ART ARCHIVE 02

CONTENTS

The Japan Foundation, Manila

ART ARCHIVE 02

A NEW AGE OF CONTEMPORARY
PHILIPPINE CINEMA AND LITERATURE
by Patricia Tumang

The Golden Ages
Retracing
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
Histories
ABOUT THE BOOKS WE KNOW

THE HISTORIC AND THE EPIC:
Contemporary Fiction from Mindanao
by John Bengan

PHILIPPINE COMICS:
Tradition and Innovation
by Roy Agustin

Movement& Performativity

Redefining Contemporary
Visual Art

SILLIMAN AND BEYOND:
A Look Inside the Writers’ Workshop
by Tara FT Sering

FESTIVALS AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATIONS
by Andrea Pasion-Flores

Third Waves

CURRENT FILM DISTRIBUTION TRENDS
IN THE PHILIPPINES
by Baby Ruth Villarama

by Patricia May B. Jurilla, PhD

NEW PERSPECTIVES:
Philippine Cinema at the Crossroads
by Nick Deocampo

Regional to National

DIGITAL DOCUMENTARY TRADITIONS
by Adjani Arumpac

Contributor Biographies

SMALL FILM, GLOBAL CONNECTIONS
by Patrick F. Campos
A THIRD WAVE:
Potential Future for Alternative Cinema
by Dodo Dayao
CREATING RIPPLES IN PHILIPPINE CINEMA:
The Rise of Regional Cinema
by Katrina Ross Tan

Directory of Philippine
Film and Literature
Institutions

ABOUT

ART ARCHIVE 02

The Japan Foundation is Japan’s only institution dedicatedto carrying out comprehensive international cultural exchange
programs throughout the world. With the objective of cultivating
friendship and ties between Japan and the world through culture,
language, and dialogue, the Japan Foundation creates global
opportunities to foster trust and mutual understanding.
As the 18th overseas office, The Japan Foundation, Manila
was founded in 1996, active in three focused areas: Arts andCulture; Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange; JapaneseLanguage Education.
This book is the second volume of the ART ARCHIVE series,
which explores the current trends and concerns in Philippine
contemporary art, published also in digital format for accessibility
and distribution on a global scale. This volume brings together
eleven writers from the Philippines, putting forth a diverse set ofperspectives about contemporary literature and film in the country.
With many creative talents, both genres have been drawing muchattention locally and globally but there is little publication to give
outline of their current states and interpret their background for the
global readers.
We hope that this publication will serve as a resource forour readers interested in Philippine art, thereby contributing
constructively to the dialogue on contemporary art in the region.
We would like to express our gratitude to the contributors and theeditorial team for their painstaking labor on this publication.
We would also like to thank you for your support of our second
volume and our projects in the arts and culture in the Philippines.
We look forward to your continued support in our succeeding
projects in the future.

The Japan Foundation, Manila
6

The Japan Foundation, Manila
October 20197

ART ARCHIVE 02

A New Ageof Contemporary
Philippine Cinema
and Literature

From the regional, and the national to the global, Philippine contemporarycinema and literature have amassed a multitude of diverse expressions, genres,and styles that reflect the personal, social, and political perspectives of theircreators and also the state of the nation.
The Japan Foundation, Manila’s ART ARCHIVE 02 is the second book in
a series that explores and extrapolates on current trends and concerns in
Philippine contemporary art, this time focusing on the country’s cinema andliterature. It aims to introduce readers to the history and development of these
two significant art forms and how they are expressed today.
The book features thought-provoking essays written by creative writers,
filmmakers, journalists, academics, professors, and experts in film, literature, andcreative writing scholarship, who bridge the past and the present while proposing

words by

PATRICIA TUMANG
8

new modes of thinking about, perceiving, and deconstructing Philippine film andliterature. The book also includes a curated directory of Philippine film and literary
institutions and resources.
9

INTRODUCTION

ART ARCHIVE 02

A NEW AGE OF CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE CINEMA AND LITERATURE

Just as ART ARCHIVE 01 sought to capture how

paradigms, Deocampo attempts to deconstruct theAndrea Pasion-Flores’s essay, “Festivals and Literary

Filipino artists respond to or create works in the current

complexity of the country’s film culture and local film

Imaginations,” explores the evolution of book publishingpolitical and socio-economic climate, the editorialindustry.

in the Philippines and the proliferation of local literary

vision of ART ARCHIVE 02 builds upon this framework

The next section, Regional to National, explores

festivals, particularly the Manila International Literary

to explore new avenues of artistic production and its

developments and issues in contemporary regional cinema

Festival, which she had organized for several years whenintersections with modern technology, distribution, andand literature. Patrick F. Campos’ essay “Small Film, Global

she was the Executive Director of the National Book

mass market appeal. For example, what impact do local

Connections” reveals how advances in digital technologies

Development Board.

and international festivals have on the recognition andand the advent of independent film festivals like Cinemalaya

We end with Baby Ruth Villarama’s essay “Current

reception of contemporary books and films? Given thehave led to big shifts in making films accessible, particularly

Film Distribution Trends in The Philippines,” which takes

rise of digital modes of production, how do emerging

enabling regional films to be shown to wider audiences.

a closer look at film distribution in the Philippine film

technologies affect not only how we perceive andKatrina Ross Tan delves into the history and emergence

consume these art forms, but also how filmmakers andof regional films in her essay “Creating Ripples in Philippine

writers engage in a creative process?

around the world.

Cinema: The Rise of Regional Cinema,” where she also

My hope is that the collection of essays presented

Guided by these inquiries, ART ARCHIVE 02 presents

writes about the issues and concerns in building a regional

here in ART ARCHIVE 02 will take readers on a journey ofa collection of thought-provoking essays that explores

film movement that has a larger impact on national film

discovery in learning about the critical issues, concerns,

the myriad of ways that Philippine contemporary cinema

culture.

trajectories, and possibilities that encompass theand literature are breaking new grounds in subject matter,

We continue with John Bengan’s essay “The Historicstyles, expressions, and forms. The title of the book series

and The Epic: Contemporary Fiction from Mindanao,” which— ART ARCHIVE — stems from the desire to document,

explores the factors that have contributed to the rise ofpresent, and preserve these insights and articulations incontemporary literature from Mindanao and in particular,

a compiled format.

recent works of fiction published in the last five years written

Functioning as both a primer and a survey, ARTrichness and diversity of Philippine contemporary cinema
and literature today. ■by writers from Mindanao.

ARCHIVE 02 is divided into three sections: The Golden

Tara FT Sering’s essay, “Silliman and Beyond: A Look

Ages, Regional to National, and Third Waves, interspersed

Inside The Writers’ Workshop,” recounts her firsthandwith the essays on film and literature. A golden age

experience as a young student in the Silliman Writers

describes a period of time when a specific art form or

Workshop in Dumaguete, where she learned about the

movement is at its height; the first section The Golden

writing life from the late founders Edilberto and Edith

Ages includes essays that examine these peaks ofTiempo, who was conferred the National Artist Award forPhilippine cinema and literature, alongside their ebbs andLiterature in 1999.

flows in larger historical contexts. Regional to National

The last section, Third Waves, introduces new

explores the emergence and reception of regionalinnovations and approaches in creating films andcinema, literature, and writing workshops in relation to theliterature in the Philippines. In Adjani Arumpac’s essay,“cultural capital” of Metro Manila. The final section, Third“Digital Documentary Traditions,” she writes about the

Waves, features essays that explore new expressions ofcinematic documentary tradition in the Philippines andfilm and literature, from digital indie documentaries to

its development at the intersections of workshops, local

graphic novels.

film festivals, collectives, and recognition by award-giving

We begin with the essay “What We Don’t Know About

10market, and its connections to cycles of film distribution

bodies and government institutions.

The Books We Know” by Patricia May B. Jurilla, which

In his essay “A Third Wave: Potential Future forretraces the history of popular Philippine literary works

Alternative Cinema,” Dodo Dayao makes a compelling casefrom the nineteenth century to present day, offering

for the existence of a Third Wave of Philippine experimental

an overview of Philippine history through the lens of its

cinema and recounts significant films from the First andliterature.

Second Waves of national cinema.

Nick Deocampo’s essay “New Perspectives: Philippine

Roy Agustin’s essay “Philippine Comics: Tradition

Cinema at the Crossroads” captures the heights thatand Innovation” provides an overview of the evolution ofPhilippine cinema has soared to over the past 100

Philippine comics, from editorial cartooning at the end of theyears, ever since Filipino film producer and director José

nineteenth century, where satirical magazines often featured

Nepomuceno set up the first local film studio in the Philippines

political caricatures and editorial cartoons criticizing thein 1917. Classifying Philippine cinema into four distinct

state of the nation, to present-day popular superhero comics.
11

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

WHAT WE DON’ T KNOWABOUT THE BOOKS WE KNOWPATRICIA MAY
B. JURILLA, PhD

Fig. 1Among the many fascinating features of literature

But there’s more to a literary work than the lively story

is its ability to come alive. If read well, a literary work

it tells. There are many other stories about and around it

springs into motion. Characters leap out of the page tothat have to do with the work’s coming to life—backstories,

become persons we love or hate, emulate or avoid, pity or

as it were, on its composition, publication, and reception.

blame. Settings pop out of paper, and we find ourselves

Some of our most important or popular literary works havetransported to other places, sometimes where we’vemuch to tell on how they came to be written, published,never been, and we see its sights, smell its scents, feeland read. Their stories offer information and insights

its temper and temperature. Plotlines extend out of the

not only on the books themselves but also on Philippine

margins to intertwine with our own comedies, dramas,

literature, history, and culture in general.

romances, adventures, and fantasies. Themes seepthrough the binding, and we are affirmed or challenged inour beliefs and values.
1213ART ARCHIVE 02

THE UNWIELDY TITLE
Take for instance Florante at Laura by Francisco Baltazar

Tagalog, Spanish, German, French, English, and Italian. But(Balagtas), which was published in 1838. A verse narrative

he was not very adept as a publisher. He did not set a fixed

about the travails of Florante, an Alabanian aristocrat-

price for the Noli, nor did he keep a record of its distribution

soldier, who battles heathens, saves his kingdom from eviland sales.6 As to be expected then, he did not make any

forces, and wins the hand of his beloved Laura, this is a

Fig. 1 1938. Maynila: Mga Aklatan ni Juliana Martinez. New

book that every Filipino who has gone to a local high schoolknows but probably did not read in its entirety. Its full titleof authorities in the Philippines, particularly the clergy, for2006. New York: Penguin Books.
Augenbraum.

its scathing depiction of corrupt Spanish friars. A special

is Pinagdaanang Buhay ni Florante at ni Laura sa kahariang

Fig. 2

Albania, kinuha sa madlang ‘cuadro historico’ o pinturangFig. 3 1959. Manila: Manlapaz Publishing.

nagsasabi sa mga nangyayari nang unang panahon sa

Trans. by Harold

1940. Manila: [Angela Manalang Gloria]. First edition.
Fig. 4 Title page. [Image: copy of the University of theimperio ng Grecia at tinula ng isang matuwain sa bersong
Tagalog (The History of Florante and Laura in the Kingdom

request of the Archbishop of Manila, declared the novel

1962. Manila: Alberto S. Florentino. Title page.

and unpatriotic, subversive of public order and harmful toFig. 6 2011. Tucson, AZ: Schaffner Press.

the Spanish Government and its administration of theseislands, in its political aspect.”7 The censors banned thebook in December 1887.

written by one who delights in Tagalog verse).
The full title now sounds dated and rather unwieldy,

El filibusterismo (Subversion), the sequel to the Noli,thus the preferred usage of its shortened version. But

was written and published overseas as well. In the Fili, Ibarra
RIZAL, INEPT PUBLISHER

during Balagtas’s time, the full title was quite fashionable, its
length and style following conventions that had prevailed inFig. 2

has transformed himself into the immensely wealthy and

The principal texts in the Philippine literary canon, whichpowerful Simoun, who carries out a sinister plot to incite a

are also required readings for Filipino students as mandated

revolution against the government in the Philippines. Rizal

then typically included not only the name of the work but

by law, are the novels Noli me tangere and El filibusterismo

finished writing the novel in Belgium in May 1891. Desperatealso its genre, a synopsis, the name and designation of the

by José Rizal. We know these books well, of course, andto get his book in print and nearly destitute, he moved

Western Europe since the sixteenth century. Titles of books

14committee of the University of Santo Tomas, formed at the“heretical, impious and scandalous in its religious aspect,

Library in Diliman, Quezon City)

relating events in ancient times in the Greek Empire and

It is unsurprising, too, that the Noli provoked the ire

Philippines Main Library in Diliman, Quezon City]
Fig. 5 [Image: copy of the University of the Philippines Mainof Albania, based on various ‘historical scenes’ or portraits

money out of it.

revised edition. Edited by Emiliano Rionda.
[Image: copy of the University of the Philippines Main
Library in Diliman, Quezon City]

author, the name and designation of the dedicatee, the nameread and taught as an allegory of the sufferings of the Filipino

surely have read them more (or more of them) than Florante

from Brussels to Ghent where printing was cheaper. Theof the person or institution who sponsored or approved thepeople under the oppressive Spanish colonial regime. It has

at Laura. What is perhaps not so well known is that Rizal

novel was cut drastically because of lack of funds, and its

publication of the work, the place of printing, the name ofnever gone out of print since it was first published, with overpublished these books himself.

publication was never entirely certain until Valentin Ventura,

the printer, and the date of printing—information that could

a hundred editions issued. It has been adapted into a novel,

In 1884, while in Spain, Rizal began writing a novel

another friend and fellow Filipino, sent Rizal money inwell fill up an entire page. Considering this, the full title ofa children’s picture book, and comic books. It has beenon contemporary Philippine society and politics. Its story

September to cover his printing bills.8 The Fili was published

Florante at Laura seems short and sweet. The composition

serialized in a periodical and issued in digital form as ancenters on Crisostomo Ibarra, an idealistic young manthat same month.

of the work, however, was anything but such.

e-text. It has been translated into Kapampangan, Visayan,

who returns to the Philippines after his studies in Spain

While more careful arrangements were made for its

Florante at Laura was written in prison.1 Balagtas was

Ibanag, Pangasinan, and Iloko—as well as in Spanish,

and becomes caught in the troubles of his homeland. Rizal

distribution, the Fili was not as successful as the Noli inserving a sentence beginning in 1835 or 1836. He had been

English, German, and French. It has also been performed

finished the novel some three years later when he was inreaching the Philippines undetected. Having heard of thejailed on charges allegedly trumped up by Mariano Capuli,

on stage as a play, a musical, an opera, and a ballet; it has

Germany studying ophthalmology. In February 1887, at thenovel’s existence, Spanish authorities were able to intercept

who was wealthy and powerful and who also happened

been made into a film and recorded as an audio book.

age of 26, he published it as Noli me tangere (Touch Me Not).

and destroy a bulk of the edition in Iloilo.9 The copies thatto be Balagtas’s rival in the courtship of Maria Asuncion

Unique as Florante at Laura is—for its survival among

Borrowing money from his friend and compatriot Maximo

saw entry into the country came through the post, sent fromRivera—the “Celia” to whom Florante at Laura was dedicatedBalagtas’s many writings, for its many varied adaptations

Viola, Rizal had the novel printed in Berlin in an edition ofHong Kong, Singapore, and Europe by Rizal’s friends.10

and whose initials appear in the dedicatory verses. Capuli

and translations, for its stature as one of the most important

2,000 copies. He sent copies to a select group of friends in

As in the case of Noli, Rizal did not make any profit

and Rivera eventually married. Balagtas stayed in jail until

literary works of the Philippines—it was actually a very

Europe, one to the Governor of the Philippines, and anotherfrom publishing the Fili. Both novels, which inspired the1838. Florante at Laura was published that same year, after

common work in its day in terms of its form. Florante andto the Archbishop of Manila; the rest of the copies were

Philippine Revolution against Spain, ultimately cost him his

his release.

Laura was written as an awit, a metrical romance with lines

crated for dispatch to Spain and the Philippines.2

life. While he did not even believe in the idea of revolution,

Around 1856 or 1857, Balagtas was again imprisoned,

made up of twelve syllables. The other metrical romance

It is estimated that 1,000 copies of the Noli, at most,

his commitment being to reforms in the Philippines andthis time for cutting off the hair of a housemaid. He wasform of Philippine literature is the corrido, with lines in eight

reached Filipino readers during Rizal’s lifetime.3 Smuggled

the assimilation of the country into Spain, he was charged,

released in 1860. Unemployed and impoverished, he spentsyllables. These types of works were the most popular

copies of the novel sold briskly at the shop La Gran Bretaña

found guilty, and executed for being the “principal organiser”

the remaining years of his life writing one literary work after

literary texts during the Spanish colonial period until thein Manila. With the rest of the edition held up in customs,of the uprising.11

another. He died in 1862. It is said that before his death, heearly decades of the twentieth century. Hundreds of titles

according to Rizal’s biographer Austin Coates, “Second-

As much as Rizal was an influential force in Philippine

strictly forbade any of his children from becoming poets,

were produced, with stories on fictional nobility of European

hand copies not more than a few days old were a week

politics, so was he in the literature of the nation. He became,claiming that it would be better for them to have their hands

kingdoms, saints and martyrs, and Filipino folklore andlater being sold as third-hand copies…”4 The books “hadas the literary scholar Resil B. Mojares notes, “a primary

cut off than to follow in his footsteps.

history. All of them are practically forgotten now except

pasted-on covers marked ‘Gems of Spanish Verse, Vol. II’,

example for writers who came after him”, and after the Nolior something equally innocuous.”5and the Fili, the novel went through “a vigorous existence,

Balagtas wrote numerous poems and more than afor Florante at Laura, which has become part of the literary

hundred plays in his lifetime, majority of which have been

canon of the nation and is required reading in Philippine

forgotten. But Florante at Laura has survived, having beenhigh schools.

Rizal was a man of many accomplishments and talents:

particularly in the native languages.”12

he was a physician, writer, and artist; he was fluent in
15

WHAT WE DON’T KNOWABOUT THE BOOKS WE KNOW

A COMMERCIAL CATASTROPHE
Banaag at Sikat by Lope K. Santos was one of theworks that came in the wake of Rizal’s novels. It is a story
about social injustice, depicting the cruelty of the rich andthe sufferings of the poor through the experiences andinsights of the friends Delfin and Felipe. Like most of theearly Tagalog novels, Banaag at Sikat (From Early Dawn toFull Light) first came out as a serial in a periodical, appearing
in regular installments in the newspaper Muling Pagsilang(Renaissance) from 1904 to 1906.
At this time, the novel was a new and exciting genre
for Filipinos. For centuries prior to this, under the Spanish
colonial rule, literature in the vernacular languages had
been largely limited to religious writings in traditionalverse forms due to the strict censorship enforced by the
Church and state. During the early years of the American

ART ARCHIVE 02

LYRICAL PIECES ABOUT A WOMAN’S PRIVATEPASSIONS
Poems by Angela Manalang Gloria may not be as wellknown as Santos’s novel, but it was a milestone itself in thehistory of Philippine literature in English. Manalang Gloria
was among the first generation of female students at the
University of the Philippines (UP), graduating summa cum
laude in 1929. She was also among the first generation ofFilipino writers in English. In 1940, she published Poems, acollection comprised of seventy-nine pieces. It was the firstand only pre-war anthology of poetry in English by a Filipina.
Manalang Gloria entered Poems in the Commonwealth
Literary Awards of 1940. It did not win, for the contest favoredFig. 4works of social significance and moral values. Poems,
which has been described as “a collection of lyrical pieces
exploring a woman’s private passions”, evidently did notadministration, with censorship relaxed and foreign novels
allowed entry into the country, Filipino writers enjoyed some
freedom of expression and discovered new models fortheir writing. A number of them became novelists almost

fit the bill.16 Moreover, parts of it were found objectionableinstantly; the reading public in turn took to fiction just as

if not offensive. One poem, “Querida,” was judged as notreadily. According to the Tagalog author Iñigo Ed. Regalado,

making much sense. Another, “Revolt from Hymen,” which

the serialized novels were so popular that readers bought

is about marital rape, was considered immoral, reportedly

the periodicals mainly for the fiction rather than the news.13

making the judges—all male—“see red.”17 In 1950, Poems

Inspired by this eager reception, Santos issued his firstwas re-published as a student edition. It included newnovel in book form at his own expense, just as some otherpoems, while the controversial ones from the first edition

early Tagalog novelists did with their own works. Banaag

were revised or omitted.

at Sikat was issued as a book in 1906. Santos had 10,000

Manalang Gloria and her work might have well been

copies in newsprint and 1,000 in book paper printed with theforgotten, or maybe just remained a footnote in Philippine

Imprenta McCullough.14 This self-publishing venture turned

literary history, if not for a sort of renaissance in the lateout to be a commercial catastrophe. Of the 11,000 copies,

twentieth century. In 1993, the Ateneo de Manila University

he managed to sell only 4,000. Being unable to pay for thePress published her biography by Edna Zapanta Manlapaz

rest of the unsold books, Santos was charged in court byand the complete collection of her poetry. Since then,the printer and ordered to relinquish various possessions,
including fifteen female cows, as partial payment for his
printing bill. The Imprenta McCullough auctioned off theremaining 7,000 copies. Santos spent many years paying

Fig. 5

off the rest of his debt to the printer. As he recalls in his
biography, the publishing of Banaag at Sikat was meant
to uplift his financial situation, instead it left him more

scholars have come to recognize her as “the matriarch of

impoverished than ever.15

Filipino poets writing in English,” and her poems have been

Despite its disastrous beginnings as a book, Banaag atread not merely as expressions of personal experience but

Sikat survived and even triumphed. It has seen reprinting

also of political opinion and nationalist sentiment, with her

through the years and is now recognized as the mostprominent work of the period known as the Golden Age oftreatment of love and relationships as metaphorical of theFig. 3

American colonization of the Philippines.18

the Tagalog novel (1905–1921). The novel is considered a

Poems 55 by Jose Garcia Villa might be more familiar

milestone in the history of Tagalog fiction for its engagement

to Filipino readers than Manalang Gloria’s Poems sincewith social issues. Santos, who was a staunch advocate ofVilla is certainly the better known writer. Incidentally, Villa

the Tagalog language, went on to become an importantand Manalang Gloria were students in UP at the same

figure in Philippine literature.

time, in the same department; both wrote for the university
newspaper Philippine Collegian, but they were not friends.

16

17
Fig. 6

There’s more to a literary workthan the lively story it tells.

ART ARCHIVE 02

THE PHENOMENAL ‘SOLEDAD’S SISTER’
In a lecture entitled “Why We Don’t Write More Novels,that being longlisted was achievement enough; but I knew

But Should,” Jose Dalisay, Jr. provided some reasons on

it was a hollow honor, without a finished novel to show the

There are many backstories

the matter, among which are: One, it does not pay. He says,

international jury and, more importantly, my own people,“The labor of many years won’t even be enough to buy you

never mind that they hardly read me and my fellow fictionists.

an iPhone, if and when all your royalties come in.” And two,Filipino flags and anthems began playing in my head. So out

on its composition and publication.

the influence of Rizal endures and apparently stifles: “We’reof shame, I sent my classes off on take-home assignments,

still largely stuck on the Noli and Fili… and find it difficult toholed up with tubs of coffee and macaroni soup, and wrote

think of the novel as anything but history writ large, with a

20,000 breathless words in one week, beating the Hong

Knowing this makes for a livelier

flaming revolution in the background and a love story in theKong deadline by a few hours.”24

An accomplished and multi-awarded writer, also a

Prize, but it did make it as far as the shortlist of five finalists,and richer literary experience.

professor of creative writing in UP Diliman, Dalisay has

which is accomplishment enough for a Filipino novel andwritten more than twenty books in various genres, but onlya Filipino writer. And it did win a good share of readers. Its

two novels among them. Soledad’s Sister, his second novel,

initial print run of 3,000 copies sold almost immediately.

was published by Anvil in 2008.

In 2009, the novel went through a second printing, withPESO BOOKS DID NOT MAKE AUTHORSMILLIONAIRES
Villa’s Poems 55 was the first title in the Peso Books

in English by prominent and up-and-coming Filipino writers

series issued by Alberto S. Florentino, a playwright whoof the day; among them were Nick Joaquin, Francisco

ventured into publishing. In 1959, Florentino issued aArcellana, Linda Ty-Casper, Edith L. Tiempo, and Paz

collection of his own works, The World is an Apple and Other

Marquez Benitez. The Peso Books were issued in editions ofPrize Plays. This was followed by the anthology Outstanding

3,000 copies; they were distributed by Bookmark and soldFilipino Short Plays, by various authors, published that sameat, yes, one peso each.

year. In 1962, he published Villa’s Poems 55.

Florentino produced other book series of Philippine

Villa was already an established figure in the Philippine

writings in English and Filipino. His publishing activities

literary scene and was making a name for himself in the

involved many difficulties and great expenses, leaving him

United States. As Florentino recalls, “At that time the only

practically broke at one point that even his refrigerator wasbooks by Villa available in Manila were the U.S. editions

nearly repossessed. On venturing into literary publishing inof Selected Poems and New; Have Come, Am Here; andthe 1960s, Florentino remarks, “Among my contemporaries,

Volume Two, which were selling at prohibitive prices—ifwriters who went into publishing with me, no one committed

available. His first two (prewar) books, Many Voices andsuicide, formally declared bankruptcy, or went to jail... But

Poems by Doveglion, had long been out of print.”19 During

no one became a millionaire either. They went back to theira visit to Manila, Villa gave Florentino enough material forranks and continued to write or resume their old activities.”21

three books with the consent to publish, even waiving his

Florentino continued to publish through the decades,

royalties, on the condition that Florentino would sell thewell up to the early twenty-first century. He has produced

books for no more than one peso each.20 And so, Peso

almost one hundred books by various Filipino authors. It is

Books was born.

interesting to note, however, that not one of these books is

Florentino published around twenty other books of shorta novel.

stories, poems, and essays under the series, all written

foreground.”22

Soledad’s Sister did not win the first Man Asian Literary

Soledad’s Sister is a somewhat comic treatment of a

2,000 copies issued. These figures are nearly phenomenal

tragic circumstance, which in real life happens more thanconsidering that the typical print run of local literary titles

it should. The novel is about the death of Soledad, a Filipina

today is 500 to 1,000 copies, which usually take no less thandomestic helper in Saudi Arabia, and her sister Rory’s

two years to sell out, if they do at all.

efforts to find the explanation for such. In her attempt to

In 2009, Soledad’s Sister was issued in Italiansolve the mystery of her sister’s death, Rory is helped bytranslation as Soledad: Rocambolesco Romanzo Filippino.

Walter, a policeman whose wife left him to work as a nurse

In 2011, the Schaffner Press in the US published it together

in England.

with Dalisay’s first novel Killing Time in a Warm Place in the

While the novel was published in 2008, its writing wasvolume In Flight: Two Novels of the Philippines. Soledad’s

actually begun some ten years earlier, in 1999, when Dalisay

Sister has also been translated into French and is being

was in England for a writing fellowship. He envisaged aconsidered for Spanish translation.

“small, mostly quiet, darkly comic novel involving ordinary

Florante at Laura, Noli me tangere, El filibusterismo,

people (here, a small-town cop and a karaoke-bar singer) in

Manalang Gloria’s Poems, Villa’s Poems 55, Florentino’s

absurd situations and covering no more than a few days of

publications, and Soledad’s Sister are of different times,

real time.”23 He finished writing the novel in 2007. In Marchlanguages, and genres. Yet they share a common elementthat year, on a lark, he submitted a 10,000-word section

among them in the stories of how they came to be, theof an early draft to the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize,

production of each involving some measure of strugglea regional contest for new unpublished novels in English,

and suffering—generally financial, emotional in some,launched in Hong Kong in 2006.

even mortal in one. What they also have in common is that

What happened next was this, as Dalisay recounts: “Ithey each eventually achieved recognition, significance,

forgot about it for months until, early in July, I learned thator success in some measure, from modest to massive.

it had been longlisted. My euphoria lasted only until I read

Knowing the circumstances of the composition, publication,

the fine print of the rules, which required me to submit theand reception of these works—or any other literary piece forfull balance of the novel in less than two weeks, by July 15,that matter—offers an experience that could be just as lively

if I wanted to make the short list of five finalists. For a few

and fascinating as reading the texts themselves. ■days I thought of shrugging my shoulders and telling myself

1 The details on the composition of Florante at Laura and on the life ofBalagtas are taken from Hermenegildo Cruz’s Kun Sino Ang Kumathâ Ng“Florante”: Kasaysayan Ng Búhay ni Francisco Baltazar at Pag-Uulat Nang
Kanyang Karununga’t Kadakilaan (Maynila: Librería “Manila Filatélico”, 1906),
which is the defintive source of biographical and bibliographical accounts on
Balagtas. Jodesz Gavilan, Martial Law 101: Things you should know, Rappler,
August 15, 2016, http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/142723-martial-lawdeclaration-philippines (accessed January 30, 2017)
2 Austin Coates, Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr (Hong Kong: Oxford
University Press, 1968), 109.
3 León Ma. Guerrero, The First Filipino: A Biography of José Rizal (Manila:
National Historical Commission, 1963; 4th repr. 1971), 147-48.
18

4 Coates, Rizal, 124.
5 Coates, Rizal, 124.
6 Guerrero, First Filipino, 147-48.
7 Quoted in Guerrero, First Filipino, 149.
8 Guerrero, First Filipino, 273-74.
9 Coates, Rizal, 217.
10 Coates, Rizal, 217.
11 Quoted in Guerrero, First Filipino, 413.
12 Resil B. Mojares, Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel: A Generic Studyof the Novel Until 1940, 2nd ed. (Quezon City: University of the Philippines
Press, 1998), 169.

13 Iñigo Ed. Regalado, Ang Pagkaunlad ng Nobelang Tagalog (Manila: Bureauof Printing, 1939), 13.
14 Lope K. Santos, Talambuhay ni Lope K. Santos, ed. by Paraluman S.
Aspillera (Quezon City: Capitol Publishing House, 1972), 67.
15 Santos, Talambuhay, 67-68.
16 “The Major Collections, Filipino Writers in English: Angela ManalangGloria (1907–1995),” Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALIWW), accessed
October 20, 2014, http://rizal.lib.admu.edu.ph/aliww/english_amgloria.html.
17 “Angela Manalang-Gloria”, ALIWW.

18 “Angela Manalang-Gloria”, ALIWW
19 Alberto Florentino, “Komadrona to a Native Literature,” Pilipinas 35(Autumn 2000): 3.

20 Florentino, “Komadrona,” 3.
21 Florentino, “Komadrona,” 15.
22 Jose Dalisay, Jr. “Novelists in Progress: Writing Long Filipino Fiction in
English.” Likhaan Panayam and UPAAA Professorial Chair Lecture. Universityof the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. July 31, 2008.
23 Dalisay, “Novelists in Progress.”
24 Dalisay, “Novelists in Progress.”

