green Papaya Projects, International Women’s Film Festival @ UP Film Institute, Lav Diaz’s Ang Ebolusyon ng Pamilyang Pilipino @ University of Asia-Pacific, Paolo Herras’ Lambanog @ UP Film Institute, Fluxxe @ MDC, Common and Uncommon Grounds at Future Prospects, Contemporary German Artists @ Cubicle Gallery.