http://criticine.com/
http://alexistioseco.wordpress.com/

“The Letter I Would Love To Read To You In Person”
http://rogue.ph/columns/entry/the_letter_i_would_love_to_read_to_you_in_person/P1/

WISHFUL THINKING FOR PHILIPPINE CINEMA
by Alexis A. Tioseco

March 15, 2009, 3:57 am

(Shorter version originally published as an addendum to an article in Rogue Magazine, extended final version which appears below published in Philippines Free Press week of December 13, 2008).

I wish that the Film Development Council of the Philippines would understand the value of the money they’re given and consider going to Paris and spending P5 million of their P25 million allotment for a showcase given by a young festival an investment, and not just a vacation.

They support filmmakers with finished films to go abroad to festivals for the pride they bring their country—I wish instead they would support their films locally, and help them get seen by a larger Filipino audience.

I cry for the loss of Manuel Conde’s Juan Tamad films.

I cry for a country that can’t convince that one Filipino-American who owns the only known print of Conde’s Genghis Khan in its original language to return (i.e. sell) the film back to his mother country.

I cry for the generations of Filipinos, myself included, that can no longer see Gerry De Leon’s Daigdig ng Mga Api, and instead have scans of movie ads to admire on the internet (with sincere thanks to Simon Santos and James De la Rosa).

I mourn a heritage that has allowed through neglect the prints of Mario O’Hara’s Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos and Peque Gallaga’s Oro, Plata, Mata to turn flush sepia.

I cry for a Union Bank and University of the Philippines that conspire in apathy to let the master negatives of treasures produced by Bancom Audiovision rot in rooms only air-conditioned half the day and in cans untouched for years and years.

I pray for a city government or even enterprising and concerned theater owners to consider setting aside 50 centavos or a peso of a ticket for the preservation of our national audiovisual heritage. There have been flood taxes siphoned from movie tickets for crying out loud—this should be easy!

I wish Cinemalaya, which, thanks to the media and the government’s press mileage behind it, has a great festive excitement, would actually put their efforts in the service of Philippine cinema, and not their own self-involved attempt to start a micro-industry.

I wish filmmakers would stop listening to Robbie Tan.

I wish Cinema One, which takes more risks, gives more money and often produces better films than Cinemalaya, would actually give filmmakers some rights to their work and stop swindling them.

I wish Cinemanila, which has introduced to the country more great films than any other institution, doesn’t stop showing them on 35mm.

I wish Cinemanila would publish their full schedule in advance: it’s difficult to plot what films to watch when you don’t know which ones will show again.

I wish the Goethe- initiated Silent Film Festival, with live scores by Filipino musicians, would continue annually, and that one year they get to show a Chaplin, a Griffith, a Dreyer, and maybe a Vertov or Medvedkin.

I wish Lav Diaz would have larger budgets to maneuver and shoot with. And would work with the ace production designer Cesar Hernando once again.

I wish more people saw Lav Diaz’s films rather than just respecting his stance, and using him as a symbol.

I wish Raymond Red would get to make Makapili and/or return to making fantastic shorts in the experimental mode.

I wish Raymond Red would still get to shoot on celluloid.

I wish John Torres would sacrifice the image quality of his HDV camera for the special intimacy and spontaneity he is able to achieve with his 1ccd camera. Or get a smaller HDV camera.

I wish Mike De Leon would make another movie… please.

I wish Roxlee would get enough money to buy the time necessary to make an animated feature.

I wish everyone would buy a copy of Nicanor Tiongson and Cesar Hernando’s richly illustrated The Cinema of Manuel Conde.

I wish there were more books on Philippine cinema.

I wish a book series was started that published classic screenplays.

I hope Noel Vera gets to write his book on Mario O’Hara.

I wish a close study of the entire oeuvre of Ishmael Bernal were made.

I wish older commentators would understand: Lino Brocka is dead.

I wish younger filmmakers would understand: Lino Brocka compromised when he had to because he had to, and perhaps even, at times, too much. You are living in a different time. The excuse that Brocka made more than 60 films therefore you can afford your own mediocre ones does not hold water.

I wish we had less tourist cinema.