19

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

NEW PERSPECTIVES:
Philippine Cinema at the Crossroads

NICK DEOCAMPO

Fig. 1

Cinema in the Philippines is at a crossroads. After

It took the American itinerant cameraman E.

one hundred years since motion pictures were first shown

Burton Holmes to be on record as the first to produce

in Escolta, Manila, on January 1, 1897, film developed tothe country’s images on celluloid. As colonial rulers

become a popular medium using chemically-based

managing the country changed hands from Spaniards

material. By the turn of the 21 century, however, digitalto Americans after the defeat of Spanish naval forces totechnology brought changes never anticipated before.

Commodore George Dewey’s war fleet in the 1898 Battle

The change in how cinema is made signaled the sea-of Manila Bay, so did the fate of cinema transfer fromchange in the way films are produced, watched, andEuropeans to Americans. Holmes made films about the

distributed. But while changes are inevitable, it isPhilippines at the time of the Philippine-American War

interesting to see how Philippine cinema adapts to film’s

in 1899. As America’s colonization of the Pacific country

global development on a bedrock of historical legacy.

became a hot topic in the emerging popularity of cinema

stFilipino

in the United States, several filmmakers later came to film

filmmaker Jose Nepomuceno set up the country’s first

Celebrating

thecentennial

year

when

in the Philippine Islands. With America’s control over its

locally-built film studio, Malayan Movies, in 1917 allows

colony, and Hollywood’s rise as global film leader by thefor a reflection on Philippine cinema’s past.1 Recall how

mid-century, American cinema became a model for local

two decades earlier, in 1897, motion pictures first camefilms to imitate.

to the country as an imported commodity from Europe.2

Despite the trauma caused by the Japanese military

From film’s colonial beginning, it evolved to become theoccupation in 1941-1945, little change happened topresent-day national cinema. In reminiscing about film’salter the course of the nascent cinema from following

past, we are able to organize ideas about its development

the American film culture. The eventual declaration ofand develop concepts regarding its growth. Conceiving

Philippine independence3 in 1946 allowed Filipinos to

new perspectives can throw light on how cinema evolved

embark on creating their own national cinema, albeit

from a pleasurable novelty into a complex system ofunder the shadow of the influential Hollywood. Whatcommunication, art, and culture.

followed is the close relation that developed between the

While it is to Spain that we can look back at the
beginnings of local cinema, including the ever-present

country’s modern history as a nation and the cinema thatreflected its evolving society and culture.

Catholic themes and images found in contemporary

With a hundred years of history behind Philippine

Filipino movies, it is to America that the Philippines owes

cinema, and the complex evolution of its hybrid nature,

the popular film forms and genres dominating much of

new perspectives are necessary to look into its history

today’s film culture. Spanish businessmen like Franciscoof colonial dependency and the responses created by

Pertierra and Antonio Ramos were the first to import film

local filmmakers in their journey to become national. New

projectors into the country thereby inaugurating the firstmodels are conceived in this essay to help understandfilm screenings. Early film shows were mainly dominatedthe way Philippine cinema took on forms to guide its

by European brands like Pathé, Gaumont, Nordisk, andproduction, growth and identity.

Ambrosio.
20

21

NEW PERSPECTIVES:
Philippine Cinema at the Crossroads

NEW PERSPECTIVES IN PHILIPPINE CINEMA

ARBORESCENT MODEL

New models are useful in comprehending the systemic

In the first model, the arborescent presents ande Leon in the Fifties, Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal in themovie industry and its shadow cinema, the “indie” (orgrowth of motion pictures in the Philippines. Two of theseorganizational structure of film’s development resembling

Eighties, and, Lav Diaz and Brilliante Mendoza in the digital

independent films) are forms of cinematic expressions thatmodels have been inspired by a foreign source whilea tree. The way a tree grows in vertical fashion usingera. Their films sustained mainstream filmmaking despite

do not follow the same strict and structured organizational

another two are self-devised. All of them are conceived tohierarchical parts such as roots, trunk, branches, etc., finds

claims by some of being “independent.” They provided

pattern as that of commercial movies. Produced outside thecontribute to the understanding of the rich and complex

resonance in the way a movie industry also relies on its

the canonical list of films to watch, alongside commercial

rigid movie industry, they flourish at the margins of popular

Filipino film culture. The first of the two models are inspired

systemic parts to define its industrial growth: film studio,

movies made for popular audiences. Prizewinning films

cinema. But despite their countless numbers, they remainby the writings of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze andmovie theater, distribution outlet, and market. This growth islike Avellana’s Anak Dalita (1956), Brocka’s Insiang (1976),

publicly “hidden” and have no history to call their own. It is

Felix Guattari.4 The models referred to are the arborescentseen as linear and hierarchical and no different from a tree.

and Mendoza’s Ma’ Rosa (2016) garnered critical attention

bewildering how these cinematic forms were ignored byand the rhizomatic organizations of bodily as well as

A growth like that results to a singularity and with singularity

internationally but domestic public patronage sided withfilm scholars and historians in the past. Surprisingly, theconceptual forms found in plants that have been applied

comes dominance. This is problematic when conceiving

popular choices like Fernando Poe’s Ang Panday (1980),

coming of digital technology allowed forms of cinema thatto human, social, and political organizations, specificallycinema as motion picture because there are other forms of

Dolphy’s Facifica Falayfay (1969), and Antoinette Jadaone’s

have been marginalized to haunt the present. This marginal

to cinema in this essay. The third and the fourth ones, themotion pictures that are non-industrial in nature and fulfill

That Thing Called Tadhana (2014).

cinema comprises what is called “alternative cinema.” A new

mangrove and the archipelagic models, are self-conceived

tasks other than entertainment.

Adulated as these filmmakers and their movies are,model calling for a new perspective allows this marginalized

and they seek to address the evolutionary adaptation,

So why do they remain undefined and their history

their films, however, are not the only ones that ought tocinema to become visible through the rhizomatic model.

which Philippine cinema experienced while developing in a

unwritten? Why are they made invisible? In Philippine

define what Philippine cinema is. Outside the mainstreamcolonized, tropical archipelago.

cinema, the growth of studios, or film companies like LVN and

The four models offer new perspectives in the general

Sampaguita in the 1950s; Regal, Viva and Seiko in the 1980s;

understanding of Filipino film culture, its history, and identity.

and Star Cinema in the 2000s, not only dominated local

They challenge worn-out truths fostered by historicalmovie industry with their structured business models but

accounts made by previous film scholars. It was written

the commercial system that they created became intolerant

previously with a traditional, if singular, view of cinema’sof other cinematic growths to flourish. Their business model

growth that was biased toward a popular, commercial,resorting to cut-throat competition to survive stifled themovie industry. This suppressed the knowledge of othergrowth of other motion pictures whose purpose was to fulfill

forms of cinema like short films and documentaries,

other functions such as spreading information, producing

alternative films that became marginalized and their history

knowledge, or advancing culture. Alternative films had no

almost unwritten.5 But with new research made, a newchance to compete with commercial movies.

understanding emerges regarding how Philippine cinema

The arborescent model is best manifested in the way astarted, took early on diverse film forms, and fulfilled tasks

movie studio is organizationally structured. A producer as

beyond entertainment, to constitute what is yet to be

CEO is served by an assembly-line of hired employees andfulfilled as a truly archipelagic cinema, the fourth and all-talents in designated order of positions. No one jumps theencompassing model offered in this essay.

line as each worker is expected to fulfill the function that has

The archipelagic perspective is one way to define

been designated. This way, the company functions in vertical

Philippine cinema by its geopolitical reality. This localizedorganization stratifying the industrial mode of production. In

view situates cinema in native realities where film hastime, its linear development defined the entire local movie

taken root and developed. In order to be true to cinema’s

industry (as arborescent) because greater value was given

nature of adapting in a water-and-land habitat, we areto companies sharing similar hierarchical organizations.

asked: What in Philippine cinema’s experience translatesThis resulted to the singularity that now defines the local

the consciousness and experiences of Filipinos living in an

movie industry as the embodiment of Philippine cinema.

archipelagic country into cinematic works? Filipino cinema

It is an industry that becomes nervous of any change inhas been produced by a people who live in the twin-couplingorganization, resulting to its intolerance toward any formof land and sea, lake and shore, and underwent country-of competition. This closed system hardly leaves any room

specific experiences brought about by material, historicalfor cinema-as-motion-picture to realize its other forms andconditions. It is a cinema that embodies the diversity offunctions, as in the case of documentaries and short films,

native personalities and cultures scattered in all the islands,

to mention a few.

combining what is foreign and native, dayo (foreign) andPatterned after Hollywood, the local motion picture

tumandok (native), as they struggle for self-definition. The

industry produced films of predictable outcome, such asarchipelago offers both habitat and a modeling paradigm

those to be found in genre films from melodrama to musical,

that can shape the way Filipinos live and also produce theircomedy to horror. From the movie industry came films thatcinema.

made breakthroughs in national and foreign film festivals,
with celebrated names like Lamberto Avellana and Gerardo

22

ART ARCHIVE 02

Fig. 223

NEW PERSPECTIVES:
Philippine Cinema at the Crossroads

ART ARCHIVE 02

A new understanding emerges regarding
how Philippine cinema started,
took on diverse film forms,
and fulfilled tasks beyond entertainment,
to constitute what is yet to be fulfilled
as an archipelagic cinema.

RHIZOMATIC MODEL24

In the second model, the rhizomatic paradigm offers

Rhizomatic cinema celebrates heterogeneity, marked

The rhizomatic recognizes the peripheral (or marginal)

add to the mix with their political, ecological, and gendera diversity of film forms outside the dominant movie

by a multiplicity of cinematic forms and functions. This

alongside the industrial cinema. It has no intention tothemes. Films coming from the country’s regions andindustry. The histories of these non-industrial films

is seen in the types of films produced outside the movie

overthrow the industrial but to co-exist with it, providing

diverse communities provide a new definition of national

remain largely unwritten despite their large numbers.

industry: short film, the “mother” of all cinemas, from wheremultiple options to commercial filmmaking in order to servecinema.

These marginalized forms may be compared to what

the long, feature film evolved from; documentary, a medium,

cinema’s multi-faceted nature and tasks. The harmful thing

are commonly known as rhizomes, underground plants

which seeks to convey “truth” and “reality”; propaganda,

that the movie industry had done in the past was to causeby the rhizome. Its symbolic reference offers a newthat produce roots below and send out shoots above.

which propagates partisan ideas; experimental film, which

the suppression of cinema’s diversity of forms and functions

consciousness in the way diversity of cinematic forms andAmong the rhizomes are gingers, bamboos, and crab

deals with abstract, conceptual expressions; animation,

to favor capital and profit. This resulted from film’s colonial

practices are recognized. But despite being under thegrass. Unlike trees, these plants are subterranean.

which uses stop-motion to give life to inanimate objects;

past and the capitalism that motivated and controlled its

shadow of the mainstream industry, these marginal films

Forming nodules and chambered structures underneathstudent film, which is academically produced; and so

growth. With the coming of digital technology that madeform a strong resurgence that will — in time — make their

the ground, they provide different ways of structural

forth. The forms of cinema mentioned here are notfilm accessible to a large number of non-professionals,

profound impact on the country’s moving picture heritageorganization that develop horizontally in undergroundpopular to Filipinos, nor do these films even try to. Theirmainstream cinema became contested with the rise ofas they challenge traditional notions of “national cinema.”

networks. When applied to film, this type of organization

Alternative

cinemaisconceptually

represented

histories challenge accepted notions of popular cinema.

subaltern films, mushrooming all across the country’s

Yet, despite the emancipative attributes brought aboutprovides a different perspective in studying cinema.

After a hundred years of misinformed notions of whatcinematic landscape. Not only amateur films flourishedby a rhizomatic model, it can be faulted for its Western-

Owing to Deleuze and Guattari, this new way ofconstitutes the body of Philippine cinema, its history andbut new modes of circulation also came into practice, such

centric perspective. The rhizome mainly attends to form

classifying cinematic expression, this novel ordering ofidentity, it is time to formulate a new film historiography

as the rise of micro-cinemas and countless non-theatricaland remains in need of an identity to complete its journeycinematic forms is different from the conventional way

that is realistic of the way cinema—as motion pictures—

film exhibitions and festivals, mainly happening in schools.

to becoming “Filipino.” Conceived by two Frenchmen, thethat history has been traditionally constructed as linear

developed in the country, diversely. These alternative

Philippine cinema’s future lies in alternative cinema.

rhizome cannot escape the alien ideology swaddling its

and genealogical. Countering tradition, the rhizomatic

film forms compose the country’s archipelagic cinema,

One sees the entire archipelago waking up to non-origin and makeup. It is also burdened by the geo-politics

way recognizes plurality of forms and this has a profoundembracing varied film cultures produced in the islands.

commercial films produced as far as Batanes in the northit fosters, coming from a landlocked continent whose

effect in the understanding of cinema. Any motion picture

These film forms flourish mainly in public hands—amongand Zamboanga in the south. In between are cinemas

geography is far different from the archipelagic structurethat is produced is legitimately part of Philippine cinema,

amateurs, students, independent filmmakers, collectives,celebrating local films marked by their linguistic andof Asia, in general, and of the Philippines, in particular. To

notwithstanding a film’s length and duration, social

families, communities—with no centralized system to dictate

cultural diversity: Cinemakasimanwa in Iloilo, Cine Cabalen

address this difference between the French theory and its

function, budget, or whether it was produced outside thetheir growth. A rhizomatic cinema is people’s cinema.

in Pampanga, Bacoliwood in Negros, and numerous films

application to a cinema that emerged in the archipelago, twocommercial industry. This makes for a greater variety of

produced in native languages in Bisaya, Bicol, Kankanay,other models are presented to help understand Philippine

film forms to enrich our understanding of local film culture.

Hiligaynon, Ilocano, among others. Cause-oriented films

cinema.
25

NEW PERSPECTIVES:
Philippine Cinema at the Crossroads

ART ARCHIVE 02

MANGROVIAN AND ARCHIPELAGIC MODELS

26

The mangrovian model pertains to a cinema (whether

get in growing in estuaries, where salt water (tubig alat)

commercial or not) that has been formed by the historicalmeets freshwater (tubig tabang). As a native paradigm, thisexperience of growing in a unique geography, such as thatbest describes Philippine cinema’s archipelagic nature.

of an archipelago. Specific to the Philippines, its experience

It can be used to negotiate relations between bodies

has been shaped by the colonial history that led to theand signs—the ilaya and the ilawod of native geography—

adaptation of Western forms while pursuing its homegrownpointing to the mountain and the sea, the west and the east,

development. This paradigm points to a cinema with the

all coming together to form a new identity. The Filipino was

combined traits of being foreign and local.

born from this mix of races resulting to the mestizo (half-

In conceiving the mangrove as model, cinema is

breed). Likened to the mangrove growing in the country’s

understood in ways that are inherent to the geography ofsinuous coastlines, Filipino cinema resembles the traits of

its growth. With cinema developing in a country composed

the mangrove’s in-betweenness.

of scattered tropical islands, there must be something to

The mangrove model embraces films that are bothmake it adapt to the geo-political demands of its habitat, thepopular and elitist, mainstream and alternative. From theway a mangrove does growing in estuaries. The archipelagohighly patronized commercial successes like Vice Ganda’s

defines a location where there is a meeting of land andPraybeyt Benjamin (2011), the cowboy-and-Indian parodies

sea, unlike many growths defined strictly by their terrestrial,of long ago, to the classic works like Eddie Romero’s Ganito

aquatic, or arboreal surroundings. Looking at how cinema

Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon? (This is how we were

evolved in an archipelago means finding ways to know how

before, how are you now?) (1976) and Lino Brocka’s Hellow,

the country’s unique geographic location provides ways to

Soldier! (1974), the mangrovian elements can be seen in theunderstand its evolution peculiar to the experience given

film aesthetics as in the material conditions of these films’

by the beaches and estuaries bounding every island. This

production and reception. Their contents are overlaid withknowledge may come either from understanding a literal

the history of colonization and capitalism to which theygeographic location (a shoreline), or a metaphor (such as

owe their origin and sustenance. Not even alternative films

that which speaks of hybridity, or in-betweenness).

are immune from mangrovian influences as they combine

In giving prominence to marginal spaces, attention istheir Western-derived filmic vocabulary with homegrown

given to the significance of mangroves growing in a unique(dis)content. Despite their anti-movie industry claims, such

ecosystem. The bakawan (mangrove in local language)

as Regiben Romana’s Pilipinas (1989), Roxlee’s Spit/Optik

as metaphor for the country’s cinema is profoundly rich

(1989), or Baby Ruth Villarama’s Sunday Beauty Queen (2016),

in meanings. It provides conceptual ideas that can bethey all reveal the combined (and contradictory) elements ofgainfully applied to the study of local film history. A model

foreign appropriation and native indigenization.

based on the mangrove and the estuary where it resides

Philippine cinema’s development tells a story ofhelps one to understand the nature, identity, forms, andevolutionary adaptation that may be likened to the way

functions of the country’s cinematic system. Rather thanmangroves adapt to their hostile environments. Starting

see Philippine cinema as arborescent or rhizomatic in its

with the way mangroves withstand the salinity of salt waters,

growth determined by its Western derivation, the bakawan

growing in muddy conditions lacking of air, when compared(or mangrove) offers a symbol for cinema that is homegrownto cinema, local films have also withstood Western colonial

and localized, containing the marks of all contradictory

influences, which systemically drowned out aspirations forforces influencing its growth. It is a cinema that embraces

a truly homegrown cinema. The way mangroves survive

its indigenous ecology, although shaped by its foreign,

their saltwater environment provides interesting parallels

colonial past.

to Philippine cinema. The extraction of elements from the

The mangrove paradigm, being a self-devised one,

toxic saltwater to benefit a mangrove’s growth provides

reacts to the limitations posed by the earlier mentioned

useful metaphor for the way Western film is taken in andrhizome and tree. Looking for a post-colonial and a moreindigenized. Natives sift through Western cinematic cultureindigenous metaphor to describe the way motion pictures

and take in only those they find useful in order to eventuallydeveloped locally, the mangrove serves as a fitting symbol

form their own national cinema.

for Philippine cinema’s emergence from the coming

In this transfer of cultures, local filmmakers extract andtogether of opposites, described as an encounter between

store the foreign film culture, which they derive from thethe foreign and the native,6 the tree and the grass, sea andWest. What to keep and what not to depend on how theland. This embodiment of contradictory filmic textual andoutside culture gets translated, understood, and becomes

contextual elements is not unlike the experience mangroves

useful to the host culture. In other times, as is often the caseFig. 3

with colonization, the host culture is not equipped to resist

Local cinema is a fertile ground where cinematic outgrowths

the invading one (similar to the way floodwaters inundate

have withstood the test of time. They spiked in growth

the helpless shore).

even during critical times like wars and revolutions. They

The process of “nativization” happens when locals try

remained undefeated by social forces as they persisted

to “own” the foreign elements, which enter their bodies

to grow. Seeing cinema from a mangrovian perspective—

to make them their own.7 In a similar manner of getting

applied in equal measure to mainstream (arborescent) andfilms into the native culture system, cinema is adapted

marginal (rhizomatic) films—provides us with a viewpoint

and indigenized, until the resulting films can be identified

more sensitive to the context of cinema’s development inas “Filipino”—some fair, others foul; beneficial or not.

an archipelagic sanctuary like that in the Philippines. While

The significance of this negotiation lies in the translation

acknowledging the continuing popularity of commercial

happening between the two interfacing cultures. As bothmovies, new paradigms of growth like those offered bycultures tangle in their relations, Western influences get

the rhizomatic and mangrovian models, seen amongrubbed off on local cinema, enriching Philippine cinema in

marginalized films like short films and documentaries, will

the same way salt gets diluted at the meeting of freshwater.

provide the Filipino people with innovative ways to define

The alien dissolves into the local and the local desires totheir national cinema, and a film history that will be reflective

become foreign.

of their nation’s archipelagic reality. ■Philippine film history can be appreciated for its
archipelagic nature, teeming with various kinds of films
having different models to understand their nature.

Fig. 1 Still from Ang Magpakailanman (Eternity) (1982), directedby Raymond Red.
Produced outside the mainstream movie industry
Fig. 2 are several types of marginal cinema that comprisealternative cinema. Pnoy TwoFace, 2012.
Fig. 3 Still from Oliver (1983), directed by Nick de Ocampo.

1 The first local movie studio was set up by the brothers Jose and Jesus
Nepomuceno in 1917, claimed to be the birth of Philippine cinema, in Joe
Quirino, Don Jose and the Early Philippine Cinema (Quezon City: Phoenix Pub
House, 1983).
2 Francisco Pertierra imported the first motion pictures from Spain andpublicly screened them on January 1, 1897 in Escolta, Manila.
3 Philippine independence was declared on July 4, 1946.

4 Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (Edinburgh: EUP
Publ., 1985).
5 Excerpt in Nick Deocampo, Short Film: Emergence of a New Philippine
Cinema (Sta. Mesa, Manila: Communication Foundation for Asia, 1985).
No other book-length account made about alternative cinema has been
published. The book on Philippine documentary authored by James andIsabel Kenny, Making Documentaries and News Features in the Philippines(Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc., 1996) is more of a production manual thana history book.
6 For a deeper insight into the coming together of the foreign in native
culture, one may want to read Vicente L. Rafael, Contracting Colonialism(Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early SpanishRule) (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992).
7 The reverse may also be true—when the foreign makes claims it has invaded
the native.
27

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

SMALL FILM, GLOBAL CONNECTIONSPATRICK F. CAMPOS

28

Fig. 1

A PRELUDE TO DIGITAL CINEMAFor us to appreciate what is happening today in the

No unified artistic and political agenda framed cinema

2010s to Philippine cinema, we can take a step backafter the People Power uprising of 1986; in retrospect,and consider the situation just before the close of thethis situation may be seen as a reason for fictionalizing

twentieth century.

the oneness of the golden age. In the 1990s, moreover,The 1990s was a decade of uncertainties. The idea

the exorbitant taxation, accelerating cost of production,that the years from 1974 to 1987 saw the coming and going

global decline in moviegoing, looming financial crisis, andof a “golden age” gained currency during this decade.

steep competition with imported films drove commercial

This golden age was extolled for the period’s artistic

producers to flood the market with cheap movies—this, inblossoming in spite of industrial limitations and cinema’s

the context of a newly restored democracy. The decline

politicization in a time of repression under Marcos. Thisof the film industry amidst newfound freedom was ironic,

was when filmmakers like Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal,

and as the decade of the 1990s came to a close, pundits

Mike de Leon, Kidlat Tahimik, Peque Gallaga, Ricky Lee,declared the film industry dead.

Mario O’Hara, and Marilou Diaz-Abaya, as well as the

But the dismal state of affairs turned out to be richmore radical experimenters and political film collectives,

soil on which seeds of new ideas, strewn alongside fertile

emerged in the scene. The naming of the period was

discontent, would be planted. Responding to the gloomya kind of wistful celebration of the past and a way ofsituation, critics, scholars, and cineastes clamored forexpressing frustration over the present.

change and talk of an oncoming “revolution” in Philippine
29

SMALL FILM, GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

a marginal space, but the significance of these distinct

The digital film cultures

marginalities is not the same. As a local film in a global context,
the time for such a film has inevitably come, but as a regionalfilm in the national context, its arrival has actually come quite

in Bacolod, Iloilo, Cebu,

late.
Mardoquio’s and Barbarona’s previous films, as well asother films beyond Manila, have been spotlighted in Cinema

Davao, and their outskirts

Rehiyon, the flagship project of the National Commission for
Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Since its arrival in 2008, Cinema
Rehiyon has grown significantly, from programming only adeveloped alongside

Fig. 2

its tenth. NCCA, through its efforts to develop homegrown andeven grassroots talent, has helped put the idea of “regionalfilmmaking” across to the public by financially supporting

the one in Manila, in synchronicity

the founding or mounting of smaller “festivals in the regions”
throughout the archipelago — much more down-to-earth
festivals compared to their glitzier counterparts in Manila.

with the development

Fig. 1

Still from Tu Pug Imatuy (The Right to Kill) (2017), showing
vernacular costumes.

Fig. 2

Still from Tu Pug Imatuy (The Right to Kill) (2017), showing
Obunay humiliated.

of marginal cinemas not justin the Philippines
but also around the world.

In fact, however, filmmaking outside the National Capital
Region began earlier than 2008, and it did not result from theprotean period in Manila in the 2000s. The enabling factors ofdigital technology and the virtual networks of cinephilia were
not imported from the capital city to the provinces (the usual

NATIONAL CINEMA ON SHIFTING SOIL

30

handful of films in its first year to showing over a hundred inroute of film culture in the celluloid century), but from the global

How are we to make sense of our particular film history

elsewhere. In other words, the digital film cultures in cities

in relation to current experiences that are still uncharted? In

like Baguio, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cebu, Davao, and their outskirts,

what follows, I focus on the contexts of Tu Pug Imatuy (Thedeveloped alongside the one in Manila, in synchronicity

Right to Kill) (2017), a film from Mindanao, in order to chartwith the development of marginal cinemas not just in thethe contemporary landscape of Philippine cinema andPhilippines but around the world.

comment particularly on the challenges and opportunities

In this light, “regional” filmmaking could refer just as

a non-mainstream filmmaker faces in seeking to contribute

well to how secondary cities in the Philippines had parallelto the political cinema of our troubled times. Instead ofexperiences with independent cinemas across Southeast

cinema was on the lips of independent filmmakers andthese festivals provided a production platform andwriting a review, I contextualize the film’s significance in theAsia, ranging from the coming of the “new waves” in Jakarta,

film students who were coming of age. A palpable needexhibition network for a significant number of innovative

shifting patterns of “national,” “regional,” “local,” and “global”

Kuala Lumpur, Saigon, and Bangkok to the steady growth of

to reinvent cinema characterized the transition into thefilms to take their place in the local market alongside thoseformations since the 2000s.

alternative cinemas in Jogjakarta, Makassar, Purbalingga,

2000s. In hindsight, the lack of a unifying discourse on

produced by the more established commercial outfits. The

Tu Pug Imatuy (literally, to kill) follows the experiences of

Sabah, Luang Prabang, and city-centers like Hanoi, Phnom

Philippine cinema would prove to be the wellspring of new

steady production of festival films from 2005 to the 2010sa Manobo family, whose peaceful lives are disrupted whenPenh, Vientiane, and Yangon, to name a few. In short, whatlife for cinema in the twenty-first century.

challenged commercial producers to rethink formulas.

soldiers abduct, abuse, and humiliate the parents, Dawin andgalvanized filmmaking in Philippine regions in the digital

Digital technologies, which became accessible fromToday, the film industry is vibrant again. Notably, with

Obunay, and use them as guides through the forest, while

period are the same global impulses that energized thethe late 1990s to the early 2000s, catalyzed the budding of

local cinema’s rebirth, what had been considered previously

their children, Langit and Ilyan, are left to fend for themselves.

indie scene in the larger Southeast Asian region.

a new cinema. Suddenly, filmmaking was no longer the soleas marginal practices of filmmaking, such as the production

The film’s screenplay, written by Arnel Mardoquio, is informed

Thus, the momentous establishment of Cinema

prerogative of moneyed producers; the power to make filmsof short, experimental, and documentary films and films

by the indigenous peoples’ historical and ongoing struggle

Rehiyon and the growing consciousness on regional

was cascaded down to the people. The ethos of DIY, no-beyond Manila, now outnumber commercial films inagainst encroachers.1 It focuses on the travails of the lumad,

filmmaking in recent years in the Philippines actuallybudget, and no-more-excuses cinema defined the period,

quantity and, even if they do not dominate the market, makeor the non-Muslim and non-Christian ethnolinguistic tribes inindicate a lag in the recognition of films beyond Manila as

led by advocates and practitioners of lo-fi video filmmaking.

up a lively alternative film culture. Certainly, these practices

Mindanao, caught in the crossfire between the state military

part of national cinema, of the long and ongoing struggle

The establishment of the fund-granting and competitive

continue to be threatened by deeply entrenched structures

and the rebel forces. Arbi Barbarona directed and handled all

for local stories and issues to take their rightful place inCinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Cinema One

that work against them, like the cartel of theater owners thatthe technical aspects of the creative process, but he worked

the mainstream of the national imaginary. It is remarkable,

Originals Film Festival, which yielded the first major harvest

exert inordinate power over what gets screened and foron his research and production with the lumad community.

then, that Tu Pug Imatuy, with its urgent call about an age-of digital features in 2005, signaled the end of the transition

how long. But there are now more spaces of engagement

While Tu Pug Imatuy, portrays the centuries-old way of life

old national problem, was only made in 2017. At the sameand the rebirth of a dynamic Philippine cinema. The uniquely

than ever before, including the virtual spaces of socialof an indigenous community, it is undoubtedly a 21st century

time, that it earned wide acclaim in 2018, eventually winning

Filipino “festival mode” of production and exhibition

media and the community spaces of cinematheques andfilm, animated by global forces as much as it contributes tomajor prizes from national award-giving bodies, FAMAS andwould multiply in the years to come. Though far from ideal,

microcinemas.

regional art production. In both contexts, the film occupies

Gawad Urian, is a sign that times have changed.
31

ART ARCHIVE 02

Global cinema is defined by market forces and ismuch more open to “other” cinemas that include
non-formulaic, esoteric, and highly culture-specificworks. For this reason, it has encouraged

Fig. 3the production of very diverse films that can harbor
the positive qualities of being marginal.
Fig. 4’SINE LOKAL, PANG-INTERNASYONAL’32

The changing times have complicated the meaning of(literally, the rays of and from Manila) is funded by distribution

These filmmakers have promoted instead a cinema

international film exhibition and distribution. Unlike the older

company Solar Entertainment, which imports and exportsthat refuses to compromise artistic vision, a filmmakingof the production of Tu Pug Imatuy.
In the older paradigm, Second and especially Third

idea of “world cinema,” which connotes a congregation ofcommercial content, and its films are selected by Cannes Filmstance that forms an alternative Second Cinema. Films

Cinema films were expected to steer clear of the First

international artists whose key works comprise the “greatest”

Festival-prizewinner, Brillante Mendoza.

of this type are realized by independent artists rather

Cinema structures. Any

films, the contemporary notion of “global cinema” implies a

Unlike other festivals, Sinag Maynila does not produce

than studio-employed craftspeople. The tradition ofanathema to “independence.” But the globalization ofform of “compromise” wasnetwork of film markets. In this sense, a film that goes global

films but rather scouts for homegrown stories that are

Second Cinema films in the Philippines grew enough tomarginal films is now well documented, and the myriad

becomes accessible to audiences beyond its national borders,potential content for wider distribution in the Philippines

become a wave in the 1970s and a series of waves fromexperiences of filmmakers laboring in the peripheries

though it does not necessarily join the coveted but contested

and in niche markets abroad. The festival, whose identity is

the 1980s to the 2000s. And the daring of the artists thatcaution us from making sweeping claims and invite us toranks of world cinema.

consider concrete cases, such as that of Tu Pug Imatuy.

anchored on the image of Manila as the center of filmmaking,rode them continues to challenge the system and push

Global cinema is defined by market forces and is muchis also branded s enabling “sineng lokal, pang-internasyonal”

the boundaries of the cinematic arts today. Interestingly,

From being conceived in Davao City, shot on location

more open to “other” cinemas that include non-formulaic,(local films for the international market), which alerts us to the

Sinag Maynila is part of this cultural and political economy

in the border between Davao and Bukidnon, distributed

esoteric, and highly culture-specific works. For this reason, it

complexity of the contemporary situation where initiatives by

as well, driven by festival production that encourages

through a Manila company and exhibited in Tokyo, Berlin,

has encouraged the production of very diverse films that can

the state and private corporations are providing platforms fornewness and innovation for an expanding market.

