CULTURE
The Indiestream:
The Lens of That ‘Cheap
Cam’
Blurred shots from a
digital video camera. Themes coming from the outskirts, railroads, bay
walks. People are stories themselves. Alternatively, sometimes just like a
TV commercial. Parcel by parcel, bit by bit, you get to know them. That is
how Emmanuel dela Cruz and Raymond Lee put premium life on screen.
BY PINK-JEAN FANGON
MELEGRITO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Blurred shots from a
digital video camera. Themes coming from the outskirts, railroads, bay
walks. People are stories themselves. Alternatively, sometimes just like a
TV commercial. Parcel by parcel, bit by bit, you get to know them.
That is how Emmanuel
dela Cruz and Raymond Lee put premium life on screen. The two have been
sparring partners for quite some time now since they have established UFO
Pictures together with three other screenwriters and producers from both
worlds of television and commercial films.
In cooperation with
the College of Communication and the Arts, University of the Philippines
(UP)-Baguio and film enthusiasts’ organization Sineklab-Baguio, UFO
Pictures have offered screenings of their two highly acclaimed independent
films- Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo
Oliveros) and Sarong Banggi (One Night).
Lee and dela Cruz
also shared some of their experiences of transitioning from commercial
film productions to independent low-budget films.
Sharing of story
ideas and inquiries on the frequently-asked questions of indie filmmaking
enlightened both the audience and the duo.
Living the L(one)ly
Night: Sarong Banggi
Another busy Manila
night makes one woman experience perhaps the most extraordinarily
unbelievable and unforgettable moment in her life.
Jaclyn (yes, played
by Jaclyn Jose) is an old prostitute, who describes herself as 25 years
old to ‘virgin’ customers through text messaging; checking back reality,
she already seems to rather have 25 years of experience instead.
Meanwhile, pressured
by his buddies, birthday virgin boy Nyoy (Angelo Ilagan) passes through
one of Roxas Boulevard’s pedestrian crossings while his taste of “life”
waits on the other side of the highway.
The musical theme is
very redundant that even a day or two after you’ve watched the film, you
still hum in your head the Bicolano lullaby Sarong Banggi. It is
one of the film’s most effective tools to make the audience remember what
the film is about.
Unfolding the
compelling end of the story, both the audience and the actors unite in
their feelings of awe. It was undeniably one of the cleverest treatments
for unfolding truths and surprises in a film.
Maxi with wings
(pun intended): Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros
Scattered used
diapers, tin cans, plastic wrappers, and, of course, human feces – this is
the actual image of Manila, the other side belonging to the urban poor.
Maxi (played by
newcomer teen actor Nathan Lopez), gaiting his way home from the market,
picks up a fallen orchid from a passing funeral car. I guess, someone
picked up the beauty among the dirt. And Maxi has yet to realize that his
life is going to be a ride far from a boat floating in a river of flowers.
It is the hodgepodge
of human exposition that life is not a bed of roses. Actually, like a set
in the film, life dances to a broken piano as played by a drunken man
(played by Pepe Smith, the film’s musical director also).
Police corruption and
drug-dealing seem to be an integral part of the urban poor’s way of
living, although perhaps to some people these are cliché issues that can
never be resolved.
As Maxi was going
through his adolescence and discovery of his first love (honest police
newbie Victor Perez, played by JR Valentine), he also questions his
concepts of truth and justice. Would he hide his family of hoods (Soliman
Cruz, father; Neil Ryan Sese and Ping Medina, brothers) as they live off
everyday from stealing? Or would he pursue his unrequited love for the
policeman working to ensnare criminals?
The only thing
missing is the premise of how Maxi was accepted by his family as an
out-and-proud gay cross dresser. Well, giving credit to the writers and
creative team, perhaps their point is to eliminate the supposed need for
always rationalizing the idea of homosexuality: for once, at least in the
film, a homosexual is accepted just like that. (If only the real world
evolves that way.)
I have seen Maxi
grow, blossom with his newfound wings for survival and determination of
what he wants, sure of what he is. As the film is also growing on its own,
Maximo is the official entry of the Philippines to the Oscar’s 2007
Foreign Language Film-Independent Script category.
So, it seems that to
see through cheap lenses of cameras pays off grandioso. Northern
Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat
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