I wish we had less formula cinema—“real-time” anyone?

I wish Cinefilipino had put out Maalaala Mo Kaya with the reels in the proper order.

I wish Cinefilipino would have put our their Brocka titles with just a little bit of care and affection, providing some writing on the film or special features to contextualize them rather than just throw them out their bare to earn.

I wish Nestor Torre would open his eyes…

I wish the Manunuri books on Philippine cinema in the’70s and’80s would go back in print.

I wish the Manunuri actually cared about Philippine cinema today.

I wish more of the Manunuri actually reviewed films instead of just giving out awards.

I wish the Young Critics Circle were actually young.

I wish the Young Critics Circle were actually critics.

I wish Francis ‘Oggs’ Cruz, Richard Bolisay, and Dodo Dayao would get space in the broadsheets, because they’re far more interesting than anyone writing there regularly.

I wish we didn’t have a cinema of the press (more on this soon).

I wish Noel Vera would move back.

I wish Hammy Sotto were still alive.

I wish Hammy Sotto’s manuscripts would get published.

I wish film preservation activist Jo Atienza was still in Manila.

I wish we had a fully supported Film Museum.

I wish we had a Cinematheque.

I wish the UP Film Center had better seats, and more important, showed better films.

I wish more non-filmmakers from the Philippines would get to travel to festivals.

I wish film were taught in high schools.

I wish we had more film lovers and less bureaucrats in important positions in the field of cinema.

I wish Teddy Co would get the recognition that he deserves for his selfless work.

I wish Teddy Co would write more as his ideas deserve to be recorded.

I wish co-ops would co-operate.

I wish Khavn De La Cruz would get to make his musical EDSA XXX.

I wish the Max Santiago feature would get made, and that shorts would finally come to my hands on DVD (Hi Marla!).

I hope Tad Ermitano never stops writing and playing in his cave.

I wish Lourd De Veyra would continue writing on actors and cinema.

I wish Raymond Lee’s UFO success.

I wish Albert Banzon would get more credit.

I wish we had more regional feature films, and more support for regional filmmakers.

I wish everyone would watch When Timawa Meets Delgado.

I wish someone would lower MTRCB rates for screening fees, especially for festivals.

I wish someone, anyone, would make a good, thought-provoking film about the Philippine upper class.

I wish Ketchup Eusebio would get more leading roles.

I wish Elijah Castillo would appear in a lot more films. Soon.

I wish Cesar Hernando would get to make a video transfer of his experimental short Botika, Bituka.

I wish filmmakers had some integrity and told Viva to screw themselves when offered another exploitation film.

I wish more people could see the film Bontoc Eulogy by Marlon Fuentes.

I wish Vic Del Rosario wasn’t presidential adviser on Entertainment, given the shlock they produce, and yes, that includes the films that starred First-Son Mikey Arroyo.

I wish Star Cinema would stop—just stop.

I wish there was a film library that people could go to in order to read books on cinema.

I wish the MMFF were not in the hands of the same people who install public urinals (admittedly useful).

I wish the MMDA didn’t call those circles and boxes Art.

I wish that MMDA Art wasn’t so much better than every MMFF film.

I wish a certain festival in December didn’t consider box office as a criteria for its main prize (which comes with rewards). We don’t give cultural awards to Wowowee, do we? Well, not yet…

I wish I could see how “commercial viability” was computed.

I wish Mother Lily didn’t have a monopoly on the Metro Manila Film Festival.

I wish Mother Lily took better care, or rather took care at all, of the good films she unwittingly produced in the past.

I wish Mother Lily would get to see Raya’s Long Live Philippine Cinema! …or maybe not.

I wish the Hammy Sotto-led Philippine Cinema in the ’90s book, with excellent interviews and a complete filmography of the decade, and which has been completed for several years, would finally get printed.

I wish all the old Mowelfund shorts—including the works of Regiben Romana, the Alcazaren Brothers, Louie Quirino and Donna Sales, Raymond Red and Noel Lim—would come out on DVD.

I wish a book would be written about all the Mowelfund shorts.

I wish a book on Philippine poster art would be released.