Luxor, and Jogjakarta, to moving back to small-town,

harbor the positive qualities of being marginal.

regional filmmakers.

Third Cinema is militant, anticolonial, and antifascist

open-air screenings around Mindanao, the itinerary of Tu

Because Philippine festivals like Cinemalaya are moreThat Tu Pug Imatuy, a fearlessly political film with acinema, exemplified by a number of social realist and

Pug Imatuy is instructive, for it reveals the constraints andwelcoming of inventive works that would otherwise not beshoestring budget, was programmed in Sinag Maynila

personal films by the likes of Brocka and Kidlat Tahimik andoptions that regional filmmakers as ground-level agentsproduced by mainstream studios deeply rooted in local massindicates how older paradigms dating back to the 1960s that

more pointedly by political film collectives during and after

must negotiate in order to be visible and yet continue toculture, the interested parties readily plugged into global

made clear distinctions between First, Second, and Third

the Marcos period. Such films did not necessarily aspire toharbor the potential for political resistance.

cinema. At the same time, because not all festival films are

Cinemas, or industrial, art, and political cinemas, respectively,

be art nor did they endeavor to be distributed commercially

Thus, a Mindanawon film casts in relief the shape of

distributed internationally, they compete in the local market

have become inoperable.2

for profit, but they needed to be seen by many because they

contemporary cinema in a particular way: a small production

exposed national realities concealed in mass media.

made out of passion and conviction by a duo of mavericks

with big studio films and Hollywood imports, against whichFirst Cinema refers to commercial filmmaking andthey tend to appear “small” with “fringe” special-interest films.

its ultimate model is Hollywood. Film practices in thisTu Pug Imatuy dramatizes the lumad’s experience offrom the region, riding on the new wave of art cinema,

Meanwhile, a small fraction goes global and still others figure

category were honed in the 1930s and refined in postwar

dislocation, and its imagery gestures toward vanishinglending itself as content for Sinag Maynila, bending overin world cinema, where a different kind of validation is attained

Philippine cinema. Movies made in this system, needless toforest covers and massive mining operations. Quite

backward in search of a national audience, and extendingfor “national” cinema.

say, have been the most productive and avidly patronized

startlingly, akin to political collective films, it closes with

its reach to an international audience.

The double-coded aspiration of doing well in the local/

locally for the most part of the twentieth century, and Solar

documentary footage of the real Obunay, speaking of the

global market and being validated in inter/national festivals isEntertainment is doubtless one of the conduits and enablers

trauma of fleeing her militarized village in Talaingod, Davaotypified by Sinag Maynila Film Festival, where Tu Pug Imatuyof this system of filmmaking today.

del Norte, and traveling with over a thousand others to Davao

Fig. 3 The outdoor Luang Prabang Film Festival screening.
Fig. 4 The outdoor Cinema Rehiyon screening.

first premiered before being screened in Cinema Rehiyon in

Following a parallel path, nonconforming filmmakers

City as a bakwit (evacuee), only to be kidnapped by soldiers.

the municipality of Nabunturan, Compostela Valley, where, athave throughout history questioned the formulaic and profit-

Clearly, the desire to shed light on what is obscured in publica that time, not a single movie screen existed. Sinag Maynila

oriented industry values that define conventional movies.

consciousness and to reach a wide audience is at the heart
33

SMALL FILM, GLOBAL CONNECTIONSLUMAD CINEMA AND ITS GLOBAL CONTEXTS
It is a truism that mainstreaming the arts from the

Framed in this way, the political project of art-making

And why are lumad places being militarized? Ultimately,

ethnolinguistic cultures throughout the islands can help

is seen from a longer historical perspective and a wider

this question cannot be addressed without reference

create a more complete tapestry of Filipino identity. In thisgeographical view. The Manobos, in this context, standto an international situation. The valiant “lumad of thesense, Tu Pug Imatuy vividly portrays what regional films

side-by-side with Apaches in Oklahoma, Yup’ik Eskimos

world” have for centuries fought and today continue tocontribute best to Philippine cinema. Moviegoers arein Alaska, Martus in Australia, Veddas in Sri Lanka, Was inresist encroachers, be they Kankanaeys in Benguet,

permitted to see the colors and hear the music of lumad

Myanmar, and the other lumad of the world, the subject

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwugs in Ontario, Amungmes inculture that is peripheral in everyday national consciousness.

of Fourth Cinema. In such a context, another kind ofWest Papua, Mayans in Guatemala, or others, which is why

In the first third of the film, we are made to appreciate“world” and another mode of “globality,” distinct from what

the richest natural reserves that transnational businesses

the wild beauty of the mountains. We hear the distinguished

is connoted by “world” (canonical) and “global” (market-

are greedy to extract can still be found in indigenous lands.4

sounds of native instruments accompanying the images, and wedriven) cinemas, become imaginable.

The strategy of progress by dispossession and militarizing

observe the Manobo family donning their regal red garments

Regional films enrich Philippine cinema, yes, but moreindigenous territories so that extractive industries could

adorned by native designs and accessories whose patterns

significantly, some of them reactivate the radical potential of

rapaciously pillage is a global threat, which have resulted tointermingle brilliantly with lush greens and the verdant earth.

the margins that the proliferation of indie films have tamed.

environmental degradation and human rights abuses, such

As the film opens, we witness the dynamics of family andThis reactivation allows us to interrogate the constitution

as those shown in the film, like displacement, persecution,community life, and we learn about the Manobos’ views on

not only of national cinema but also of the nation itself.

humiliation, coercion, torture, rape, and extrajudicial killings.

nature and their belief that the spirits of the departed come

Here again, Tu Pug Imatuy as a particular case is instructive,

In this light, Tu Pug Imatuy, a little film from an outpost ofback to guard their ancient ancestral land. We are also given

because it aimed (and in my opinion succeeded) to reveal

national cinema, is calling the world’s powers to account. ■insight on their folklore and how new tales are created by

how global forces have been relentless in their drive tothe community as they struggle against trespassers. In thiserase societies in the peripheries in collusion with theborderland that may seem faraway to moviegoers, history

state. For this reason, the production of such a film frommay be understood not as a line moving forward but as space

the margins is necessary, to emend the dominant narrative

layered in time, building up a place resistant to the outsiders’that sees indigenous peoples merely as enriching Filipino

fiction of “progress” that renders the lumad “backward.”

identity and to address a wider public about the actual plight

The aesthetics and creative strategies of Tu Pug Imatuy

Fig. 5of the lumad.

resonate with the project of Fourth Cinema, a term proposed

On the level of the national, we have frequently

by Mäori filmmaker Barry Barclay in the 1990s to identify

heard about the situation of the lumad framed in media

indigenous films produced in settler colonial nations like New

as a question of political instrumentalization. Tu Pug

Zealand.3 The notion of Fourth Cinema is Barclay’s reply to

Imatuy, indeed, shows the lumad caught in the middle,

the three-cinema paradigm discussed above. It implies that

their places of refuge militarized, as rebels blend withFirst, Second, and Third Cinemas have functioned as “invader

them while the government military utilizes them in theircinemas” and have obscured the narratives of the first peoples

counterinsurgency efforts. But the logic of the appallingof the land, rendering them static, vanished, or exotic.

threats made recently by the president of bombing lumad

Fourth Cinema is a distinct mode of filmic production that

schools because they have been politicized and haveis partial to indigenous expression, dignified representation of

taken sides, misses the bottom line—whose birthright is theplace and identity, and political engagement both on screen

land? This is the fundamental question of Fourth Cinema.

and off screen. The processes of Fourth Cinema capture wellthe experience of Barbarona in filming the plight of and working
with the lumad, who have been subjected to oppression by

Fig. 6colonizers, settlers, land grabbers, and the state.
Barbarona’s process of working with the locals to make afilm that speaks of the native’s tragic experiences instantiates
community, collaboration, and reciprocity in the spirit of

1 To better understand the historical and sociopolitical contexts ofFourth Cinema. Tu Pug Imatuy reminds us that the lumad arethis issue, see Arnold P. Alamon, Wars of Extinction: Discriminationand the Lumad Struggle in Mindanao (Iligan City: RMP-NMR, Inc.,
2017).
2 For in-depth discussions on these cinemas, see Jim Pines andPaul Willemen, eds. Questions of Third Cinema (London: British Film
Institute, 1989).
3 Barry Barclay, Our Own Image (Auckland: Longman Paul, 1990).
4 For a global accounting of the problem, see Andy Whitmore, ed.
Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries(Baguio City, Copenhagen, and London: Tebtebba Foundation,
IWGIA, and PIPLinks, 2012).

the original inhabitants of the land who nevertheless stand tolose the most in the face of a never-ending war waged in thename of development. In fact, because the term “lumad” does
not refer to a particular tribe but to the universal “native of theland,” the idea of Fourth Cinema may be imagined in terms
closer to home as “lumad cinema,” of which Tu Pug Imatuy is
one of hopefully many more instances.

Fig. 5 Poster for Tu Pug Imatuy (2017) by director Arnel Barbarona.
Fig. 6 Arbi on location with the Lumad community.
Fig. 7 Arnel Barbarona in Tokyo International Film Festival.

34
Fig. 7

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

CREATING RIPPLES IN PHILIPPINE CINEMA:
The Rise of Regional Cinema

KATRINA ROSS TAN

Fig. 1EMERGENCE OF REGIONAL FILMS
For almost a century, the Filipino audience has

Prior to the introduction of digital technology, films

been used to watching Tagalog films produced by thewere already being made outside of Metro Manila. A

commercial film industry in Metro Manila. Until recently,

thriving cinema in Cebu existed between the 1930s andit was unthinkable to see a movie that does not use the1970s though a few films were made until the 1990s.1 In

dominant Tagalog language. All these changed whenother parts of Visayas, like in Negros and Panay islands,

filmmakers from the regions began producing digital

short films have been produced since the early 1990s.

films.

For instance, Elvert Bañares from Iloilo made Banal

Known collectively as ‘regional cinema,’ these(1993), an experimental short film, which was the firstfilms depict stories rooted in places beyond ‘imperial

recipient of Best Regional Entry at the Gawad CCP para

Manila’ and made by directors who come from cities

sa Alternatibong Bidyo at Pelikula given by the Culturaland provinces outside the National Capital Region

Center of the Philippines (CCP). Many of the films during(NCR). They use languages spoken in the regions, such

this time came out of the Negros Summer Workshop

as Ilocano, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Bicol, Cebuano,(NSW) established in 1991 by director Peque Gallaga, who

Bisaya, Hiligaynon, Chavacano, and a host of indigenous

worked in Manila’s commercial film industry. NSW was alanguages. Because a number of them are made outside

pioneering region-based workshop that provided training

the commercial system, regional films are associatedfor aspiring filmmakers in Bacolod and other neighboringwith digital independent cinema. Due to their limited

provinces in the Visayas.

distribution, these films reach audiences usually throughWith the arrival of digital technology, film workshops

film festivals in the regions and in Metro Manila. Most

and, later on, film festivals were put up in other provinces

notable of these is Cinema Rehiyon (CR), a state-fundedthat encouraged short film production. In 2003, a groupfilm festival that provides a non-competitive exhibition

in Davao City led by Dax Cañedo held the first guerillaspace for films from across the archipelago. It has been

filmmaking workshop that had three short film outputs.

running since 2009, bringing awareness about regional

These were screened with three other documentaries.2

cinema wherever it goes—CR is unique in that it is hosted

In the following year, Ray Gibraltar, a filmmaker from Iloilo,

in different places every year. Many films from the regions

helped put up the Bantayan Film Festival that featured

are critically successful as well. Award-giving bodies inworks made in his small town of Guimbal in Iloilo. Teachers

the Philippines have rightfully recognized many of thesein the area were the first to learn filmmaking fromworks. With such a relatively strong presence in theexperienced filmmakers, like Gallaga, cinematographer

national film culture, regional cinema has created ripples

Ogi Sugatan, and Gibraltar himself.3 Guimbal’s festivalof new cinematic consciousness.

format—short film competition and workshop—is similar
with others throughout the archipelago that now number
close to 20. The only difference is that Guimbal’s local
government provides fund to produce short films.

40
36

37

CREATING RIPPLES IN PHILIPPINE CINEMA

ART ARCHIVE 02

The Rise of Regional Cinema

SHORT FILMS FROM THE REGIONS
Many filmmakers from the regions started with making

Many films from the regions are criticallyshort films before they had established their names
in independent or commercial cinemas. For instance,

successful. Award-giving bodies

Gutierrez Mangansakan II from Mindanao made his firstshort documentary, House Under the Crescent Moon (2001),

in the Philippines have rightfully recognizedwhich deals with the government’s all-out war in Mindanao.
Sheron Dayoc, also from Mindanao, entered Cinemalaya
with his short film Angan-Angan (Dreams) (2008) about amany of these works. With such a relatively

mute young girl belonging to the Yakan group in Basilan
who desires to have a good education. In 2012, Dayoc wonstrong presence in the national film culture,

Best Director in Cinemalaya for his short film, Mientras su
Durmida (As He Sleeps) (2012) about a woman who spends

regional cinema has created ripples

her daily life taking care of her bedridden husband.
Fig. 1 Still from Ari: My Life with a King (2015) by Director Carlo Catu.

One of the most prolific filmmakers from Bacolod
started with making shorts. Lawrence Fajardo won the JuryFig. 2

Prize in the inaugural Cinemalaya for his short film, Kultado(2005). Ostensibly an action film, this short tells the storyof a market vendor who fights back against a gang thatof new cinematic consciousness.

Independently-produced and distributed, Superpsychocebu
tells a story about a young man’s quest to find the socalled superpsychocebu, a type of cannabis that makes
its users go bonkers.
Author’s screengrab from Superpsychocebu.
Women of the Weeping River (2016), Gawad Urian’s Best

Fig. 3 Picture, is about two Moro families caught in rido (clanexploits other vendors through their extortions and lendingfeud) in Mindanao.
Stills provided by director Sheron Dayoc.

scams. Remton Zuasola, who is among the first digital

Shot in one continuous take, Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria
follows Terya and her family as they travel to the island’sFig. 4
port. A recruiter has arranged Terya’s marriage to an old
German whom she has not met personally.
Author’s screengrab from Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria.

REGIONAL FEATURE FILMS
Digital features from the regions have appeared as

In 2005, two newly-established film festivals in Metroearly as 2002. The early films were mostly self-funded, like

Manila started handing out production grants for digital

JP Carpio’s Balay Daku (2002), a three-hour feature thatfilms—the pioneering Cinemalaya Independent Filmwhich received a Gawad Urian handed out by the country’s

tells about a Manila-based Bacolod native who returned

Festival and Cinema One Originals. The former is partiallycritics group, Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino. Shot in one

to the province with his wife. Another early independent

state-funded, while the latter is privately owned. Given thecontinuous take, the film captures the chance meeting of a

production is Mes De Guzman’s Ang Daan Patungong

lack of state funding in film productions in the regions,heartbroken man and a female nursing student at a siomai

Kalimugtong (2005). Shot in Benguet on a shoestringthese two festivals and several others that were put up

stand in Cebu City.

budget, it tells the story of two young siblings who havein succeeding years, like QCinema International Film

Regional short films have made waves not only in national

to cross rivers and mountains every day to go to school

Festival and Sinag Maynila, became important funding

film festivals but also overseas. Recently, Keith Deligero

and fend for themselves. Having been exhibited in manysources and exhibition venues for regional films. Throughfrom Cebu, who, after making four full-length features, madeinternational film festivals and having received awards,

them, regional cinema further penetrated the country’s

the short film Babylon (2017), which competed at the Berlin

Kalimugtong is among the earliest critically successful

cinematic consciousness.

International Film Festival in 2018. Produced by QCinema, theregional films.

filmmakers from Cebu, had been making shorts with his
fellow Cebuano directors before he made features. Perhaps
his most successful short film is To Siomai Love (2009),

One way to illustrate this is the critical success of
festival-produced regional films in the national context.

film narrates how two female assassins traveled back in time

Specifically, three of these films won Gawad Urian’s Best

to kill a fascist politician. In 2015, Aiess Alonso’s Katapusang
Labok (2015), another Cebuano film about the struggle oflocal fishermen against coral harvesters, was programmed in

Eleuteria (2010), Arnel Mardoquio’s Ang Paglalakbay ng

the short film corner at Cannes Film Festival. In addition, Anj

mga Bituin sa Gabing Madilim (2012), and Dayoc’s Women

Macalanda’s Wawa (2014), won Best Film in Exground Filmof the Weeping River (WOWR) (2016). Damgo is a one-shot

Fest in Germany. It centers on a young man contemplating his

film that captures the titular character’s last day in her

guilt while he and his mother lead the burial procession of aisland-hometown of Olango before she leaves to marryfamily member in Rizal province’s river. Some shorts made in

a German she has not yet met. This film is remarkable

Compostela Valley were shown in the multi-art Sarajevo Winterfor being the first non-Tagalog film to win the Gawad

Festival in 2016.

Urian top prize. Bringing home for Mindanao its first

Despite the relatively low recognition given to short films,

Best Picture award from the critics group, Paglalakbay

they are important for regional cinema since they keep local

follows the journey of a young boy and his two aunts asfilmmaking alive. Short films are less costly to make and allow

they escape Mindanao’s war zone. Lastly, WOWR is about

filmmakers ample room to experiment and find their voice. As

38

Picture awards: Zuasola’s Cebuano film Ang Damgo ni

Fig. 2

Fig. 3Fig. 4

two Moro families caught in rido (clan feud) in Mindanao.

Deligero notes, short films give directors like him the “mostCinema One Originals produced the first two films, while

freedom” in their craft.4

QCinema produced the latter film.
39

It is perhaps this intense desire
to surface regional cultures

REPRESENTING THE PERIPHERIES
These Manila-based festivals have produced asignificant number of regional films, including thosethat have long been absent

that have offered critical representations of culturesand socio-political realities in the country’s peripheries.
The earliest of these films is perhaps Sherad Sanchez’s

in Philippine screensCinema One Originals entry, Huling Balyan ng Buhi (TheLast Priestess of Buhi or the Woven Stories of the Other)that can account for the force(2006), which tackled complex socio-political issues
specific to Mindanao. This southern region has longsuffered from decades of government neglect, intrusionof multinational companies into ancestral domains

Fig. 5behind this cinema’s sustenanceaided by state forces, and escalating war between the
military and several armed groups. The film is a non-forest-dwelling indigenous peoples in Mindanao. The

linear narrative that weaves three seemingly disparate

film, produced for QCinema, competed at Rotterdam

tales of communists, government military troops, andInternational Film Festival in 2017. On the other hand,

two children. The film won Best Picture in Cinema One

Tu Pug Imatuy narrates an indigenous couple’s struggle

Originals and received nominations in various categories

against government military forces who used them to trackin Gawad Urian.

communist guerrilla forces. Funded by local producers in

In 2010, three more films competing in Cinemalaya

Mindanao, the film was picked up by Sinag Maynila to join

focused on Mindanao narratives. What is significant about

the festival competition where it eventually won major

these films is the surfacing of multiple narratives told fromfestival awards, including Best Picture. Barbarona wasa cultural insider’s perspective. One of the Cinemalaya

also recognized as Best Director at Gawad Urian, andentries is Dayoc’s Halaw (Ways of the Sea), which emerged

FAMAS Awards, which is handed out by Filipino Academy

as the festival’s winner. It tells stories of those who crossof Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS).

this cinematic void
is regional cinema’s biggest
contribution to Philippine cinema.

illegally to Sabah Island in Malaysia to look for work.

Aside from Mindanao, other regional cultures andMangansakan’s Limbunan (The Bridal Quarter) was also ahistories have been the subject of many noteworthy

finalist that year. The film focuses on a young Maguindanao

regional films produced by Manila-based festivals. For

woman who waits for her wedding day inside her bridal

example, Bicolano filmmakers Alvin Yapan and Kristian

It is noticeable that in his films, Laxamana attempts

Di Ingon Nato (2011), and Deligero’s Iskalawags (2013).

chamber as part of their tradition. It went on to have an

Cordero were able to create films about their folk andto make sense of colonial influences still apparent in

Some films followed genre conventions but offered ainternational premiere as the closing film at the Venicereligious cultures. Yapan made the Cinemalaya entry

Pampanga—and in other parts of the country—at present.

distinctly Cebuano element. For instance, comedy films

International Critics’ Week. Lastly is Arnel Mardoquio’s

Debosyon (2013), which interweaves Bicolano folklore

More

Petersenlike Victor Villanueva’s My Paranormal Romance (2011)

Sheika, which shows the life of a mother whose sons wereand religiosity in a narrative of love between a male

Vargas and Carlo Catu have entered the Manila filmand Patay na si Hesus (2016), and Ara Chawdhury’s Miss

killed by a member of the infamous Davao Death Squad,lowlander and a mysterious female who lives in the forest

festival circuit. Vargas made 2 Cool 2 be Forgotten (2016)

Bulalacao (2015) feature a certain kind of Cebuano humor.

a vigilante group allegedly supported by then city mayor

alone. Cordero similarly takes on the region’s religious

written by Laxamana for Cinema One Originals, where it

Except for Patay na si Hesus, which was produced by

and now president, Rodrigo Duterte. Even though it wasculture in his period film, Angustia (2013), produced bywon Best Picture. It is among the few films that take on the

QCinema, the rest of the films are Cinema One Originals

pulled out from the main competition, Sheika received

Cinema One Originals, and in Hinulid (2016), produced byexperience of homosexual youth portrayed with tender

productions.

the NETPAC Prize in Cinemalaya, and won several awards

QCinema. Angustia centers on the story of a priest benthonesty. Catu, on the other hand, directed Kung Paano

Indeed, the role of these competitive festivals in thein Gawad Urian, including Best Screenplay and Beston converting the indigenous Agtas to Catholicism, while

Hinintay ang Dapithapon (Waiting for Sunset) (2018), which

growth of regional cinema is undeniable. By producing

Actress for Mindanaoan actress, Fe Hyde.

Hinulid tells the story of a devout Catholic mother—played

won Cinemalaya’s top prize. It is a tale of three senior

and exhibiting films made in different parts of theby Bicol-born Nora Aunor, Philippine cinema’s Superstar—citizens navigating their complicated relationship armed

archipelago, they have given confidence to filmmakers in

who returned to Bicol with her son’s ashes.

with kindness and love. The entry of this new blood tothe regions to present their locally rooted stories on theirfilmmaking bodes well for Kapampangan and Philippine

own terms. However, there is the danger of becoming

cinema in general.

too dependent on these festivals for funding—which

Still on Mindanao, festival films have portrayedindigenous people or lumad as well in a relatively more40

as a practice. Filling up

recently,

Kapampangan

filmmakers

sensitive way than earlier commercial films. One reason

Moreover, Kapampangan filmmakers have proven thatis the close collaboration between the filmmakers anddespite their province’s close proximity to Metro Manila,

the lumad community throughout the entire filming

they have a distinct culture and language showcased in their

Perhaps among regional cinemas, the one inmight reinforce the centrality of Manila in the country’s

process. This is true in the cases of Bagane Fiola’s Baboy

festival-produced films. Jason Paul Laxamana, who started

Cebu has built a strong festival presence with acinematic culture. In other words, while filmmaking may

Halas (Wailings in the Forest) (2016) and Arnel Barbarona’s

joining these film festivals before making it to commercial

numbergrantshave been decentralized, the source of production funds

Tu Pug Imatuy (The Right to Kill) (2017). With its slow andcinema, directed Astro Mayabang (2010) for Cinema One

annually. This regular production enabled Cebuano

remain relatively concentrated in the capital. This, in turn,immersive pacing, Baboy Halas tells the story of an

Originals, and Babagwa (The Spider’s Lair) (2013) andfilmmakers to explore facets of local culture, such as

can impede the development of autonomous regional

indigenous family who are among the last remaining

Mercury is Mine (2016) for Cinemalaya. The latter won thethe urban experience in Aberya (2012) or rural life incinemas that can spawn diverse cinema cultures all overfestival’s Special Jury Prize and Best Screenplay.

Brandon Relucio and Ivan Zaldarriaga’s zombie film,

the country.

offilmmakers

bagging

production

41

CREATING RIPPLES IN PHILIPPINE CINEMA

ART ARCHIVE 02

The Rise of Regional Cinema

Fig. 5

Cinemalaya winner, Halaw tells stories of Filipinos in
Mindanao who cross illegally to Sabah Island to look forwork. Author’s screengrab from Halaw.

Ang Paglalakbay ng mga Bituin sa Gabing Madilim
captures the journey of three individuals escaping from
Fig. 6 the war zone. The film received a Gawad Urian Best
Picture in 2013, a first for a film made in Mindanao.
Source: downloaded from the film’s Facebook page.

Fortunately,

thefilmmakers

are

not

alone

in

this regional cinema movement. Aiding them is an
infrastructure of support composed of film groups
and organizations that put up local screenings andfilm festivals, regional-based producers that invest in
their homegrown artists, cultural agencies and local

SUSTAINING REGIONAL CINEMAS

Fig. 6

LOCAL INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS
IN THE REGIONS

42

governments that provide funding opportunities for

At present, a number of regional filmmakers havefilms and workshops. Additionally, Manila-based film

(temporarily?) migrated to Manila to pursue a career in thefestivals have shaped regional cinema’s development

industry. However, regional productions have not slowed

through their production grants. However, there is a need

down as evidenced by new works programmed in annual

to encourage more film investors in the regions to fully

film festivals, not only in Manila but also in the regions.

develop an autonomous regional cinema — a cinema that

Some filmmakers struggled to remain independent,

thrives within and beyond the commercial film industry

financing and producing their own works. Such is the casein Manila.

of Christopher Gozum, who self-financed Anacbanua (Thefilms can sell, perhaps not through the usual distribution

Child of the Sun) (2009), which he also wrote, directed,

model, as demonstrated by the Igorot films and others.

and edited. Reportedly the first film from Pangasinan,

In addition, investing in regional films is not only an

Anacbanua is a stunning black-and-white non-linear film

opportunity for business but an advocacy that support

that calls attention to a language at risk of vanishing. It

local cultural productions that diversify Philippine cinema.

premiered at Cinemanila International Film Festival and

On a different but related note, an autonomous regional

had limited non-theatrical screenings in schools andcinema can be achieved by ensuring that films are not only

Investors should be convinced that regional

What can counter this tendency is the presence

PHP 2 million from its screenings in various schools andalternative venues. Another filmmaker is Deligero, who

regularly made but, more importantly, they are distributed.

of local producers who would invest in making anduniversities in Davao region. This figure is impressive

funded his first full-length Baboyngirongbuang (2010)

When these kinds of films are regularly screened in local

distributing regional films. The regions are not without

considering that the film’s budget (PHP 800,000) is lessset in the mid-1990s about two teenagers spending theirspaces and cinemas, their audience will emerge. In these

locally-funded films. Perhaps the best example is thethan half of its earnings.7 Further, the film gained nationallast weekend together before they part for college. The

ways, regional cinema could become sustainable, and it

Igorot of the Cordilleras in northern Philippines who haveattention by being nominated in major categories indigital film was transferred to VHS to achieve the quality

would be able to compete with commercial cinema titans,their micro film industry. They have been making full-length

Gawad Urian, such as Best Picture, Best Director, andof a home movie. He self-produced his next film in 2012—

like Hollywood and Tagalog film industries. ■films in their Kankanaey language since early 2000s

Best Screenplay.

Kordero sa Dios, which centers on the character of Divino

though productions have gone down due to piracy. 5

In Pampanga, Holy Angel University commissioned

Maligalig, who struggles to survive after experiencing a

These films, which are usually moral tales with religious

Catu, its alumnus, to make Ari: My Life with a King (2015).

string of tragedies. Also from Cebu, Linaban co-produced

theme, are funded by local producers and sold door-to-

The film presents a young man’s discovery of his richand directed Superpsychocebu (2016) about a young

door in Benguet and other neighboring provinces, likelinguistic and literary heritage through his friendship withman’s quest to find the so-called superpsychocebu, aNueva Vizcaya. Nestor Daguines, a filmmaker who madePampanga’s “King of Poets.” Although the film did not

type of cannabis that makes its users go bonkers.

the multi-part 3D animated film, Lampitok, said his films

earn big, Ari was a critical success. It won Best Film at the

The presence of these independently produced

earned more than the production cost. He notes that his

Metro Manila Film Festival New Wave section in 2015 andfilms attests to the tenacious spirit of filmmakers in thefilm is popular among the audience.6 As this illustrates,gave Catu the Best Director prize for his debut full-length

regions to create a cinema culture that attends to local

production cost can be recouped through alternative

feature. In addition, it received Best World Film award

specificities. Despite not yet having film industries in the

distribution models.

at the Harlem International Film Festival 2015 in New

regions, they are fuelled by their passion to tell stories

Another interesting case for local production with

York. Ari shows that a small local production can makeabout their homeplace in a manner that is different fromsuccessful distribution is Mardoquio’s Hunghong sa Yuta

waves at home and overseas that, in turn, can create

Tagalog films they’ve seen before. It is perhaps this(2008), which is produced by Brothers of the Sacred Heartdemand among viewers. The film’s critical successintense desire to surface regional cultures that have long

Youth Ministry, a religious group in Davao City. Meant to be

stirred audience’s interest, and it was screened in several

been absent in Philippine screens that can account for thean advocacy film for peace in Mindanao, it tells the story

universities all over the country. This can be anotherforce behind this cinema’s staying power. Filling up thisof a male volunteer teacher who went to a community inpathway for regional films to recover production cost andcinematic void is regional cinema’s biggest contribution

the mountain to teach. The film earned a profit of almost

perhaps even earn a little.

to Philippine cinema.

