Direk Romeo Candido: Brain drain in reverse

You may travel to the farthest corner of the world and explore the deepest sea. But you will always go back to your roots.

This, Romeo Candido will be the first to tell you. Born and raised in Canada to Filipino parents, Romeo has been staying in the Philippines for the past two years, hoping to stay for a couple of years more.

Reason: he has found so much of himself to rediscover. He may have that foreign twang and the balikbayan trademark of grasping but not speaking the language, but he is, deep inside, as Filipino as adobo.

He grew up in a home filled with Filipino folklore and music. He knows the sound of the kulintang and the beat of the pandanggo. His parents own the folk dance group Harana and Candido grew up performing in the family shows.

Name any Filipino dance, and he knows it by heart.

The aswang, the kapre, the manananggal and other Filipino supernatural characters are not foreign to him. He has even liberally sprinkled his acclaimed works with things Filipino.

Romeo’s directorial feature-length debut, Lolo’s Child, is the very first in Canada by a Filipino. It opened the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival in 2002 and has toured the world. The prolific artist was the first Filipino from abroad to win the prestigious Ishmael Bernal Award for Young Cinema for Lolo’s Child at the 2002 Cinemanila International Filmfest.

His short documentaries, Dancers! Pick Up Your Bamboos!, a homage to the Filipino folk dance, and Kuya Medley, about a Toronto-based Filipino R ’n B group, have toured filmfests around the world.

His multimedia show, The Romeo Candido Karaoke Show, was mounted in Vancouver, Chicago and Washington D.C.

His credits are just as impressive in TV production. Romeo co-created, co-wrote and directed a TV series pilot set in a real neighborhood in downtown Toronto called St. Jamestown. It aired nationally on Vision TV Canada.

Direk Romeo’s ear for music has made him create the original score and sound design for the new play Banana Boys. It earned him a Dora Award nomination (Canadian equivalent of the Tony) for Best Original Score/Sound Design.

He performed as part of the Miss Saigon dance ensemble in – where else – Canada.

Last year, Romeo did what was to be his passport for a protracted stay in the Philippines: a short film called Rolling Longaniza which aired all over Canada. The quirky short film is now touring the filmfest circuit.

"That film opened doors for me in the Philippines. I got an offer to do the Globe Gentext campaign here," he says over lunch in a Quezon City restaurant.

He has stayed put since, wrapping up work on Ang Pamana (The Inheritance), a supernatural thriller about a Canada-based Pinoy family returning to the sprawling Bulacan farm their matriarch bequeathed to them after she dies (hence the film’s title).

The film, shot in what direk Romeo believes is a haunted house in Bulacan, teems with Filipino folklore. No, you don’t see kapres, aswangs, etc., but the dark atmosphere is enough to give you the creeps, he explains.

Couple that with a full orchestra under the baton of Gerard Salonga nd a rich Dolby 5.1 surround sound, and you’re in for the horror ride of your life.

Direk Romeo’s second full-length feature film does not have the likes of Vilma Santos, Sharon Cuneta and Maricel Soriano in it. But he did it on purpose (the story is also his) because he wants to make a point.

"I want my film to be story and performance-driven, not star-driven," he says. That way, he hopes to change the way we see a movie and the reasons why troop to the theaters.

He is mighty proud of his cast, composed of Victor Neri, Ketchup Eusebio and Phoemela Baranda.

And direk Romeo has big plans for Pamana.

"I will market the film to Filipino communities around the world," he reveals. A vital target is the young generation, who may have lost touch with their roots and its rich culture. Thus, direk Romeo has come up with not one, but three Pamana MTVs to appeal to them.

He wrote one of the songs while alternative bands performed two of the three MTVs now being aired over MYX.

Direk Romeo’s efforts are reaping huge rewards. The Cinema Evaluation Board gave Pamana an A rating. Thus, its producer, Digital Sweatshop, Inc. headed by Romeo’s partner Caroline Mangosing, will get a 100 percent tax rebate.

"It’s very validating," its pleased director reacts.

This thumbs-up sign has raised his hopes for a Pamana 2, and chance to show foreign artists how it is to be a Filipino in Canada (where the film was partly shot).

It’s a rare case of brain drain in reverse. Direk Romeo’s burning patriotism could put to shame the many Filipinos who line up first thing in the morning outside the US Embassy to get that much-coveted visa. With more of his ilk around, our country has many reasons to hope once more.