FEATURE: Being Inang
MANILA, Philippines - The funny thing about Olivia Lamasan is that before she became the unparalleled legend in the local film industry that she is today, she almost flunked out of film class.
A promising young student in Maryknoll college, Lamasan was primed to take the advertising world by storm. It was 1983 and finding job security was difficult to say the least, but Lamasan found herself entertaining three different offers from agencies in the early eighties. What nagged at her, however, was that her professor in Film Theories, Fr. Nick Cruz, SJ, almost failed her. She was dead set on proving him wrong and on proving to herself that she had something great to offer.
A member of the board of trustees of Maryknoll, Victor Ordoñez, asked her if she wanted to be a production assistant for an American film that was to be shot locally. Lamasan jumped at the chance. “I told my advertising mentor, just give me one project, just so I can prove Fr. Nick wrong. May yabang,” she says with a laugh. It was here, on the set of Nine Deaths Of The Ninja, that she met Charo Santos, then an associate producer, and Malou Santos, who was serving as field cashier. Lamasan would go on to do two more projects with Charo Santos, after which, an unlikely opportunity arose.
At the young age of 20, Lamasan was approached to head a television division; the gleam and draw of the offer was hard to refuse. She readily accepted, which caused a bit of tension between her and Santos at the time. At her new position, Lamasan became an object of amusement once her staff realized she was completely wet behind the ears, with no experience at all under her belt. She recognized her own hubris, and owning her mistake, went back to mend fences with Santos, as well as to reclaim her job as a production assistant.
Discovering Film
“All I wanted to be was the best line producer there ever was, much like my mentor, Charo Santos-Concio,” Lamasan declares. She quotes her father’s favorite maxim, “A rolling stone gathers no moss,” in explaining her decision to forget advertising altogether and focus on becoming a killer line producer. “But when I closed the other doors and forgot about things like revenge, I started seeing what film was all about and what it could offer. Film was the medium of entertainment, even for the (class) D/E (demographic). I saw the effect it had on people’s lives, but I never thought that I would become a director.”
But the doors would open for her again in unexpected ways, when she found herself caught between a rock and a hard place. Lamasan was already a line producer, working with Laurice Guillen, who had requested some major revisions on a script. The writer in question did not want to adjust their work, and so Lamasan, to keep the film in production, revised it herself. The Santos women took note of her talent and asked her to write more, which she begrudgingly agreed to do, and they later convinced her that she had what it took to direct.
“Before I started as a director, every time Charo would appear on Maalaala Mo Kaya, she’d request for me. Kasi ako napapaiyak ko siya, and she’d say, ‘Punta ka rito sa set kasi hindi ako mapaiyak ng direktor.’ Maybe because may friendship kami, so I knew which buttons to push, but that’s where it all started.” Lamasan got her toes wet with the 1994 feature film Maalaala Mo Kaya, and the rest, as they say, is history.
10 Films Later
Thirty-two years and over 10 feature films under her belt later, Lamasan is not the best line producer there ever was. She is, however, one of the most respected writers, directors and producers in the industry. Having helped groom a stable of directors and writers, combined with her fierce but nurturing disposition, she is affectionately referred to by most as “Inang.” And being Inang comes with its own set of misconceptions, which she constantly takes on with every project that makes it into her hands. “Being a corporate officer with this network, the common misconception is that I’m spoiled. I can get away with anything that I want, or that they would always say yes to anything I want. On the contrary, because I am with them, I know the system and processes, mas malaki yung expectations for me to know the processes and the limitations. Unknown to them, whenever there’s an interlock and they watch my film and they make their comments, I always cry. Even as someone who’s helped put the system in place, I still get affected and I have feelings. I’m a human being. Ang laki ng expectation for me to deliver for the company.”
But she has, having told some of the most real and human love stories that have graced the local silver screen. In fact, Lamasan’s true strength has been telling the stories of people usually unseen in local romantic films. The heroes of her films are not shiny advertising executives or doctors and lawyers, but OFWs scrubbing toilets and wiping up octogenarian’s behinds to make a better life, a gay couple trying to find their way through tough times, mistresses who never intended to be what they’d become, or a second wife adjusting to everyone else’s sensitivities. In a world of formulaic romantic comedies, Lamasan’s work is usually a breath of more nuanced air. “I’m very much interested in people,” says Lamasan. “Part ng pagiging human being is your strength as well as your weaknesses. So siguro I always tell my story. I recognize myself as a human being with strength and vulnerabilities. Not always consciously, but nailalabas ko yan, na ang tao na to isn’t perfect. But ‘pag tinignan mo ang tao, it’s both; there’s a bright and a dark side.” She takes on a mysterious yet girlish air when asked how much she relates to her characters, and with a cheeky little laugh says, “I’m in every film. If you know me, I’m always there.”
‘A Love Untold’
Lamasan’s latest work is in local cinemas, its title conveniently coinciding with its location: Barcelona: A Love Untold. She talks about the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia, the unfinished church designed by Antoni Gaudi, as the central symbol for a love that seems to have no end. She sings the praises of her main cast, the illustrious Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, otherwise referred to as “KathNiel.” While Lamasan hates being asked about what makes a good love team, she humors us by reflecting that most great love teams she’s worked with possess “genuine attraction, may it be expressed or not.” Whether or not this is apparent between Padilla and Bernardo, she gives a smile and says there is something there, and that it is their authenticity as a unit that keeps drawing audiences to screens.
Lamasan also discusses the age gap between her and her cast, saying she’s grateful for their input in making the story what it needed to be. “I’m not a millennial, I’m 52, and my characters are. So I allow for it to be a collaborative effort, and ang swerte ko kasi ang tatalino nila. I learned so much from them… who they are, how they react to certain situations, how there is such a great need for millennials to achieve something and for recognition. Ang lakas ng need for instant gratification, and the frustration level is really great, and because of that, the characters make decisions that people from my generation would never think of. During the interlock, those from my generation didn’t really understand what the main character’s conflict was, while the millennials were crying and could relate immediately. And that’s what I think is great na nailabas namin from the film, is to get people to agree and disagree, and then discuss.”
Despite the differences in the industry from when she began until now, there are certain things about filmmaking that Lamasan has fallen in love with, unlikely to ever change. “For me, it’s usually a live set. Direk Marilou (Diaz-Abaya) used to say that, and it’s true. Sometimes DJ (Daniel Padilla) would give me something different, and I’d have to call the writer and tell her, ‘This is how it’s going to happen now.’ I allow my characters to grow, and in several movies, ito yung akala kong mangyayari or pupuntahan. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. And when it does not, a magical thing happens and it becomes something better.” She pauses for a while, and with a romantic sparkle in her eye, says, “Movie making is really magic, if you allow it to be so.”
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