1 Paul Grant and Misha Anissimov, Lilas: An Illustrated History of
the Golden Ages of Cebuano Cinema (2016); Nick Deocampo, Films
from a ‘Lost’ Cinema: A Brief History of Cebuano Films (2005).
2 Dax Canedo, “Guerillas in the Midst: A Narrative on the Riseof Mindanao Cinema in the Digital Age,” Plaridel: A Philippine
Journal of Communication, Media, and Society 14, no. 2 (November2017): 184, http://www.plarideljournal.org/article/guerillas-midstnarrative-rise-mindanao-cinema-digital-age/.
3 Menchu Sarmiento, Businessworld, March 27, 2018, sec. Artsand Leisure, http://bworldonline.com/how-an-ilonggo-indie-filmcottage-industry-grew-and-grew/.
4 Patricia May Catan, Weekend, August 12, 2018, https://weekend.
sunstar.com.ph/blog/2018/08/12/for-the-love-of-film/.
5 Nestor Clemente, personal interview with author, Sept. 13, 2018.
6 Nestor Daguines, personal interview with author, Sept. 13, 2018.
7 Katrina Ross Tan, “Constituting Filmic and Linguistic Heritage:
The Case of Filipino Regional Films,” Citizens, Civil Society, andHeritage-Making in Asia, ed. Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, Hui
Yew-Foong, and Philippe Peycam (Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak
Institute, 2017), 145.

43

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

THE HISTORIC AND THE EPIC:
Contemporary Fiction from Mindanao

JOHN BENGAN

48
44

Fig. 1In the last five years, contemporary literature fromparamilitary groups like the Ilaga, and the story of

Mindanao has been on the upswing, particularly the

the Tagakaulo hero Datu Mangulayon. The essay also

genre of fiction. The establishment of new writers’attempts to demonstrate how the stories of the threeorganizations,writingmajor socio-political identities in Mindanao (the lumad,

workshops and programs, and the creation of online

the Moro, and the Settler) define the region’s literature.

theexistenceofcreative

have

After the siege of Marawi, the passing of thecontributed to the rise of contemporary Mindanao

Bangsamoro Organic Law, and the implementation ofwriting. Perhaps more so than ever, the story of themartial law, Mindanao remains a contested domain

region has been thrust into national consciousness

where the idea of a nation has always been unstable.

after the election of Rodrigo Duterte to the presidency.

This instability, a state of things unsettled, has shaped

In this essay, I provide an overview of the books

the works of fiction writers here, whether in obliqueof fiction published in the last five years written by

or direct ways, and depending on the communities

writers from or who have formed ties to Mindanao. A

they are writing from, for, and about. In their manifold

brief survey of the books of fiction published in theattempts to confront local history, while also having alast few years presents works that openly engage withfirm grasp of folk and oral traditions, these writers ask

events as recent as the 2013 Zamboanga Siege andimportant questions about what the rest of us have long

Joseph Estrada’s “all-out war” against the Moro Islamic

accepted as our story and identity. Perhaps, looking at

Liberation Front, and works about events little known ortheir works will offer us a glimpse of the literature thatforgotten, such as the formation of government-sponsored

will account for what is now unfolding before us.

literaryjournalsandindependentpresses45

THE HISTORIC AND THE EPIC:

ART ARCHIVE 02

Contemporary Fiction from Mindanao

THE QUESTION OF REPRESENTATIONLet us assume that the Nation is a resolved
affair, and that reading literature from Mindanao isakin to turning a blind eye on the context from whichthese writings emerge. Only the majority, many ofthem settlers from the Visayas and Luzon who arrived
during the American occupation, have unquestionably
accepted the Filipino identity not only as a legal
citizenship but also as a birthright. Outside this cozymigrant’s view is a tangle of unresolved struggles.
I find the tri-people perspective that historians such

The overview
of the booksof fiction publishedin the last five years

literature from Mindanao. The inhabitants of the islands

written by writers

people, and the Christian settlers. When examined
more closely, this framework has limitations. Not all
Christianized lowlanders are settlers. There are Lumad
who have integrated with the Visayans and othermigrant groups. The Bangsamoro is also a layered
identity, especially when compared to the problematic“Muslim Filipino.” Nevertheless, the tri-people lens canbegin to starkly illustrate the aftermath of the peoplingof Mindanao.
THE CONNECTIVE THREAD IN ORTEGA’S STORIES
From Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato, Judefrom or who have formed
ties to Mindanao,
demonstratefolk and ethnic lore in describing the lives of charactersfrom South Cotabato, a place where the Blaan, Tboli,
Teduray, Manobo, Ilonggo, and the Maguindanao live
among each other. Published in 2018, his first bookSeekers of Spirits (University of the Philippines Press)
continues the tradition of writers of migrant stock
writing about the indigenous groups in Mindanao. The
thread that connects Ortega’s stories is the magicalspirit that either guides or harms his characters. In “TheLast Guardian Seeker,” Ogow, a Manobo, seeks theelusive spirit guardian who will bring him the strengthin Ortega’s stories. This is particularly true in the “TheTalisman,” in which a young Teduray who wants to marrya Catholic girl forces his father to pass on to him theungit, an amulet that not only turns its bearer into an
expert hunter but also a stud. After he grudgingly gives
away the amulet to his son, the father passes away, and
The Teduray and the woman he marries live such an
unhappy life together: at night he turns her into a sex
birth control pills that prevent her from bearing Teduraychildren. The dreary depiction and the character’s
eventual suicide impair the story’s theme of taking
pride in one’s own heritage. The material could have

Fig. 2

benefited from a fresh insight into the character andhis predicament.
center agent in Manila whose adoptive parents bothcollection, features Ilonggo babaylan or healers involved

die in an accident. After telling her close friend—the

how the stories of thein a paramilitary group fighting Muslim rebels, but it is notbeleaguered history major Justin—about a mysterious

clear what each camp is fighting for other than seeking

visitor to her parents’ wake, she is drawn to a series ofrevenge for deaths in their respective clans. While

startling discoveries.

three major socio-politicalthe characters now represent Ortega’s own Ilonggo

Early in the novel, Justin is brutally murdered, andcommunity, they are somewhat short of nuance. The

the killers leave a grotesque signature: his ear is cut off.

babaylan Ikang becomes a seductress who manipulates

Justin happens to be writing a master’s thesis on thethe upstart Badong, himself the son of a powerful

Ilaga, the notorious Ilonggo paramilitary group in thebabaylan, and Gaston, a ruthless Ilaga commander. The

1970s during the Marcos dictatorship that massacredstory never truly gets down to the cause of why “[more]

many Muslim civilians; the Ilaga were known to keep

Christians will hate Muslims. More civilians will become

the ears of their victims as trophies. The death of her

vigilantes.” In the end, Badong’s survival is a small

adoptive parents and close friend compels Blesilda

victory. The uneasiness I sometimes feel when reading

to experience a belated coming of age, her sense of

Ortega’s more complicated stories springs from theiridentity obscured by the fraught relationship between

lack of a clear political standpoint, a stronger sense of

the Filipino and the Moro. While the novel mostly takes—the tri-people lens—

where he is coming from and where he intends to goplace in Colon, Cebu City, the events in Carmen, North

with his stories about the people in Kulaman.

Cotabato haunt Blesilda’s quest for answers.

define the region’s

THE ANGRY NARRATIVE OF THE BETRAYED

identities in Mindanao,
the Lumad, the Moro,and the Settler

A writer of Tagalog upbringing, Braga invites thereaders to engage with the Bangsamoro discourse bySince narratives about Mindanao have usually

allowing them to identify with Blesilda, a woman who

been mystified or distorted, today’s writers bear thegrew up thinking that she was Filipino and is living an

responsibility to tell stories that are scrupulously

unexamined life. Colon’s tenacious pursuit of Blesilda’s

conscious of social and historical undercurrents.

past

who mistake the malevolent spirit for the beloved.

Colon, a novel by the Tagalog playwright Rogelio Braga,

introduction into one of Mindanao’s longest running

In “Brothers,” the story of Indirapatra and Sulayman

is a leap in this direction. Even though the novel’s

conflicts. Braga provokes us to question our perceived

is retold as a cinematic battle worthy of an entry in amain character is a woman unwittingly discovering her

notions of being Filipino, an identity that has denied thenational film festival. In their directness and simplicity,

Muslim roots and the violent incident that separated

Moro’s struggle for self-determination. The novel bears

these short stories closely resemble the oral narratives

her from her community, Braga handles the subject

the anger of the betrayed, but also the sensitivity of afrom which they are based.

with searing conviction. Colon is about Blesilda, a callteacher asking us to assess our complacency.

to fight the settlers who have been laying waste totheir lands. In “The Bride,” a tryst between two young
Manobo lovers is foiled by the fegelilong, an entitythat deceives and eventually kills one of the lovers

46

especially to readers whose traditions are depicted“A Battle of Amulets,” the longest story in the

Ortega is highly aware of the distinctions amongcommunities he writes about. Ortega draws from theuneven results. His approach can be contentious,

slave, while at daytime she swallows her own talisman—may be divided into three major groups: the indigenous
peoples who are now called lumad, the Bangsamoro

character, Ortega takes a risk, one that often yields

many of his children also die from hunger soon after.

as Rody B. Rodil and Samuel K. Tan have embraced intheir studies helpful in defining a particular stream ofEverytime he tells the story from the eyes of a lumad

literature.

mirrors

theaverage

Filipino

reader’sown

47THE HISTORIC AND THE EPIC:

ART ARCHIVE 02

Contemporary Fiction from Mindanao

from Marawi, Lanao del Sur, Tiburon’s stories are written

years after the 2013 MNLF siege. As Zamboanga burns

Press, encapsulates Muslim’s musings on pestilence,in the popular Tagalog mode, such as the ones printed

from the coast, Abdullah, a Muslim Sama Dilaut, leaves

transmutation, and ruin.

in the Filipino-language magazine Liwayway, but also

his moorage to find medicine for his sick daughter.

The sixteen very short, parable-like stories in theoccasionally use Meranaw terms and phrases andHe and a few other men row toward the city to seek

book are grouped into four subsections: “I. Animals,” “II.

introduce cultural elements that may not be familiar

supplies. Their biggest obstacle: a horde of zombies.

Children,” “III. Instead of Human,” and “IV. Age of Blight.”

to her Tagalog-reading audience. The stories are notThough his characterization of the Sama Dilaut isEach subsection collects tales of cruelty, dark children’snecessarily about the Mindanao wars or fraught Muslim-

done mostly in broad strokes, Arguelles is able to givestories, abominations of corrupt science, and a view ofChristian relations. Instead, they are about social

Abdulla—and characters in the other stories—an innerthe earth after the fallout, which resembles massive

mores, university life, traditions, and relationships,

consciousness that propels the story.

environmental ruin and societal collapse.

with the occasional turn for the paranormal. Tiburon’s

Also noteworthy is “The Outsiders,” which is about

A standout from the first section about animal cruelty,

achievement, in my view, is precisely her choice toa fictional town in Zamboanga suddenly “invaded” by“The Ghost of Laika Encounters a Satellite,” is an accountwrite about the commonplace. One does not need toa group of strangers. According to Arguelles, the ideaof the demise of Laika, one of the first animals launchedwrite about the armed conflict to describe what it’s likecame from news of informal settlers being relocatedinto space in 1957 inside the Soviet Spacecraft Sputnik

to live somewhere in Mindanao.

elsewhere. “The Outsiders” reads like a tale of inversion,

2. In Muslim’s story, we see Laika inside her shuttle andTiburon’s first book Terminal (Ivory Printing anda strange reenactment of the arrival of migrants inwatch her incinerate. “There’s no pleasant way to state

Publishing House) describes the lives of Meranaw

Mindanao. This time, it is the lowland city dwellers whowhat happened, so I’ll just say it,” the ghost of Laika says.

characters who seldom appear in the Filipino reader’s

are driven out from their homes. The rest of the stories“The core sustainer failed to automatically disengage

consciousness. The characters’ deeds and choices

in Our Darkest Hours move between Zamboanga City

from the payload, and I died by extreme overheating ahinge on maratabat or the Meranaw concept of personaland Metro Manila where the author now lives.

few hours after launch […] excruciating death by boilinghonor. In “Wedding Ring,” a woman’s dream of a happy

Arguelles has a knack for retelling folk and urban

of internal organs, which was, unfortunately for me, notlife crumbles after her OFW husband marries a second

lore. In “Lucky,” a young man fleeing a gang riot runs

instantaneous.” We are reminded how technologicalwife. In “Omairah,” a young woman is driven to the brinkinto serious trouble when the mall security guard throws

progress involved the murder of a living thing.

of her sanity after she is assaulted. The supernatural

him down a basement where a half-human, half-python

Other exemplary stories include “Dominic & Dominic,”

occurs more seamlessly, as in the story “Paktol,” increature lives. It happens that the python is the shopping

about a boy who buries his discarded fingernail, only towhich a married man from a prominent family suffers amall owner’s twin sister. The material was inspired byfind out that it’s growing each day into a full-bodied clone;hex cast by a jilted lover.

Marne L. Kilates’s poem “Python in the Mall,” which was“Pet,” about a possibly genetically modified creature

also inspired by an urban legend in the 1990s.

switching roles with its owner; “Zombie Sister,” a girl

In Terminal 2, Tiburon turns to the horror genre andFig. 3fills her stories only with non-Meranaw characters living

Not one of the eight stories in Our Darkest Hours

who returns from the dead and receives “formaldehyde

in Metro Manila who encounter ghosts, ghouls, andoffers any semblance of redemption. His characters

treatment” in order to live with her family; “There’s No

monsters. After introducing her Meranaw community towitness debauchery in various forms—necrophilia

Relief as Wondrous as Seeing Yourself Intact,” about

the readers, she shifts to the usual cast of characters(“One of Them’), gang rape (“The Scent of Flying”),

gradual human extinction by way of a slow bodily

in Tagalog popular fiction. But since Tiburon does not

and a cult (“Avenida”)—and they are always pulled into

deterioration called The Empty; and “The Day of the

depict interethnic relations or political conflict—at least

the “dark side.” Some stories test one’s tolerance for

Builders,” about the arrival of aggressive “builders” who

not explicitly—in these stories, her depictions of her

the depraved and lewd. The stories’ strengths are thetransform a village and destroy the lives of its inhabitants

non-Meranaw characters do not ring particularly false,character’s self-awareness and Arguelles’s humor.

save for those who collude with them.
Since Muslim has set out to publish abroad, it’s

notwithstanding her manner of telling these ghostBook cover of Terminal, by Almayrah A. Tiburon.
Fig. 1
Published by Ivory Printing and Publishing House, 2012.
Fig. 2

Book cover of Seekers of Spirits, by Jude Ortega.
Published by University of the Philippines Press, 2018.

Fig. 3

Book cover of Terminal 2, by Almayrah A. Tiburon.
Published by Balangay Books, 2013

Book cover of Si Menda ug Ang Bagani’ng Gitahapan Nga
Mao Si Mangulayon (Menda and the Bagani Suspected of
Fig. 4
Being Mangulayon), by Melchor M. Morante. Publishedby Aletheia Publishing House, 2015.

STORIES OF IMPENDING EXTINCTION

not surprising that the setting of her stories resemble

plots are created to induce an uncanny response from

The works of Kristine Ong Muslim offers a darker

American cities and suburbia. Age of Blight is set in areaders. This penchant for the uncanny and the strange

vision. Muslim hails from Upi, Maguindanao andfuturistic town called Balderstan in 2115. “All these placesalso informs the works of two other fiction writers.

attended the College of Engineering at the University

are familiar, and you may have been in some of them—orof the Philippines. Even though she has lived most of

all of them,” Muslim writes in a brief note in the book, “andher life in her hometown, her stories and poems haveif they don’t seem familiar, it is likely you aren’t paying
much attention.”

DARK TALES, DYSTOPIAN LANDSCAPES
Born and raised in Zamboangga City, Jose Miguelbeen published internationally, making her the mostArguelles works with a range of genres. Published inprolific and widely read among the writers included in

These bleak landscapes are not so different from2015 by Visprint, Inc., Our Darkest Hours features

this essay. The themes running in Muslim’s work, mostly

towns and mountain ranges in Mindanao that have seen

strange, darkly humorous stories that ring familiar. One

pithy and hauntingly poignant, are human neglect andmilitarization, destructive mining, and foreign invasions.

If the previous writers took risks to portray charactersof Arguelles stories is told from the perspective of an

abuse of nature, cruelty against other life forms, andThough her concern is certainly the planetary effects

outside of their own cultural backgrounds, Almayrah

indigenous character, a Sama Dilaut, who is referred toself-annihilation. The memo is harsh but clear: we areof climate change and environmental degradation, it isA. Tiburon’s stories is refreshing in their depiction

as a “Badjao” in the story. “No One Else But Us” is an

responsible for our impending extinction. Her collection

not misguided to read Kristine Ong Muslim’s fiction asof ordinary Meranaw lives.

apocalyptic story set in the Zamboanga peninsula two

Age of Blight, published in 2016 by The Unnamed

parables closer to home.

DEPICTION OF ORDINARY MERANAW LIVES

48

stories that follow closely the conventions of the genre:

A writer and teacher

49

THE HISTORIC AND THE EPIC:

ART ARCHIVE 02

Contemporary Fiction from Mindanao

Instability, a state of things unsettled,
has shaped the works of fiction writersin Mindanao, whether in obliqueor direct ways, and dependingon the communities they are writing
from, for, and about.

Fig. 4REAL EVENTS IN EPIC MINDANAO FICTION

50

Real events are the subject of three novels by writers

An avid reader who could only afford books bysocial awakening. Similar to Bautista’s portrayal of

Instead, they are presented as warriors who arefrom northern, central, and southern Mindanao. Eachstealing them, the young protagonist is an aspiring

Olongapo City in the time of the US military bases,

outnumbered and overpowered. The fabulous andnovel takes a different approach in evoking periods

writer who also becomes aware of the region’s political

Alvarez describes how militarization in Mindanao

magical is only conveyed by word of mouth.

in history. One reads like a queer novel of education

situation. He knows better than the average teenager

affected the lives of residents in the early 2000s.

set in the early 2000s. The second takes place in an

about the displacement of indigenous people from their

Melchor M. Morante’s Cebuano-Visayan novel

deed to another character’s personal tragedy, Menda

indigenous village during the American Occupation.

ancestral lands in the hands of land-grabbing settlers,

Si Menda ug Ang Bagani’ng Gitahapan Nga Mao Si

follows the tradition of the Visayan novel that focuses on

The third novel retells the entire history of Mindanao in

logging and mining corporations, and government

Mangulayon (Menda and the Bagani Suspected Of

the lives of married men and women. Morante seems toepic fashion.

By shifting the focus away from Mangulayon’s heroic

troops. Protests erupt on the streets of Cagayan deBeing Mangulayon) centers on the events in 1906 in

be interested in how the ordinary lives of people, such

Jack Alvarez’s Kagay-an (PSICOM Publishing Inc.) is

Oro, denouncing the President’s war with Islamic

Malita, Davao Oriental that lead to the assassination

as that of Menda and her husband, were disrupted by

set in Cagayan de Oro City during Joseph Estrada’s war

militants, and calling for the abolition of the Visitingof Lt. Edward C. Bolton, the politico-military governor

invaders. At first, the Tagakaulo hesitate whether toagainst the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The novel

Forces Agreement. Not far from the young man’s houseof Davao, by Tagakaulo warrior Mangulayon. The

yield to the Americans or support a brewing resistance.

tells the coming-of-age story of a student working part-is a military barracks that he stumbles into one day at

Americans never captured Mangulayon, but they

The community leaders and warriors act out of theirtime at a fast food chain. Between breaks, he visits aa great cost. On his way home, a soldier captures andmade a show of displaying a body, allegedly that of theneed to survive. The resistance does not quickly findbookstore and clandestinely tears away a chapter fromrapes him. The attack oddly draws victim and rapist

assassin, to serve as an example to anyone who daredmomentum, until Mangulayon, at the spur of a moment,a novel by his favorite author—Gapo by Lualhati Bautista.

together, after which they begin a tentative and unusual

resist the newly installed government.

strikes the first blow. Nevertheless, Morante’s novel

He does this every day in the hopes of reading therelationship.

Morante retells this chapter in Davao history withreveals a deep affinity with the plight of the Tagakaulo

entire book without getting caught. Alvarez’s prose is

Kagay-an attempts to present the Mindanao conflict

hard facts and a dose of fabrication. In the novel,

people. He seeks to correct the colonial history thatcolloquial, peppered with Cebuano-Visayan sentences.

from a migrant’s perspective while also describing areal figures, such as Bolton, Benjamin Christian, andportrays Bolton as a martyred governor of Davao andApart from Bautista’s novel, the narrator’s own essays,

queer character living through trauma and later, self-even the anthropologist Faye Cooper-Cole, makeinstead pays homage to the unsung heroes of lumad

stories, and short plays are woven into the narrative,

discovery. The novel combines a story of abandonment

appearances. Unlike their counterparts in myths,

resistance.

revealing hints of the trauma that his father left behind.

and abuse with a young queer person’s sexual andthe bagani do not possess extraordinary abilities.
51

THE HISTORIC AND THE EPIC:

ART ARCHIVE 02

Contemporary Fiction from Mindanao

A RETELLING OF HISTORICAL EVENTS
In contrast with Morante’s austere treatment,

the descendants of Gaun; the arrival of the Kastila and

T.S. Sungkit, Jr., a Higaonon from Sumilao, Bukidnon,

later the Americans; the eventual splintering of clans

merges oral and written forms in retelling historicalto the turbulent years of dictatorship, Sungkit deftly

events. His first novel Batbat Hi Udan (The Story of

constructs a historical novel that stores the narratives

Udan), published in 2009 by Central Book Supply Inc.,

shared by the Higaonon, Maguindanao, Meranaw,

describes the journey and transformation of Udan from

Manobo, and other indigenous communities.

ordinary man into a great bagani who frees his people

Gapnod operates in what E. Arsenio Manuel callsfrom hostile tagbaya that have tricked other bagani“mythological time.” Gods descend from the sky

and fed on the peoples’ hearts and livers. The novel

and interact with noble clans. Spirits and tricksters

draws from the epic tradition in the way it narrates

intervene with mortals caught in disputes. Heroes are

marvelous feats. Readers are introduced to beliefs ofmythic figures who respond to the arrival of outsiders

the Higaonon through customs in the banuwa (village

with their supernatural abilities. In one chapter, twoor nation), pangayaw (tribal war), and mythologicalwarrior siblings resurrect their youngest brother whose

creatures such as bakesans and aligasis. Written inhead has been quartered while in battle. As the novel

Tagalog and Higaonon and combining the oral with

progresses, the mythic world diminishes, overshadowed

the literary, the publication of Batbat Hi Udan marks aby the colonial period. Communities break apart andsignificant point in Philippine literature.

heroes disappear along with their magical powers. In

Mga Gapnod sa Kamad-an, Sungkit’s second novel

the end, the novel returns to the young man from thewritten in Cebuano-Visayan, is even grander in scale.

opening chapter, the one descendant who has gone

The novel was translated into English as Driftwood

adrift in the city.

has made more obvious
what is necessary...
The struggle lives on outside of fiction.

on Dry Land and published by the University of Santo

Apart from the epic tradition, Gapnod is also

Tomas Publishing House in 2013. Sungkit uses a similar

influenced by Cebuano fiction. The novel, written in theapproach in his previous novel, but this time, an entire

Mindanao variety of Cebuano-Visayan, was serialized inothers an allegory of Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war andAs an activist and social scientist, Gaspar has done his

history of Mindanao is narrated by one of its first

Bisaya Magasin. The story of a young man who ventures

how impunity has become “the new normal.” Kristine

share in advocating for change in the region. Others

inhabitants: the Higaonon. While an epic usually opens

into Metro Manila and discovers his supernatural gifts

Ong Muslim has co-edited a forthcoming anthology oflike Braga, Muslim, and Sungkit actively participate inwith an incantation, Sungkit’s novel begins a poem,(extraordinary luck, the ability to talk with spirits) echoes

fiction in English about our complicity in natural anddiscussions on social media and other venues in spite

which is also titled “Mga Gapnod sa Kamad-an.”a familiar storyline in Philippine movies. Moreover, theman-made disasters. A year after the Marawi Siegeof the threat of paid “trolls.” A heightened political

The story begins with a conversation between“flatness” of many of his characters, a convention of

in 2017, Almayrah A. Tiburon continues to teach atatmosphere has made more obvious what is necessary.

a young man and his grandfather about how their

the oral tale, serves its serious purpose of “instructing”

the Mindanao State University. She has not released

It is not enough to simply write about these things. The

ancestors once knew how to read the stars. The

readers, similar to how folktales are expected to convey

a book of fiction since 2013 but co-edited Lawanen:

struggle lives on outside of fiction. ■young man grows old, drifts away from his family, anda lesson, how oral narratives are traditionally used in

Mga Alaala ng Pagkubkob/ Mga Haraya ng Pag-igpaw

forgets about his grandfather’s stories. Years later

settling grievances, or how epics contain customs and(Gantala Press), an anthology of writing by Meranaw

at a lecture hall in a university in Luzon, the man,ideals by which people live. Sungkit’s art confronts

women in response to the siege. If these works are any

seemingly possessed, interrupts the class by chanting

the misrepresentation of his people: over time theindication, our writers will continue to reckon with thein an ancient language. Seized by a vision, the man is

Higaonon were called “Bukidnon” and their language

distortions of the past and bring a flash of truth to theastonished by his own words: “A day shall come whenclassified as “Binukid” by the Visayan settlers who later

present.

the raging fire will be seen […] The rocks will jump into

arrived in Mindanao.

However, as far as the state of publishing andKulaman for it is the day that Agyu’s blood and Aniyun

Gapnod is characterized by what Resil B. Mojares

readership in the country is concerned, literature canMinayun Anlaw’s bones will come home.” Thus unfolds

calls epic literature’s “intimate connections with

only be of so much use—a flash indeed, if at all. While I

the saga of the people who will later be scattered likenatural and human environments.” The novel employs

look forward to new fiction by Alvarez, Morante, Ortega,driftwood across their own land.

supernatural elements, but unlike most stories about

Braga, and others about Mindanao, my anticipation

Instead of writing conventional “scenes,” Sungkit

Mindanao cultures written by migrant writers, Sungkit’s

becomes absurd in the face of real lives affected byuses sweeping narration that covers vast periods ofuse of the marvelous is motivated by robust principles:

another year’s extension of martial law in Mindanao,

time, condensing epic cycles in compact chapters.

he writes not merely to achieve certain effects, but tothe harassment of lumad schools and communities,

From the great patriarch Buuy Pigsugdan who lived

reconnect with his people’s historical memory.

and this administration’s campaign for a federal
government that seems to advance only the interests

near the River of All Rivers; the descent of the sky
deity Mambat-aw to marry Buuy Pigsugdan’s daughter

52

A heightened political atmosphere

CONCLUSION: A FLASH OF TRUTH

of ruling clans.

Gagawen and teach her people the ability to decipher

Jose Manuel Arguelles has published a second

The most senior among the writers listed here,

the stars; the coming of the Central Asian voyager

book, one that is even sharper than his first. Ordinary

Melchor M. Morante, is the pen name of anthropologist

Mampur; the years of the great hero Buuy Agyu;

World, published by Visprint in 2018, features among

Karl M. Gaspar, CSSR, a political prisoner in the ‘70s.

REFERENCES
Alvarez, Jack, Kagay-anon (At Pag-ibig sa Panahon ng All Out War),(Quezon City: PSICOM Publishing Inc., 2018)
Braga, Rogelio, Colon: isang nobela, (Quezon City: Balangiga Press,
2015)
Manuel, E. Arsenio, Saddani Pagayaw, Tuwaang Attends a Wedding(The second song of the Manuvu ethnoepic Tuwaang), (Quezon City:
Ateneo de Manila Press, 1975)
Morante, Melchor M., Si Menda ug Ang Bagani’ng Gitahapan Nga
Mao Si Mangulayon, (Davao City: Aletheia Publishing House, 2015)
Mojares, Resil B., The Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel (Ageneric study of the novel until 1940), (Quezon City: University of thePhilippines Press, 1983)
Muslim, Kristine Ong, Age of Blight, (Los Angeles: The Unnamed
Press, 2016)
Ortega, Jude, Seekers of Spirits, (Quezon City: University of thePhilippines Press, 2018)
Sungkit, T.S. Jr., Batbat Hi Udan, (Quezon City: Central Book Supply
Inc., 2009)---, Driftwood on Dry Land, (Manila: University of Santo Tomas
Publishing House, 2013).
Tiburon, Almayrah A., Terminal, (Iligan City: Ivory Printing andPublishing House, 2012).
---, Terminal 2, (Manila: Balangay Books, 2013).

53

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

SILLIMAN AND BEYOND:
A Look Inside the Writers’ Workshop

TARA FT SERING

Fig. 1PRESTIGIOUS RITE OF PASSAGE
For all the solitude the writing life demands, theIn the Philippines, the Silliman University National

early, if not pivotal, stages of a creative writer’s career

Writers Workshop (SUNWW) is widely acknowledged asvery often, although not necessarily, begin in a groupa rite of passage for many of the country’s literary talent.

setting, more specifically, at a writing workshop. In a

It’s even made more prestigious as it is the oldest andstandard workshop, participants submit works to thelongest-running creative writing workshop in Asia andscrutiny of others — fellow participants or a panel ofcounts, as a result, almost a thousand former fellows,

experts — and critique is meted out according to pre-including some of the most prolific and active literary

established parameters in form or content, or schools ofvoices in the country.

thought. For the writer offering material up for evaluation,

Formally established in 1962 by Edilberto anda workshop, with its keen readers and focused format,

Edith Tiempo, it was part of a creative writing program

functions as a kind of testing ground for new work. For

modelled on the Iowa Writers Workshop in Iowa City,

everyone involved, it’s a conversation on art and craft.

