MANY indie filmmakers—a big number of them in their late 20s—will be in Cebu from August 6 to 9. Drawing them to that city is the Seventh Cinema Rehiyon, a flagship project of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) through its cinema committee.
Cinema Rehiyon celebrates independent cinema in general. Part of that loaded label are films that are produced in regions outside the so-called NCR, or National Capital Region. The independence of these films is attributed primarily to the reality that no major producer will really bankroll a film from the “provinces,” with no major popular actors in them. There is development in these areas, though, with some regional films securing the participation of mainstream actors and actresses.
Nora Aunor has been touted to headline a film to be shot in Camarines Sur, with the great Bikolana actor delivering her dialogs in Naga and Rinconada Bikol language. Filmmakers are following suit by requesting actors and actresses coming from certain regions to work for projects to be shot in those regions, using the resources of the place and their languages.
For the moment though, Cinema Rehiyon 7 in Cebu is out to demonstrate not only the talents from the peripheries but also to remind everyone about the legacy of Visayan films. Opening the film conference is the classic Badlis sa Kinabuhi, which stars Gloria Sevilla and Matt Ranillo Sr. The two were royalties of Visayan cinema, a proto-version of regional cinemas when such category was not yet widespread. Gracing the screening of the film Badlis is Gloria Sevilla herself.
In the last meeting of the NCCA Executive Committee for Cinema, of which I represent the Film Journalism sector, we were all curious about the quality of the extant reels of Badlis. Teddy Co, the vice chairman of the group, was talking of an existing copy of Badlis and how the scenes were not in narrative sequence. Teddy assured us that someone had arranged already the scenes. I share this information to underscore the crisis we are having in terms of film conservation and maintenance.
To precede the screening of Badlis is the film of Remton Zuasola, Soap Opera, a flawed but interesting film about how a popular soap opera intersects with a real-life drama that is even more “soap operatic” than the one shown on TV. The film stars Matt Daclan who was a Best Actor co-winner with Sandino Martin in the last Cinema One Originals film competition. Sandino’s performance as a neophyte in the film Esprit d’Corps also earned him a Best Actor nomination in the 2015 Gawad Urian.
Cinema Rehiyon has become the spawning ground of new filmmakers and film technicians. Among the many films participating are Lem Lorca’s Mauban, which participated in the first Quezon City Film Festival.
The film stars Sid Lucero, Jess Mendoza, Alessandra de Rossi and Bing Pimentel, who happens to be the mother of Lucero. Jess Mendoza, of course is this new young actor who surprised critics with his first starring role in the indie The Natural Phenomenon of Madness. The story is about a rape victim meeting up with her rapist after some two years. Jess plays the rapist; Ophaline Santos is the victim. Both were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress in the 2012 Gawad Urian.
Jess Mendoza continues to prove himself to be a very actor, with a fresh and edgy approach to any kind of role offered to him. In Arnel Mardoquio’s Alienasyon, his soldier bearing wounds of war and love remains as one of the seductive elements of the film.
Charliebebs Gohetia is the director of The Natural Phenomenon of Madness. Variety has called the film “an arrestingly shot monochrome study of the after-effects of rape.” Gohetia has edited some of the films of Brillante Mendoza and Adolf Alix Jr., among many other movies.
Cinema Rehiyon in its seventh edition is out to prove, as all the other Cinema Rehiyon editions in the past have proven, that the wealth of Filipino cinema can be mined out there in the hinterlands and inalienable territories not covered by the crass commercialism of the filmmakers who continue to look to the tired central nervous system of Manila aesthetics.
Plots that are otherwise not thought of by those who thrive in the spastic gimmickry and sullen screenplays of Metro Manila will surely learn many lessons from the pictures from the edge. This is the Philippines that we would not have known had we relied on the interpretations of poverty that are as unreal as the lip-synched melodies of Manila-based nonsingers.
The different languages employed by filmmakers who are not doing their film art and business in Metro Manila are the natural gifts of these regional films. You hear tones that are made fun of by films with Tagalog (OK, Filipino—whatever) dialogues. Foreign critics are also rediscovering Filipino cinema by way of these film products that are generated from the margins.
Certainly, regions and ethnolinguistic languages are given the opportunity to have their persons and identities portrayed by actors who are either from their place or are not identified with the pea-brained performers from Manila-based stables.
I offer no false hope here. The films showcased in Cinema Rehiyon will remain for awhile as cultivated taste. But I am—we are—excited always at the prospect of new narratives about this nation being told. I’m inspired that in a field where intelligence and artistic sensibilities matter, there are film traditions that more than show and supply such gifts and graces.
In Cinema Rehiyon, we learn about the northern parts of Luzon, its southermost tip. We are able to circumnavigate the Visayas without the ethnic bias of Luzon proffers upon us.
Mindanao is the true land of promise as we see the land—its evil and its good—imagined for us by those who live there. As free TV denizens are wont to express their sentiment: All this is awesome.
As I go to print with this piece, Naga City in Camarines Sur is strongly bidding to host Cinema Rehiyon 8 in 2016. The committee there, I was told, is threatening to bring all living Bikolano actors to the city if it does host the event. It will be awesome.