Category Archive for: pelikula

kultura

Beyond the horror

I’m a sucker for the Pinoy horror film formula: a scary setting, well-done sound design, the gulat factor. I’m the person in the cinema who will scream first, and the loudest, the person who is so ready to be scared.

But of course the fear factor is only one of many aspects of the horror film, and one realizes given the effort that is put into a movie like Seklusyon (directed by Erik Matti, written by Anton C. Santamaria), that there is more to doing good horror than just getting an audience scared shitless. And certainly the cinematography, the context, the narrative itself of Seklusyon is enough to warrant some of the awards it has won: it speaks of the evil within us, the fears that haunt us, given the lives we live. It speaks of how in a Catholic country like the Philippines, the good is trumped by what is easy, and it is the false saviors that might be biggest enemy. (more…)

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Attempted rape as teenage dream?

At the onset, having a light romance / romantic-comedy as part of the Metro Manila Film Festival’s self-proclaimed “change” and “revolution” was a good thing: it tells us that they weren’t deciding against certain genres just because these are considered “pop” and “therefore shallow” — it is after all easy to presume that all love stories are about the happy endings, and one can spot the formula from a mile away.

But even formula has allowed for an amount of creativity in the rom-com through the years (1) and it is with this sense of how the genre has evolved that one was hopeful about Vince And Kath And James (directed by Theodore Boborol, written by Daisy G. Cayanan, Kim R. Noromor, Anjanette M. Haw), because there is so much more to the rom-com now than just lead stars with chemistry: there is good writing and well-threshed out situations, the specificity of social class and gender politics. (more…)

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The septic tank as critique

Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 2 #ForeverIsNotEnough is probably the most fun I’ve had in a local film since … well, the first Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank.

It’s not that I do not find commercialized comedies funny — the ones that fall back on formula, the hilarious banter of every Vice Ganda movie character, even Sosy Problems from so many MMFFs ago. But there is a layer of intelligence that ABSST demands of itself, an ability at self-reflexivity that it demands of its audience, but also a sense of the archetypes and stereotypes that we inevitably create in the course of unthinkingly insisting on what is “new” and “different.” (more…)

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Dear President Duterte,

The details are scant, but there is an agenda to be presented to you based on a National Development Meeting for the Arts Summit that happened on September 5.

Sadly, if those kinds of exclusive, by-invitation only meetings continue, then this agenda cannot even begin to represent the arts and culture sectors it promises to speak for.

As a private endeavor by Njel De Mesa, there’s no way to insist that he open up the summit to all cultural workers; he was financially limited to inviting arts and culture organizations and trusted that reps from these groups actually speak for a majority of us in the sectors.

That of course is not true. There is no one organization that can claim to represent a majority of writers or dancers, theater workers or visual artists, musicians or heritage workers, across generations, different media, and various areas of expertise. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that the formality of organizations goes against precisely the freedoms that artistry, creativity, innovation are premised on and which these demand. (more…)

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Liza Diño, FDCP workers, martial law #culturalcrisis

Let me call it now.

With 12 members of the staff terminated in the first week of her leadership, Liza Diño has put the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) under a version of Martial Law.

And because Martial Law is about silencing critics, too, I hear that the search is on for who exactly my sources are. This, instead of Diño actually replying to these allegations — I would gladly be disproved after all. But what I’m looking at are not just 12 employees given pink slips by Diño. I’m also looking at five other staff members who have tendered resignations given how Diño’s running the FDCP .

And lest you think we’re talking about consultants with huge paycheques ala Joel Rocamora’s NAPC, what I’m seeing is a list that includes drivers and cinematheque projectionists. I’m looking at staff of the National Film Archive of the Philippines (NFAP) and the Cinematheque.  (more…)