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cinemaliit: a review of the cinemalaya shorties this is the second year that cinemalaya held its grant competition for aspiring filmmakers to do their digital films. there is a short film division and that's what we'll look at this time. so here goes. in no particular order.  10:25 NG GABIpitch: a matapobre balikbayan donya goes with her semi-konyo son to visit his not-so-high society-qualified girlfriend residing in a part-suburb/part-urban poor area of, we assume, metro manila. tragedy strikes. enter melodramatic musical score. catch: my friend kris lacaba plays the semi-konyo son this film is directed by reggie gulle. not sure if this is his directorial debut but i think it is okay. not great, but okay. the story is slow-paced and the storytelling is super slow-paced. i don't know if i like it or hate it. it's that kind of film. why? well, the story doesn't tell me much of anything that's new. what's new with a mom who disapproves of her son's "ineligible" jowa? and by ineligible, we mean societal class standards, not to mention the girl already has a child, even if the child is her son's own child din. or something like that. at least that's how i remember it. pardon me because it has been a month since i saw this film and well, as you can see, it's not very memorable to me. the film ran parallel storylines and the other one is this lowly former trike driver's attempt to make some money. he goes with his kriminal pal and they try to do somethng evil. the two storylines collide when the kriminal pal eyes the konyo mom and son and victimize them. tragedy strikes - the mom dies of a fatal knife stab wound and so does the kriminal pal. hay ewan. until this part, i am not so sure what this film wants to tell the audience. tragedy can strike at any hour of the day (hence the title)? that matapobre matrons get their fair share of karmic retribution? i dunno. i am as lost as michelle rodriguez on a deserted uncharted island full of people who look like they just came from the gym. if my friend's mom didn't text me to inform me of her son's cinemalaya exposures this year, i won't really sit around and finish this film. yea, it's lyk dat, u kno.  GEEGEE AT WATERINApitch: cinematic version of theatrical version of perhaps a re-imagined/re-interpretation of conversations based on real-life old gay people justo justo and walter markova catch: nice production design and acting by lou veloso and the dude who protrayed the other character directed by dennis teodoso, this guy who is from PETA and was also briefly my co-CDGmate in the abs-cbs soaps some years back. well, the material is really good but it should have remained as a theatrical piece. it didn't really fly as a cinematic piece, perhaps because of the very static approach to the blocking and the staging of scenes. i'm not sure if that's what the director intended to do, but if it was, then it was successful. but for me, i don't want to watch a filmed play. i'd rather watch films on the cinema or plays on the stage. like what a good bartender will say, never mix your drinks because you'll end up wafungish. which i did. kaya ayun. no harm in intertextuality chenes and all that postmodern stuff, but please do it more creatively siguro next time. okay? in short, be a master of both forms and then mix them up. that might produce a more dynamic and moving work.  KWARTOpitch: ordinary guy hangs out with ordinary guy friend who brings along two ordinary girl friends and they pair up heterosexually in ordinary guy's mess of a room where they hold an impromptu drinking session until girls get fed up with the macho advances and the two ordinary guys turn on each other to hopefully release their horny ambitions catch: i like angeli bayani wherever she appears so that makes this watchable yea but other than that catch, this umpire says "strike one you're out!" first, i don't see the point of this film. i think it was such a fruitless exercise. after each film, you ask yourself, especially if it's a narrative, "what's the point of all this?" and if the answer is as vague as a mudsplatter on your windshield, forget it. it probably did not have any point to begin with. but this is a very good example of how digital filmmaking is now within the reach of every tom, dick and harry who can afford to buy/rent a camera and editing equipment. so this film was made by either a tom, a dick or a harry. c'est tout. i hope one of them enrolls in a scriptwriting seminar soon to learn the nuances of proper film storytelling.  LABADApitch: laundrywoman's nice life gets marred by suspicions of his trike driver husband having an affair catch: nice...camera? sorry but i can't seem to find a good narrative in this shortie, too. the piece is kinda well-acted, okay, given that the actors are non-pro and the look of the film is okay. other than that, the narrative is not so strong and it doesn't really stand enough for my attention to get hooked. in fact, the slow pace really dragged so i found this rather cumbersome to watch. never mind the gay twist (laundrywoman's male employer is her husband's lover pala). any gay pitch won't make me see this film twice. there's no real story to chew on.  