Film-making’s second wind

On Saturday, May 17, I had the opportunity to attend the May Arts Festival at the Marilou Diaz-Abaya Film Institute and Arts Center in Antipolo City. The guests—family, friends and students alike—came from all over the capital, and it was drizzling in some areas, raining hard in others.

As she graciously welcomed the guests and thanked them for coming “inspite of or because of the weather,” Direk Marilou herself pointed out that the Berlin International Film Festival, or The Berlinale, is held in cold, cold February for the reason that there is nothing else interesting to do outside. It sells 150,000 tickets each year—easily the biggest audience of any film fest in the world.

Three films were shown that day: two short films by first-time directors Javier Abola and Dominic Nuesa and a full-length one by Mo Zee. Abola and Nuesa are students at the institute, and Zee, who was a student of Direk Marilou at the Ateneo de Manila University, is an instructor there.

As Direk Marilou proudly introduced each film, it was apparent how much heart she put into each project. Her overwhelming pride was palpable, and it was expected, as in her introduction she said she considers herself an educator first and a director second—that her students’ films affirm her own admission that she may be a good director, but she’s even a better teacher. Personally, I think she’s great at both, but I understood why she said that. Her students’ films were all mind-blowing, in the sense that in them, you have a glimpse of things to come.

The first film, “Opo, Ma’m” (running time: 12 minutes), was directed by Javier Abola and written by Direk Marilou. It stars Vivian Velez and Nonie Buencamino. Velez plays Inez, a matronly widow, who is off to her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Buencamino portrays her driver Monching. On the way to the celebration, their moral values are challenged when they encounter a young victim of hit-and-run. The director deftly tells the story in a playful, even flippant manner, much like the way Vivian matter-of-factly rattles out the sordid events of her married life to her sounding board Monching. This makes her catharsis even more affecting.

After years of absence in the big screen, it was refreshing to see Velez again. A student at the institute who’d rather be behind the camera this time around, she said her arm had to be wrung for her to agree to star in the short film.

The second film, Mooncakes (running time: 17 minutes), was conceptualized and directed by Dominic Nuesa, with the screenplay written by Direk Marilou. It stars Wilson Go and Ina Feleo as Filipino Chinese father-daughter. Sarah wants to become a pastry chef, something her father doesn’t understand as they own their own Chinese bakery in Binondo specializing in making rare, traditional mooncakes. This puts a gap between the two, which builds up to an outburst about gratitude, obligation, tradition and identity, and leads to a harmonious convergence of all these when both are reminded of what’s important to them. Adding deeper layers to this film is the legend of mooncakes and the Chinese tradition of story telling. Nuesa’s strengths are powerful imagery and his apparent deep respect for the art of telling a story.

The last film, “Elegie” (running time: 1 hour and 26 minutes) is a much-awaited one. It was written and directed by Mo Zee. It stars rocker Marc Abaya as a manic-depressive virtuoso pianist who is almost driven insane by the sudden death of his parents. He withdraws from the conservatory, almost kills himself and is placed in a mental institution. When he is allowed to go home, under medication, he has lost his music and his drive to live. He finds his cure and his music in his brother’s girlfriend Helen (Monica Llamas). The film, which took four years to make, unfolds like a poem, and is a tribute to musicians, and all artists, and their relationship to art. The cherry on top is the amazing musical scoring by Nonong Buencamino. I’m sure we’ll hear more about “Elegie” soon, because it’ll surely make waves in the film fests and the indie scene.

Direk Marilou said that the Philippine film industry is not dead; it is only the kind of films it used to make that is. There is an ongoing rebirth, and from where I was seated in her institute last Saturday, things are looking pretty exciting.

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