I always look forward to the rest of Nick Deocampo’s projected four-to-five volume history on Philippine cinema—at least someone is writing it.

I wish there were a pure film studies course available in the Philippines.

I wish that venues that are censorship (and therefore MTRCB fee) exempt would understand the vital role they play and take more responsibility.

I wish we had a regular film journal. Why don’t we? We have enough critics groups and awarding bodies.

I wish more film teachers were approaching cinema from cinema.

I wish R.A. Rivera would get to make his first feature soon.

I wish Quark Henares refrains from selling out again, because if he doesn’t, he has the potential to be one of the important ones.

I wish more people would get to see In Da Red Korner. It deserves to be reconsidered.

I wish Rogue Magazine would cut down their featuring of foreign films in the gallery section when there is so much to write about locally that doesn’t get covered in other media beyond sloppy journalism.

I wish the government would sponsor DVD releases of the surviving films of Lamberto Avellana, Gerardo De Leon and all other classics that still exist.

I wish FPJ Productions would again screen the footage of Gerry De Leon’s unfinished Juan de la Cruz (the icon, by the way, that was invented by this magazine).

I wish less filmmakers compromised.

I wish more filmmakers admitted when they did.

I wish we focused our attention more on audience education, development and literacy, than on dumbing down films to pander to them.

I wish Philippine cinema all the success in the world. . .

Bembol Roco, from his first starring role as an innocent provincial in a quest to rescue his sweetheart from an abusive Chinese man in Maynila: sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Neon, Lino Brocka, 1975), has evolved as an actor. Physically, apart from his completely shaven head, age has hardened his once-immaculate mug and covered it with lines and curves that dispel any trace of his former youth and innocence. Professionally, Roco adapted to suit his evolving physical features and ventured into playing thugs and villains, a far cry from his portrayal of naive Julio Madiaga, which catapulted him to public consciousness. Despite the vast moral and emotional distance between the roles he plays, he still succeeds, granting the villains he portrays with an ominousness that feels natural, and with a mere flicker of his hard-edged eyes, he momentously evokes either a vengeful depth or a wanton-hungry craze, something that is usually missing from the underwritten foes that Filipino cinema can normally afford.

In Khavn dela Cruz’s Maynila sa mga Pangil ng Dilim (Manila in the Fangs of Darkness), Roco plays Kontra Madiaga, a character whose name is derived from two characters from Roco’s vast filmography: Julio Madiaga, the wide-eyed protagonist of Maynila: sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag and Commander Kontra, the ruthless fundamentalist paramilitary commander from Orapronobis (Fight For Us, Lino Brocka, 1989). Much more than the name, Kontra Madiaga is a character borne out of the marriage of Julio Madiaga’s stubborn messianic trait and Commander Kontra’s intrinsic disregard for humanity in favor of a perceived good. Trapped in a twilight zone-like scenario where he aimlessly follows Ligaya (Ella Cortez), draped in an immaculate white dress, in the dirty streets of Manila, Kontra Madiaga is more of a conceptual creation rather than a character meant to live and breath in a traditional narrative. Speaking through voice-overs, he alludes to the past, depicted through snippets from Maynila, Orapronobis, and other Brocka films like Kislap sa Dilim (Sparkle in the Dark, 1991) and Hayop sa Hayop (Beast to Beast, 1978), and forces the audience to weave these Brocka characters into the confused yet powerful force that is Kontra Madiaga.

Maynila sa mga Pangil ng Dilim is presumably dela Cruz’s ode to Brocka’s filmmaking. It is an interesting, if not totally surprising, concept, considering that dela Cruz, despite his obvious reverence to Brocka, is a filmmaker who consciously shies from working under the influence of Brocka’s school of social realism. The closest dela Cruz has entered into Brocka territory is with Squatterpunk (2006), a silent documentary, usually accompanied by a musical live act, that exposes the paradox that exists within Manila’s slums, where humanity survives despite severe poverty, and even there, dela Cruz inflicts the concept with authorial integrity, pushing the boundaries of the medium to evoke the youthful and experimental verve that his cinema possesses. Maynila sa mga Pangil ng Dilim exposes the vast differences between dela Cruz and Brocka’s styles.