United States, which the couple had attended. It had two
components: a degree program in Creative Writing, andthe Summer Writers Workshop, open to all young writers
in the Philippines.1

54

55

SILLIMAN AND BEYOND:
A Look Inside the Writer’s Workshop

LEARNING FROM THE NEW CRITICISMThe Silliman University National Writers
Workshop, the oldest and longest-runningcreative writing workshop in Asia,

When I came to Dumaguete for the summer workshop,
I was a 21-year-old unpublished aspiring writer about toenter my final year at De La Salle University, where I wascompleting a degree in literature. There were three othersfrom the same university attending the workshop thatyear, and for expediency we were nicknamed the La Salle
delegation. Three of us were assigned to bunk beds inthe same room in the bungalow that housed all 20 fellows— a very diverse batch of writers from across the country

was established in 1962

— for the next three weeks. The modest resort was oncea family residence with a spacious living room, several

by Edilberto and Edith Tiempo.

bedrooms, and a common dining hall that led to the
kitchen. Behind the house was a pool and a lounge deck.
We learned later that the comforts we enjoyed, modest as

Fig. 2

they were, hadn’t even been available to previous batches
The Tiempos were writers, literary critics, and educators

By the time I joined the workshop in 1996, it was

who had both spent time writing and teaching in the US

operating outside the auspices of the university (andLodging was free and at the beginning of the week,through various scholarship programs, including thewas, for the time, officially called the Dumaguete National

we were each given a modest allowance for food. Thatthen a business student at De La Salle who had attended

Guggenheim and Rockefeller grants. On returning to theWriters Workshop). But apart from the changes in nameall of us were there meant that we had submitted two

writing courses on the side, and who continues toPhilippines, they settled in the coastal city of Dumaguete,

and in financial backing, it was operationally the same,

examples of our work in either fiction or poetry in English,

write poetry and fiction, recalls a similar impression.

where Edilberto took on a teaching post at Silliman University,

unfolding over a period of three weeks in May, with theand that these works had been deemed of a certain

She says, “The workshop was an eye-opener in terms

and where, over the course of his tenure, he would serve in

Tiempos still its beating heart.

standard and suitable for the workshop. Upon arrival inof experiencing how panel and peer reviews work. It

various capacities: chair of the English Department, dean

While a workshop is by no means the necessary

Dumaguete, each of us were given packets that included

was my first time to see how a piece was discussedof the Graduate School, and vice-president for Academic

ground zero for a career in the literary arts —many had

a compilation of everyone’s works, and a schedule forand cut up, and how it felt to be on the receiving end

Affairs. In his later years, he was the university’s writer-in-come to the workshops with years of writing behind themwhen each one would be critiqued.

of the critique. This learning turned out to be crucial

residence. Edith, on the other hand, was a prolific poet

— with limited slots to a batch, culled from hundreds

During the week, we spent nights reading works to beover the years of my writing — comments, when given

who would later become National Artist for Literature forof applications from across the country, the Silliman

discussed at the morning and afternoon sessions, eachconstructively, can help you correctly revise your work.

her formidable body of work. But it was for the legendary

Workshop continues to be a prestigious starting point for

half-day session three hours long and covering at least two

As one of my fellow beta-readers in a group I joined

workshop that they were best known to me as a literaturesomeone hoping to become a writer in the Philippines.

works, not necessarily by the same author. Sessions took

said, “We are usually blind to our mistakes and need
one another to help correct them.”

student who wanted to write fiction.

It’s where one can emerge from the solitary act

place at a conference room in the CAP Building (now aThat the workshop was conducted mainly by a marriedof writing and present their work to the judgment andhotel), along the leafy and scenic Rizal Boulevard. It was a

Once a week the workshop moved to a different

couple has perhaps added the familial sheen unique toinspection of those who have toiled at their craft muchsquat, brick low-rise with the bright, fluorescent-lit interiors

location outside the city: a beach resort in Bacong; ait — generations of former fellows refer to them as Dad

more methodically for a longer period of time, and haveof a bank. Here, desks were arranged to optimize groupsemi-alfresco dining area set in a coconut grove in Calo,

Ed and Mom Edith. The more self-conscious among us,

proven successful.

discussion — in a single, rectangular conference table thatin the home of Cicero Calderon, a former president

could seat 20 fellows and four to five panelists.

of the university; the Tiempos’ hillside rest house infeeling that perhaps such terms laden with familiarity

According to the late Cirilo Bautista, “Practically all Filipino

needed to be earned, used the more deferential Doc

writers of any importance have joined the Silliman Writers

A different set of panelists presided over workshops

Valencia. On weekends, we were free to explore the city

Ed and Ma’am Edith,2 although both of them were PhD

Workshop at one time or another, either as fellows, lecturers,

each week, all of them active practitioners of particularand its immediate surroundings. On the first weekend,

holders. The same familial sense may be credited withor panelists.”4 Among its earliest panelists were National

genres. Although the summer workshop was built on thewe trekked up to Casaroro Falls, which has found itself

the workshop’s longevity and endurance even when, in

Artists for Literature Franz Arcellana and Nick Joaquin who,

formalist literary theory of New Criticism, an approach tointo several poems, including one by the poet and literary

the early 1990s, the original source of funding had run

according to anecdotes passed on through the years, were

understanding works of literature purely on what’s been

critic Gemino Abad, thanks to such excursions; and on

dry. It was then that former writing students, Alfred Yuson,

rigorous if not ruthless and rather dramatic enforcers of thelaid out on the page — without looking to milieu or author to

the second, half the group sailed across the Tañon Strait

Marjorie Evasco, Gemino Abad, Ricardo de Ungria, Graceelements of style.5

influence the appreciation of it — there was much to learn

to Siquijor island. Although Silliman University itself wasMonte de Ramos, and Susan Lara stepped in, establishing

By 2008, a few years shy of its 50th anniversary, thefrom the panel, even outside of the sessions, on process,deserted for the summer holidays, the university town

the Creative Writing Foundation, Inc. (CWF), that would

workshop returned to the administration of the University,

the struggle to deliver what ultimately makes it to the page.

played warm host to the workshop all throughout the threeraise the money required to keep the workshop going forand in 2010, a year before Edith Tiempo passed away,

While I had done a few day-long writing workshops as

weeks by way of pocket art and music events. There was

the next 15 years.

moved to its new home, the Silliman University Rosepart of the course work required at university, I had neveralways something to see and do whenever we needed a

Fifty-one years and hundreds of alumni later, in 2013,

Lamb-Sobrepeña Writers Village in Valencia, Negros

been to one of such length and focus. Most instructive to

break from reading and writing, and in these moments,

the workshop was recognized by the Cultural Center ofOriental. In its current form, the workshop lasts 11 days

me were the practical discussions on craft and technique;away from poring over pages, friendships were formed

the Philippines with the Tanging Parangal3 award for its

and grants 10 fellowships a year.

while some of the panelists were also literary critics, all

and cultivated.

“immense contribution to the country’s literary heritage.”56

in earlier years.

of them were writers. Fellow participant Cherrie Sing,
57

SILLIMAN AND BEYOND:

ART ARCHIVE 02

A Look Inside the Writer’s Workshop

EYE-OPENERS ABOUT THE WRITING LIFE
FH Batacan, novelist and author of the best-selling
crime novel Smaller and Smaller Circles, remembers

Among the workshops’

most the friendships she made at the Dumaguete
workshop. At the time, Batacan had already begun towrite what would become years later a groundbreaking
work of crime fiction, but recalls her time with writing

earliest panelists werecoaches as “an eye-opening introduction to certain
conventions and principles which I’d never really thoughtof as someone who was just starting to write. It was really
good to meet other writers as well, at various stages of

National Artists

their writing lives. It helped to listen to them and how they
approached their work, and it helped to hear their critiqueof mine.” She had offered up a different work for review

for Literaturethat summer, and although the workshop didn’t directly
impact the novel, she says it “altered the way I thought
and felt about writing in general.”For others, workshops may clarify attitudes towards

Franz Arcellana

the creative writing life. Poet and professor Jhoanna Lynn
Cruz recalls attending the Silliman Workshop before it
became clear that it was even a path to pursue. “I wasn’t

and Nick Joaquin who,

really a writer at the time, but I was teaching literaturein De La Salle University-Manila and had written somepoems and a story,” she says. “I met Edilberto and Edith
Tiempo at a PEN Conference in Cebu and they asked

according to anecdotes,
Fig. 3me to send them my works for consideration for theworkshop, and fortunately, I made the cut. At the time, it
didn’t seem like writers’ workshops were a requirement tosucceed, maybe because I wasn’t really on that ‘career’

were rigorous enforcers

path. But being in Silliman that year was pivotal in my own
development as a writer. It made me feel like I was really awriter —that I had a gift that I shouldn’t squander.”

WORKSHOPS AS PRIME GROUND

From week to week, the panelists intoned the value

The year I attended the workshop turned out to beof meeting one’s heroes, with all the highs and dangers

of discipline as the backbone of good practice; and that

Ed Tiempo’s last. In what was apparently a rare outing,that implies. You either come out of it proud to haveconstant practice, every day, was about the only way

he joined the fellows for a beer one night at El Amigo, an

powered through the tedium of rewriting and editing— andforward. While this wasn’t news to the more industrious

how it internalized the elements of coherence, harmony,

open-air grill and bar; I had taken a photo of him taking a

repeating the process endlessly — or exhausted to evenfellows, it was somewhat of a revelation to me; no one

and counterpoint, etc.; to justify or reject prosodic orswig of San Miguel. A few months later, in September, hethink of what lies ahead, or hovering indecisively between

had a trick to impart, no short-cut to spill. For the mostnarrative tactics in the context of the work’s aesthetic

passed away.

both. It is the early workshops that are best rememberedpart, it was a dissection of the anatomy of a story or adirection; and to evaluate the clarity of its meaning within

poem, every sentence or word held up to the light to be

the boundaries of its functions.”6

assessed as necessary or irrelevant, wondering aloud aswe went along whether any of it was warranted.
A COMMUNAL CRITIQUE

58

of the elements of style.

At the service in the Silliman Church, writer Krip

for having this effect.

Yuson read a eulogy from Ed’s daughter Rowena Tiempo-

The Silliman Workshop’s length (although now it

All this was set against the backdrop of a city whose

Torrevillas, who was unable to make it home, in which she

has been shortened to two weeks) and setting (fewgeography and makeup — a small university town by theshared her father’s writing advice; the exact wording of it

places in the Philippines have as much a creative vibesea — lends the workshop its peculiar magic. In 1996 it

escapes me now, but the sense of it is as clear as crystal two

as Dumaguete does), make it prime ground forfostering

was a small city whose more intriguing characters weredecades later: “Write a page every day and in a year you’ll

relationships that can grow to form a vital support network

Writing about workshops in the Philippines in general,

easier to identify and befriend, and mapping out thehave a novel.” Of all the scraps of pragmatic and concretefor navigating the wider literary scene. Many of the people

National Artist for Literature Cirilo Bautista articulated

interesting places — where groups congregated for art

advice I’ve received over the past 22 years, this has proven

I met in that workshop over two decades ago still form awhat the Silliman Workshop is at the core, describing its

shows, poetry readings and spoken word performances;

to be a dependable one whenever my own practice buckles

significant portion, if not the core, of the community ofprimary task, and therefore ultimate service to the writer,where closing hours were non-existent — was as vital tounder pressure of multiple commitments.

writers to whom I turn for readers and critics; friends who,

as “a communal critique of the submitted works [to]the workshop experience as cracking open a manuscript

For young and beginning writers, workshops arebring out the author’s strengths and weaknesses. The

the night before a session, so that come morning, youoften when our most romantic notions of writing and theanalysis involved a close reading of the text to discover

had something to contribute to the discussion.

writer’s life are both affirmed or crushed, a time and place

as writers themselves, have a more acute understandingof the struggles of a writer.

59

SILLIMAN AND BEYOND:

ART ARCHIVE 02

A Look Inside the Writer’s Workshop

WRITING WORKSHOPS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Similar university-based workshops have emerged

Davao Writers Workshop

following the success of the Silliman University National

Davao Writers Workshop is a regional workshop open

Writers Workshop, which, as the first and oldest suchto entry-level or beginning writers from the Mindanao

workshop in the country, remains one of the mostregion, particularly the Southern and Eastern Mindanaoprestigious.

theregion. The emphasis is on nurturing writers who are at

bandwidth — more often than not in the form of a center

Universities,

which

usually

have

the very beginning of their writing careers, and so theor institute devoted to the literary arts — and the financial

workshop does not accept applicants who have attended

capacity to conduct workshops, have become the natural

national writers workshops. “We prefer writers who arehome to some of the more prestigious writing workshops

based in Mindanao, although we have also had a few

in the Philippines. They are conducted in the summer

fellows who were born and raised in Mindanao but aremonths of March, April and May, which are traditionallybased in Manila,” says Profesor Jhoanna Lynn Cruz. The

outside the academic term, during which students aremajority of the fellows in any given year are from Davao.

more likely able to attend, and critics and writers, who are

The regional workshop is designed to encourage

often also affiliated with universities as administrators or

writers in Southern and Eastern Mindanao to write in theirprofessors, are available to sit on the workshop panel.

mother tongues — English, Filipino and Binisaya — and noFig. 4

The workshop was a dissection

translations are provided, so all panelists need to be able
The UP National Writers Workshop
OrganizedbyLikhaan:theto read in the three languages. It is organized by the Davaothe

Writers Guild, in cooperation with UP Mindanao and thePhilippines’ Institute of Creative Writing, the annual

UniversityofNational Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

workshop takes place in Baguio City, in April. It’s open

Among the alumni who have gone on to national writers

to “mid-career” writers who have at least one publishedworkshops and won Palanca awards are Jondy Arpilleda,

work (or at least on the verge of publishing one) or have

Jade Mark Capiñanes, and Mubarak Tahir; Jeffrey Javier

won major literary awards. It is open to all literary genres,and Arian Tejano have won the Cha Poetry Award; andin various languages.

Jude Ortega, whose novel was recently published by UPof the anatomy of a story or a poem,
every sentence or word held up
to the light to be assessed

Press.
The UST National Writers Workshop
Organized by the University of Santo Tomas’ Center

The Ateneo National Writers Workshop

for Creative Writing and Literary Studies, the annual

Administered by the Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts

workshop is held in March in Baguio City. The workshop,and Practices, the week-long workshop is held in June at

which has a minimum age requirement of 21 as a way

the Ateneo de Manila University campus in Quezon City.

to guarantee a measure of writing experience, accepts

The workshop takes an average of 12 candidates a year in

12 to 15 fellows writing in two languages, Filipino andthe genres of fiction, poetry, and essay.

as necessary or irrelevant.

English, for poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, anddrama.

60

Iligan National Writers Workshop

The Iyas Creative Writing Workshop

According to organizer Ralph Semino Galan, “The

Organized by the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod,

Encouraged by Cirilo Bautista, writers Jaime An Lim,UST National Writers’ Workshop aims to develop ain cooperation with the De La Salle University Bienvenido

Anthony Tan and Christine Ortega Godinez founded thehealthy continuing dialogue between homegrown talents

N.

National

Iligan National Writers Workshop in 1994; it is held in(meaning Thomasian writers) and writers from outside theCommission for Culture and the Arts, and the InstituteMay. It was the first national writers workshop founded in

Pontifical University.”

for Climate and Sustainable Cities, the workshop, held

Mindanao by Mindanaoans and, according to Christine,

Among the alumni who have won prestigious literary

every April at Balay Kalinungan, University of St. La Salle“it attempted to level the playing field by imposing a quota

awards and published books are Paul Alcoseba Castillo,in Bacolod City, accepts creative work in four languages:

system of five fellows each from the major islands.”

now UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies

Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Filipino and English, and in three

She adds, “Our focus today is to give opportunities

resident fellow, who won first prize for Poetry in Filipino

genres: fiction, poetry and drama. The workshop includes

to more Mindanaoans to attend the workshop and toin the recent 68th Palanca Awards; and Chuckberry J.

critiquing sessions and individual sessions with each

get training from experts. Aside from this, the workshop

Pascual, another writing fellow turned resident fellow,of the panelists, as well as tours of the city’s historical

now prefers themes of the indigenous or themes on our

who has been publishing almost one book a year sinceplaces of interest.

cultural heritage.”

SantosCreative

Writing

Center,the2012. Some of his books have become finalists in the

The workshop counts almost 400 alumni, among

National Book Awards. He was recently appointed as thethem such prolific writers as Charlson Ong, J. Neil Garcia,

coordinator of the newly established BA Creative Writing

Ian Rosales Casocot, Camilo Villanueva, Vincent Groyon

program of UST.

and Louise Vincent Amante. ■Fig. 1

Silliman University campus. Photograph by Ruel Joseph
Tabada.

Fig. 2

Edith L. Tiempo and Edilberto K. Tiempo, founders of the
Silliman University National Writers Workshop.
The Luce Auditorium at the Silliman University, built in

Fig. 3 1973 from funds provided by the Henry Luce Foundation,

Inc. in New York.
The Writer’s Village located at the Camp Outlook,
Fig. 4 Bongbong, Valencia. It was first used for the 49th

National Writers Workshop in May 2010.

1 CCP Encyclopedia, Susan Lara
2 Susan Lara says, “I called them Dad and Mom. Mom first, because
it was easier to go from Ma’am to Mom. Dad, a little later.”

3 A workshop of such longevity will, of course, come with its own
share of anecdotes and gossip, most of which would be difficult tofact-check.
4 CCP Encyclopedia, Susan Lara
5,6 Dr. Cirilo Bautista. In Focus: the Impact of Creative Writing
Workshops (The National Commission for Culture and the Arts,
March 1, 2004).

61

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

DIGITAL DOCUMENTARY TRADITIONSADJANI ARUMPAC

Fig. 1“Tragedy repeats itself as farce, the famous prophecy

previously made Minsan Lang Sila Bata (1996) and Riles

announced. But with us it is worse: tragedy is repeated as(2003). Funded by NGOs advocating for the passage oftragedy.” – Eduardo Galeano, Book of Embraces

the Juvenile Justice Bill, Bunso is a digital video gradedin black and white that tells the story of three boys living

This story ends as it starts—with a conflagration andinside the overcrowded Cebu Provincial Detention anda camera. It was 2005 when my father bought me a Sony

Rehabilitation Center with adult inmates.1 It was the first

Digital 8 (D8). I was a film student at the University of

documentary I saw outside of television, doing away with

the Philippines (UP). With the D8, I made my first video

narration of the story by a personality host and instead

documentary, Aapuyan (2005). It shows the progressive

employing pure visual storytelling. Bunso was one of

UGATLahi Artist Collective’s creation and burning of thenthe documentaries that introduced me to the world

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s effigy in a protest

of immersive cinematic documentary—where precise

rally. Audio recordings of Arroyo’s call to the election

editing of observational shots creates an intimate windowcommissioner surfaced, exposing how she rigged theinto the subjects’ lives.

2004 national election in her favor.

This essay traces the cinematic documentary tradition

Like the small and handy Super 8 of the previous

in the Philippines. By looking into its development in thegeneration of Filipino filmmakers, the D8 became myvarious narratives of political multimedia collectives,

portable video diary. I documented the quotidian anddocumentary workshops, local film festival support, andrealized how the mundane can never be recreated—suchthe eventual recognition by award-giving bodies andas the fury of the masses momentarily dissipating while

government institutions, I aim to map its agencies and atwatching the embers of a cheating president’s burning

the same time locate the intersections and unexploredeffigy.

spaces where we, marginalized Filipino documentarists,

In the same year I created my first documentary, I
saw Ditsi Carolino and Nana Buxani’s third documentary,

can further negotiate and rationalize our mandate torepresent realities.

Bunso (2005), at the UP Film Center. Carolino and Buxani
62

63

DIGITAL DOCUMENTARY TRADITIONSTHE INDIE DIGITALIn Eloisa May P. Hernandez’s book Digital Cinema in

Eventually, I was able to finish my film, Walai (Home)the Philippines, 1999–2009, she breaks down the history of(2006), a documentary inspired by Trinh Min Ha’s film Naked

digital cinema in the country into two periods: introduction

Spaces (1985). Walai explores the temporality of political(1999-2004) of the accessible and inexpensive digital

power and democracy in Mindanao through the memories

technology that democratized filmmaking practice, andof my family.

Fig. 4the innovation (2005-2009) when various commercial

During the post-production of Walai, John Torres’s Todo

companies, non-government organizations and individual

Todo Teros (2006) was released. Torres assumes the role of ainterests built on the possibilities created by the change inwandering filmmaker documenting the zeitgeist of a periodmaterial conditions. Cinematic documentary trajectories

steeped in the US-led War on Terror campaign in the wakeappear in the innovation era at the turn of the decade andof 9/11. Torres’s documentation of his nighttime loitering

can be tracked back to the latter two practices of the NGOs

in different events and parties doubles as an inventory ofand individuals, with works such as Bunso funded by NGOs

the independent artist-led spaces in Metro Manila thatand the personal documentaries.

burgeoned alongside the so-called digital revolution. These

The confluence of interests from boththe market and the state assists in the growing
visibility of the documentary, banking

As a film student, the newfound power to record

spaces—art galleries, bars, watering holes—provided a muchmemories and freeze time through accessible digitalneeded space for artists to produce and exhibit their work

technology prompted me to create a personal documentary

unburdened by the limitations of commercial institutions.

as my thesis project. I am from Mindanao, a land known

Similar spaces of autonomy can be seen in Torres’s next

for its bounty and conflict. I scoured the libraries andwork, Years When I Was A Child Outside (2008), a personal

internet for documentaries on Mindanao for my review of

essay film juxtaposing the 2007 Financial Crisis with his

related literature and found only one—House Under thefamily’s breakup. The film opens with a sequence showing

Crescent Moon (2002) by Gutierrez Mangansakan II, thatfilmmakers Raya Martin and Khavn Dela Cruz talking

Parallel to the individual documentarists’ path in the ‘80s

Sa Ngalan ng Tubo (2004). The documentaries by these

won in the 2001 Gawad CCP. Mangansakan’s first film isinaudibly, somewhere abroad, unwinding after their initial

was the formation of a documentary collective called thecollectives were geared toward educating marginalized

forays in an international film festival.

AsiaVisions. It was founded by government communications

grassroots communities, but also gained recognition from

employees Lito Tiongson, Joe Cuaresma, and Dannyaward-giving bodies like the Gawad CCP and Gawad Urian.

about internally-displaced persons taking refuge in his
grandfather’s ancestral house in Pagalungan, Maguindanao

More than artistic influence on niche communities,

on its growing promise of lucrativenessas a product and potency as a pedagogical tool.

Fig. 3

THE PEOPLE’S CINEMA

during the “all-out war” waged by President Joseph Estrada

Torres’possibilities

Consumido after they resigned in protest of dictator

The names of individual filmmakers behind landmark

against the Islamic secessionist group, Moro Islamic

introduced by artist-led spaces and the New Wave indie,

Ferdinand Marcos’s imposition of media blackouts to quell

People’s Cinema documentaries in the 2000s are usually

Liberation (MILF) in 2000.

the former enabling artists to mediate transactions fornational unrest. AsiaVisions championed the People’s

not credited in favor of highlighting the collective identity

In the early 2000s, I could not find cinematicthemselves, and the latter showing how international co-

Cinema, a term for their body of works that documented theof the groups. Nonetheless, these filmmakers continued

documentary thesis projects in UP that tackled the personal.

production funding can be had for their succeeding films

political and social upheavals that led to the fall of Marcos in

to look for opportunities to hone their craft and found

Apart from Mangansakan’s work, I found inspiration fromand video works. These agencies are now being tapped by

1986. The channels of distribution of these documentaries

opportunity in the Goethe Institut documentary filmmaking

documentary filmmaker and historian Nick Deocampo’s

current Filipino documentarists, rounding the co-production

were mainly community screenings. They intermittently

workshop series that ran from 2010 to 2014. The workshop

autobiographical documentary, Private Wars (1997), an 8mm

pitching circuit. Nevertheless, it must be noted that theseproduced documentaries through the 1990s and quietly

products of documentarists from political collectives

film about the effects of the Philippine-Japanese War on

cinematic documentaries at the start of the digital decadeceased operations. Access to AsiaVisions works is limited

feature the progressive sentiments of People’s Cinema.

his family, and indie filmmaking pioneer Kidlat Tahimik’s

were isolated initiatives—individual/indie documentarists

due to lack of a proper archival system. Fortunately, someI was a member of Sine Patriyotiko and guest filmmaker

Perfumed Nightmares (1977), a 16mm whimsical a satire on

producing with their own money or funded by NGOs—a

have been uploaded online such as the iconic Sa Liyab ng

for Kodao Productions. Through the workshop, I produced

globalization told through the documentation of his journeycontinuation of the lone wolf narratives of documentarists

Isang Libong Sulo (1997), a documentary based on Amado

War Is a Tender Thing (2013), an autobiographical essay film

to Paris aboard his colorful jeepney.

Kidlat Tahimik and Deocampo in the ‘80s.

Guerrero’s book Philippine Society and Revolution.

on the Mindanao conflict. A member of Tudla Productions

documentations

pertaintothemultimedia

and UP Film alumna who also made a documentary for hercollective was taken up by the new generation of People’s

thesis, Kung Balatan ang Bawang (2008), Jewel Maranan

Cinema multimedia groups armed with digital cameras

produced the lyrical cinéma vérité Tondo, Beloved (2011).

and computers with non-linear editing suites. Southern

An ST Exposure member and Mowelfund alumna, Kiri

Tagalog Exposure pioneered the re-emergence of People’s

Dalena, produced Tungkung Langit (2013), a visual narrative

Cinema. Formed in 2001 in the militarized Southern Tagalog

of the struggle of orphans who lost their family to a typhoon.

region, the ST Exposure introduced highly cinematic andOther multimedia activists also created their own cinematic

AsiaVision’sFig. 1 Still from Sunday Beauty Queen (2016), directed by Baby

Ruth Villarama.

Fig. 2

Still from Nick and Chai (2014), directed by Cha Escalaand Wena Sanchez.

Movie poster of Years When I Was a Child Outside (2008),
Fig. 3
directed by John Torres.
Fig. 4

Still from Aapuyan, Against the Current (2013), directed
by Adjani Arumpac.

of

the

political

novel aesthetics to the visual language of propaganda

documentaries, including Ilang-Ilang Quijano’s Puso ng

Fig. 5 Still from Red Saga (2004), directed by Kiri Dalena.

films, with works like Alingawngaw ng mga Punglo (2003)

Lungsod (2012) and Daughters of Cordillera (2014), JL Burgos’s

Still from Tondo, Beloved (2018), directed by Jewel
Fig. 6
Maranan.

and Red Saga (2004). The group’s groundbreaking videos

Portraits of the Mosquito Press (2014), Anna Isabelle

inspired the formation of other multimedia collectives,

Matutina’s Magdalena (2013), and Mae Urtal Caralde’s Yanansuch as Kodao Productions, which produced Nanay(2013).

Still from SONA 2018 (2018), produced by RESBAK
Fig. 7 (Respond and Break the Silence Over the Killings), an

anti-extra-judicial killings creative alliance.

62

imprint

Mameng (2012) and Tudla Productions, which created65

Fig. 2

DIGITAL DOCUMENTARY TRADITIONSLOCAL FILM FESTIVALS AND TELEVISION
Some of the workshop documentaries were screenedin grassroots communities while others went on to havepremieres in international documentary film festivals. But
one workshop product, Baby Ruth Villarama’s Jazz in Love
(2013), managed to break through the local circuit. Villarama
was a researcher and producer for international television
networks, and Jazz in Love, a homoerotic story between ayoung Filipino man and an aging German guy, was her first
Fig. 6

cinematic documentary. It gained support from the Manila
Film Financing Forum and opened the 2013 Cinemalaya
Film Festival, the first documentary to have done so.
Villarama’s next documentary, Sunday Beauty Queen (2016),
about Filipina domestic workers moonlighting as beauty
queens on weekends in Hong Kong, also became the firstand only documentary to be programmed and to win in thestate-funded 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival.
Prior and concurrent to the documentary genre’s
visibility in the local film festivals via Villarama’s works were
initiatives that supported documentaries, corresponding to

Fig. 5the growing market for documentary worldwide. Cinemalaya
introduced a documentary module in 2009, and notably,
two of the more popular documentaries that Cinemalaya
programmed

arePhilippine-American

productions:

Ramona Diaz’s Imelda (2003), a documentary about theexcesses of Imelda Marcos, and Marty Syjuco’s Give Up

Impelled by the burgeoning body of documentary works

Yield was also awarded Best Documentary and Best

Philippine short and documentary works. This sizable body

Tomorrow (2011), a critique of the Philippine judicial system

during the first digital decade, the biggest local award-

Editing in 2018 by FAMAS, which created its documentaryof work that largely champions oeuvres from the alternative

based on the account of the infamous Paco Larranaga trial.

winning bodies finally recognized the form. In 2011, thecategory in the same year. Like Yield, the other FAMAS

filmmaking community was celebrated and made the

In 2014, the newly-founded QCinema provided post-

Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, a body that hands out the

documentary nominees also tout long production timelines.

starting point of future plans for the community in “Hidden

production funding to Nick & Chai (2014) and hailed it as

annual highest film award Gawad Urian, opened the Best

Nawruz Paguidopon’s God BLISS Our Home (2017), a video

Cinema Congress,” a gathering of alternative filmmakers

its Best Picture. Directed by Wena Sanchez and Charena

Documentary category. Looking into the funding sources ofdiary of a filmmaker struggling to make ends meet stitchedorganized by Nick Deocampo in 2018.

Escala, Nick & Chai tells the struggle of a couple who lost

Gawad Urian winning documentaries reveals diverse forces

together by animation, took four years to create. Maranan’s

Outside of Imperial Manila, a few documentaries are

all of their four children to Typhoon Haiyan. QCinema alsothat shaped cinematic documentary production in thethird full-length documentary, Sa Palad ng Dantaong Kulang

also produced through and for regional cinema platforms

bestowed post-production grants to documentary projects

Philippines. Harana is directed by a Filipino filmmaker, Benito(2017), a cinematic direct cinema that concludes her Tondo

initiated by the National Commission for Culture and thein 2015 and 2018, including Sheron Dayoc’s Crescent

Bautista, but produced by a foreign production company.

series, took six years. But unlike Yield that had a private

Arts (NCCA). Collectively referred to as Cinema Rehiyon,

Rising (2015), a documentary about war-torn Mindanao.

Tondo, Beloved is a product of a documentary workshop.

investor, both Paguidopon’s and Maranan’s films took thethis initiative is now on its tenth year. The latest government-

Cinema One Originals Film Festival started giving grants toBoth Bontok, Rapeless and Crescent Rising are fundedinternational pitching path to seek funding. God BLISS was

funded program to join the fray is the FDCP’s SineSaysay

documentaries in 2016.

by local festivals. Nanay Mameng is a political multimedia

awarded a seed grant from the Film Development Council ofin 2018, a two-part initiative to further enrich documentary

Meanwhile, mainstream broadcast television alsocollective project. Coreen Jimenez’s Kano, An American

the Philippines (FDCP), and received co-production funding

filmmaking in the Philippines.2 It has a documentaryrevamped its documentary approach. ANC’s Storyline

and his Harem is an independently-produced documentaryfrom South Korea, Indonesia, and Japan. Sa Palad received

lab component, where eight projects were chosen to(launched in 2008) and GMA News and Public Affairs’ Front

that started as an investigative research for a journalistic

co-production funding from the Film und Medien Stiftungbe workshopped by film experts. It also has the feature

Row (launched in 2010) are direct cinema television shows

article. Baby Ruth Villarama’s Sunday Beauty Queen is

NRW, Doha Film Institute, Asian Network of Documentary,

documentary co-production grant, where four projects werethat noticeably do not feature personality hosts. It was ina Philippines-Hong Kong-U.K.-Japan co-production. The

and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

awarded one million pesos. The confluence of interests

Front Row that I learned the discipline of documentary

most recent winner was Toshihiko Uriu and Victor Delotavo

Certainly, the more substantial international co-production

from both the market and the state assists in the growing

editing as the show’s edit supervisor for three years. In

Tagaro’s Yield, an ethnographic documentary about childfunding shores up the filmmakers while buying more time

visibility of the documentary, banking on its growing promise

2014, GMA Network mounted the Cine Totoo International

labor shot for five years. The director, Tagaro, was a member

for better film production conditions coinciding the pitchingof lucrativeness as a product and potency as a pedagogicalDocumentary Film Festival and produced, among others,of Tudla Productions who directed Sa Ngalan ng Tubo. Uriu

process.

tool.