PUTOTpitch: young boy survives hardships in the bay/pier slums with her mentally ill father, meets a young girl from the area and forms a friendship until everything is ruined by government demolitions of the slums catch: very good cinematography, they make living in the slums appear glossy nothing much to chew on here, also. the film looks like a romanticized vision of slum life. sure, kids there have innocence but not as innocent as this boy protagonist. we don't see traces of bitterness and hardships in him or his characterization (perhaps the folly of the director-actor [non]relationship). given this age and this kind of life, you'd already expect that this boy would be a bit tougher. but he gets easily intimidated by average drunkards who steal his catch of the day. so he develops a friendship with this girl who looks like a victim of some unnamed abuse or other. whatever. and then the (seeming) climax of the film is the demolition of the slums and the disappearance of the mentally ill father in the process. and then the film ends with the boy and the girl riding a banca sailing away from the pier slum area. okay, what gives? loopholes galore. i know in a story, you have to unfold the motivations and purposes of your character for your film to have logic. if you don't, then all you have is a glossy romanticized version of a reality foreign to you. and this is what this film has. sorry but nothing really interesting to chew on here, either.  NO PASSPORT NEEDEDpitch: escaping small-time criminal seeks the help of an illegal recruiter to fly out of the country only to fly out in a way he did not expect -- as filling of a box full of longganisa where he is the main ingredient catch: er, one of the filmmakers just shifted to the upfi film program? perhaps that will give him more time to digest new things when he eventually learns about narrative storytelling and proper plotting. the film is quirky but you don't know if it is intended or not. the choice of musical score dictates the quirkiness along with the handheld style of shooting. but the story doesn't dictate it. so you're not sure if it wants to be a dark comedy or a parody or a social statement or what. to use kuya bodjie pa as an actor gives it another dimension of uncertainty, as he delivers a good and serious performance but the people around him don't. so again, this is quite lost. perhaps it's just in the bermuda triangle of the film world but it has hopes of getting better. in due time, that is. a for ayfort siguro.  ORASYONpitch: seemingly lonely lola gets devilish visions and premonitions so she uses religious fervor as her defensive armor...but is it effective? catch: good shots, kahit obvious na kinopya ang style sa REQUIEM FOR A DREAM i don't know what this film is trying to do, really. are you trying to scare the bejeezus out of us by presenting seemingly scary images of a devil-ba-yan? over and over and over and over again? are you trying to make us ponder philosophically about religion and its institutional trappings? are you trying to lecture us on our neglect of the elderly as we go about or own modern lives? are you trying to make a statement against catholicism or poking fun at its devout followers? i don't know. again, i am as lost as michelle rodriguez on an island... oh sorry i mentioned that already. well by this time, michelle and i must be hidden away in a dark cave somewhere making passionate love to each other! that's more enjoyable than sitting in the cinema enduring 20 or so minutes of this filmic uncertainty! sa totoo lang!  PARANG PELIKULApitch: a man remembers his life with his childhood friend as they grew up fans of the great action hero fernando poe jr and how they sold little stuff to have funds to watch his films chenes catch: good production design of the flashback scenes parang wala rin akong nakuha sa pelikulang ito. i don't know what it's trying to say, really. just when you think you are about to get something -- a statement about friendship and eventual betrayal, an homage to an undermined local actor, an undertone of political commentary -- it pulls back to reveal...nothing. in the end, you'll end up wondering what it was about. and that's where the trouble begins. the film is not so sure what it is about. sure, you can make lines and lines of words to describe its synopsis but give me a one liner taht states what this film is about. i'm sure it can't live up to that challenge. sorry na lang.  PUWANGpitch: siblings try to cope with the sorry state of their dying dad catch: good actors, somewhat yet another undecided and vague film. it tries to focus on things that you're not sure are worth focusing in the first place. does it want redemption for the wayward son? does it want sympathy for the dying dad? does it want empathy for the daughters with not-so-perfect lives? the film can't decide what it wants with its characters so the audience can't decide what to feel about them, too. well, perhaps except for one thing -- we all feel so detached from the characters and material. maybe the handling needs to be better next time. this has potential but the handling foiled it. it has to decide what it wants to present so we as audience can decide what to feel about it. gets?  SA SILAWpitch: a woman, a bus preacher by day who moonlights as street hooker by night, is a product of a sexually abusive home and acts weird about it by flashing a flashlight directly onto her face catch: passable editing, sometimes filmmakers seem to be enamored by the lives of people who are alien to them: religious preachers who speak on buses, prostitutes/sex workers on the streets, abused women, etc. but being enamored of these seemingly intricate lives of these people will only be interesting once they show something new about the situations. sadly, this film did not show anything new, just rehashed versions of trite things in the filipino's daily lives. so why make a film about it in the first place? that's what i'd like to know. if they junk research and good storytelling, chances are, they'll get vague sketches of lives. that's what this film has. sayang. Leave a Comment { Last Page } { Page 2 of 3 } { Next Page } |
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