Faith, love, time & Marilou Diaz-Abaya

MANILA, Philippines - Less than a week before the showing of what might be her last film, Ikaw Ang Pag-ibig (now showing in 100 theaters all over the country), we saw a private screening of a documentary, The Accidental Filmmaker: A Tribute to Marilou Diaz-Abaya at the RCBC Theater in Makati City.

Written, directed and produced by Mona Lisa Yuchengco, the docu sums up 56 years of the director’s personal and film life.

Running close to two hours, the docu zeroes in on her landmark films (Brutal, Jose Rizal, Muro-Ami, Karnal, among others), her TV projects (Public Forum, etc.) and most of all, her views on art, life and her least known private sorrow  battling cancer since 2007 and now diagnosed of late as on Stage 4.

As it was, it was not easy watching a documentary on someone whose films you admire.

Her head covered and wearing a surgical mask, Abaya surprisingly looked strong but had been advised not to make physical contacts.

Before the screening, director Yuchengco said that the situation of the film director being thus, she thought it was time a life on Abaya is translated on screen.

After the Mass and before the screening, Abaya said she has long ago come face to face with the fact that she is now virtually in “the pre-departure area.”

As it were, the film summed up Abaya’s earthly existence for 56 years.

Before her film life, she was into the arts.

She was taking ballet lessons in her grade school days in St. Theresa’s, she was into theater in her college days in Assumption but then she loved teaching more than making films.

Through the years, she has maintained a high level of artistic collaboration with her husband (cinematographer Manolo Abaya), with her screenwriter (Ricky Lee) and with her actors (Cesar Montano, Jaime Fabregas, etc.).

Abaya is the inner voice of the documentary but her life is told by many people she respects and with whom she has worked with.

Lee said one can learn a lot just having a chat with Abaya, Montano pointed out the director’s penchant for details, Randy David recalls his “sartorial” makeover when Abaya asked him to host Public Forum at which time he stopped wearing sandals as advised by the TV director. Chingay Lagdameo who worked with Abaya during her Assumption days narrated Abaya’s foray into the arts started with her involvement with theater.

National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera said Abaya’s works connected with everything going on in the political and social life of a country in transition. 

But after everything about her film life is told, the docu confronts Abaya’s  continuing battle with cancer.

Abaya’s views on art and life are at once moving and yet, highly enlightening.

She said that when she found out she had cancer, she set out to prepare for it as a matter of course.

Even with that diagnosis, she immersed herself into teaching in her Antipolo film school, she got involved with causes that will help cancer victims cope with the uncertainties of a borrowed life and she managed to write, direct and co-produce what might turn out to be her last film, Ikaw Ang Pag-ibig now showing in theaters all over the country.

Mona Lisa Yuchengco sums up the director’s personal and film life in a documentary

To the docu director’s credit, Yuchengco was in complete control of her materials. The film has a natural flow from the director’s early struggles as film director to her coming to terms with her art and life.

Most importantly, the docu avoided scenes that will put Abaya’s condition as subject for melodrama.

To one’s relief, the film gave us an idea of a fulfilling life lived by the subject.

It glosses on the artist’s life with both heart and mind.

A few of Abaya’s views in the docu are really worth revisiting over and over.

One of which is that an artist’s life is not about trophies, awards and achievements.

Being an artist is not about money, she pointed out, although she perfectly understood the producer’s agenda.

She said being an artist is also about confronting art and life and their uncertainties.

Towards the end of the docu, Abaya said living is just another phase of her early life. She said she is well-prepared leaving her earthly body for a new phase of her spiritual existence.

Her parting words in the docu:

“It is easy to let go of all earthly concerns when you remain basically a child of God.”

Or words to that effect.

This is a landmark docu for Yuchengco who managed to capture an artist’s life in all its searing intensity  minus the emotional blackmail.

As it were, the docu helped process emotions that can go haywire with Abaya’s situation being what it is now.

I couldn’t help pressing Abaya’s hands after the screening and told her, “It’s a beautiful film.”