Farmers’ son leads entries in filmfest in honor of farmers

MANILA, Philippines – Zig Dulay said that his latest indie film Paglipay took him out of his comfort zone. Unlike his previous works that drew from personal experiences, he had to immerse himself in an environment completely new to him — an Aeta community in Zambales. But the 30-year-old writer-director felt that it was important to do the film because it’s one story nobody really knows about.

Paglipay (Crossing) is one of the six indies that received a seed grant of P1.5M and selected to participate in the ongoing TOFARM (The Outstanding Farmers of the Philippines) Film Festival, which runs until July 19 at SM Megamall and SM North. The filmfest’s objective is to showcase the lives, aspirations, trials and successes of farmers and other caretakers of agriculture and Mother Nature. 

Paglipay is a Zambal Aeta term used to refer whenever Aetas come down from the mountains and cross rivers to go to the town proper. 

“This is a true story,” Zig told The STAR, “but the facade of the film is a love story since I’m such a fan of love stories.”

Zig based his story on the dissertation paper of an anthropologist friend at UP Diliman. “Since I came from the creative writing department at the College of Arts and Letters, my friend asked me if I could help tell the Aetas’ story in a narrative and not just purely facts.”

What particularly caught his interest was how Aetas would also transform themselves, starting with the physical aspect, via the paglipay. In the film, viewers will see how Aetas adapt to cross-cultural changes using their skills as indigenous people. 

Paglipay follows the story of Atan (Garry Cabalic), an Aeta who is arranged to wed an Aeta woman. 

“In their culture, if it’s an arranged marriage, kailangan nila magbigay ng dowry, like gamit na pang kaingin or baboy, then money. Now, where else would he get the money but in the town proper because there’s no money in the mountains. The location of their house is eight to 10 hours from the town proper and there’s no available public transport so they really have to walk. So Atan has to go to the town proper to work. This is where the TOFARM factor comes in because the film shows the process of kaingin. I was also interested in it because when I was in elementary school, I remember teachers telling us that kaingin is bad because it’s a form of deforestation.”

Kaingin is a Filipino term to describe slash and burn farming. 

Zig said that Aetas have a unique relationship with the environment. “They really treat the mountains as their life. It is their source of livelihood. So I wondered, how come this is considered bad (the kaingin practice) when they don’t destroy the mountains because (if they do so) they will die?”

He related their kaingin process as “hindi masyado malakihan gaya ng pinapakita ng textbooks. Kasi kung malakihan, dapat ang yaman-yaman na nila? But their lives are so hard. For example their one month’s worth (of kaingin), when they trade it, it’s worth P700 to P1,000 only.”

When Zig began to work on the film since February, every weekends saw him going to Botolan in Zambales and immersing himself in the Aeta community. He would interview the Aeta people and had to make several revisions along the way. After all, his foremost fear was engendering misrepresentations of Aetas in the movie.

So, to make the story even more realistic, Zig chose to cast real Aeta people in Paglipay. The male lead was discovered when Zig had an ocular inspection of the place. The others went through an audition. “It has to be culturally and politically correct, otherwise why would you make the film?” he said.

Paglipay also touches on mining, since Botolan used to be a black sand mining site, thus adding another socially-relevant dimension to the film. 

Based on his research, how and why this culture of “paglipay” began could be traced to the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in the early ‘90s. “They (Aetas) used to be nomads, but they had to transfer to the resettlement area as the government forced them to move there or else they would die. The mistake of the government at that time was they weren’t able to study their culture very well. They (Aetas) couldn’t live there because everything had to be bought, whereas in the mountains, they could easily get what they needed from their surroundings. So, they went back to the mountains and that was when the culture of ‘paglipay’ started. Until now, it affects them because every time they go to the bayan (town), they learn something new and they apply it to their life in the mountains.”

After facing such challenges as language barrier, logistics, casting Aetas who had zero acting experience, etc., you can tell that Zig is truly proud for telling this story. “It makes you wonder, ginagawa pa pala yan, may ganyan pa palang nangyayari sa Pilipinas... But my biggest realization is that with them (Aetas), what you see is what you get. Unlike us, who are complicated.”

Zig is due to make another indie as a Cinemalaya entry. He also works at GMA Network as writer and director, mainly for News and Public Affairs programs like Wagas and Karelasyon. During the election period, he wrote the high-rated political rom-com Naku! Boss Ko. He’s now the headwriter for the weekly sitcom Conan, My Beautician. 

There’s a world of difference between mainstream projects and indie films, he said. The former can be limiting with several factors to consider — ratings, target audience, call-time of actors, management, etc. He noted that this is the nature of TV and that what you can only change are the work ethics, that you help foster an environment that is humane and inspires teamwork. In indies, budget can be a problem, but there’s more freedom as the most essential thing about it is the message you intend to send across and how you will deliver it effectively, he added.

After regularly winning at high school press conferences, Zig took up journalism/broadcasting in college at UP Baguio. Instead of pursuing a career in news media, he fell in love with poetry and creative writing, and went on to study Philippine Studies (Major in Creative Writing and Film) at UP Diliman. There, he said, he learned to infuse more substance into his craft. 

He finally got his indie break after a writing workshop under Armando Lao. The latter would recommend him to Jeffrey Jeturian, who was supposed to direct what would become Zig’s first screenwriting job, Posas (2012). It won Best Picture at the Cinemalaya that year. Zig eventually had his chance to work with Jeturian in Ekstra starring Vilma Santos. His other screenplay credits include Kasal, Unfriend, Philippino Story, among others.  

According to his IMDB.com profile, Zig dabbled in directing as early as 2009, but the directorial work that first made a mark was the Gawad Urian Best Shortfilm winner M: Mother’s Maiden Name starring Zsa Zsa Padilla. It was a comedy-drama and in a way his tribute to his own mother. It was, however, a painful film to do because his mother and No. 1 fan just passed away at that time. (His father died when he was very young.)

Zig said that almost all of his films are very personal to him, including his last indie, Bambanti (2015), which drew some inspiration from his growing-up years in a rural farming community in Isabela, Cagayan.   

“I also tried farming myself. You had no choice eh, because your family are farmers, then your home stands in the middle of a rice paddy. There are 11 of us siblings and I’m the 10th. I was the only one who attempted to leave home and come to Manila. Maybe I was just too ambitious. Dala yun ng TV kasi pag-nanonood ako ng TV, tuwang-tuwa ako.”

He recalled that there was only one TV set for their entire barangay. But it captured his imagination and fascinated him so much that he became addicted to TV shows like Maalaala Mo Kaya and Star Cinema films. “So, nangangarap ka talaga (you entertain these dreams) that someday you’ll get to write a film and tell these true-to-life stories.”