Jim Libiran is not your regular commercial filmmaker and screenwriter who has a standard formula for a box-office hit and makes use of predictable plots and cliché lines. Blame it on his being a sociologist and activist. Libiran, after all, studied Sociology at the University of the Philippines and started out as a labor activist and grassroots trainer while working as a newspaper journalist before becoming a reporter-correspondent and manager for ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs, and, more recently, ABC 5.

As a broadcast journalist, Libiran is most remembered for his reportage on the eve of the war in Iraq, the Taliban defeat in Afghanistan, the rebellions in Mindanao and the Edsa Dos uprising.

Not too long ago Libiran went back to school, this time to study Film, and now he has put what he has learned into practice with his first full-length directorial film project, the 2007 Cinemalaya finalist Tribu, which is based on the 2006 Palanca Award-Winning screenplay which he also wrote.

In describing his newfound role as filmmaker, the avant-garde Libiran says, “Filmmakers have, heretofore, tried to mirror the world. The point, however, is to change it,” paraphrasing Karl Marx’s 11th Thesis on Feuerbach.

Healing and transformation

LIbiran says his film Tribu is about the violent lives of street gang members composed of young urban poets in Tondo, as seen from the eyes of the 10-year-old child Ebet. The neorealist film had real-life teenage gang members from Tondo as its cast. One interesting aspect of the film is how it captures the Tondo youth’s unique street-level urban poetry, expressed in the form of rap (both memorized and extemporaneous), an indigenized adaptation of global hip-hop culture. 

“While others may exploit these street artists for commercial purposes, the film treats these original, previously unrecorded ‘freestyle’ poetry sessions as an emerging form of street art,” says Libiran of his Tribu gangstas.

On a larger scale, however, he says Tribu is the first realist narrative film that exposes the presence of this deadly, yet highly artistic, subculture found in almost all marginalized, slum villages in Metro Manila.

LIBIRAN in Iraq as former host for ABS-CBN’s Correspondents, with cohost Ed Lingao and cameramen Val Cuenca and Aye Fulgado

Libiran, who grew up in Tondo himself, says that more than a hundred gangs (also called “tribes,” hence the movie’s title) exist in Tondo today, each with their own code of morality and honor, as expressed by these gangsta rappers through their urban-street poetry compositions, which he calls “Tondo rap.” Most of the members of these tribes are out-of-school youths whose poverty and lack of education almost assure them of a dim future. More often than not, these youths waste away their future in vices or become their own victims in the senseless violence of their gang wars.

“This digital film hopes to be a mirror to these youths, a basis for reflection and transformation,” explains Libiran of the film’s purpose.

Tribu’s whole production process served as a venue for meaningful artistic interaction among the rival and often warring tribes. He recounts how during the first few days of their acting workshops, many of the adolescent youths even carried concealed weapons. Trust-building among the participant gang members was an important element of the workshop and with the help of veteran educators for film, TV and theater, the study of basic film acting became an instrument for reflection, self-discovery and trust-building for each participant.

“The film Tribu, at the community level, proves that antagonisms between juvenile street gangs could be healed through a creative project,” Libiran stresses.    

Breaking through

From a total of 240 entries for the full-length category of the prestigious Cinemalaya competition, Tribu was chosen as one of 10 finalists which were each awarded a grant of P500,000 and entered as competition films in the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition, which opens Friday and runs until July 29 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). The best film will be announced on July 29 and will be awarded an additional grant of P200,000 and the Balanghai trophy.

Now in its third year, Cinemalaya is a project of the Cinemalaya Foundation, CCP, UP Film Institute, Philippine Multimedia Systems Inc. and Econolink Investment Inc. It aims to discover, encourage and honor the cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers that boldly articulate and freely interpret the Filipino experience with fresh insight and artistic integrity. It seeks to invigorate the Philippine film industry by developing a new breed of Filipino filmmakers.

According to Libiran, creating the indie film has been a mystical experience.

“There were times when I felt depressed and desperate for lack of funds and a thousand other problems, but support kept on pouring…. It feels like a greater force is pushing this project into fruition,” reflects Libiran.

He says the project should not be solely credited to him as director, but to the film’s staff and, most of all, to the Tondo gangstas and the Tondo community.

“As a Tondo boy myself, I know how hard it is to get a break like this. The gangsta boys and I know that talent is our only way to break through,” Libiran concludes.

From Small to Big Screen

Jim Libiran is not your regular commercial filmmaker and screenwriter who has a standard formula for a box-office hit and makes use of predictable plots and cliché lines.

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