Rites of Passage

Isang paglalakbay sa katahimikan at kamatayan.

Sabi nga ng cliché, “it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey itself.” Kesehodang may naghihintay sa iyo sa terminal ng bus, o sa end of the road, ang importante ay ang naging paglalakbay. Ilang tula na ba ang gumamit ng paglalakbay bilang metapora ng buhay? Hindi naman sa gasgas na, pero siguro hindi na rin road less travelled ang ganitong alegorya. Pero interesante ang mga estilong ginamit ni Armando Lao para sa biyaheng ito. Di tulad ng kumbensyonal na mga pelikula na kung saan may bida at kontrabida, walang iisang tauhan na sinundan ang naratibo ng Biyaheng Lupa. Dahil walang pokus sa iisang tauhan, nagagawang idistansiya ng filmmaker ang mga manonood mula sa tauhan. Sa halip na lumikha ng mga indibidwal, ayon kay Joel David, ang nalilikha ng multiple character film format ay ang social milieu bilang karakter. Sa kaso ng Biyaheng Lupa, ang karakter na sinundan ng naratibo ay ang biyaheng Manila-Legazpi.

Sequestering the Visible

A copyright infringement? Garcia's Obama photo for AP (left) and Fairey's Hope poster (right).

The Associated Press, in calling out graphic designer Shepard Fairey for appropriating an AP image in his famous Obama posters, puts itself in a strange position, since agencies like the AP thrive precisely on appropriation, whether in syndicating reports, or, as their extensive image bank shows, appropriating what is photographable—ergo, what can be seen.

“To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed,” says writer Susan Sontag. “It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge—and, therefore, like power.” Should people like Obama sue photographers like Mannie Garcia and agencies like the AP for appropriating his likeness? (Can Obama even lay claim to his likeness in the first place?) In turn, should artists like Fairey raise a howl when photographers and news agencies publish photographs of their artwork in various media? Should artists be obliged to secure permission whenever they use a found image as reference? The Fairey v. AP case raises a multitude of questions on art, photography, design, reproducibility—and inevitably, politics and power.

The Tube is Your Oyster: Experiencing lesbian images and community on YouTube

Before watching a few episodes of The L Word on YouTube, to see if I would like the show enough to get the DVDs, I had no reason to frequent the site. Since it went online in 2005, YouTube quickly gained popularity – and not only in the United States. To kill boredom, my officemates would often gather around a computer to watch YouTube videos that they found amusing. Pets and people goofing around and highlights from American Idol did not interest me, though, so I often stayed in my seat. What attracted me to the site could not have been more different than what appealed to them.

The L Word episode pages, I soon found out, were but starting points. A video link led to so many others, and what I discovered was a network of people eager to show, create, and discuss lesbian images online. I became thankful to be born in the age of Internet. YouTube is a dyke (with Internet access)’s oyster. Part the folds to get at the pearls – TV shows, movies, trailers, mash-ups, even slideshows set to music, all animated by queer desire.

You Say You Want a (Digital) Revolution?

It is easy to understand why they call filmmaking the “new rock n’ roll.” Pinoys have been enamoured with Hollywood for more than half a century, but it is only in recent years that filmmaking has drawn this much interest from the youth. It is probably the “new rock n’ roll” in that many young filmmakers aspire for the usual life of fame, fortune and juvenile debauchery with the same wide-eyed innocence as the proverbial 90s garage band.

Kritisismo at Eksperimentasyon sa Pelikula

TALASTASAN

Sa e-group ng Sinewaya isinasagawa ang pinakamadudugong mga digmaan. Dito nagtatagisan ang mga pananaw – minsa’y magkakahawig, kadalasa’y magkatunggali. Iisa ang tunguhin ng talastasan: ang mapatalas ang ating pag-unawa sa pelikula bilang porma ng sining, ekpresiyon, at sandatang pangkultura.

Mula ngayong isyung, pana-panahong ilalalabas ng online journal na ito ang nilalaman ng mga nagaganap na talastasan sa pagitan ng mga miyembro ng Sinewaya.

Isang kolum ni Nestor Torre na pinamagatang “Why some new filmmakers’ movies don’t quite work” (Aug. 3, 2005, Viewfinder, PDI) – at sagot dito ng filmmaker na si Lav Diaz – ang pinagmulan ng mahabang talastasan sa pagitan ng mga miyembro ng Sinewaya.

Sa nasabing kolum, pinasaringan ni Torre ang mga “baguhang” filmmaker na lumahok sa Cinemalaya Film Festival na may mga “mahahabang” pelikula, dahil aniya, hindi lalampas sa 90 minutos ang regular na “feature films.”

