Ex Press (2011, Jet Leyco)

The first few scenes feature things that may have come straight from the movie Bridge on the River Kwai. Scores of guys are working on the railroad tracks. But, is this a test run for the train? It took me a long time to learn that the train was stranded because of washed out tracks. A more experienced director would have told us immediately of this fact via throwaway dialogue or through brief chat by irritated passengers.

The inexperience of the director also shows in what seems to be a tendency to show off. But, since this is an undergraduate production thesis, I kind of understand the filmmaker’s eagerness to please. The arty shots practically scream technical expertise. Luscious color scenes are interspersed with some beautiful black-&-white shots. I grasped that these disjointed shots are some sort of memories by passengers and people living along the tracks. The problem with the mostly beautiful shots is not all memories are pleasant or clear.

While there may have been few cases of derailment, there are other unpleasant issues surrounding the Philippine National Railway’s operation of the Express route. The informal settlers living along the tracks treat the coaches as trash bins. They throw their garbage when the trains pass by. The plastic bags end up on top of the coaches. I’ve seen flat roofs being refurbished into triangular shape roofs in order to dislodge the plastic bags.

The squatters are also the main causes of vandalism and stoning incidents. This brings us to the major story arc of the film. A father, who works as a PNR security personnel in Bicol, mysteriously and suddenly resigns from his job. ‘Colonel’ Paliparan abruptly whisks off his family to Manila. His twin sons piece together the reason behind the resignation and relocation.

The elder Paliparan is tagged ‘Colonel’ for his wanton shootings of rowdy squatters. Every person he sees with stones on his/her hands is peppered with bullets. His gung-ho way of eliminating scumbags puts him in grave trouble.

There are bits and pieces of memories pertaining to a New People’s Army (NPA) member. He seems to be hunting down a person. Is this a reference to the NPA’s hatred and pursuit of ‘The Butcher’ aka Major General Jovito Palparan Jr.?

Ex Press started slowly but quickened its pace near the end. Leyco was so engrossed with his arty shots that he did not notice his film had long been derailed by this narcissism. The film ended up neither here nor there. It’s not heavenly great but it’s not hellishly poor. A crucial scene showing boys honing their stone throwing barely lift the film out of limbo. Movie is good enough for a one-way trip. 

Pahinga (2011, Khavn de la Cruz)

Work.  Family crises. Heartbreak. Natural disasters. Political hi-jinks.

Whew... We all need a breather once in a while.

Some go to concerts or karaoke bars to unwind. Cinephiles trek to movie festivals or line up their stash of DVDs. Book lovers curl up in bed to read novels or the latest comics.

Khavn de la Cruz does it differently than most of us. He chills out by blending music, film, and literature juices into a soothing drink. I haven’t seen Mondomanila but Paalam Aking Bulalakaw is a great example of his intoxicating brews. The latter is still my favorite ‘this is not a film’ hangover experience so far. Khavn’s latest brew Pahinga is not far behind. Both projects blur our definitions of what is a film, a poem, or a song. To quote the tagline of the .MOV International Film, Music & Literature Festival 2011, there are zero degrees of separation amongst film, music, and literature.

Pahinga (Breather) is a project made during a most difficult time for the de la Cruz family. Khavn’s father Leonardo is hospitalized due to lung cancer. In between regular trips to hospitals such as the National Kidney Transplant Institute, the prolific filmmaker takes a breather by shooting footages of places he go to and of people he meets. There are cameos by his friends including filmmakers John Torres and Lav Diaz, film critic Dodo Dayao, film archivist Ramon Nocon, and producer Kints Kintana. The names and places are usual suspects from his, and his barkada’s, films. His friends do their bit in shooting footages for his project. I noticed some scenes that were done the Raya Martin way (i.e. the birthday scenes recall Now Showing) and the John Torres way (i.e. the surreptitiously taken jeepney scene recalls Todo Todo Teros).

Some footage was taken by his nieces and nephew. Filmmaking becomes a way of relaxation and bonding for the de la Cruz clan. There are amusing and intimate hospital room scenes such as the tweens contorting their faces, a stage act that drew generous applause, Khavn’s mother belting out a song, and a heart-tugging cryptic charade. They are truly a close-knit clan with all members rowing in sync to weather a crisis. The sterile hospital rooms become a warm home because of the camaraderie, good vibes, and laughter in the air.

The heart of the project is an interview with the patriarch Leonardo. Broken down in snippets, we get a glimpse into the father-and-son relationship. The interview is, in turns, a reminiscing, an unraveling of a secret, and an admonition to find a true friend. I’m not sure if the younger de la Cruz has find that rare person but I’m sure that he, along with countless cinephiles, views cinema as a trusty companion that one can go to for comfort and rejuvenation.

During the premiere of Pahinga on September 1, 2011, Khavn’s mother and other family members came in attendance. His friends came in droves. His father, Leonardo, though, was not present, having died in July 2011. The elder de la Cruz should have been 65 years old exactly on September 3, 2011.