Carla Samantha Ocampo and Lester Valle’s Bontok,

was an NHK cameraman who settled in the Philippines andAmidst prolific documentary production was also

Rapeless (2014), an anthropological reflection on a society

has since produced multimedia works for local filmmakers,

the rise of multimedia schools in the 2000s churning outthat has no concept of rape, practiced by the Bontok

one of which was Yield.

documentary thesis projects. Gawad CCP just celebrated

community in Northern Philippines.
66

Fig. 7

AWARDS, INSTITUTIONALAND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

its 30th year, continuing its legacy of awarding and archiving
67

DIGITAL DOCUMENTARY TRADITIONSART ARCHIVE 02

POLITICAL DIGITAL
These agencies allowed me to gain my foothold as a

The flexibility that I allow the discourse of my

documentary filmmaker—Gawad CCP hailed Walai as Best

documentary practice, prompted by the very lack of real andRegional film in 2006, broadcast television practice honed

devoted agency, lends me autonomy to rethink my chosen

my editing skills, political multimedia collectives enabledgenre and identity outside of its boundary/niche. This is

me to locate my practice within the sociopolitical sphere,

because at the background of all these fray in the film world isvarious film education (documentary workshop, UP Filma gathering force of anti-government sentiments under theInstitute, and Mowelfund Film Institute) enhanced my film

present Duterte regime. Extra-judicial killings (EJK) brought

language, and award-giving bodies such as Gawad Urianby the state-sanctioned War against Drugs has claimed therecognized my works. Nevertheless, my distinct position is

lives of more than 20,000 Filipinos (as of 2018), mostly the

being in the thrice over. I am identified as a female regional

poor and disempowered. Meanwhile, Duterte’s popularity

filmmaker who works with a marginalized form. All vantages

remains. Where media blackout during the Marcos regime

gave me another perspective to the concept of national

was the trigger for the creation of documentaries in the ‘80s,

cinema that has always been in contention. As a Filipina

now I believe it is the noise of New Media misinformation

documentary filmmaker from Mindanao who benefited fromthat can set off a new brand of documentary production.

every little assistance different sectors have thrown my way,

I recently helped make a short video for RESBAKI choose to recognize the intersections of these agencies(Respond and Break the Silence over the Killings), an allianceas the space where I and the documentary filmmaker, as aof artists who banded together to protest the EJKs. I worked

collective body, can inhabit and continuously negotiate ourwith RESBAK convenor Dalena and other filmmakers topractice. It is with this grounded and inclusive outlook that

document the 2018 Philippine president’s State of the

I conduct my endeavors as both a mentor to documentary

Nation Address. RESBAK capitalizes on the social media

Fig. 10

Where media blackout
during the Marcos
Fig. 9film students in Mapua University and UPFI and convenor

regime was the trigger forof DoQ, an initiative that aims to surface under-the-radar
documentary films by giving them screening and discussion
platforms. DoQ augments the initiative of Maranan,
who founded Cinema Is Incomplete in 2011, to screen
independent films in alternative spaces.
Philippine documentary filmmakers currently navigate
the negative that informs the center—from peripheries andthe creation

1 Carolino and Buxani previously made Minsan Lang Sila Bata (1996)
and Riles (2003).
2 It has a documentary lab component, where eight projects werechosen to be workshopped by film experts. It also has the feature documentary co-production grant, where four projects wereawarded Php 1 million.

platform, creating videos for online consumption andinformation dissemination, among others. Again, I foundmyself in the streets shooting the blazing effigy of ajunctions to outside —the wider transnational fray where wepresident found wanting, wretchedly not unlike when I firstare now finding more critical support and funding. Despite

made a documentary 13 years ago.

the rise in its production that I have tried to illustrate with

Indeed, details of the mundane can never be recreatedan overview of documentary filmmaking in the Philippines,

in exact likeness, but the general imageries are essentiallythe conclusion remains that the biggest local film festivals,

the same because of a system that remains untouchedlargest film grants, widest market distribution, andby revolutions. Beyond issues of niche and even genre

highest award-giving bodies still favor the feature fiction

identification,

form, whether mainstream, alternative or independent.

recognition, etc., the next ethical action for the informed

As Deocampo said in the 2015 Chopshots Travelling

documentarist is to further study the strength and limitations

Film Festival Southeast Asian documentary filmmakingof the digital form of a genre that claims to embody truth.

discussion: “Where is the center of this documentary?

The frontier of the digital and post-truth Information Age

I don’t see any. Where’s the community? None. ...I havethat envelops our society is a relatively new and befuddlinghigh hopes with the digital generation. I do hope you findterrain. The mandate of the digital documentarist compels

something.” But perhaps there is no need for a center, as

her to relentlessly seek a deeper understanding of the peril

there is no need for history in a singular linear sense of theand power of her tools in order to tell stories that are nearer

word. What must be recognized is the heterogeneity itself of

to our realities. ■distribution,

institutional

supportnational cinema, with a genealogy of works borne of myriad

andof documentaries
in the ‘80s,
now it is the noiseof New Media
misinformation that can
set oﬀ a new brand of

impulses of creation. A monolithic definition espouses aculture of cooptation and colonization (of cultures within theFig. 8 Movie poster of Todo Todo Teros (2006), directed byJohn Torres.

imagined nation) that the very idea of national cinema tries

Still from Years When I Was a Child Outside (2008),
Fig. 9directed by John Torres.

to break free from.
Fig. 868

documentary filmmaking.

Fig. 10 Still from Yanan (2013), directed by Mae Urtal Caralde.

69

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

A THIRD WAVE:
Potential Future for Alternative Cinema

DODO DAYAO

Fig. 1The proposition that there have been two Waves ofwith zero footprint on experimental cinema of any makedomestic experimental cinema and that we are in desperate

and model, on any cinema that wasn’t Hollywood, that,need of a Third one is entirely mine but I could just as well bein a random rundown of some of the biggest movie stars

rephrasing somebody else’s or merely stating the obvious.

in the history of Philippine studio-made cinema, wasn’t

These Waves are not the same Waves that have charted theFPJ (Fernando Poe Jr.) or Dolphy or Nora Aunor or Sharon

ebb and flow of domestic studio-made cinema through the

Cuneta or Rudy Fernandez. It would be more primordiallydecades; no, that’s a different set of arguments, mostly overcorrect to call Perfumed Nightmare, Kidlat Tahimik’s no-which wave was what and when did one wave end and thebudget interrogation of the chronic infatuation Filipinos

next wave begin. These two Waves and the wishful Third ofhave on America, the loam from which the First Wave rose,

the title are a lot more difficult to argue over by dint of what

also because that’s exactly what it is. But my chronology was

they’re demarcating, but also because it’s a consensus ofout of whack and because of this failure of circumstance,one.

or perhaps destiny, I saw it many years after I saw Juan
Gapang (1986), Cesar Hernando’s Botika Bituka (1986) andCONCORD AND ZEITGEIST

Raymond Red’s Ang Magpakailanman (Eternity) (1986). The

The First Wave emerged somewhere in the late ‘70s andsputtered into inactivity in the mid ‘80s and, in concord withlast two are considered two of the touchstones of domestic
experimental cinema.

its zeitgeist, came mostly from the same place (Mowelfund,Juan Gapang was short and sharp and silent, just a man

the sole film school in the country) and was mainly a fringe

crawling on all fours across the city for seven or so minutes,

activity, a metaphorical and often literal underground

but it had all the synaptic boil of a waking nightmare. I

phenomenon,

somebody’s

honestly didn’t know what to make of it at first, nor could

basement, all that. My own gateway drug, not just to

guerilla

screenings

inI quite process what I felt right after. Amused. Disoriented.

domestic experimental cinema but to experimental cinema

Seasick. I also saw Juan Gapang for the first time, not inanywhere, was from the First Wave, Roxlee’s Juan Gapang

a cinema, but at an art gallery, projected on a white wall,(1986), or Johnny Crawl, and I make that drug reference notwith the low hum of small talk and free beer lightly bastingas an affectation but out of my own imagined sensation of

my brain, threatening to rupture its spell but not quite

what a solid hit of arcane opiates would be like. This wasdoing so. The conditions, needless to say, were perfect.

pre-indie, pre-digital, pre-everything. I was pre-cinephilia,
70

71

The similarly jittery,
restless tenor“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”
So let’s dance about architecture, because that old adageof the Second Wave

may not apply to traditional cinema, but just might towas not so muchthan a decade, when the prevailing instinct of independentout of unrest as it was a surge

no quarter in pushing itself, staunchly D.I.Y, unencumbered

experimental cinema, given how with experimental cinema,
you had to be there. Let me tell you about this stretch of morecinema, not just experimental cinema, was this unfetteredtaking of liberties, when it felt like the Second Wave hadby format, disdainful of conventions and, perhaps more
importantly, more or less aboveground.
Let me tell you first about the sui generis of John Torres,of escape velocity.

whose process is a documentarist’s process, that is, shootFig. 2first then find the story in the footage later, and whose
confessional openness and brazen sentimentality give

I experienced most of the First Wave retroactively,

sensibility and degree of success, emerging as if fromdismantling, transience turned into abandon, outrage intoeven his most abstracted work an emotive weight. His Otros

as a compendium of antecedents shot through witha cocoon with this defiant sense of reclamation. I camecatharsis.

(2005) trilogy of shorts sifts through the wreckage of a longinfluence and curated by hindsight. The perspective wasback to Batang West Side a second time after having

The Second Wave, though, came of age in a different

ago breakup, and should go on record as probably the only

enlightening, to say the least. It made obvious a brief

seen nearly all his longer films up to that point, used now

time. Most of the First Wave had long migrated totime an experimental film made me tear up a little the way

season of plenty, over before it had barely begun, andto the meditative languor of his spaces, to the ways inadvertising, and the more blatantly commercial age ofI would when watching a rom-com. His first feature, Todo

how much of a biomarker it was for the feasibility, if not

which he manipulates our notions of both cinematic timestudio filmmaking that took over the (some say Second)Todo Teros (2006), lashes together, from a surfeit of foundthe sustainable reality, of an out from our myopic thrall

and real time, to his clairvoyant way of framing a shot, none

Golden Age had been dismantled, too. The internet wasand shot footage, with all the mien of a collagist, a pseudo-

to the Hollywood way of making and seeing movies. It

which were necessarily in full bloom yet in Batang West Side.

systematically laying waste to the gatekeeper paradigm;

espionage miasma of emotional terrorism about a husband

also made obvious how directly or indirectly inspirational

I actually found myself flinching a little in the first hour overan emergent new audience with a film vocabulary and film

cheating on his wife while planning insurgencies, love in theit was to the Second Wave of experimental cinema

the ostensible rigidity of film school fundaments it seemedcuriosity more expansive and more gnawing than eventime of Al-Qaeda, if you will.

(2000-present) more or less a decade later, ushered

to be steeped in. But even before it got a fifth of the way intosome of the filmmakers was showing up at screenings.

Then there’s Jet Leyco interweaving news footage andin by two films, one by a maverick who had been toilingits terse five hours, the film started to pull away from its own

And, perhaps more significantly, domestic film festivals

simulated drama in Ex:press (2011) to form his own quasi-

restlessly under the most prominent studio matriarch inconventions and strictures, then from all other conventions

began handing out grants and effectively producing thenarrative inter-zone that’s neither fiction nor documentary,

the country, Mother Lily, doyen of one of the Philippines’

and strictures, finishing up unlike any Filipino film at thatfilms in their competition lineup, a mode of financing

but you can argue either way and both arguments would win.

biggest studios, Regal Films, and the other by no lesstime, certainly none before, and arguably none after.

unique to the Philippines that would eventually be

Christopher Gozum evokes the melancholia that comes

institutionalized as a sort of new normal.

from the displacement of working in another country withthan the boy wonder of the First Wave.

Despite the new varieties of political unease, having

eye surgery footage from where he worked as an Overseas

abstractions in Anino (Shadows) (2000), which won the

Aesthetically fresh and fiercely current and resoluteseen several democracies fail, coup attempts, all that,

Filipino Worker (OFW) in the fractured short Surreal Random

Cannes Palme d’Or for Short Film in 2000, the only Filipino

in their courage that a persistent auteur sensibility

there was also this blinding sense of creative liberation,

MMS Texts for a Mother, a Sister and a Wife Who Longs forfilm thus far to win the award. The omnipresent social

could proliferate in a Third World economy with such aof anything goes. With all this vibrant flux and possibility,

You: Landscape with Figures (2008). It is a displacement

realist impulses that were always collapsed inside his

risk-averse film industry, both films tingled with game-the Second Wave was in concord with its own zeitgeist,

he returns to in his tonally adventurous second feature inmeta-textual and meta-textural surrealism are groundedchange. Something was up once again. The Third Wave

too, and “anything goes” is both the horribly inarticulate

2011, Lawas Kan Pinabli (Forever Loved). Here the rosy tint

here with a real-world immediacy and verisimilitude thatscene exploded, not in a singular, collective thrust likebut thoroughly accurate codification of its palpitating

through which the Tourism Department has been selling

almost qualifies it as an iteration of noir. It shows how thethe First Wave, but more of a sudden, outpouring ofdiversity. The similarly jittery, restless tenor of the Second

their over-romanticized and over-valorized myth of working

push and pull between a street photographer looking forwork from scattered recipients of a trickle-down gift. It

Wave was not so much out of unrest as it was a surge ofabroad to us is darkened with a series of candid, revealing

his missing camera and the city that thwarts his search

picked up where the First Wave left off, making a noise

escape velocity.

testimonials from real-life OFWs juxtaposed against ataps into similar neuroses, even as it opens its fatalist

loud enough so that the rest of the world could hear it,

It’s a beautiful confusion sometimes, a national cinema

presumably fictional and appropriately ghostly mystery in

meditations up to ambiguities slightly out of its reach.

with digital technology as an almost talismanic third rail,

so diverse and protean and almost mercurial that it refuses

which a man searches for his missing OFW wife, reaching a

Coincidentally, the existentialist murder mystery Batang

both an emancipation from the prohibitive economics ofa box to fit itself in, which the First and specially the Second

point where they dissolve into each other that you can’t tellWest Side (2001) was itself something of a noir inversion,

filmmaking and an enabler of that punk dictum — anybody

Wave were, and for a while, the rest of independent cinema

fact from fiction, or if you should. Ray Gibraltar approaches

all but single-handedly rehabilitating Lav Diaz’s prolific

can be a filmmaker.

was, too, before it became all cushy advocacies and middle

our diasporic narrative through the freeform mesh and meld

I personally missed the playfulness of Raymond Red’s

72

TINGLING WITH GAME-CHANGE

but troubled run in Regal Films’ no-budget arm, Golden

There was a jittery, restless tenor to the work thatof the road faux-edge. The trouble is, you can’t index

of a documentary on nurses with a frantic mélange of poetry

Harvest, as if it were a riposte to his season in boutiquecame out of that First Wave that I presume comes fromeverything into neat rows. Rather let’s veer, let’s careen, let’sand politics and myth and slacker comedy in the lithe,studio hell where he made four features, some allegedly

how they were made under the caul of the Marcos

swing wildly like jungle madmen. According to Martin Mull,breezy and often unremittingly warm When Timawa Meets

under duress, that fluctuated in temperament anddictatorship just a few years before its triumphantDelgado (2007).
73

A THIRD WAVE:
Potential Future for Alternative Cinema

ART ARCHIVE 02

Fig. 4

Still from People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam
Rose (2016), directed by John Torres.

Fig. 5Still from People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam
Rose (2016), directed by John Torres.

Still from Jungle Love (2012), directed by Sherad Anthony
Fig. 6
Sanchez.

Huling Balyan Ng Buhi (Woven Stories of The Other) (2006)
and the joyful and erotic Jungle Love (2012), guided as he isby more classical rigors, more formalist urges, but temperedby personal spiritual gravities and a deep-veined mythologyof place.
Then there’s the renegade verve of the Second Wave’s
most prolific instigator, Khavn de la Cruz, whose filmography
has a quicksilver velocity so dizzying you have to make up
genres to rein them in, where there is a need to veer andcareen and swing wildly like a jungle madman. From what I’dlike to call the ballads of his oeuvre, love stories like Goodbye
My Shooting Star (2006) and Cameroon Love Letter (For
Solo Piano) (2010) and the poignant cancer diary Breather(2011) to a coruscating variety of shock-pop and slumporn
and punk-verite horror and poetic reveries and structuralist

Fig. 3experiments, their only aesthetic through-line is this heretic
disregard for doing things the usual way.
When I say experimental cinema, of course, I actually

CHEEKY SURREALISM
The cheeky surrealism of Gym Lumbera’s Anak Araw

mean independent cinema, because for a time (the First(Albino) (2012) re-imagines his hometown as a whimsicalWave) experimental cinema was the only independent

ethnographic ode to the myths that sustain the place, mostcinema there was and a for a time, too, (the Secondof which may not necessarily be myths or, if they are, may

Wave) almost all independent cinema was experimental

not necessarily sustain it. Similarly, Shireen Seno’s films,

to a degree. That is, a signifier of distrust (disgust?) forfrom Big Boy (2011) and Shotgun Tuding (2014) to Nervous

the narrative limitations imposed by commercial cinema,

Translation (2017) mine found memories, hers, her father’s,

seeking as it did/does an autonomy that was a lot moresome memories that are not even memories but are perhaps

severe than merely making films outside of the studiomemories of memories, re-purposing them into wistfulsystem, a drastic re-calibration, even abandonment, of our

miniature fugue-states, Bildungsromans of dreamland.

habitual passivity, coming as the films did with no spoon to

Jon Lazam namedrops the iconic Philippine superhero,

feed us with and a need to lean in a little, sometimes a need

Darna, created by Mars Ravelo before Wonder Woman, in

to lean in a lot, new ways of telling stories and new ways of

his work Nang Gabing Maging Singlaki ng Puso ang Bato ni

coming to them. But where they used to be synonymous to

Darna (Darna: A Stone Is a Heart You Can’t Swallow) (2012).

the point of redundancy, where they used to symbiotically

A lamentation on the sad state of film preservation in the

nourish each other, experimental cinema and independent

country, but combined with his own re-purposed memories

cinema couldn’t pull away from each other violently enoughthese days.

of Darna films and his fondness for manipulating multiple
formats, it taps into deeper beguilements on the fallibility ofFig. 4

memory, on history as an unreliable witness.
Fig. 5The historical autopsies of Raya Martin are similarly
obsessed with post-colonial memory, and similarly ingleeful thrall to the constant blasphemy against form,shooting the first part of what has become his Historical
Trilogy, Indio Nacional (2006), like a silent film, the third,
Independencia (2007), inside a ghostly soundstage forest,
like a Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movie, and the second,
the nihilistic but conceptually ballsy Autohystoria (2007),with a camcorder, ruminating on how our collective memory

Fig. 1degrades history with a film that actually degrades before
our eyes, history as snuff film. There’s a similarly immersive

Still from Nang Gabing Naging Sinlaki ng Puso ang Bato ni
Fig. 2 Darna (Darna: A Stone is a Heart You Cannot Swallow)(2012), directed by Jon Lazam.

otherness, a hallucinatory but tactile quality, in the filmsof Sherad Sanchez, particularly the somber and mystic
74

Still from Anak Araw (Albino) (2012). Source: https://www.
imdb.com/title/tt2556674/.

Fig. 3

Still from People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam
Rose (2016), directed by John Torres.

A THIRD WAVE:
Potential Future for Alternative Cinema

ART ARCHIVE 02

A national cinema
is healthiest when it canmetabolize all the strainsthat make it up,
and it should be made upof many, many strains.
Fig. 6‘MAINSTREAM’ AND ‘INDIE’
I may have begun writing this piece as an overview of

The unfinished film here is an actual unfinished film,

Even worse is how Sherad Sanchez’s found footage(a new, conservative, conventional and quite profuse strain

experimental cinema but you can tell from the title that it

Diary of Vietnam Rose (2016), and the director Celso Ad.

horror inversion Salvage (2017), in which a news crewof independently-produced cinema) utopia in need of a

was never going to be merely functional, nor for that matter,

Castillo. In juxtaposing the molten, haggard beauty of its

encounters a strange cult in the jungle, was roundly criticizedreality check.

democratic.

blasted celluloid remains with digitally-shot dramatizations

for looking like it was shot by…well, duh, a news crew.

that are every bit as elusive and fragmented, it sharpens

Khavn’s latest work, the apocalyptic and magicalbetter off sharpening it even more, as sharp as it usedmade with a documentary grant although it technically is

the dichotomies between memory and remembering.

Balangiga: Howling Wilderness (2018) may well be his least

to be, maybe even sharper, not to pit them against each

not a documentary but, at the same time, it is sort of one.

Constantly folding in on itself to the point of ravishingexperimental, but it was the most experimental work the year

other, or to cancel each other out — no, that’s moronic,

And that makes sense given how Torres is technically notbreakage (or, when the film explodes into a tumult of glitch

it came out. Where audiences used to be more attuned toand destructive — but because a national cinema is

a documentary filmmaker, yet at the same time is one,near the end, ravishing Brakhage), People Power Bombshell

the codes and temperaments of the discipline, somewhere

healthiest when it can metabolize all the strains that makegrafting his own life and his own self into his work. He uses

conflates not only two disciplines (narrative, documentary)along the way, thresholds have been homogenized.

it up, and it should be made up of many, many strains.

non-fiction as a point of departure for fiction and fiction as abut two cinematic histories as well, the Golden Age of studio

The Kalampag Tracking Agency, a curatorial initiative run

It was only less than a decade ago when you

way of doubling back into non-fiction, as given over to whim

filmmaking, albeit in its final glimmers (Diary of Vietnam

by Seno, continues to regularly tour a clutch of experimental

couldn’t find a box to fit in Philippine cinema. It is thisand fate as he is to rigor and protocol, as consumed by theRose was shot in the mid-‘80s) and the Second Wave offilms that showcase work from the First Wave and Second

fugitive sense of identity, this mongrel inscrutability, thatorder he can tease from the chaos as he is with the chaos

experimental cinema.

he can tease from the order.

76

Rather than blur the divide, I’d argue that we’reJohn Torres’ People Power Bombshell (2016) was

Wave as well as from my wishfully hypothetical Third Wave,

bolstered the changeling energy and daredevil spirit,

People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam Rosebut in such a conservative climate, it’s reverted back toand that may well propel experimental cinema and

There’s a lot of chaos to mine in People Power Bombshell,(2016) is one of the more defiantly experimental works ofbeing a fringe activity. In the rush to broker a truce between

independent cinema, as it is now, back into the more

the chaos of a set for a movie that never gets finished, therecent years but also oddly enough sharpens to relief how

the two sides of the dichotomy that independent cinema

forward-looking, form-pushing future of its recent past. ■chaos of a tempestuous genius director in perpetual clash

severely independent cinema has lapsed into myopia andsharpened into relief, the lines between “mainstream”

with his young and rising star who also happens to be his

conservatism. When it came out, it was briefly met with mildand “indie” blurred until there isn’t one. The avant that was

producer, the chaos of showbiz misogyny and politicalfuror over the liberties it took with the documentary form, by

the phantom power of indie has become its pariah, andupheaval.

some quarters who perhaps should have known better.

the cushy ecumenical overlap that took over is a maindie77

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

PHILIPPINE COMICS:
Tradition and Innovation

ROY AGUSTIN

78

Fig. 1

If we consider comics to be an art form that can trace

Rizal is credited with a retelling of a folk tale entitled

its genes back to editorial cartooning, then we can see“The Monkey and the Tortoise,” which was published inthat Philippine comics has a long history, stretching all

1889. He illustrated the story in a comic strip for Juan

the way back to the end of the 19th century when satirical

Luna’s fiancée, Paz Pardo de Tavera. It was a gift and wasmagazines such as the oddly titled Upang Kalabaw

never published.

(literally, Carabao’s Rent) and, later on, Telembang,

Amorsolo, whose editorial cartoon work was found inwhich used political caricatures and editorial cartoons

The Independent, also published “Kiko at Angge” in theto lampoon Spanish, and later American, officials. Yet,satirical magazine Telembang. Amorsolo’s biting comic

the tradition has gone through peaks and valleys, and is

strip was critical of the American Occupation, particularly

currently again rising on the shoulders of artists who areof the Filipino politicians who were supposedly negotiating

creating new and innovative comics which points to an

for Philippine independence. Telembang, however, closed

evolution of comics.

after two years, partially due to multiple libel suits filed

THE FIRST COMICS: CONNECTIONSWITH NATIONAL HISTORY

against it.
According to comic scholar John Lent, the credit

Intriguingly, the early history of comics connects

for the first actual comic strip in the Philippines should

comics to notable historical artists and figures. National

belong to Kenkoy, which was the first work actually

hero José Rizal used caricatures in his contributions

published with the intent of it being a comic. Publishedto some publications. Fernando Amorsolo, who is bestin Don Ramon Roces’ Liwayway (Dawn) Magazine in 1929,

known for his paintings of Philippine rural life and was

Kenkoy was a creation of writer Romulado Ramos andthe first recipient of the National Artist Award, was bestartist Tony Velasquez. Philippine Komiks enthusiast andknown in the Philippines and the US for his painting

writer Dennis Villegas describes Kenkoy as a reflection

Planting Rice. Seen by many as one of the country’sof the times, when American influences were contending

greatest visual artists, he was also an editorial cartoonist.

with Philippine tradition. Kenkoy is a humorous reflection

Aside from the caricatures and editorial cartoons, bothof these struggles. He wears western inspired clothes

Rizal and Amorsolo also created comic strips.

and attempts to speak in pidgin English. “[Kenkoy]
79

PHILIPPINE COMICS:
Tradition and Innovation

mouthed the ‘pidgin’ language fashionable among youth
at the time, which was a mixture of Spanish, English, andThe early history

Tagalog languages.”
Kenkoy, however, was just a beginning. By the 1930s
there were comic strips in many magazines, many ofof comics connects

them imitating popular American characters. Francisco
Reyes produced a Tarzan-like character named Kulafu,
which was to become very popular in the 1930s until
the Japanese Occupation, when Reyes discontinued

comics to notable

the comic to work with a Japanese-Filipino publication.
Unfortunately, he was never able to return to thecharacter, and Kulafu never returned. Along with Kulafu,

historical artists

Fig. 4other characters in comic strips appeared in the 1930s,
also patterned after American funny comics. Lent cites
Procopio Borromeo’s “Goyo at Kikay” as being based on
George McManus’ “Bringing Up Father” and Jose Zabalaand figures.

Santos’s “Lukas Malakas,” a character that was based on“Popeye.” However, the onset of World War II led to an end
to the production of these strips. Don Ramon Roces’s

Fig. 3Aside from theLiwayway was confiscated by the Japanese, and the othermagazines were not able to continue publishing, thus
keeping only Kenkoy alive to persevere through WorldWar II.

caricatures

AFTER WORLD WAR II: THE EMERGENCE OF KOMIKSThe end of the war brought with it the beginning ofa new term in Philippine Comics—Komiks, a vernacularand editorial cartoons,adaptation of the foreign term. Interestingly, the word isnever in the singular; it is always komiks, never komik.
The first komiks book was Halaklak (laughter), a venture
which, due to a lack of finances, lasted only ten issues.

both José Rizal andAround the same time, Roces, who had recovered
Liwayway, spoke with artist Tony Velasquez to create Ace
Publications, which would produce Pilipino Komiks in

Fernando Amorsolo also

1949; they adopted a new type of spelling for their books,

Fig. 5using the vernacular style of spelling in their titles. This
became a norm, with other publishers either using thecreated comic strips.

same vernacularized spelling (for example, there was abook titled Pilipino Klassiks) of comics or using Filipino

interspersed with the shorter wakasan (or complete)words as the title of their comics. The vernacularization

stories. Thus, Filipino audiences would always haveof the terms was seen to add to the street appeal of theseveral stories to read per issue of komiks, which allowed

books; it was, after all, how the common Filipino used

the komiks to cater to a wide variety of readers. Eventually,language on the street.

some komiks specialized in publishing only complete,

In terms of format, komiks adopted what was the

one-issue stories, calling their books “wakasan” komiks,

established form at the time even in the US comic books;

while others specialized in the serial nobelas, the names

blogspot.com.

they were collections of stories, often between three andof their comics reflecting the length of the stories theyFig. 2

Jose Rizal, Ang Pagong at Ang Matsing. 1884, Illustration on
Journal. The Luna Estate. Courtesy of Comicscube.com

six stories consisting of four to five pages. While initiallytold. It should be of note, however, that while there were

Fig. 3

Tony Velasquez. Kenkoy. 1944. Illustration from Kenkoy
Komiks.

consisting of short, complete skits per issue, komiks

nobela komiks, they always published several stories
per issue, and would not have single-story issues. This

Fig. 4Fernando Amorsolo. Kiko at Angge. 1922.
Telembang.

creators eventually began to explore the form, writing
longer, serialized stories called nobelas. The nobelas“anthology” format would remain the format of Pilipino

normally consisted of 24 chapters and would thus mean

Komiks for the rest of its run. The long-form nobela komiks

that followers of these stories would buy the next 24

would prove to be important both in the decline, and inissues of the publication. These long stories would be

the eventual resurrection, of the Philippine comic book.

Fig. 1 Kajo Baldisimo. Santelmo, 2014, courtesy of kajobaldisimo.

Illustration in

Unknown Artist. Illustration on Pilipino Komiks cover. 1947.
Fig. 5courtesy of Ernee Lawagan, Manila, 2017.
Fig. 6Ryan Orosco, Darna, 2004, courtesy of Darna Facebook
Page, 2004.

