Cinemalaya’s seasoned directors

MANILA, Philippines - Cinemalaya’s Directors Showcase category is in its third year, and it is reserved for filmmakers who have made at least three “commercially released films” in their career. It’s mostly in this sidebar that the lines are blurred between “indie” and “mainstream,” as the films feature actors and directors from big studios, like this year’s Ekstra starring Vilma Santos and directed by Jeffrey Jeturian, and last year’s Mga Munting Lihim starring Judy Ann Santos and directed by Jose Javier Reyes. Do these films do more than push Cinemalaya further into a wider audience? Meet this year’s five Directors Showcase finalists.

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Jerrold Tarog (‘Sana Dati’)

Weddings usually signify new beginnings, but in Tarog’s Sana Dati it’s also an event to exorcise ghosts from forever ago. In Sana Dati, a woman meets the brother of a deceased ex-lover during her wedding day. Links and stories unfurl as Andrea (played by Lovi Poe) surrenders to the guiles of a love lost, but Tarog crafts this story in such a way that the audience understands why she willingly loses herself to the grip of her past. Like the title implies, Sana Dati is about regrets and Tarog understands that each step to letting go is just as bittersweet as that tender moment that lies at the core of our memories of great love.

Gil Portes (‘Liars’)

Liars was originally a Cinemalaya reject. Gil Portes recalls how he submitted the script as The Champions for consideration a few years ago but was turned down by the selection committee. Portes held on to his script, until writer Senedy Que called him up during the last day of submissions of this year’s Cinemalaya to send in the script at the last minute. Although Liars reunites him with his muse Alessandra De Rossi, who began their collaboration in Mga Munting Tinig (2002), it’s the two child actors (who play baseball players Dante and Ato) who carry the rest of the film with their story of friendship. Inspired by real events, Liars spotlights the gnawing corruption that plagues our country’s sports industry and how it tramples on the hopes of a small community.

Jeffrey Jeturian and Vilma Santos (‘Ekstra’)

It won’t be easy to strip down Vilma Santos’s image as the “Star for All Seasons,” but Jeturian makes it seem plausible in Ekstra. Santos plays Loida, a lowly bit player with big aspirations, struggling her way through a teleserye shoot. Jeturian follows Loida and her fellow talents as they bow down in the presence of the celebrities they worship, while exposing the faults behind-the-scenes of the teleseryes that we’ve come to love. Jokes roll by at the expense of these extras and middlemen toiling under the heat and tension, just to finish sequences for airing the same day; but Jeturian never wavers from his unflinching gaze on consumerism and its hold over people like Loida and her co-talents, and the dreams that they all try to hold on to in its undertow.

Cesar Evangelista and Althea Vega (‘Amor Y Muerte’)

Cesar Evangelista’s first film in decades is a raunchy romp into our history as it tells a tale of forbidden love, sexuality, and religion during 16th-century Philippines. Evangelista puts actress Althea Vega in the spotlight as a Filipina beauty whose fire cannot be contained or quenched. Since her first role in Walang Kawala (2008), Vega, often compared to Tetchie Agbayani, has gradually stepped out of the supporting limbo into more mature lead roles such as in Ivy Universe Baldoza’s Mga Anino sa Tanghaling Tapat. Playing Amor in Amor Y Muerte is her biggest role yet and Evangelista gives her plenty of room (and pumping sex scenes) to celebrate her becoming an actress to watch out for.

Adolfo Alix Jr. and Angel Aquino (‘Porno’)

Porno draws in viewers with its promise of sexually explicit content, but what the audience doesn’t expect is a terrifying distillation of a world where the ghost colors of pornography shield you from the ills of the real world. Alix parses the line between escapism and corruption through a triptych of stories involving a hitman, a porn dubber, and a transgender woman (played by a magnificent Angel Aquino) — all linked by a seemingly cursed pornographic video. And by the time the title card confronts us with its big, bold letters of cyclic perversion, we’ll have settled in for a ride that’s as paralyzing as no other creature feature.