Dela Cruz filters convenience from Brocka’s filmmaking. Maynila sa mga Pangil ng Dilim is a difficult film not because of the palpable violence and apathy, but because its concept is designed to alienate. Rather than being constricted by the requirements of melodrama and social realism, dela Cruz widens his canvass. He utilizes Roco as an actor who has evolved from stubborn innocence to nihilistic assuredness to create a phantom of a character that represents the deteriorating morality of the embattled metropolis. Roco’s interpretation of dela Cruz’s wild creation is pitch-perfect. He is confused, angry, lonely, and damned; much like the city that has become the subject of dela Cruz’s explorations.

With chosen scenes from Brocka’s films screening in sequence with sequences directed by dela Cruz, one can only appreciate Brocka’s visual, narrative and emotional succinctness: the way he packs fear, insanity, and other emotions within a few minutes of studio-manufactured dialogue and directorial deftness. In comparison, dela Cruz’s scenes seem cerebral and impenetrable. The strange combination of Brocka’s populist filmmaking and dela Cruz’s experimantations only heightens the nightmarish tone of the picture. The crisp digital footage of dela Cruz juxtaposed with the aging footage of Brocka’s films evoke a twisted sense of reminiscence. The stylized voice-overs reinforces the existence of Kontra Madiaga as a creature of the imagination rather than a traditional cinematic figure. The purposely incohering soundbits and subtitles forwards dela Cruz’s concept of recreating or refashioning Brocka’s cinematic figures into a singular character that is the anointed spokesperson of Manila’s intrinsic darkness.

“BERNAL IN LOVE”
In celebration of the 13th Death Anniversary of Ishmael Bernal
& the best Pinoy love flicks from Fernando Poe Sr. to Angel Locsin

June 1 to 30, 2009
5:30 to 7:30pm
Mag:net Café Katipunan (in front of Miriam College, beside Rustan’s Supermarket)

June 17, Wednesday
“BERNAL NIGHT”
Starring:
ITCHY WORMS
GOLIATH (featuring Lourd De Veyra)
THE DISCOBALL
BISCOCHONG HALIMAW
SANITY KIT

THE BERNAL IN LOVE CALENDAR

June 1, Monday
LET THE LOVE BEGIN
[Mac Alejandre | 2005 | Richard Guttierez, Angel Locsin, Mark Herras & Jennylyn Mercado]

June 2, Tuesday
ALL MY LIFE
[Laurenti Dyogi | 2004 | Aga Muhlach & Kristine Hermosa]

June 3, Wednesday
NGAYONG NANDITO KA
[Jerry Lopez Sineneng | 2003 | Jericho Rosales & Kristine Hermosa]

June 4, Thursday
KAILANGAN KITA
[Rory Quintos | 2002 | Aga Muhlach & Claudine Barreto]

June 5, Friday
KAHIT ISANG SAGLIT
[Gilbert Perez | 2000 | Judy Ann Santos & Piolo Pascual]

June 6, Saturday
KAILANGAN KO’Y IKAW
[Joyce Bernal | 2000 | Regine Velasquez & Robin Padilla]

June 8, Monday
SANA MAULIT MULI
[Olivia Lamasan | 1995 | Aga Muhlach & Lea Salonga]

June 9, Tuesday
MINSAN LANG KITANG IIBIGIN
[Chito Rono | 1993 | Maricel Soriano, Gabby Concepcion & Zsazsa Padilla]

June 10, Wednesday

June 11, Thursday
MAY MINAMAHAL
[Jose Javier Reyes | 1993 | Aga Muhlach – Aiko Melendez]

June 12, Friday
NGAYON AT KAILANMAN
[Joel Lamangan | 1992 | Sharon Cuneta & Richard Gomez]

June 13, Saturday
IKAW PA LANG ANG MINAHAL
[Carlitos Sigiuon Reyna | 1992 | Maricel Soriano & Richard Gomez]

ISHMAEL BERNAL WEEK

June 15, Monday
DALAWANG PUGAD…ISANG IBON
[Ishmael Bernal | 1977 | Vilma Santos & Romeo Vasquez]