I’m not an expert on Khavn’s films having watched a mere handful but I believe Pahinga is one of Khavn’s best films so far. It is deeply personal yet paradoxically accessible due to scenes of familial love. It is brave and gentle. It takes guts to open your homes, hospital rooms, and minds to people. I admired Khavn for not going overboard with this openness. He wisely kept away from funeral or cemetery scenes. No one was seen crying. We were left with a gentle portrait of a lung cancer patient who bravely, and merrily, merrily, merrily accepted his illness and impending mortality.

4th Silvershorts.MOV Short Films

The crop of finalists for the 4^th Silvershorts.MOV Short Film competition is a mixed bag of documentaries, comedy, fantasy, and lots of romance. The two documentaries get a big boost from their strong real-life characters. Undo is the more memorable one because of his colorful story. The affluent side of Gupit’s Ka Rene was not shown weakening the martyr, heroic part of the character.

The eight feature short films are technically good but each has their own noticeable shortcoming. Panty is well-casted but the ending could have been funnier. Lack of comedic timing spoils the punchline.

The AmBisyon 2010 short film Dahil Sa ‘yo is beautifully shot but the philosophical story is a bit meeh. An old man who has cut up all his banana trees save for one gets bitten by the love bug.

Man-woman relationship in various forms and stages are tackled by Coverage, Hindi Sa Atin Ang Buwan, and Man of the House. Love for country is debated in Patlang. Numbalikdiwa and Panibugho feature artists encountering life-changing events.

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Coverage (Jan Philippe Carpio)

A couple tries to fight their feelings for one another. In the Mood for Love meets Hayden Kho.

Dahil Sa ‘yo (Gym Lumbera)

Saging lang ang may puso. Saging din lang ang makakabighani sa isang pusong sawi.

Gupit (Mark Mirabuenos)

This is a documentary on Ka Rene, a barber and suave member of the singing group Los Tomadores. Pales in comparison to similar Undo.

Hindi Sa Atin Ang Buwan (Jon Lazam)

Suitor rides a boat, bus, taxi, and even flies to the skies only to be with his beloved lady. But, the unreachable moon is not theirs. *** Update: Grand Prize, Silvershorts.MOV 2011

Man of the House (Chuck Hipol)

According to craftily-made television advertisements, Christmas season is a happy, bountiful time for families. Just don’t tell it to dysfunctional families.

Numbalikdiwa (Richmond Garcia)

Part one

Part two

An elder guy confronts ghosts from his past.

Panibugho (Alvin Yapan)

A landscape artist hawks his oil paintings inside gated subdivisions. He covets a dashing sports bike left unattended. He rushes back home to seek out a special goose egg that will make him invisible. He then encounters a character from one of his paintings.

Panty (Timmy Harn)

A household without kids is menaced by mice and small rats. The woman is aghast to discover her things and undies in disarray. She suspects the rats as culprits. The woman gets confirmation when her pink panty stinks of a ‘playful rat.’ Ending could have been funnier.

Patlang (Jet Leyco)

An activist and an apathetic citizen fill in the blanks of what makes a good Filipino.

Undo (Lito Tabay)

Part one

Part two

This excellent documentary is a spontaneous composition of the colorful life of Cebu-based painter Vidal Alcoseba. 

Patlang (Jet Leyco | 4th Silvershorts.MOV Short Film Finalist)

You might have noticed the disappearance of several of your friends’ profile pictures from Facebook on August 30. It was part of efforts to raise awareness about desaparecidos or enforced disappearances. High-profile cases in the Philippines involve two University of the Philippines students, Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, and Jonas Burgos.

Relatives of victims of enforced disappearances suffer strong emotional stress. Just imagine being unfriended without notice. It hurts badly. What more when a person you know is forcibly made to disappear. You don’t know where to start looking at or who to contact. Lav Diaz’s Melancholia does a great job of portraying the anxiety, confusion, pain, numbness, and hopelessness of relatives of victims.

Jet Leyco wisely chose not to focus on the relatives of victims. His film Patlang (Blank) starts with mere images of a distraught woman, possibly lover of a desaparecido. The filmmaker then takes viewers into the mindset of the desaparecido. The latter is basically a pro-country guy. He cares and fights for the rights of marginalized people. He joins rallies and election activities. He deplores the mendicant system in our society. Sometimes, his pro-poor acts are misconstrued as acts of a communist, which makes him a target of military hawks.

His calls for change, make that destruction, of the system ruffle the feathers of those in power. The latter employs various means of muffling the voices of these activists. Enforced disappearance is a ruthless, despicable way of eliminating dissent.

Jet Leyco’s brave and competent film Patlang borrows the structure and main idea of Aissa Penafiel’s Long Live the Fearless Man. Both films highlight the importance of speaking out against injustice, apathy, and heinous crimes such as the unsolved September 1, 2009 killings of Alexis Tioseco and his girlfriend Nika Bohinc. Leyco bookends his film with homages to Lav Diaz’s Melancholia. The scene showing the wounded activist on the run has traces of Lav Diaz in it. The lush ambient sound, the crouching point-of-view cinematography, and the lonely, wounded man are constant elements in Diaz’s films.

Jet Leyco's debut feature film Ex Press will have its premiere at the 4^th .MOV film festival.