Fig. 280

81

PHILIPPINE COMICS:
Tradition and Innovation

ART ARCHIVE 02

DARNA: ICONIC HEROINE OF PHILIPPINE KOMIKSTHE FALL OF PILIPINO KOMIKSThe beginning of komiks also coincided with thethem under new owners, but in the case of comics,

By the 1990s, most of the komiks industry wasappearance of Darna, the iconic superhero created bythey were allowed to remain under the old names andcontrolled by Ramon Roces. In 1992, 62 out of 71 komiks

artist Mars Ravelo. Ravelo’s creation actually predates

publishers. The comics code was changed. John Lent

were published by the Roces companies. The four

Wonder Woman; Ravelo created Darna around 1939, but

described the change this way: “Whereas the 1950s codelargest komiks were published twice weekly, circulating

because she was not published until 1947, she was notemphasized a need to play down crime as its preamble,

between 200,000 and 250,000 copies. The Roces

acknowledged as the first female superhero in comics

that of November, 1972, used its first five guidelines tocompanies produced comics quickly and inexpensively,

history. Originally named Varga, the character was notprotect the government and the president and to paintwhich prevented smaller players from entering, since

accepted by Liwayway and ended up in a rival magazine

a beautiful picture of the Philippines…” The new code

they were unable to compete with the speed and scalecalled Bulaklak (flower). A falling out with the editors of

prevented comic creators from portraying anything butof production of the Roces companies. Also, the Roces

Bulaklak led to Ravelo transferring the character to Pilipino

an ideal version of their country, even if the opposite wascompanies controlled the distribution network for their

Komiks, changing the name to Darna. Her popularity

true. This was, however, not always the case.”books, which was used to further prevent other comics

would eventually lead to a self-titled book; eventually

Nonoy Marcelo, who created the satirical comic strip

publishers from gaining a solid foothold in the market.

Darna would have over 25 comics series. Darna was a

Ikabod, often detailed how the mice of fictional Daglandia

The large production volume that GASI and Atlas had

definite hit and would go on to star not only in komiks

suffered under the abuses of the rulers of the land. Oddly

to meet eventually led to a dilution in the quality of the

but also become a favorite in cinema and television andenough, Marcelo was also an artist for the National Media

comics being produced. Eventually, the breakneck paceremains a popular character today.

Production Center of the Marcos administration. Lentof production, and the lower quality of the work, resulted

Darna’s debut coincided with a newly independent

called him a “kind of cartoonist double agent, working forin a deterioration in sales. Aside from this, the 1990s wasPhilippines, and many saw Narda, Darna’s alter-ego,the oppressive government at times, but also carrying ona difficult decade for komiks, as a struggling national

as a representative of the ordinary Filipino. She wasa subtle mission to bring it down.” The 1970s also saw an

economy, ecological disasters (the Mt. Pinatubo eruption,

originally portrayed as a cripple, needing crutches to

exodus of comic creators, many of whom moved to thethe second largest eruption in the 20th century, happened

walk. Her transformation into the powerful warrior Darna,

US to work in the comics industry there.

in 1991), and international financial crises (the Asian

who defended the weak, was an inspiring image to many,

The 1970s also saw the advent of the supernovel:

currency crisis in 1997) all contributed to steadily drop theparticularly at a time when the country was also trying tocomics nobelas that continued beyond the normal

ability of the average reader to buy what was increasingly

rise from the Second World War and dealing with self-

24-issue arc. Some of the more popular supernovels

considered a luxury. In addition, cable television, personal

continued indefinitely; some, such as the serial “Anak ni

computers and videogames, and international comics

bold move: portraying her in a two-piece bikini gave her

Zuma” (Daughter of Zuma), based on a resurrected Aztec

entered the market, offering the Philippine public morea distinctive appearance, one which was appealing togod, ran for a decade.

options for their entertainment. In addition, newsstands

Fig. 6

rule for the first time. Darna’s appearance was also amale readers, while her heroism appealed to the generalpublic.

82

The supernovel was a dream for comics producers.

had begun to rent comics out rather than sell them,

A popular supernovel guaranteed the sales of a certain

which further reduced sales for komiks producers.

comic book for months, at the very least.

While all these factors contributed to the decline of the

Darna’s success was only part of a rapidly growing

More importantly for the industry, the 1960s saw a periodindustry, with Ace Publications eventually coming up

of experimentation in Philippine Komiks, such as the

By the 1980s, komiks remained popular. Lent citedkomiks industry, it was a single event that nearly killed it.

with four more titles (Tagalog Klasiks, Hiwaga Komiks,arrival of Bomba comics. Bomba, which was slang forthat by the mid-1980s, komiks circulation was estimated

By the middle of the 1990s, the only significant,Espesyal Komiks, and pocket-sized Kenkoy Komiks).

naked, became the descriptor for comics that featured

at between 2.5 to 3 million issues per week, with anconsistent komiks producers were Atlas Publications

Villegas recalled that titles would appear and disappear

nudity or sexual acts, either implied or explicitly portrayed.

estimated readership of six times those figures. A 1989

and GASI, both of which were owned by the Roces family.

in the 1950s; many would suffer closure due to a lack ofThese books were sold discreetly, the books hidden

survey showed that comics was the most read medium,The various economic shocks to the country led to thefinancial capital and facilities for printing, but “by 1954,

beneath the “clean” ones, “only a suggestive ask (sic)having 54 percent of print media. What added to theclosure of GASI in 1997, while Atlas dropped their komiks

there were at least 20 or so komiks titles sold in the

can make the salesman offer it directly.” The appearance

high readership was the interaction the komiks industry

titles, concentrating on magazines. The closure of GASI

newsstands…Komiks reading had become the Filipinos’of Bomba was ironic, given that the Philippine industry

had with the local film industry. Film scripts were being

effectively removed any consistent komiks production

national pastime.”

had opted to police its ranks, and adopted the Americantaken from the stories being portrayed in the komiks. The

and komiks, at least in the form it had existed since the1940s, effectively disappeared.

The 1960s would see the industry change once

publishers’ creation of the Association of Publishers andrelationship was mutually beneficial. Director Lino Brocka,

more because of several events. Ace Comics, by that

Editors of Philippine Comics-Magazines (APEPCOM),

interviewed by Lent, called the relationship between film

Komiks, however, did not die. Smaller companies

time the largest comic producer in the country, suffereda body that voluntarily censored any material that wereand komiks “incestuous,” with each medium providing

continued to publish titles in the vein of the older

a strike by their printing press workers and closed inseen as harmful to the morals of the reader. The allure of

an audience for the other. Both screen scriptwriters andtraditions, but none would become successful. Instead,

1962. The closure led comics creators to publish their

Bomba comics was obvious, however. In a country wherecomic artists were wary of the said relationship. On one

the work that came out from komiks producers in theown works, with varying degrees of success. Ace,pornography was strictly banned, the titillation provided

hand, it allowed studios to rapidly produce films since the1990s was highly derivative, copying either international

however, resurrected as Atlas Publishing and Graphic

by the comics made it a bestseller, though no one would

comics stories were very easy to adapt into film. On the

comics, which were becoming very popular, films, orArts Services Incorporated (GASI), both still owned byever admit to reading them.

other, the artists who produced the comics rarely received

television shows.

Ramon Roces. Eventually, his daughters would take overBy the 1970s the industry faced Martial Law, which

any of the proceeds from the film. As for scriptwriters, theyas publishers. These two companies would becomebrought with it several challenges to the industry. The

were forced to work on adaptations rather than allowed tothe beginning of a new form, and new styles. Instead ofthe most successful komiks publishers in the country.

Marcos government closed nearly all media or reopened

work on original work.

publishers, the new comic producers were driven by artists

The collapse of traditional komiks in the 1990s saw

83

graphic novels, such as his work Elmer, which won awards
in France and was nominated in the United States. The
success of Wasted also showed that the longer, singlestory graphic novel format was a viable way of producing
comics.
One of the first to come out with this new, longer formof comic was Arnold Arre who, in 1999, would publish The
Mythology Class, originally a four-issue story that would
eventually be collected into a 350-page graphic novel.
The book, which chronicles the adventures of a group offriends who need to contend with Philippine mythologicaldeities and creatures, was received well. The success ofthe book launched Arre’s career as a comic creator. The
Fig. 8book won the National Book Award in 2000 and was theFig. 10first to win in the comics category. His success inspired
CONTEMPORARY COMICS: RISING ONCE MORE
While the original form of Pilipino komiks were

Fig. 784

creators towards writing unified, longer stories and in theprocess significantly changed what Filipino comics are.

THE GRAPHIC NOVEL: AN AVENUE FOR CREATIVITY

collections containing several stories per issue, newWhile the idea of the extended narrative was present

creators created comics that told one story serialized overin the earlier komiks tradition, it remained serialized andseveral issues. This was the main influence of Western

subordinate to the then traditional format of the komiks,

comics, which had adapted that format years before withwhich was delivering the stories in four- to five-pagesuch characters as Superman and Batman who became

installments. Very few of these serials were collected andmore and more popular, prompting comics producers tomade into single works. The arrival of the supernovel inpublish books focused solely on these characters. The

the ‘70s made them even more ungainly. For example, if

new generation of comic creators were exposed to these“Anak ni Zuma” were collected as graphic novels, it would

comics from an early age and were enthusiasts of theseresult in multi-volume collections, each several hundred

comics, which was perhaps one of the reasons why thepages long. For the average Filipino reader, theseshift in storytelling occurred.

collections would be expensive, which made the idea of

Alamat Comics, founded by comic creator Budjette

publishing them unattractive to comics producers. Darna,Tan, produced an early comic in 1994 called Comics 101,for example, had many comics, but there were very few

and writers, all of them enthusiasts of comics and keen

which was still based on the Pilipino komiks format. Unlike

collections of her stories. Instead, these stories wereto produce comics for the Philippine audience. GerryFlashpoint, which featured one story, Comics 101 was aadapted for the screen. The frequency of publication for

Alanguilan, currently one of the most prominent Filipino

collection of shorter stories. Difficulties in promoting and

Pilipino komiks also made the collections unnecessarily

comic book artists, recalled how he and other fans would

distributing the comic led to weak sales. In the end, theredundant since the average reader just needed to wait

create their own works, photocopy them, and share thecomic could not sustain itself and it closed after several

until the following week to get the next installment of theirworks among friends or sell them at university fairs.

issues. While the comic itself did not prosper, some of thefavorite story.

Students from De La Salle University, led by writers David

stories published in Comics 101 were later collected andWhen the industry and traditional komiks collapsed,

Hontiveros and Alexander Santos and illustrator Carlopublished in a compiled, graphic novel format, such as

the new wave of comics creators grew up on a more varied

Vergara, published a comic book named Flashpoint,

Gerry Alanguilan’s Wasted.

set of comics materials. Many of them were raised on

which was about an alien war, but featured images

Wasted was originally an underground work, owing

monthly, single-story, single-character comics publishedand storylines that were clearly based on the western

to its graphic violence. Alanguilan said that he madein the United States. These comics had arcs that normally

American tradition of comics.

the book after breaking up with a girlfriend, and he waslasted 12 issues, or an entire year. The stories were

The comic was ambitious; they were published in fullhesitant to publish it. Thankfully, he did. Wasted waseasily more collectible since each arc was a complete,color and on glossy paper, which made them expensive to

published in serial form in Comics 101 and Pulp Magazine

finished story. Thus, it was understandable that the newer

produce. That, plus the relative inability of the creators toand then collected into a book by Alamat Comics. It

creators gravitated to the longer format because it was

promote their works, given that there weren’t any venues

became highly successful, drawing praise from local fansfor comics at the time, meant that the comic would not

and established comic creators in the West, particularly

works of Budjette Tan, Arnold Arre, and Carlo Vergara cango beyond four issues. These problems, however, didwriter Warren Ellis. The comic launched Alanguilan’s

give us insights on why the shift from komiks to graphic

not deter creators from trying, and in the process, they

career, who has since worked for companies such asnovel has changed the industry, and how younger artists

changed Filipino comics.

Marvel and DC comics, going on to produce his own

are further innovating the medium.

Fig. 9more familiar and more easily reproduced. Looking at the85

ART ARCHIVE 02

work, but like Tan, he opted to use the graphic novel form.
The Mythology Class was the standard length for Arre’s
books, which were sold in a more conventional format,
though considerably longer. Aside from The Mythology
Class, Arre has produced Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden,
Ang Mundo ni Andong Agimat, and Martial Law Babies,
all of which are about 300-350 pages long. He has alsocollaborated with Alanguilan for Rodski Patotski, ang

When the industry
and traditional komiks
collapsed, the new

Batang Baby. The collaboration is noticeably shorter thanis typical of Arre, but it is still definitely a graphic novel inthat it follows a single story arc throughout the work.

wave of comics creators

Arre’s books are definitely graphic novels. Unlike Tan’spractice of separating the story’s sections into chapters,
Arre’s narratives are continuous and sprawling, often

Fig. 11were raised on monthly,

covering intricate plots and backgrounds. They cover notjust Philippine mythology, but everything from science
fiction and high fantasy to gritty Philippine action movieBudjette Tan was one of the first new creators,

style action. Arre writes and illustrates his own work, andbeginning with the stories he created for Alamat Comics.

his art style is clearly influenced by Japanese manga,

His first truly successful comic, however, was Trese:

which makes the books appealing to younger, manga-

Murder on Balete Drive, which has spawned a series that

influenced readers. In Mythology Class, for example,

is now in its seventh volume. Trese was a departure from

Arre’s use of the graphic novel allows the characters to

traditional komiks in many ways. It was published in a

travel to many locations and have adventures, while also

smaller format and thus was distinctly different from older

allowing him to develop the characters emotionally, and incomics. It was black and white and featured an art styleterms of their relationships. The result is a set ofthat was unique. Tan’s collaborator, artist Kajo Baldisimo,
created a uniquely moody aesthetic, fitting with the horror/

single-story,
single-character comics
publishedin the United States.

noir feel that the book tries to go for. In terms of narrative,
the comic was a hybrid of the Pilipino komiks traditionand contemporary, one-character storytelling. Baletecharacters that, unlike traditional comics, are changed by

Drive contained four short vignettes, each concerning

their adventures, this eschewing the traditional notion ofa particular case that the protagonist, Alexandra Trese,

comic characters always remaining the same no matter

investigated. Each story was much longer than thewhat happens to them. In his case, the freedom of space

original komiks stories, however, consisting of roughly 20that the graphic novel presents allowed him to deepen

pages per story. Balete Drive was 93 pages long, several

his story beyond what a shorter serial format could

times the size of a typical komiks issue.

accomplish.

By the third issue, Tan began to write single-story

Carlo Vergara’s Ang Kagilagilalas na Pakikipagsapa-

issues, broken into several chapters. Tan was also able tolaran ni Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah (The Amazing Adventures of

expand the Trese mythos, creating an extended backstory

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah) is another example of how the longer

that now allows him the flexibility to tell more complex

graphic novel format has allowed for the development ofstories involving a consistent setting and characters.

more complicated longer stories, but also address social

The books transitioned from being a collection of shortrealities as well. Lauded as a landmark work in tacklingstories to full-fledged graphic novellas. Tan has kept his

LGBTQ issues, Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah concerns the adven-issues purposely short; no book has ever gone beyond

tures of Ada, a homosexual hairdresser who, by chance,

200 pages. Aside from working on the seventh volume

comes upon a magical stone (which, of course, is a di-of Trese, Tan has launched an Indiegogo campaign torect reference to Ravelo’s Darna). When he utters thebring Trese to international audiences, where it is gaining

word “Zaturnnah” inscribed on the stone, he becomesa steady following.

Fig. 13this powerful, voluptuous, and female hero. Vergara’s

Arnold Arre, who began at about the same time aswork was applauded because, in essence, it told twoTan, took a very different approach to the creation of his

stories: one was the superheroic adventures of Zsa Zsa

Fig. 1286

87

ART ARCHIVE 02

OTHER NOTABLE GRAPHIC NOVELISTS
Aside from Tan, Arre, and Vergara, there are still manyan examination of the Filipino identity in the newother artists who use the graphic novel format in theirmillennium. He was internationally published as the artist

current comic book projects. Gerry Alanguilan, even if heof Lola: A Ghost Story from Oni Press, alongside J. Torres.

is already a well-established Marvel and DC comic bookHis most recent work is a flipbook entitled Two Short Tallartist, creates his own graphic novels as well. Aside fromTales: The Amazing True-ish Story of Andres Celestial andWasted, he created Elmer, an award winning novel about

The Life and Death of Amorsolo Esperanza.

talking chickens, which, together with the question of

While the graphic novel is, in the end, more expensive

human identity, was very well received in the Philippines

to produce per copy, the form has proven to be the more

and abroad, where it won several awards.

practical one to adopt for the current mode of the comics

Visual Artist Rob Cham is also worth mentioning forindustry, which is driven by individual, often independent,

his novel Light, a wordless and visually stunning graphic

publishers. The older, press-style publication model,

novel about a classic quest. His unique visual style, plus

which worked very well for GASI and Atlas publications,the lush illustrations in every page, creates a beautiful

simply cannot work in an age when publication is done

narrative, which showcases the ability of the graphic

by single authors. The upside of this, however, is thatnovel to tell a story without the use of words. He has won

the quality of the work has improved, and has led to an

book awards for Light, which cements him as one of the

exploration of the comic in a more expansive way, and the

young creators to watch in the coming years. He has acreation of deeper, more thought-provoking narratives.

sequel for Light, entitled Lost, and is working on a third

The Filipino Comic may not be Komiks anymore, but it has

installment of the story.

grown into a form that can proudly carry on the tradition

Finally, it would be remiss not to mention Elbertof the past and propel it forward to a new creative level. ■Or, who is a tireless promoter of local comics, andsupporter of local comics production. While he is morefamously known for his comic strip Bakemono High,
which tackled the adventures of young monsters inspiredby classical movie cinema, he has also produced andFig. 14

participated in some of the most significant graphic
novels produced since the 2000s. He was one of the
key producers of the graphic novel Siglo, which was

Zaturnnah, and her struggles as she figures out how to be

Fig. 15a hero; the other story dealt with Ada and his struggles
with loving someone from afar.
The book is, in turns, hilarious, exciting, and poignant.
There is also the clear homage to Darna. Many of Zsa Zsa’s
foes are near exact copies of villains that Darna faced.
But there is also the idea of subversion. Darna always
appears fully clothed in her costume; Zsa Zsa needs toborrow a gay beauty pageant contestant’s costume. The
typical assumptions of the “stronger sex” is reversed in
the story; it is Ada, the male aspect of the character, whoFig. 7

Fig. 8 Carlo Vergara, Flashpoint. 1994, courtesy of Aris Panganiban,

Manila. 2011.

Fig. 9 Gerry Alanguilan, Wasted. 2017, courtesy of wastedonline.

blogspot.com, 2017.

is weak. Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah, who is the female aspect, isstrong, thus upending commonly held assumptions ofArnold Arre, The Mythology Class. 2012, courtesy of arnold-

Fig. 10 arre.com. Covers from The Mythology Class, courtesy of

Arnold-arre.com.

gender power.
The story of Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah is not typicallyarranged like a serial comic, instead, it reads continuously,
the story following a clear plot, which is not halted by
the many “to be continued” breaks typical of the older
supernovels. Here, as is also the case with Arre and Tan,the story is coherent, allowing the whole graphic novel tofunction as a longer form of fiction.
88

Vicente Doria Catan, Jr. (Vicatan), Zuma: The Series. 1995,
courtesy of Aris Panganiban, Manila. 2010.

Fig. 11

Kajo Baldisimo. Trese, 2014, courtesy of kajobaldisimo.
blogspot.com.

References
Francisco, Arman. 2008. Komixpage: A Blog About Traditional
Komiks (1920’s to 2000). July 6. Accessed September 15, 2018.
http://arman-komixpage.blogspot.com/2008/07/tarzan.html.
Lawagan, Ernee. 2017. The History of Philippine Komiks. August
7. Accessed September 15, 2018. http://erneelawagan.blogspot.
com/2017/08/the-history-of-philippine-komiks.html.
Lent, John A. 1998. “Comic Art in the Philippines.” Philippine Studies
236-248.
Lent, John A. 2014. “Philippine Komiks: 1928 to the Present .” In
Southeast Asian Cartoon Art (Kindle Ed.), by John A., Editor Lent.
Jefferson : McFarland and Company, Inc. .
Orosco, Ryan. n.d. “Darna Pinup .” Deviantart .
Panganiban, Aris. 2011. “Flashpoint.” Pinoy Superheroes Universe.
September 24. Accessed September 17, 2018.
—. 2017. “X-Gen The Unknown Generation .” Pinoy Superheroes
Universe. March 24. Accessed September 16, 2018. https://pinoysuperheroesuniverse.blogspot.com/search/label/X-Gen.
Villegas, Dennis. 2005. Francisco Reyes’ Kulafu. November 13.
Accessed September 15, 2018. https://pilipinokomiks.blogspot.
com/search?q=kulafu.
—. 2011. Jose Rizal: Komikero . June 14. Accessed September 15,
2018.
—. 2005. Kenkoy: Biography of a Pop Icon. November 26. Accessed
September
14,
2018.
https://pilipinokomiks.blogspot.com/
search?q=kenkoy.
—. 2006. Philippine Vintage Cartoon Strips . October 30. Accessed
September 15 , 2018. https://pilipinokomiks.blogspot.com/2006/10/
philippine-vintage-cartoon-strips.html.

Fig. 12 Arnold Arre, Rodsky Patotski. 2014, courtesy of Arnold-arre.

com.

Fig. 13 Carlo Vegara, Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Esquire Cover, courtesy of

Carlo Vergara, Digiital Image.

Fig. 14 Gerry Alanguilan, Elmer, courtesy of Gerry Alanguilan, 2009.
Fig. 15 Rob Cham, Light. 2015, courtesy of Rob Cham, 2015.
Fig. 16

Elbert Or, Bakemono High Book One Cover, 2013. Source:
Philippine Daily Inquirer “Monsters Ink” by Ruel De Vera.

Fig. 1689

v
words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

FESTIVALS AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATIONSANDREAPASION-FLORES

Fig. 1

There is a disconnect between the Filipino public

was both a literal and an unfortunate mouthful, Portrait

and the literary imagination. Beyond, say, the works ofof the City and the Literary Imagination, a project inJosé Rizal, whose novels are taught in schools, there

partnership with the Ayala Foundation’s Filipinas Heritage

are very few Filipino literary authors whose works have

Library, which featured an exhibit of photographs ofresonated in the minds of the ordinary Filipino. There

places in Manila accompanied by excerpts from stories,

are many reasons for this: the limitations of publishers

essays, and poetry of authors like Rizal, Nick Joaquin,

and the distributors, the young book market that is theF. Sionil Jose, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Gilda Cordero

Philippines with all the unsaid problems this statement

Fernando, and a few more. We wanted to draw a literary

brings, and the inaccessibility of higher education to amap of Manila, the city Manileños both loved and hated.

broad spectrum of the population.

I remember going to a morning show hoping not to

In 2007, the year I became the Executive Director of

mental block on this long title while explaining the difficult

the National Book Development Board (NBDB), the idea

concept of the writer’s milieu and the writer’s work toof connecting the public with the literary imagination

viewers before their day’s first cup of coffee. I was wearing

seemed a good idea to help build a love for reading

a lime green top that matched the backdrop, and justbooks, especially Philippine-authored books. There

before I got on, I remembered the producer whispering,“Iseems to be little recognition of the writers I was made toforgot to tell you not to wear green.” And before I evenread in school to the book buyers who frequent National

spoke about the project, an image flashed in my mind

Book Store. Bridging that gap to build a market for ourof my floating head speaking as my torso blended withown books, I thought, might be one goal the NBDB

the background, trying to convince people we would beshould have, given its mandate to promote the local bookfeaturing authors who wrote about their city as a character

publishing industry.

in literature, and they would love the literature that was

Our first attempt at bringing books to the public

inspired by their city.

consciousness was not effective. The title of the project90

91

We needed spacefor public conversations
on the art
and craft of writing,the book market,
and publishing.
Thus, the idea of aliterary festival
came into being.

ART ARCHIVE 02

LOOKING FOR ‘SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE’‘LIT OUT LOUD’

weren’t listening to people. We needed space for public

In 2010, the hottest book of recent memory was

We called that first literary festival Lit Out Loud orconversations to take place on the art and craft of writing,Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup. Slumdog had justLOL. As part of the festival, we had a movie showing of

the book market, and publishing in general. We needed

won in the Oscars for Best Film, and a musical amidst the

Slumdog Millionaire after which Vikas annotated thepeople who made books for a living to speak to eachsqualor of Delhi captured the world’s imagination. How

movie. There were a few Indians in the audience, who,

other and to people who consumed books—teachers,

was it possible that a book that is set in India, written byafter the movie, gave Vikas a standing ovation. During thatstudents, readers—to find the connection we so wanted

an Indian author could capture the world’s imagination?

talk, I remember Vikas narrating his experience during theto establish between creator and reader. We also needed

So I went about looking for Vikas Swarup, whom, as lucknight of the Oscars. He was the unknown, conspicuous

them to get in touch with people who wanted to makewould have it, was a consul in the Indian Embassy inIndian man on the red carpet. All he brought with him wasbooks themselves, in whatever aspect—as authors,

nearby Osaka. I set about writing the Indian Embassy ina copy of his book. When he was asked who he was andillustrators, editors, and sellers to inspire each other toManila, which didn’t get me anywhere as I was told to getwhat he was doing at the Oscars, he just held up his copy

create content for consumers and how best to get that to

in touch with the author directly. So I did, and he said heof Slumdog and said, “I wrote Slumdog Millionaire.” Andthem. Nothing like this has happened in the Philippines

would have a look at his schedule, which I thought was athe cameras would flash. I remember distinctly a questionin the scale we wanted it to happen. Thus, the idea of abrush-off so, for a while, I forgot about him.

from the audience about how he felt about an American

literary festival came into being.

When I was in graduate school, I was sitting in a

directing his film and it being produced by an American

Having gone to a few festivals abroad, I knew there

fiction class taught by a known author when he was asked

company, as though it was an intrusion to his identity to

was value to having the participation of minds that were

why there were very few Filipinos published abroad. He

have been interpreted by a non-Indian while the writer

not of the same background as our own authors andreplied, in a matter-of-fact manner, that we were, perhaps,

and the cast were all Indian, and throughout the movie

publishers. We’ve always read about other people’s stuff,

too exotic. The international imagination seemed unable

was filmed in Hindi. In reply he said, “I am very happy it

but there was the other aspect of getting our own stuff

to imagine the reality of Filipinos, which, I thought, was

was produced and directed by Americans, you know why?

to other people other than Filipinos, too. I felt strongly

ridiculous. How can I, in my unknown corner in the world,

If it were done by Indians, even if it won Best Foreign Film,that, in order to grow, we needed the distinct experiences

read international literature and imagine the realities of

who would remember Slumdog Millionaire now?”

international panelists would be able to contribute to

the authors whose works I was reading? How could they

I knew then the project wasn’t going to achieve what

I knew then that there was importance in bringing

conversations with locals, and that involved getting

not imagine mine?

I had set out to do: engage the public with books andauthors from around the world to join local panelists andI would learn that the publishing business was reallythinking I was hearing at that time from local publishers:

authors on topics that might be close to their hearts.

have their names said in one breath, to pit their ideas

about bringing to the attention of its gatekeepers the“Filipino writers should be for Filipino publishers.” Though

I needed to match the audience with the product that Iof writing and publishing with each other in front of astories that stood a chance at publication. And the many

I understood the concern, as I constantly experience thecouldn’t possibly explain in the few minutes I was in theFilipino audience. All this efforts should weave into thepeople who could help bring that into fruition, from many

dilemma of searching for stories to bring to the primaryshow. It was a mismatched endeavor that made me think

consciousness of a publishing industry, which seemed

sectors of society, should contribute to making thataudience of the company I work for now, I knew thatdeeply about both what the content, the format it should

insular and a bit one-directional in putting things out

happen. A book, to get out there, must be pushed by a

the world just offered much more than our just relying

come in, and the platform to deliver that content tothere without caring about feedback or what’s going onvillage. But it starts with a literary agent because thereon our own local experience can possibly bring, andengage the public. Bringing the literary arts to Manileños

in the world, just a little bit of how I was when I first camewas nothing wrong with the imaginations of foreigners.

we all—authors, publishers, illustrators, and everyone inneeded a whole lot of imagination.

into the job.

the Filipino experience to the world without the insular

I began my search of literary agents to invite to Manila

this industry—need to partake of it by tapping into the

The second and third attempts were a blast. Theyso that local authors might be introduced to them. Thereexperience, talent, and resources that an international

were Tulaan sa Tren 1 and 2, done in 2008 and 2009.

were no literary agents in the country then, and I knew

market can offer, including going beyond our borders

We made posters placed on trains to accompany the

how difficult it was to get an agent, and felt distinctly

in looking for an audience whose imaginations caninane ads commuters are constantly subjected to. The

the absence of Philippine literature in the international

comprehend the Filipino reality. I would confirm thisposters featured photographs of the city with excerpts

literary scene because of this lack. And while I was doing

resolve when I became a literary agent in 2012. As anfrom poems of known and starting Filipino poets. We also

all this, I was also putting together the panels, inviting

agent, I would read through stacks of submissions, aware

asked celebrities to record those poems to play themauthors, and doing a lot of other things in between, whenthat nationalities didn’t figure in the search for a goodover the PA system in the stops as well as in the train carsa couple of months before that first festival, I got an email

story. I needed to find a good story whatever kind it was

during certain hours of the day. The idea of putting local

from Vikas asking, “So is the literary festival still on?” And

from, wherever part of the world the author came from,material in public places made the news, people blogged

just like that, we had Vikas Swarup in the lineup.

and attempt to push out there for a wider audience toabout it, we were in the papers, and for a couple of years,

read. Great stories, from wherever they come from, justthe dreariness of riding the LRT was alleviated somewhat

cannot be ignored—and I thought Philippine stories could

with poetry read and heard by about 700,000 commuters

Fig. 1 Authorities, The 9th Philippine International Literary Festival,

every day.

held in the CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) in 2018.

Though it garnered a lot of attention and the mileageFig. 2 Indian writer Vikas Swarup in the 2010 Lit Out Loud.

certainly have a place in the world’s literature during mylifetime, and I was going to do what it takes to achieve
that.

it gained for Philippine poetry cannot be undermined,

In the meantime, I worked on three more literary

the activity felt static and it still didn’t feel enough. We

festivals, seeing that efforts such as these needed to bewere telling people this was their literature, but werepeated and gain traction by happening on expected

92

93
Fig. 2

FESTIVALS AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATIONSART ARCHIVE 02‘THE GREAT PHILIPPINE BOOK CAFÉ’dates annually, like the other festivals in the world. A

One of my favorite authors is Junot Díaz. His work

challenge was the difficulty in getting international

is contemporary and he always voiced the migration

authors who could bring in the crowd. For every successful

experience. We also shared a colonial history; theinternational author we were able to bring in, there were

Dominican Republic was also colonized by Spain. I sent

probably five who rejected us. I was aware that we weren’t

him an email. I knew it was like dropping a message in abringing them to some exotic paradise like Bali or Jaipur.

bottle in the vast ocean with no chance of its ever getting

We were bringing them to Manila—and that didn’t exactly

a response. And he agreed, with a few conditions thatsound like a tropical vacation for authors to jump at thewere not impossible to do. During that same year, I waschance of an invite. What’s more, we weren’t paying themalso lucky that Edward P. Jones was invited by the US

either.