June 16, Tuesday
IKAW AY AKIN
[Ishmael Bernal | 1978 | Nora Aunor, Vilma Santos & Christopher De Leon

June 17, Wednesday
5:30pm: SALAWAHAN
[Ishmael Bernal | 1979 | Rio Locsin & Jay Ilagan]

9:00pm “BERNAL NIGHT”
Featuring Itchy Worms, Goliath, Disco Ball, Biscochong Halimaw, Sanity Kit

11:30pm BAKIT MAY PAG-IBIG PA: Unang Kasaysayan
[Ishmael Bernal | 1979 | Nora Aunor - Christopher De Leon]

June 18, Thursday
RELASYON
[Ishmael Bernal | 1982 | Vilma Santos & Christopher De Leon]

June 19, Friday
BROKEN MARRIAGE
[Ishmael Bernal | 1983 | Vilma Santos & Christopher De Leon]

June 20, Saturday

June 22, Monday
SINUNGALING MONG PUSO
[Maryo J. Delos Reyes | 1992 | Vilma Santos, Aga Muhlach & Gabby Concepcion]

June 23, Tuesday
BILANGIN MO ANG BITUIN SA LANGIT
[Elwood Perez | 1989 | Nora Aunor & Tirso Cruz III]

June 24, Wednesday
SOLTERO
[Pio De Castro | 1984 | Jay Ilagan, Chanda Romero & Rio Locsin]

June 25, Thursday
DEAR HEART
[Danny Zialcita | 1981 | Sharon Cuneta & Gabby Concepcion]

June 26, Friday
KUNG MANGARAP KA’T MAGISING
[Mike De Leon | 1977 | Christopher De Leon & Hilda Koronel]

June 27, Saturday
ANG DAIGDIG KO’Y IKAW
[Efren Reyes | 1965 | FPJ & Susan Roces]

June 29, Monday
FLORANTE & LAURA
[Vicente Salumbides | 1949 | Rogelio De La Rosa & Rosita Rivera]

June 30, Tuesday
GILIW KO
[Carlos Vander Tolosa | 1939 | Fernando Poe & Mila Del Sol]

When: June 3, Wednesday
8pm

FILMLESS FILMS presents

PAALAM AKING BULALAKAW
(GOODBYE MY SHOOTING STAR)

This is not a film by KHAVN
Starring MERYLL SORIANO

Running time: 73 minutes

K. loves Ana. Then Ana went missing. But now she’s back. And so is K. The walk through the old school. The strange encounters. The eye doctor. The rekindled memories. Chance? Or design? What we talk about when we talk about love are the things unsaid. The words that fail. The lovesongs in your head. The poetry between the lines.

Jolina and Squatterpunk have nothing in common and you’d be right to think that but you’d be also be wrong. They have one – - – Khavn. The teleserye mush of “Gusto” comes from the same place as the apocalyptic gorepunk of Three Days Of Darkness. The avantpop filmmaker has a flipside and a hopeless devotion to love and lovesongs. And he wears his secret heart on his sleeve on Paalam Aking Bulalakaw (Goodbye My Shooting Star). Forget John Lloyd & Sara. Spike the senti. Bittersweeten the punch. Love is love and loss and regret and long goodbyes all the things you want to say but can’t. And let’s walk and talk about love on Wednesday night.

FESTIVALS
42nd Pesaro International Film Festival, Italy
5th La Palma International Digital Film Festival, Spain

CREDITS
Featuring ELMO REDRICO, NELLA SARABIA, & EGAY ROXAS
Translators MIKAEL DE LARA CO & MERV ESPINA
Songs & Poems KHAVN
Guitar Solo JONNY SALVADOR
Sound Engineer ARVIE BARTOLOME
Dialogue by KHAVN & MERYLL SORIANO
Editing RALPH CRISOSTOMO
Cinematographers ALBERT BANZON & KHAVN
Director, Writer, Producer KHAVN DE LA CRUZ

REVIEW BY DODO DAYAO
http://pelikula.blogspot.com/
http://pelikulangsingkit.blogspot.com/

Who knows what came to pass between K and Ana before today? K is, of course, director Khavn himself sort of, the man with the movie camera whom we never see, and Ana is Meryll Soriano, his obscure object of desire whom we can’t take our eyes off. They talk and it’s not as if it gets so obtuse as to resist parsing. Just weightless and hesitant and stumblebum . There are no codes in the conversation to decipher. What we talk about when we talk about love are the things that go unsaid anyway. The inarticulate speech of the heart. So maybe we should just take Khavn’s word for it that K loves Ana and that’s as far as it got. Which then makes this. . . what? Chance? Or design? Date? Or destiny? Unrequited? Reunited?

