Independent cinema’s 40-year rewrite

The Mowelfund Film Institute celebrates four decades of Philippine independent cinema. The first-ever indie film and video festival was held in the now-defunct Wave theater at Araneta Center in 1986. Now the guardian of cinema’s free spirits sees fit to look back, take stock, set new directions for a no longer nascent movement constantly seeking new inspiration while in the midst of a rewrite.

Every last Friday of the month from May to September, the Mowelfund Film Institute in off-grid Cubao is celebrating 40 years of independent cinema, Philippine chapter. The first Independent Film and Video Festival was, after all, held in the now defunct Wave theater at Araneta Center in 1986, fresh off the EDSA revolution, and now the guardian of cinema’s free spirits sees fit to look back, take stock, set new directions for a no longer nascent movement constantly seeking new inspiration while in the midst of a rewrite.

Forty years ago, I wrote in Midweek magazine covering the Wave gig that “something can still be said for Philippine independent cinema.” We can recast that and say a whole novel in progress continues to unfold not only right before our eyes in the stone-cold Dengcar Theater on the sixth floor of a building on Rosario Drive cor. Ilang-ilang, near Bety Go Belmonte St., but also in the numerous independent film festivals from Cinemalaya to Sinag Maynila, to the Puregold-sponsored Cinepanalo down to the regional forays from young, bright and hitherto unheard-of directors wanting to make their mark in the constantly shifting landscape of film.

Independent film, by its very nature, is choosing to take the road less taken. It appears curators are in the right direction, as part of programs is Sari Dalena’s ‘Cinemartyrs.’

That same article mentions names still very much around, if not physically, at least their lasting influence: Raymond Red, who was never in the least overrated, holding director’s workshops, his “Ang Himpapawid” most probably germinating in his Philippine High School for the Arts days in Makiling; Roxlee, who once lamented the difficulty of transposing 16 mm to video, and the films “The Great Smoke” and “Juan Gapang” remaining cult favorites despite the advent of AI and the death of “Gapang” actor At Maculangan; Nick Deocampo, whose “Oliver” is being rescreened at Dengcar on the last Friday of June, part of the curated program Gendered Lenses, 40 years after it was shown at Wave because there needs to be a section for Faces of the Filipino Half-woman; even the late maverick director Tikoy Aguiluz, founder of Cinemanila that brought the likes of Quentin Tarantino to our shores, and whose works like “Boatman,” “Asiong Salonga” and “Tadtarin” never fail to provoke audiences whether in international festivals or campus circuits.

Not to forget the father of Philippine independent cinema himself, Kidlat Tahimik, whose “Turumba” was screened at Mowelfund last Friday of May, part of the program From Seeds Sown by a Movement, no matter how many times you view it, there’s always something new to be seen hidden in its rough indie crevices, waiting to spring at you like an epiphany or a returned National Artist medallion, which Kidlat did in fact return his in protest of the too-GDP-oriented revision of the education curriculum.

In Wave, also in September 1986, was the premiere of Mike de Leon’s impressive maiden video effort, “Bilanggo sa Dilim,” “adapted from John Fowles’ novel The Collector, the film version of which, with Terrence Stamp and Samantha Eggar, was shown here 20 years ago (1966). The actors’ lips at times also had the color of fuchsia. But Rio Locsin, yes, she’s something else…”

Mes de Guzman and Sheron Dayoc’s ‘Mientras su Dormida’ (‘As He Sleeps’) starred the unforgettable Sue Prado.

What we want to see more of in the Mowelfund retrospective are more off-the-beaten-track films, at the risk of sounding redundant if not superfluous, independent film by its very nature and definition choosing to take the road less taken. It appears though the curators are in the right direction, i.e., the less taken one, as part of separate programs are the Dalena sisters, Kiri with the short “Red Saga” in May, and Sari with “Cinemartyrs” in June, can Aba and her sculptures and guitar be far behind? Maybe only if captured on film or video, which may not be one and the same, give or take a few shades of fuchsia.

Here’s kindergarten classmate Cynthia Estrada, 40 years removed in this rewrite: she wants to clarify the term “independent filmmaker.” This, she says, is one who makes films out of pocket, in which only Tikoy, Kidlat and Briccio Santos qualify, “because they don’t make movies out of taxpayers’ money.”

Briccio — now there’s a rare one, and a painter, too, and former head of the Film Development Council. Hilda (Koronel)’s cuckolded husband in “Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising.” In whose house in Magallanes Village we decided the winners of Cinemanila 2007, Lupita Kashiwahara and the gang all there a la verde, a la pobre. A la suerte, a la muerte. A la hoy, a la simple.

Also please see some films by Mes de Guzman and Sheron Dayoc, whose “Mientras su Dormida” starred the unforgettable Sue Prado, whom we saw for the first and last time on the sixth floor of the Mowelfund building. While she sleeps, the screenings go on and on, into the rock of ages.