http://www.asianjournal.com/?c=107&a=29716
Anita Linda goes to her first international film fest
LOS ANGELES - Anita Linda is “very nervous and at the same time, very happy to be with us to present ‘Adela’ in Toronto,” director Adolfo Alix Jr. recently told us via e-mail about his and the actress’ attendance in the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). “It’s her first trip to an international film festival, so we hope she enjoys it. We also plan to take her to other film fests where ‘Adela’ will be screened this year.”
Fil-Canadians and cineastes can check out Alix’’s film starring Anita playing a woman whose solitary observance of her 80th birthday leads to a reflection on family, society and relationships, on Saturday, Sept. 5, 8 p.m. at AMC 9; Sunday, Sept. 7, 9:15 p.m. at AMC 2, and Saturday, Sept. 13, 3 p.m. at AMC 1.
The three As—Anita (who’s 83 in real life), Adolfo and producer Arleen Cuevas, who will be in Toronto from Sept. 4 to 9—will grace the first two screenings of “Adela,” which is part of the Contemporary World Cinema program. “Our sales agent, Ryan Kampe and Sylvain Tron of Visit Films, will also be there,” Adolfo volunteered.
Rewarding experience
“I’m very excited to see how people would respond to ‘Adela,’” the 29-year-old writer-director enthused. “It’s a special film for me because working on it was a very rewarding experience for everybody. Having Anita Linda as our lead actress was truly a pleasure. It’s our tribute film to her. When Noel Ferrer, Arleen and I decided to do this movie, we felt that Tita Alice (Anita) deserved a film that would show her at her best. She has been part of the industry for a long time. She worked with the country’s best directors—Lamberto Avellana, Gerry de Leon, Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal. As a young director, It was a learning experience to work with a legend like her.”
“Adela” also stars Iza Calzado (who was shooting Yam Laranas’ “The Echo” in Toronto during the TIFF last year), Perla Bautista, Ricky Davao, Angeli Bayani, Joem Bascon, Jason Abalos, Kenneth Ocampo and Arnold Reyes. The film is the seventh feature from the prolific filmmaker since his debut feature, “Donsol,” which was screened in various film festivals and was the Philippines’ official entry in the 2007 Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film category. Since 2006, Adolfo also directed “Kadin,” “Tambolista,” “Nars,” “Batanes” and “Daybreak.”
Of his first participation in what has grown to become one of the world’s major festivals, the Makati native said, “We’re happy to have the international premiere of ‘Adela’ at the TIFF after opening the 2008 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. It’s my first time to have a movie screened in Toronto, although as a scriptwriter, two of my films were featured there before—Carlos Siguion-Reyna’s ‘Kahapon May Dalawang Bata’ in 1999 (which was one of the winners in the festival’s People’s Choice Awards) and Gil Portes’ ‘Mga Munting Tinig’ in 2002.”
Adolfo, a magna cum laude graduate with a degree in mass communications from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, shared that he’s also looking forward to watching films in the Canadian event.
On the late Lino Brocka’s “Bayan Ko: Kapit Sa Patalim” being featured in the TIFF’s “Dialogue: Talking With Pictures” program, Adolfo said: “I think every Filipino filmmaker looks up to Brocka. He paved the way for the rest of us. I admire the honesty of his films and how he cared for the welfare of everybody on the set, as well as those in the film industry. He fought for what he believed in.” Another Pinoy director highlighted in the TIFF is Dante Mendoza, whose “Serbis” is an official selection in the Vanguard program.
Tribute
Adolfo revealed his own cinematic tribute to Brocka: “Right now, we’re in production of ‘Manila,’ a twin bill I’m doing with Raya Martin, which is inspired by Ishmael Bernal’s ‘Manila by Night’ and Brocka’s ‘Jaguar.’ Both stories will be topbilled by Piolo Pascual. I’m doing the re-telling of ‘Jaguar.’ I saw some of Brocka’s films before I started working on the project, and I felt that his best works—including ‘Bayan Ko’—are truly timeless. The issues he tackled then are still relevant now. He made simple films, but their messages still ring loud and clear!”
(inquirer.net)
Saturday, August 30, 2008
2 BREAKS FOR VENICE SCREENING OF EIGHT-HOUR FILM BY LAV DIAZ
Only in Hollywood
2 breaks for Venice screening of eight-hour film by Lav Diaz
LOS ANGELES — Living up to his reputation as the Filipino auteur of epic-length films, Lav Diaz told us via e-mail that his “Melancholia,” which closes the Orizzonti (Horizons) sidebar of the ongoing Venice Film Festival on Sept. 6, runs almost eight hours. The Orizzonti folks have decided to screen the film with two breaks.
“Melancholia” is scheduled to have its press screenings today and tomorrow while Francis Xavier E. Pasion’s “Jay” officially opens Orizzonti also today. Francis told us that he, “Jay” lead actor Baron Geisler and actor-cinematographer Carlo Mendoza will wear barong. “Jay” was shown to the media yesterday.
