It was a difficult and bloody process going through the screenplays that averaged around 100 pages each, and offhand there were at least 13 scripts worthy to be put on screen. Even then, those who would not make it still had every reason to continue, it’s just a matter of looking for other sources of funding. One of those who didn’t make it to the semis was even proud of having been rejected by Cinemalaya, and said that his film would push through after drawing a list of actors.
Some familiar names appeared and should probably be considered as shoo-ins: Aureaus Solito of Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros fame submitted "Pisay"; Adolf Alix of Donsol this time came up with "Gima, the Goat"; while Paolo Villaluna of Ilusyon was tapped to direct "Broken Chords."
"Pisay" will be Solito’s third film, after Maximo that was written by Michiko Yamamoto and the toast of the first Cinemalaya, and Tuli that was best picture in last year’s Cinemanila Digital Lokal. For a change high school kids will be depicted not as cute and brainless, but sensitive nerds in a time of social ferment in the years leading up to the first EDSA revolt.
From the breathtaking cinematography of Donsol, the prodigious Alix now takes us to the dizzying highlands of Batanes in "Gima," a sort of folk tale that could be deceptive in its rustic simplicity. We can almost see the long shots and the sweeping windswept landscape as a boy and his sister look for the missing family goat. A low-key, rather unexpected ending suggests that goodness is never lost in the hearts of the poor.
"Broken Chords" sounds like an underdog and a borderline case, it’s the type of movie that would be hard-put to gather a decent-size audience. But Villaluna is not one to harbor illusions that here is a good script about two friends who regularly meet at a hospital, both for different reasons. It’s unusual and not exactly a love story, and the folk singer could well settle on the face of Mario Magalona while the girl – why not Angel Aquino?
Also making an impression was "Paakyat, Pababa, Paikot-ikot" (original title "Sa Gawing Dito, Tabingi ang Mundo") co-written by Joel Ruiz and Monster Jimenez, with Arkeo Films to put up counterpart funding. These are the same guys that gave us Bigtime from the first Cinemalaya, and the new project features the same haphazard dry humor that characterized the earlier movie. It tells the somewhat parallel stories of a waiter and a schoolteacher whose lives are linked by a pubescent boy.
Yamamoto this time co-writes the script "Endo" with director Jade Castro, about the sad/happy lives of casual employees in department stores and similar establishments that terminate workers before they are made permanent and so make them forever ineligible for benefits. It’s an issue that always sort of bugged us like a bad conscience, and it comes as a relief to have it finally seen on the big screen in all its digital brevity.
A pair of dark horses that made it to my own dark shortlist are Ana Shy’s semi-documentary, part-autobiography of a rock and roll band manager in "Sa Wakas... Ang Simula" and Jay Abello’s maverick treatment of a town simpleton’s foray into romance when he imitates the handwriting of an OFW’s letters to his wife after the postal system breaks down. Shy, who has managed Asin among other big name bands, was among the filmmakers that went down to Guimaras to document the effects of the massive oil spill. It will be interesting how she ventures into full-length feature. Abello’s simpleton hero is too irresistible a protagonist, and echoes European filmmakers that employ the point of view of idiots and imbeciles not merely as a distraction.
Tagalog writer Jim Libiran tries out the brave new world of film with his screenplay "Tribu," on adolescent gang wars in Tondo, that could serve as a worthy counterpoint to "Pisay." Lots of suggestive sex and possibly graphic violence might give it a hard time getting past the more conservative censors, and Libiran gives no quarter in his staccato-like pacing reminiscent of City of God by the Brazilian Fernando Meirelles. Nice dialogue, too, by the character Jepjep who reminded us of Tado.
Written as a tribute to the late national artist Ishmael Bernal, "Sinungaling na Buwan" by Ed Lejano narrates the disparate, desperate lives of three people about to be deserted by their respective lovers. On paper it looks worthy of the old classic Bernal melodramas, those with Vilma and Boyet and their extramarital affairs. The rather hyperkinetic ending should be handled by a director with enough restraint and sensibility to be able to pull it off with maximum impact.
A tragicomedy of manners inhabits the screenplay "Hubad" to be directed by dancer Denisa Reyes and Mark Gary, whose last collaboration was the digital Sandalang Bahay. Here it is art imitating life imitating art, with the theater film couples Shamaine Centenera and Nonie Buencamino, Irma Adlawan and Dennis Marasigan playing themselves, or are they? The mistress of ceremonies is Denisa who also plays herself (or does she?) in this play within a film, or is it a film within a play; whatever, the dialectics of art come tantalizingly close to the edge in this one.
Other scripts that complete my shortlist are "2,999" which has one stolen pair of Imelda’s massive collection of shoes as an objective correlative of Rizal’s slippers lost to the tide of the river; "Tukso" which is like a revisionist Rashomon presenting somewhat conflicting versions of a crime in a subtle whodunit; and "I Have a Lantern" that chronicles the dying lantern-making business in Pampanga courtesy of a light drama that could also work well as a made-for-TV movie.
Also on the panel of judges are critic Nestor Torre, producer Robbie Tan and film editor Manet Dayrit. Jeff Jeturian was originally on the panel but had to beg off due to commitments abroad where his "Kubrador" is doing the endless rounds of film festivals.