Pinuna ni Diaz – direktor ng ilan sa pinakamahahabang pelikulang Pilipino sa kasaysayan – si Torre na aniya’y “hindi naman nito naiintindihan (ang independent cinema)…at wala(ng) authority para magsalita tungkol dito.”

“Ano ba ang pelikulang nagawa niya (Torre)?” tanong ni Diaz. Sinabi rin ni Diaz na “(n)aghihiganti (lamang si Torre) dahil pinagtawanan ‘yung pelikula niyang ginawa noon.”
Dahil sa mga pahayag na ito, lumutang ang ilan sa mga katanungang ninais sagutin ng mga miyembro ng Sinewaya sa talastasang ito:

Sino ang may “karapatang” mamuna sa pelikula? Makabubuti ba para sa pelikulang Pinoy ang ekperimentasyon? Kailan ito makakabuti at kailan hindi angkop? Kailan nagiging mapangahas ang manlilikha para maiangat ang pamantayan ng kanyang sining? Kailan siya nagiging esoteriko at napapalayo sa odyens?

Reyalismo sa Pixel: Ang Digital na Krusada ni Khavn De la Cruz

“Film is dead. It is dead as long as the economy is dead, when public taste and creativity are dead, when the imagination of multi-national movie companies is dead.”

– Khavn De la Cruz, Digital Dekalogo (Manifesto for a Filmless Philippines)

Sa Pilipinas kung saan maituturing na pambansang aliwan ang pelikula, kataka-takang hindi pa tanyag sa kalakhan ang pangalan at mga likha ni Khavn De la Cruz. Ni hindi nga yata alam bigkasin ng karamihan ang unang pangalan niya.

Anong Klaseng Saksi ang Piping Tom na ‘to mula sa Kisame

Kung ang bahay na may ilang kuwartong paupahan ay may isang caretaker na nakikipag-eplokan o nakikipagbembangan sa isa sa mga nangungupahan, tapos, ang bawat pamilyang umuupa ay napagpapalipasan pa niya ng oras sa pamboboso, ano kaya sa palagay n’yo ang mangyayari? Katrahe-trahedya, katawa-tawa o kumbinasyon ng dalawa?

‘Yan ang pamamalagay ni Jon Red bilang filmmaker ng istoryang pinalawig sa isa na namang bagong hain ng digital pelipulang ito.

Visual Mediations: Documentary filmmaking as countercultural practice

From within the underbelly of a moribund Philippine film industry, a genre is crying to get out. For years, the genre of the “documentary” has flourished among the ranks of independent filmmakers, marginal members of the film industry, and political acitivists. And it has yet to reach its full potential as a filmic form.

The recent Philippine theatrical release of the Sundance-winning documentary “Imelda” by Fil-American Ramona Diaz only made obvious the commercial as well as propaedeutic potential of that supposed bastard child of “fiction” film. In the US, the political maelstrom that surrounded Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” not only brought to American mainstream attention the Bush administration’s complicity in the 9/11 attacks. It also underscored the vitality of a community of independent filmmakers in the US who for years flourished and gained loyal audience within the interstices of Hollywood.

Isang kasalukuyang pangangailangan: Mga Dokumentaryo ng Pakikibaka

Kalalabas lang ang dokumentaryong “Sa Ngalan ng Tubo” tungkol sa welga sa Hacienda Luisita ng angkang Cojuangco-Aquino. Tila ang dokumentaryo ang pormang makasining na mariing tumutugon sa ating panahon. Nandiyan na ang “Farenheit 9/11”in Michael Moore na tumuligsa sa Amerikanong presidente na si George W. Bush at ang kanyang imoral na pambobomba at pananalakay sa Iraq. Nagwagi ito ng premyo bilang pinakamahusay na sine. Nandiyan din ang documentaryong “Imelda” in Ramona Diaz na bukod sa mahabang interbyu kay Imelda ay nagsama ng maraming film clips sa panahon ng mga Marcos at ang kanilang mga karahasang ginawa sa taong bayan.

Documentary Filmmaking as Commitment: Interview with Brazilian filmmaker Jose Padilha

It is not surprising that many of today’s most promising filmmakers are Brazilian, and that the country’s cinema – capped by the successful 2002 release of Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lunds’ “City of God” – has received much international acclaim. After all, poverty and oppression (as well as an inchoate social movement resisting such conditions) make for such gripping subject matter for filmmakers. Motivated by the need to create films that overtly mediate into the country’s political issues, a neo-realist movement called the the “Cinema Novo” was born during the 1960s. Initially influenced by Italian neo-realism and the French New Wave, it has been said that, in fact, Brazilians started making overtly political films earlier that their European counterparts.