Direk Rory: Triumph of the spirit

When Anak was shown two years ago, its director, Rory Quintos, was caught flat-footed. She didn’t expect her film to fare that well, not only in local theaters but in Hong Kong as well, where it premiered to a packed audience of OFWs.

The director herself does not follow a set formula for a hit movie. All the UP Broadcast Communication graduate knows is that her films should focus on the triumph of the human spirit.

The spirit, after all, is where it all started for Direk Rory when she was growing up in a family steeped in faith. No, her parents didn’t rub it in on her. Neither did an uncle who was a priest and another member of the family who happened to be a nun. But the feeling caught on until she reached adulthood.

So fascinated was Direk Rory about things of the spirit she even dabbled in yoga, pranic healing, astral travel, the works, in her early 30’s.

"I call that stage of my life, at 33, the age of crucifixion. Everyone goes through a period of crisis. In my case, I resolved it after I came to terms with my life," she says.

That done, it was time for her to buckle down to the work at hand. Together with Olivia Lamasan, she belonged to the first batch of directors Star Cinema launched to helm its various projects.

"Olive and I happened to be at the right place at the right time," direk Rory humbly explains her rise to prominence in the filmmaking firmament.

It was Nora Aunor, whom she worked with in Star Drama Theater, who first noticed the makings of a director in the then unknown tapped to help take charge of the drama series.

"Nora told me I’ll be a director someday," direk Rory recalls.

The prediction, as we know by now, came true.

In 1992, she directed the Aga Muhlach-Dayanara Torres starrer Basta’t Kasama Kita. The light romance Mangarap Ka, followed in 1995.

Direk Rory is not the type who churns out movies one after the other just to remain visible in the movie scene. Neither does she rush headlong and embrace trends just to be in.

She does not, as a matter of principle for instance, make bold films. Never mind if they’re the flavor of the season. Direk Rory’s belief about extolling the human spirit runs counter to that.

"Two movies a year tire me out. Besides, unlike before when I felt nervous on the set, I am much more relaxed now," she says.

The scenario was a lot more different years back.

"I used to lose my temper whenever actors come in late," she recalls.

The 40-year-old director used to be star-struck. It got to a point where Star Cinema Managing Director Malou Santos actually told Direk Rory, "Get over it!"

She was then directing the highly-acclaimed Anak.

"I couldn’t direct for one whole week," she laughs at the situation now.

Vilma herself was amused when her director made a clean breast of her dilemma.

Today, Direk Rory treats her stars, including two of her favorites, Aga Muhlach and Claudine Barretto (of Kailangan Kita), with the cool objectivity of a teacher mentoring her students.

Direk Rory has put her star-struck ways behind her. She has learned to let her hair down, on and off the set. Aga and Claudine, whom she has directed more than once, for instance, are friends.

Direk Rory has gone swimming and marketing with them while shooting Kailangan Kita, her eighth film under Star Cinema, in faraway Bicol.

She knows the Bicol delicacy laing is Aga’s comfort food and Claudine needed a month’s leave from shooting Kailangan Kita after Rico Yan died that fateful Good Friday.

"That’s why we had to extend our shooting (the movie took all of seven months to finish)," the director explains.

Another factor that contributed to the prolonged working period is Direk Rory’s passion for details. She is known to require many shots per scene, the better to have an array of choices for that one perfect angle that would best exude just the right feeling she wishes to convey on screen.

It’s the joy of creating all over again – the one that pushed her to become a director in the first place.

"If I want a blue sofa, I can have it," she explains, eyes dancing with excitement.

You can imagine not only those eyes dancing, but her whole face lighting up with great expectations as she stands behind her camera to conjure all sorts of angles and scenarios only she, with her flair for visual drama, can create.