Fil-Am director discusses alienation in film

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Anthony Diaz V shared his first full-length film Break with his kababayan in a screening held yesterday at the Power Plant Mall Cinema 3. The film is the culmination of his creative narrative as young auteur — and the first step to bigger platforms like the Sundance Film Festival, founded by Robert Redford. Anthony has submitted Break to the festival. 

“I’ve always been passionate with film since I was a little kid,” recalled Anthony during an intimate group interview with select members of print media. “I would always have movie nights with my family or with my father… I was always interested in and wondering (about) the characters’ motivation and what they are in stories.”

That enthusiasm didn’t translate into an earlier foray into filmmaking, exploring its nitty-gritty. Anthony was sidetracked to theater.

“In theater, I was a big acting geek. I got bitten by the acting bug. I started out as an actor growing up. But then as I got older, around 12 to 13 years old, my dad bought me my first little cheap camera. That’s when I started creating stories by myself with my brothers and sisters and other family members. Then that’s when I started venturing out behind the camera.”

From being part of the stage ensemble, Anthony jumped over to the other side, so to speak, to be in charge of his film’s mise en scene — carefully crafting its look and tone.

“Shooting behind the camera is actually a lot of fun, like I can control the way I want my characters and the story’s motivation to flow. So that’s when I started becoming more versed in acting and directing.”

According to Anthony, most of his works are narratives, “Nothing, no documentary work like that.” He is showing his A-game as a narrator of a “moving fiction” but based on facts that he must have observed as an American adult and as a sojourner abroad.

“This is actually my first full-length feature,” said Anthony. “I’ve done a lot of short films in college and high school and middle school... I do stories that are very controversial. I like to do stories that actually people are afraid to tell. That’s my type of mantra.”

So far, the themes Anthony has explored range from racism to inequality (“Poor people vs. rich people”). In Break, Anthony shared, “It’s the Japanese mindset of thinking that they are supposedly  the superior race in terms of culture and lifestyle as compared to others. They think their society is a perfect society. For example in Break, I came here (in Japan) thinking I wanna show the ghetto side. I wanna show people that every culture or every country to go to has a ghetto side. And I wanted to bring that to the forefront. Because everybody that sees Japan, it’s always about cherry blossoms, kimonos... But I really like to raise questions in my stories. I really like to make people think when they leave the theater. Whether it is good or bad or they hated it, I want them to really think about what they just saw.”

As a director, Anthony said he feels that “I have a unique voice to be heard because I grew up in California and in some rough neighborhood of California and (I’ve been) traveling ever since I was a young kid with my father all over Asia. I’ve gotten to experience to see some parts of the world that not many people, even the young generation, have seen before. So I feel like I can be a voice for many different countries, for many different themes, for other people.”

Break started out as short film titled Lunch Break that Anthony made when he was 17 with friends in Las Vegas.

“It was just a short film...  I just decided to change the story a little bit, add some American flavor to it and mix that with Japanese culture, change dialogues and add some characters and make it a bit a grand story. The challenge with that was the language barrier. The language barrier was very hard. Nobody spoke English. With the (Japanese) actors, I had to train them to speak English. And I had to learn Japanese for my lines.”

Another “roadblock” Anthony had to hurdle was the fact that guerilla shooting is not allowed in Japan. However, his hard work paid off since Anthony’s film got an awesome reception from the Japanese who attended the private screening.

Like his influence Mel Gibson, Anthony starred in Break and he wrote, directed, edited and produced it.

“I’m the central character,” he said. “(He) is half-Japanese, half-American young boy. My mother is American. My father is Japanese. She is getting sick and dying of cancer. So we decide to move to Japan in order to seek better treatment for my mother. And sadly, my mother succumbs to cancer and dies. So, my father falls into depression. He can’t take care of me anymore and I’ve become more rebel.”

The struggles of his character do not end there. There’s the immediate community he is facing head-on. “So, my character has never learned the language, never adapted to the culture because he was born in America. In Japan, everything is so strict and straight. You have to bow, you have to say thank you, please. My ghetto side from America is interfering with the lifestyle of Japan. There’s a culture clash there. The people are telling my character, ‘You have to choose one or the other. Are you Japanese or are you American? You can’t be both. Which one are you?’ There is a big intercultural dimension.”

The feelings of loneliness and alienation (which are part of the internal struggles of Anthony’s character) and the family drama make the film relatable to places like the Philippines, whose people value family ties and have their own tales of diaspora in finding greener pastures.

Aside from Mel, whose visual style impresses Anthony, the filmmaker likes the works of Ben Affleck and Robert Rodriguez. “(While I was growing and up to this day, my influence) is Robert Rodriguez because of what he did in the independent movie scene, especially during the ’90s,” he said. “(What I have learned from him is) you don’t have to have a lot of money to make films. You use your creativity to get through your problems whether you have no money or no actors. It’s gonna force you to become a better artist and I really take that to heart. Ben Affleck has really a good eye for visual storytelling, especially with acting.” Anthony added that even though moviegoers don’t see it on screen, he thinks Ben knows how to give actors motivation.

After the Philippine screening of Break, Anthony will star in a film and do another one, which will be shot in Asia.

Behind the camera: Anthony considers Mel Gibson, Ben Affleck and Robert Rodriguez his influences. ‘I really like to raise questions in my stories. I really like people to think when they leave the theater.’