This is not a film by Khavn

Khavn’s “Manila In The Fangs Of Darkness” (2008) & Lino Brocka’s “Bayan Ko: Kapit Sa Patalim” aka “My Own Country” (1975) will be shown at BAFICI (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente), one of the most outstanding film festivals of the world.

MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS
This is not a film by KHAVN

Very likely the world’s most prolific major filmmaker, Khavn makes “filmless films” (his company’s name and his way of defining video-shot cinema) with a madcap energy married to deadly seriousness, tethered to no genre or tradition except his own commitment to radical cinema’s capacity to change audiences. But like his fellow radicals Raya Martin, Lav Diaz and John Torres, Khavn knows his Filipino film history, and honors his cinema godfather, Lino Brocka, in Manila in the Fangs of Darkness —a title pun on Brocka’s classic, Manila in the Claws of Neon, starring the young Bembol Roco as Julio Madiaga, searching for his beloved and endangered Ligaya. The older Roco now reappears as a hybrid character beyond the grave, partly as tragic Julio, partly as brutal Kommander Kontra in Brocka’s Fight for Us, still trying to save Ligaya from the city’s abyss of sex and violence. Khavn’s recent films display Manila as a trap, where the past is perpetually revisited in the present, just as Roco’s past films recycle in his mind as he wanders like Travis Bickle and Orpheus down the mean streets.

BAYAN KO: MY OWN COUNTRY
A film by LINO BROCKA

Lino Brocka, who died in a car accident in 1991, is considered the most important Filipino filmmaker. Maybe we could talk about Brocka’s main creed (of cinema as starting point, at gusts a second, for denunciation, for melodrama, for intelligence) or maybe we could present his Bayan Ko as one of the strongest left-hand punches Ferdinando Marcos’ dictatorship had ever received. Turning the story of a desperate guy who robs in order to support his family into the mirror of a period in time, and, at the same time, translating into the story the fury caused by the then-recent murder of journalist Benigno Aquino, Brocka’s powerful, compromising film brought worldwide attention towards the poor and the marginalized in his country, although, to accomplish that, the director had to smuggle it all the way to Cannes and, as a consequence, lost temporarily his Filipino citizenship. Bayan Ko can be seen as part of a double feature with the latest “filmless film” by Khavn de la Cruz (one of Brocka’s most talented heirs), Manila in the Fangs of Darkness, which is presented in the Panorama section.

BAFICI 09: Las 15 sorpresas que recomienda el “anfitrión”
El director del BAFICI aceptó la propuesta de armar una lista con 15 títulos que, en principio, no figurarían entre los must see de la programación, pero que según él tienen chances de convertirse en las revelaciones de este año.
- MR. ARKADIN, por Sergio Wolf

Manila in the Fangs of Darkness, de Khavn de la Cruz; y Bayan Ko My Own Country, de Lino Brocka. La relación de esta película con la Manila de Lino Brocka es esencial, en tanto recupera no tanto al actor de aquella película de Brocka sino al personaje que ha quedado adherido al actor, convirtiendo el film precedente en una suerte de flashback de la ciudad y la cultura más que del atormentado personaje. Pero la Manila… de De la Cruz también podría verse como una actualización política del cine de Brocka y en es esentido, no estaría mal armar un vaivén con Bayan Ko My Own Country, la obra maestra de Brocka, que es una de las imperdibles del BAFICI.
http://www.otroscines.com/columnistas_detalle.php?idnota=2579&idsubseccion=12

BAFICI: BUENOS AIRES INDEPENDENT FILM INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

With over 450 films screened between March 25th and April 5th, the Buenos Aires Independent Film International Festival (BAFICI) positions the capital of Argentina once again as an international screen portraying the latest tendencies in cinema.

Tha BAFICI was born eleven years ago and, ever since then, it has become one of the most outstanding film festivals of the world.

Celebrating its 11th anniversary this year, the new edition of the BAFICI brings Buenos Aires back to the meeting point for diversity in cinema it used to be for all the corners of the world.

With the screening of over 450 films, this seventh art celebration is the huge showcase of the latest world film trends. Besides the three competition categories (international, national and short film), the BAFICI offers different thematic segments organized by the great variety of the featured films, which includes world, argentine and latin-american premieres as well as retrospectives. It will take place for twelve days, from March 25th to April 5th, and will be held in an exhibition circuit of theaters located in different districts of the city.

Tha BAFICI was born eleven years ago and, ever since then, it has become one of the most outstanding film festivals of the world, with significant recognition and a place of privilege in the international film calendar. Along with the Mar del Plata Film Festival, it is Argentina’s most important event on film production.

One of the festival´s more attractive features is its special activities program, which includes debates, seminars, conferences, free outdoor screenings, music festivals, performances and book presentations. Standing out on this occasion is the Talent Campus Buenos Aires, focused on film and music and jointly organized with the Berlin Film Festival. Different seminars and workshops will be held for four days conducted by regional and world prominent professionals, academics, and scholars; they will provide a theoretical and practical framework with the aim of contributing to cinematographic education.

Likewise, the sixth edition of the Buenos Aires Lab (BAL) will be held, seeking to support development and production of independent cinema in Latin America. Professionals from all over the world are expected to attend: producers, international sales agents, distributors, television networks, and endowment funds interested in Latin American cinema.

More over, just as the BAL, the BAFICI will offer again its Industry Office, a service for international and local film industry. Its purpose is to provide special assistance to programmers, filmmakers, producers, and other industry related people to foster dialog between foreign and local participants of the festival.

“MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS” LINKS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL_ZQv5Bi8A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOFmzLQgq3U

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