In this age of instant gratification, when our attention span is getting shorter, and where everything has to go faster, Lav’s marathon films are an oddity. He is one of the very few directors in the world who make films that run as long as, or longer than, most people’s workdays. These days, any film that runs longer than two hours is already considered long. So most people’s jaws drop when we tell them about Lav and his films which usually last eight or nine hours or even longer. His “Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino” clocks in at a staggering 10 hours plus.
“Five hours lang ang ‘Batang West Side,’” the long-haired filmmaker, who turns 50 in December, wrote about his New Jersey-shot movie in one of his e-mails. Note the “lang.”
Lav’s “Death in the Land of Encantos,” which also closed Orizzonti last year and won a Special Mention prize, is nine hours long. Perhaps not meaning to allude to the length of his entry, Lav exclaimed “Long live Philippine cinema!” in his acceptance speech at the awards night.
So we asked Lav if the Venice film fest (Mostra Internationale d’Arte Cinematografica, in Italian) will screen his entry with breaks this time around. “The programmers requested for two breaks,” he answered. “Okay lang. Ayoko sana pero mapilit sila. My films are really meant to be seen in one sitting para may tamang immersion. There were no breaks during the screening of ‘Encantos’ last year. People who really follow my work do not like breaks. But I do understand the concerns of the programmers. They want the audience to be comfortable. Who can argue with comfort, man?”
Questions raised
It probably does take eight hours to answer the following questions which are raised in “Melancholia,” according to its creator: “Why is there so much sadness and too much madness in this world? Is happiness just a concept? Is living just a process to measure man’s pain?”
When we asked what was memorable about the marathon screening last year, the prolific filmmaker replied, “Besides the sight of people bringing food and other ‘tools’ to prepare for the experience or battle, one really interesting incident was when a young man, in his early twenties, came to me after the showing of ‘Encantos.’ Almost in tears, he told me that he is a Filipino who has never been to the islands, that he became really a Filipino after watching the film, and that he wants to go ‘home.’”
As for the plus or minus side of having the closing entry, Lav said, “The advantage of having my films closing the Orizzonti is that I have more room or time to edit the film. I have this nasty habit of shooting and shooting until I would realize that the deadline is right in front of my door. The disadvantage, of course, is that when it’s closing time, that means more than half of the festival attendees have left by then.”
Film delegation
The Cotabato native wanted to bring seven from the cast and crew to the festival on the Lido but as we write this, he informed us of the latest development after his meeting with the Film Development Council of the Philippines: “May tiket na kami ng eroplano. Tatlo ang inaprubahang lilipad. Nakiusap ako na magdagdag pa ng isa. Heto ang lineup—ako, Angeli Bayani (actress), Perry Dizon (actor) at Kristine Kintana (production supervisor). Nag-sorry ako sa iba. We decided na i-divide na lang, sa ibang festivals naman ang iba.” The “Melancholia” delegation leaves Manila on Sept. 3 and will be in Venice until Sept. 7.
Lav had hoped to also bring Roeder (actor), Dante Perez (actor/production designer), Jay Ramirez (technical supervisor) and Emman dela Cruz (actor/documentarian). “I tried to bring all this people para exposure at workshop nila,” he explained. “It’s not really healthy na director at producer lang ang pumupunta sa festivals. We need to expose our people para lumawak ang kamalayan, para mas may tamang cultural interaction man lang, or simply, an extension of their film education. Festivals are great venues for this.”
“Having two Filipino films for this year’s Mostra is a great sign,” he said of the Venice event’s inclusion of “Melancholia” and “Jay” in its “Orizzonti” sidebar. “Nagbubukas na talaga sila.”
No television
He added, “I haven’t seen ‘Jay.’ I want to watch it. I learned it has a very intriguing subject — television documentary programming, how it is done. I’ve worked with television before. I hate TV. It’s a f***ing poison to the soul. Wala akong telebisyon mula pa noong 1992. My house in New York and here in Manila have no television.”
The director, whose full name is Lavrente Indico Diaz, said of his colleague, “I’ve seen Francis once or twice before pero di ko siya nakakausap. We visited the Italian embassy and had a meeting with critic/programmer Paolo Bertolin and Italian consul Emanuela Dasini a week after the news (of our films being selected to the Orizzonti) was announced. Doon ko lang siya nakausap.”
When we asked him how digital technology has energized Philippine cinema, he replied that it “liberated cinema. The deluge of new work, especially from very young and talented filmmakers like Francis Pasion, is a direct result of this. Liberation is the vision of all revolutions. Finally, art is not feudal, as shown by the digital revolution.”
Since their trip to Italy’s famed travel spot is short, Lav said that he and his group will “try to watch and watch films. But then our stay is really short. Five days lang kung pati biyahe. What can you do in three days? Maybe visit the spot where Thomas Mann wrote ‘Death in Venice.’ It’s right there at the Lido.”
Best joke
When he returns to Manila, Lav plans “to do the preproduction for my film on Gregoria de Jesus, the wife of the great Filipino, Andres Bonifacio. Or, shoot another film. Everything is organic.” We bet that whatever he decides to shoot next, it will run longer than two hours.
We prodded Lav to volunteer the best joke that he has heard about his propensity to make long films. He answered, “Somebody said, ‘Everything is long with Lav.’”
Long live Philippine cinema and its current crop of auteurs, indeed!
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.
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