The Linklater parallels you invoke only to cut a long story short and to peg what can be a bitch to peg, what is better off seeing for yourself- – - Before Sunrise at 30 f.p.s. on a shoestring. The parallelism does take, somewhat- – - the walking around, the talking around, the going everywhere, the going nowhere. But there’s no arc in this first person love story, no fate playing matchmaker, no intrusions from the universe. Only the brutal symmetry – - – the solipsistic economy and delicate equilibrium and minimalist stasis- – - of its POV.

It’s the longest goodbye in the universe when your shooting star burns out, shooting star here’s used loosely, figuratively. It rings more poetically in the vernacular – - -bulalakaw. You call them that because they burn so bright, because you wistfully look to the sky for their trajectories to cross your radar again even after their orbits have passed most likely forever, because you wish on them. But you knew that and maybe you knew that out of having had this extraterrestrial hurt too, out of having the unforgettable face of that lapsed darling afterimaging in your head long after her radio silence, her invisibility, her supernova before your eyes. And all of this is in K’s head. Like the lovesongs falling on deaf ears, like the poetry in the details, like the words that fail, like the wishfully-thinking extraterrestrial hurt it hooks me with.

To be perfectly honest, the name KamiasRoad has been used for a domain and another website, but now it is also a netlabel brand which will release free audio products on the web for your amusement and sonic bliss.

KamiasRoad will primarily focus on music classifiable as avant-pop, experimental pop, plop, genre-defying pop, and umbilicuspop, (which we just made up for fun to see if people start using the term at all).

KamiasRoad is the netlabel arm of the Khavn digital media empire, and is the brainchild of umbilicuspop star, director, poet and artist Khavn.

Goodbye multimillion dollar record industry. Long live netlabels!

http://kamiasroad.wordpress.com/

BLACKWORMS
This is not a film by Khavn

SYNOPSIS
A young woman faced with the crimes of her past suffers punishment of a Dantean nature. But what was her crime? And why does the saying “After everything, nothing” resonate through her life?

Director & Producer: Khavn De La Cruz
Writer: Joseph Nacino
Cinematographer: Albert Banzon
Editing & Sound Design: Lawrence S. Ang
Music: Juan Silos Jr. and Ariston Avelino
Production Design & Production Management: Kristine Kintana
Cast: Donna Miranda 
Production Company: Filmless Films
Year: 2009
Country: Philippines

INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL OBERHAUSEN

In the course of more than five decades, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen has become one of the world’s most respected film events – a place where filmmakers and artists such as Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Roman Polanski, Alexander Kluge and Werner Herzog, and more recently Ulrike Ottinger, Romuald Karmakar, Pipilotti Rist, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and François Ozon have presented their first films.

Up until today, the Festival continues its tradition of launching up and coming filmmakers and setting trends – whether it’s the early recognition of short videos, the support of music videos, the exploration of new digital formats or its openness for the interaction between art and the short form.

Due to its unconventional view of short film, the Festival has always been very successful in resisting being pinned down to a certain image. It has nevertheless managed to instigate various political and aesthetical developments, for instance through the Oberhausener Manifest, perhaps the most important group document in the history of German film. Careful programming and a pioneering choice of subjects has helped the Festival to build up its exclusive position in an increasingly unpredictable market.

Furthermore, in cooperation with its media partners, ARTE, 3sat, Ki.Ka (the children’s channel of ARD and ZDF, 2000- 2007) and INTRO, the Festival has helped to open up new audiences for short films. In their short film programs, ARTE and 3sat have been cooperating with the Festival for years, while in 2001 MTV televised 25 short films from the programmes of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.