Embassy in Manila. Like Junot, EPJ was a Pulitzer Prize

So every year, I would think of authors for the next

winner so, on that year, like gifts from the gods, I had notor current year’s festival and the caveat would be theseone but two Pulitzer Prize winners on my panels. It was

authors should have an affection towards a country such

unbelievable and unlikely to happen in another festival.

as the Philippines, given its history, and the context of its

That second literary festival in 2011 was called The Great

economic development vis-à-vis its place in the world,

Philippine Book Café—and it was great indeed with people

and the author should be able to address such concerns

like Jose Y. Dalisay moderating a panel with Junot Diaz. In

as demonstrated by the author’s works. In other words, I

that same year we also had a literary agent and an editor

knew I was looking for someone who had a connection tofrom Atlantic, Ravi Mirchandani, who had edited the novel

the country in some manner, either by way of the person’s

White Tiger by Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga. We had

heritage, or by virtue of the author’s country’s colonial

panels about the art of the novel, and I knew that that year,

experience, or just the practical aspect of being in a

the rooms would be packed to capacity and the audience,

nearby Asian country.

composed mainly of young people, would be fired up.

The basic diﬃculty of access to Asianbooks confirms our position as buyersof the world’s content rather than sellers.
Thus, what comes to fore is the needfor the very best of our books to findtheir readers all over the world.

‘READ LIT DISTRICT’
The year 2012 was my last literary festival for the
National Book Development Board. We called it Read
Lit District. I had met the poet and novelist Chris Abani
who was a political prisoner in Nigeria. Chris spoke of thebeauty of ugliness and the redemptive value in sufferingin an event the year before where I was a member of theaudience. Before he came to the Philippines, I don’t think
Filipinos knew who he was, but after they heard him speak,
all his panels were packed. We were also lucky to havegotten Juliet Grames of Soho Press who spoke of thecategories of the genre of crime like only someone who
reads, edits, and lives crime novels could, complete with
Venn diagrams explaining the nuances of crime fiction.
Literary festivals didn’t die when I left the NBDB, as

Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 3a matter of fact, they flourished, addressing different
aspects that book publishing stakeholders needed to
improve within the context of the perceived need at thetime. As a keen observer of the Philippine book industry,Fig. 3 Vijae Alquisola, Genevieve Asenjo, Clarissa Militante, Ouce

Roque, Dowee Untivero and Adrian Ho at 9th Philippine
International Literature Festival, held in the Cultural Center of
the Philippines (CCP), in April 2018.

my observations are now drawn from the perspective

Comic book creator and author and co-founder of Pushpin
Visual Solutions, Elbert Or (left) and comic book artist andFig. 4
writer Gerry Alanguilan, or “Komikero” in the 2010 Lit Out
Loud.

a stakeholder instead of a proponent, watching theof someone outside the NBDB, seeing its activities as
permutations of the various literary festivals they havebeen holding all over the country gain and lose ground.

Chingbee Cruz, Elaine Castillo, Glen Diaz and Kristine Ong
Muslim at the 9th Philippine International Literature Festival,
Fig. 5held in the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), in April
2018.

This gives me a depth of vision as a stakeholder vis-àvis the government’s efforts in the development of thisindustry.

94

95

Fig. 4
Fig. 7

FESTIVALS AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATIONS‘TEXT IN THE CITY’Asia, having the third largest population in the world,
not counting China and India, is one of the biggest
markets for content outside of the Western world. Thus,
the NBDB’s efforts to introduce more Asian authors to thecountry was a step towards a most natural market direction
for our books. In 2013, the NBDB had Text in the City
where they invited Asian authors Xu Xi (Hong Kong) and

The National Commission
for Culture and the Arts
also supported literary

REGIONAL FESTIVALSIn 2015, the NBDB decided to bring the festival tochallenges faced by the independent publisher, such as

the regions, which is a good effort to bring the technicallimited distribution, the lack of marketing efforts perhaps

knowledge of publishing to the many creators andbecause of the indie publisher’s smaller size, and theenablers that resided outside of Manila to help create

higher price, given that these titles would have appeal

a market for local books in the regions, while doing

more to niche readers. Furthermore, an expensive bookcapacity-building. The vision for a vibrant Philippine

would have a limited market because of their limited print

publishing industry should involve the rest of the countryrun.

Suchen Christine Lim (Singapore), Kamini Ramachandranand not just Manila. Thus, the NBDB began a regional

The NBDB, of course, was not the only one doing(Singapore), Krys Lee (Korea) to visit different universities.

push to encourage festivals outside Manila, starting withfestivals. By now, even the National Commission for

Davao.

Culture and the Arts also supported literary festivals

They split up the festival between the University of thefestivals in the regions, thePhilippines-Diliman, De La Salle University in Taft, and the
University of Santo Tomas to engage with more students
and teachers. But a constant problem encountered byparticipants is the difficulty in finding the books of the
Asian authors in Manila, as well as Philippine authors inthe book shelves of Asia. This problem is encounteredless by Western authors, especially those published anddistributed by the larger publishing houses, whose books
are more ubiquitous in bookstores locally as well as therest of Asia.
As in other aspects, this basic difficulty of accessmore prominent one being
Taboan, or marketplace,which ‘was meant to gather
writers and readers andto Asian books confirms our position as buyers of theworld’s content rather than sellers. Thus, what comesto fore is the need for a much wider distribution, not justour books to find their readers all over the world.
In 2014, National Book Store’s Philippine Readers andWriters Festival also took off, taking the place of a unified
literary festival. It is now held yearly at the Raffles Hotelin Makati, where local publishers are given panels fortheir authors, while NBS invites a few American authors
to engage with readers. What is interesting with thisdevelopment is that the private sector response for theneed for avenues for authors to engage with the public
has been recognized and found to be a fruitful format

In a festival called Laláng, Manila publishers andin the regions, the more prominent one being Taboan,

authors were in panels with Davaoeño authors andconceptualized by the poet Ricardo de Ungria, who,

publishers, with a focus on capacity-building. Though

in 2009, was a commissioner for the literary arts of theit was a great effort, it wasn’t sustained. The problems

NCCA. Held in February, Taboan or marketplace “wasof flying in speakers to places outside Manila entailed

meant to gather writers and readers and publishers andexpense and the need to coordinate with locals foraudience annually for purposes of interaction throughlogistics. Also, it felt like a one-off, unrepeated, needingreadings, panel discussions, and the like,” says Ricky.

a little bit of introspection as to its effectivity when there

Since 2009 it has become an annual flagship projectis a lack of follow-throughs and sustained efforts forof the NCCA gathering authors, readers, scholar, andactivities. But perhaps the learning that is gained in that

researchers to immerse themselves in regional literature.

effort is the need for translation of works from English andWhen I was invited in 2017 to the Taboan held in

Filipino to the various local languages of the country.

publishers and audience

locally, which is a given, but the need for the very best ofannually for purposes ofinteraction through readings,
panel discussions,and the like.’

Bauang, La Union, the featured author that year was

In 2016, with the theme Against Forgetting, theshort story writer Manuel Arguilla, who joined the guerilla

NBDB brought the festival to Quezon City at the newly

movement to fight the Japanese, dying at only 29 years

built QCX of the QC government at the Quezon Circle.

old. He was introduced by the fictionist Jose Y. Dalisay.

The aim was to bring the festival closer to the students.

By this time, I was already a publisher working in Anvil, soWith the participation of the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino

after his talk, I wasted no time in asking him if he would be

and local regional publishers, the necessary highlight ofinterested in putting together the works of Arguilla while

this festival is the importance of translation. There was areprising his intro for the collection. It is the kind of comingstrong focus on Asia that year, with the participation of

together that gave birth to a book, and the possibility

Singaporean Sonny Liew on board, whose graphic novelof introducing Arguilla to new readers, something that

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Eye (Epigram, 2014) won

happens often in festivals and trade fairs all over.

the Singapore Literature Prize and the Eisner Awards.

It’s heart-warming to think that in 2019 the NBDB will

The discussions on translation during this festival—its

celebrate a decade of giving the public literary festivals.

challenges and rewards—focused on the need to create

The continuation of literary festivals shows the recognition

to engage and an effective platform for authors to meet

more work in regional languages, and on efforts thatby government that there is a need for this public

readers. What’s interesting with the PRWF, is that at its

support translation in particular, even if local markets forplatform for creators and enablers of Philippine books

core, it puts readers central to its activities, and there is96

ART ARCHIVE 02

the regional languages and publishing for the regions

to engage in an intelligent conversation with readers.

a much wider participation of commercial publishers andof economic and cultural integration comes into fore in aseem quite limited and cannot do the numbers a large

What it does for the countless participants these festivals

authors that speak to the readers that frequent NBS. It

conversation about a more unified ASEAN market for our

distributor might need.

have touched over the last decade is the deepening ofis a platform that is in touch with its market and it gives

content. They had panels for the business of publishing,

Building on this knowledge, in 2017, the NBDB held

the Filipino people’s appreciation for local authors andreaders a chance to meet their favorite authors. The

going strongly with the improvement of the publishing

the Philippine International Literary Festival at thetheir works. This appreciation is, hopefully, because more

Philippine Readers and Writers Festival celebrated its fifth

value chain and how best to reach a wider market for each

Cultural Center of the Philippines, calling it AUTHORities.

and more readers appreciate literature that reflect theiryear in 2018, and has now become an anticipated event

others’ content. This was also the year I was working on

According to the current NBDB Chair Neni Sta. Romana-

own aspirations and dreams as manifested by a literaryin the first couple of weeks of August.

imagination that is alive and well in our own books. ■the Road Map for the Publishing Industry, commissioned

Cruz, the name hoped “to emphasize the special powerNow that a private sector entity provided a festivalby the Book Development Association of the Philippines

the author’s pen wields and the often difficult challenges

that appealed to a broader audience, the NBDB seemed

to take a good look into the capabilities of the local

faced in the craft of writing.” Training their focus on

to have trained its focus on publishing issues. Thus, also

publishing industry and see how it can try and scale up to

independent publishers and indie writers, the festival

in 2014, the NBDB had The Pressing Issue recognizing

reach more people locally while also having a look at thegave voice to small publishers and the important work

how literature plays a key role in our lives as the agenda

viability of taking our books to other markets.

they’re doing that are often eclipsed, given the uniqueFig. 6 English young adult fiction author Andrew Milligan in the 2010

Lit Out Loud.

Fig. 7

Attendees of the 2018 PILF (Philippine International Literary
Festival)

97

words by

ART ARCHIVE 02

CURRENT FILM DISTRIBUTION TRENDS
IN THE PHILIPPINESBABY RUTH VILLARAMA98

Fig. 1UNDERSTANDING FILM DISTRIBUTION
To understand film distribution in the Philippines, it

Co-productions from the East and West are trading,is worth looking at how cycles of film distribution aroundselling films like hotcakes, revealing the answer to thethe world are interconnected. These cycles are felt in

million-dollar question, “How do Asian films get distrib-

spaces where artists and producers in pitching forums

uted, as though it was a unified industry, changing theparticipate in story labs, and join film markets. Despitelandscape of Hollywood territorial domination?”

the apparent grandness of the movie business, it can

The steady growth of the Asia Pacific film audiences,also be seen as a small circle where people know eachmade up mostly of a young demographic reaching 620

other’s reputation. Film agents nurture relationships withmillion in number, is nearly double that of the United

filmmakers and producers to facilitate the windowing of aStates. The Asia Pacific film industry as a whole has

film from its public cinema premiere to its use as private

maneuvered some USD35.9 billion of returns at the box-

home entertainment. In this process, filmmakers who

office beginning in 2013 and has continued to move up

bring in earth-shaking or commercially-viable contents

at a steady pace, surpassing in recent years all otherare almost always sought after.

regions outside of North America for the first time.1

Consider the Cannes Film Festival. While heavy hitters

This region is set to become the “next great global

like Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Pedro Almodovar,

growth story in the industry,”2 paving the way for major

and Steven Spielberg stride up the red carpet, agents,

Hollywood studios to open production outfits in China

producers, and distributors meet in hotel rooms ortoyachts to negotiate sales of films, close deals on future

distributors to keep the waterfalls not too far from theirscripts, or war bid to acquire the next big thing in the box-

inner circle. Although it is still early to predict a tidal wave

office. As cameras roll at the red carpet, groups of Asianof major changes, the Southeast Asian market is visibly

agents are on the other side of the international pavilion

transforming in terms of viewing preferences with thevillage, with the Chinese leading the way with their deep

emergence of new platforms pushing to democratize thepockets and huge, hungry markets in need of content.

market further.

producewestern-infusedmovieswithpartner99

ART ARCHIVE 02

THE REALITIES OF FILM DISTRIBUTION
IN THE PHILIPPINES
In the absence of a national film center, national

the city—where majority of cinemas in the capital areagencies like the Cultural Center of the Philippines

located—into an entertainment hub in the country. Held

(CCP), has taken the initiative to discover and develop

annually in October, its annual crop is shown in major

cinematic talents in the country. The CCP is instrumental

theaters around the city. It gives full rights of the films

in developing young filmmakers through Gawad CCP, theto the selected filmmakers, a system that encourages

longest-running independent film and video competition

independent producers to give additional support to theinproductions. As part of its vision to become the nation’sAsia,

recognizing

achievements

inanimation,

experimental, documentary, and short feature.
CCP also co-organizes the Cinemalaya Film Festival,

Fig. 2

which was launched in 2005, to showcase new works by

The Southeast Asian market is visiblytransforming in terms of viewing preferenceswith the emergence of new platforms pushing todemocratize the market further.

international titles from A-list festivals for blocked
screenings within the QCinema festival run.

veteran filmmakers and new breed of storytellers. The

Another media company, Solar Entertainment, joined

Cinemalaya began the model of providing seed grants

the bandwagon when it introduced Sinag Maynila Filmto propel the production of innovative scripts, and theFestival in 2015, under the leadership of film director

finished films are exhibited in a festival platform that

Brillante Mendoza. Unlike Cinemalaya and Cinema One,runs annually for about ten days in August. The festival

Sinag Maynila offers cinema distribution to filmmakers

has recently surpassed its box-office target by morewith finished films. Solar, being a film distribution

than 80,000 viewers despite its limited screenings incompany, has partnered with the SM cinema chain tojust three venues, namely, CCP, Makati City, and Legazpi

expand the screenings and remit actual commercial

City in Bicol. There is a clamor for the future editions ofsales to the filmmakers.

the festival to be brought to more venues outside Metro

There is a unique film festival that emerged in 2008

Manila, in order to ensure sustainability and audienceto address a crucial distribution need in the country. The

development.

committee on cinema of the National Commission forWith the success of Cinemalaya, similar film festivals

Culture and the Arts (NCCA) brought together filmmakers

have followed suit, emulating the formula of the processfrom different parts of the Philippines to create an

but tailoring it to different agenda.

archipelagic kind of film festival space called Cinema

Cinema One Originals, a subsidiary of the media

Rehiyon. It is an annual non-competitive event that is held

network, ABS-CBN, launched its platform in 2005, just a

in different provinces, showcasing films that have won in

The reality trails from our geopolitical and postcolonial

are experimenting with form and trying to keep the market

few months after Cinemalaya. Held annually in October,regional festivals supported by NCCA and other works

history wherein the region has been a recipient of

exciting, film exhibitors are holding back local titles whose

the festival showcases diverse films, from commercial

beyond Metro Manila.

western commodities and influences. A country withaudience reach is uncertain. The cycle of distribution, in

genres to experimental films. What’s interesting about

Some critics regard Cinema Rehiyon as the truespineless national film policies will always find it difficult

this context, is disrupted.

this festival is that selected films are automaticallynational film festival, a relatively rare but precious

FILM DISTRIBUTION IN ASIAN MARKETS

100

entertainment hub, QCinema also began acquiring

to balance foreign and local influx in the market. The

The Philippine market is still small compared to otherprogrammed in the cable channel of ABS-CBN, with minor

occasion to see filmmakers from Luzon, Visayas, andstream of foreign films coming into the country motivates

regional contributors to the global content economy, andrights given to filmmakers to explore further theatrical

Mindanao come together to create regional networks,

distributors and exhibitors to create a demand chain for

it is a market already saturated with foreign content, where

distributions.

share their experiences, hatch collaborative efforts, andsuch films to win over more viewers through aggressive

exhibitors continue to prioritize formulaic emulations.

Cignal Television also saw the opportunity of producing

offer much needed moral support to each other. One

and effective marketing. While not all foreign films do well

Other countries have had their challenges in finding thetheir own brand of content. The company partnered withsetback of the festival is that, since there is a different

in the box-office, the current exhibition model obviously

balance to develop their national cinema. Countries like

Unitel and PLDT-Smart Foundation to launch Cine Filipino

host every year and it operates on very little resources

has a domino effect, destabilizing the sustainability of theJapan, China, and South Korea have revamped their film

Film Festival in 2013. The festival’s stated mission is tothat keep it from being marketed widely, not many people

local film industry with little room to distribute local films.

industry as Asian pioneers, infusing 50% of original local

be the gateway for aspiring and professional filmmakers

are fully aware of its significance. Moreover, because

As a result, producers are sub-modifying their work flow tofilms in their main production and distribution portfolios.3

to showcase films that are both artistic and audience-

Cinema Rehiyon is a non-commercial platform, its survival

keep their expectations low; productions are reduced to

As a result, various microfilm industry models are being

friendly. Like Cinema One, the festival gives grants tois premised mainly on the initiatives of a committee of

low-budget investments and working hours are expanded

tested in these places to allow small innovative films tofilmmakers with limited screenings in Metro Manila. Since

regional cinema advocates and is not assured without

to avoid losses.

do the rounds in key international film festivals and garnerthe company specializes in television broadcast and not

structural and long-term government support.

Moreover, film distribution in Philippine cinema

international critical acclaim or box-office successin film sales, distribution for the programmed films is still

Several other film festivals have sprouted. ToFarm

operates on a relationship-basis model, with people who

through creative marketing strategies. The policies

limited with filmmakers themselves submitting their films

Film Festival, the brainchild of a fertilizer magnate, givecan produce the numbers preferred over those who canof these countries are inspiring the next generation

for the screening opportunities in and out of the country.

grants to scripts that focus on farming and countrysidevouch for artistic integrity. A regular film booker with aof filmmakers in the Southeast Asian region to create

Another notable festival that started in 2013 isrecord of commercial success gets preference for thea similar path and to jumpstart their respective local

the QCinema International Film Festival. Funded bylaunching more film festivals. The Department of Interior

ideal number of screens. At this time when companies

scenes.

the Quezon City government, the festival aims to turnand Local Government’s Cine Maria seeks to promote

experiences.

Intergovernmental

agencies

are

also

101

Film distribution in Philippine cinema
operates on a relationship-basis model,

women empowerment, the National Historical Commissionof the Philippines’s SineSaysay aims to showcasewith people who can produce the numbers

documentary films focusing on unvisited events in our
history, and the Department of Science and Technology’s

preferred over those who can vouch

IndieSiyensiya encourages science students, scientists,
and artists to make educational and informative films that
address community issues. These festivals are managed
by the Film Development Council of the Philippines, an

Fig. 3agency under the Office of the President.
The rise of the film festival platform as distribution
channel has given many filmmakers the opportunity to

Fig. 1 Still from Paki (Would You Please) (2017), by Giancarlo Abrahan,

a Cinema One film.

produce and exhibit their dream scripts. There is now,
however, an avalanche of films, with film festivals held

One film.
Fig. 3

Still from Ka Oryang (2011), by Sari Raissa Lluch Dalena, aCinema One film.

Fig. 4Film poster of Confessional (2007), by Jerrold Tarog. Best
Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay,
Best Sound, Best Editing and Star Cinema Special Awardwinner of Cinema One Digital Film Festival 2007.

between film festivals and audience development must
be carefully reviewed, if the independent film community
wishes to sustain the trend. The short length of production
time fostered by grant-giving festivals has serious

with a record of commercial success gets

Still from Bukas Na Lang Sapagkat Gabi Na (Leave It for
Fig. 2 Tomorrow, for Night Has Fallen) (2013) by Jet Leyco, a Cinema

almost every month, one after the other, sometimes evenoverlapping. In such an environment, the relationshipfor artistic integrity. A regular film booker

preference for the ideal number of screens.

Fig. 5 Still from Manang Biring (2015), by Carl Joseph Papa, aCinema One film.

implications on the quality of films being produced, andthe overproduction of films to fill in so many festivals leadto “festival fatigue” and a demographic disconnection
between the audience and the important films.
The cycle of film production in the local film festival
is too short a time to do post production and proper

Local regulations dealing with film distribution mustalso be factored in, and they come in three forms.

film promotion. Scripts selected in local film festivals

The Movie and Television Review and Classification

are always miraculously produced within a six-month

Board (MTRCB) classifies each film, and its related

deadline. Various impediments like tranche schedules

marketing collaterals, and rates them according to theirand the need for additional funding and casting giveage-appropriateness. The Cinema Evaluation Boarda heavier burden on filmmakers to effectively build a(CEB), on the other hand, through a collegial body, decides

relationship with the audience. All good films deserve

if a local film can be exempted from the hefty amusement

innovative marketing and distribution to make sure they

tax and, therefore, augment its expected earnings. If a film

don’t fall into the oblivion of festival fatigue and memories

is graded A, it can get a full tax rebate, while a grade B filmof the selected few. While film producers strive togets a 65% tax discount. Getting rated by the MTRCB and

improve the quality of their films, local film festivals must

the CEB entails significant fees, and applying for reviews

now strategize a road map to expand their screeningsof reconsideration means another payment. Getting

nationwide and send their fresh films to competent

appropriate ratings and amusement tax exemptions are

distributors who understand audience-content matchingwith definitive marketing and messaging to bring it to theconsciousness of the people.
Moreover, despite the increase in film production
and audience number, there remains no unified circuit

102

THE CHALLENGES OF DISTRIBUTING FILIPINOFILMS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Fig. 5

Fig. 4

understanding of a Filipino viewer who is at least eighteen

In the UK, for example, classifications are based

contributing factors to how films thrive. Failure to secureyears of age.”4 The law is straightforward; debates ariseonan MTRCB permit would disallow a film from exhibition,

when local films are regulated by arbitrary discussions.

These guidelines are the product of extensive public

except in government-run venues like the Cultural Center

Ambiguity poses a problem in finding balance between

consultation, research, and the accumulated experienceof the Philippines and the University of the Philippines

critical thinking and sanitation of the mind. Unfortunately,of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) overFilm Institute.

to avoid getting an R-18 classification that will limit the

many years. While the board is tasked to look at issues

audience of a film, producers would just opt to createsuch as depictions of discrimination, drug use, violence,content that will conform to the set rules.

antisocial behavior, nudity, and sex, its reviewers give

publishedandregularly

updatedguidelines.

to distribute festival-produced films beyond the festival

Furthermore, the largest cinema chain, SM Cinemas,

platform. In addition, exhibitors prioritize distributors whodoes not screen films classified as R-18, which has

have constantly delivered the numbers in the past andimmediate implication on sales. Notably, however, as per

It is important also to note that some complianceserious consideration to films with artistic and thematic

resist the development of alternate film programming.

MTRCB rules, an R-18 rating does not mean that the film isofficers of these two institutions are government

bravery before making decisions. They also carefully

Meanwhile, filmmakers still have limited to zero marketing“obscene,” “offensive,” or “pornographic,” as these terms

appointees with uneven qualifications relating to film. In

consider the context, tone, and impact of the work as

budgets to even begin the next phase for their films. They

are defined by law. A film is classified as “R-18” based

other countries with similar film classification boards, there

a whole, especially in relation to the development ofneed access to more marketers, film distributors who canon the judgment of the board, following the criteria thatis a strict process for determining people with the rightnational cinema.5

promote and bring their films around.

include “taking into account the contemporary values andqualifications to become board members and reviewers.
103All good films deserve
innovative marketingand distribution to make surethey don’t fall into the oblivionof festival fatigue

Fig. 6POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE DISTRIBUTION
OF FILIPINO FILMS

and memories of the selected few.

Effective distribution is always connected to creating
a synergy among the films, the screening venues, andthe audience. If only one finds the balance to bring theexperience to discriminating viewers who are always
seeking to be part of something special. Film distribution
holds the power to take the Filipino film community to

Fig. 6 Still from Bukas Na Lang Sapagkat Gabi Na (Leave It for

Tomorrow, for Night Has Fallen) (2013) by Jet Leyco, a Cinema
One film.

Fig. 7Film poster of Violator (2014) by Dodo Dayao, a Cinema One
film.

for some noteworthy festival films. Its aim was to haveanother level if given proper support. Discounts to local

a week-long run of only Filipino films nationwide. This is

producers in film ratings and amusement tax can enablea replica of the long-running Metro Manila Film Festival

more local films to screen commercially in different(MMFF), which happens during the Christmas season,

venues with permits.

when Filipinos flock to the cinemas starting December
25.

The abolition or decrease of the amusement tax can

Fig. 7

Fig. 8Still from Pascalina (2012), by Pamela Miras, Best Picture
winner of Cinema One Originals Film Fest, 2012.

put local films on an equal footing with foreign films. The

The third form of local distribution regulation is

In 2018, however, FDCP opted not to include films thatgovernment through the FDCP, NCCA and MTRCB can

The art of synergizing curators and film organizations

controlled by the National Cinema Association of thewere previously shown in other festivals in their official PPP

support building more cinematheques in provinces aswill always play a crucial role in designing different

Philippines (NCAP), an organization composed of cinema

selection because, they said, cinema exhibitors wishedwell as encourage private businesses to invest in boutiqueexperiences to develop more audiences. It is no longer

exhibitors. NCAP also maintains the status quo. NCAP

to show only new films as a condition for their support oftheaters to cater to a different film programming. This

about merely putting content in screening venues but

officers program only two Filipino films per week on a

PPP. Although FDCP managed to have a special program

public-private partnership can create a new circuit thatstrategically curating a spatial experience to augment

regular commercial run. According to them, in a forumof six films that won in other festivals, these entries were

can support the sustainability of alternative local films

the cultural movements of people towards a morewith film producers held December 2017, allowing three

only shown in nine SM cinemas around Metro Manila,

and world cinema nationwide.

personalized cinema lifestyle.

or more local films to compete against each other andand with interchanging schedules during its run. The

Access to new technology encourages innovations

In 2017, a group of fresh film graduates from theagainst foreign films would only cause more harm thaneight new entries were given more screens nationwide.

among think-tanks to create online hubs and fix theUniversity of the Philippines started an organization

good because, according to them, audiences with theThis move ran counter to PPP’s original goal of providing

transparency of sales among stakeholders. The arrival

called Film Producers Society to engage film producers

same viewing preferences are swayed away from the film

alternative distribution support for noteworthy festival-of Netflix in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast

in marketing their films. Their take on promoting films likewith box-office potential. But because this logic prevails,

produced films. It is also evidence of the influence ofAsia in 2016 is further altering the culture of film viewing

Kita Kita and the Cebuano film Patay na si Hesus caused

many other local films, including those produced or ex-

cinema exhibitors on the ecology of Filipino filmmaking.

because films launched in festivals do not need to goa crossover of audiences in traditional cinema exhibition.

hibited in film festivals, are unable to get the screen

to theaters anymore but straight to online Videos on

Following the suggestion of creating good synergy,

numbers that they need and are not assured of com-

Demand (VOD).

the group has since reached out to other film societies

pleting a seven-day run in theaters.
The math, however, does not even apply. In practice,cinemas lock almost all of their screens to anticipate
the arrival of blockbuster Hollywood films in Philippine
shores, so that there is little or no room spared for a local
film that would dare to compete. Without the soft film
quota to protect and support local content, bigger andaggressive foreign films will always dominate territorial
screens for weeks and months with bookings made as
early as six months to four years in advance.
In 2017, the FDCP, under the Office of the President,

and producers to unify the community in rallying more

1 Anon, 2016, http://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/
MPAA-Theatrical-Market-Statistics-2013_032514-v2.pdf.
2 The Hollywood Reporter, 2016, “Thailand - Cannes: Southeast
Asia, The Next Global Growth Story,” http://www.hollywoodreporter.
com/lists/cannes-southeast-asia-next-global-893052/item/
cannes-asia-thailand-893053.
3 Kumb, F., Kunz, R. and Siegert, G., 2016, “State of the Art and the
New Directions of the Beaten Track Away from Theatrical Release,”in Journal of Economic Surveys, p.n/a-n/a.
4 Movie Television Review and Classification Board (2018)
Presidential Decree 1986 and IRR, http://www.mtrcb.gov.ph/wpcontent/uploads/2018/03/PD-1986-with-Revised-IRR-and-LatestIssuances.pdf.
5 British Board of Film Classification, 2018, http://www.bbfc.co.uk/
what-classification.

support for homegrown films. The group has since met
with Cinemalaya and QCinema officials and presented innovative ideas on how to connect their slate of new films
to more audiences.
Just like water seeking its own level to reach the sea,
the rise of Filipino films now seeks to define its audience
together with other Asian titles with a matching platform
for its commercial viability. It will be only a matter of time
when these technologies will link post production toscreen distribution of new films straight to the audience.

spearheaded the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP) to

Once this becomes the norm, only then can the market

address the issue of limited distribution opportunities

move toward a true independent cinema. ■

104

105
Fig. 8C ONTRIBUTORSROY TRISTAN AGUSTINRoy Tristan Agustin has been teaching English andrevitalized FAMAS in 2018. He was co-programmer of

agent

agencymuseums, and exhibitions in Asia (with a focus on the

Literature for ten years at Ateneo de Manila University.

Cinema Rehiyon X in 2018 and is the curator for theJacaranda. Before that, she was the Executive

Philippines). She received her BA in Cultural Studies

He has a master’s degree in Literature and Culturalannual TINGIN: Southeast Asian Film Festival. He is

Director of the National Book Development Board offrom Eugene Lang College and an MFA in English andStudies. He is a geek for all of his life and has been

also editor of two leading Philippine academic journals,

the Philippines. She has a collection of short stories

Creative Writing from Mills College.

pursuing studies in comics, speculative fiction, andnamely, Humanities Diliman (editor-in-chief) and Plaridel

published by UST Press. She is a copyright lawyer with apostmodern literature. He is also an aikido practitioner,(managing editor), and author of books and articles on

focus on publishing.

and is a proud father and husband.

Southeast Asian and Philippine media and cinemas,
including The End of National Cinema: Filipino Film at theADJANI ARUMPAC
Adjani Arumpac is a documentary filmmaker,

Turn of the Century (2016), a finalist at the National Book
Awards and the Gintong Aklat Awards.

writer and multimedia lecturer at the Universityof the Philippines. She is working on an ongoing

DODO DAYAO

for

the

Singapore-based

literary

Baby Ruth Villarama has been involved in coPATRICIA MAY B. JURILLA

productions for more than ten years. She began

Patricia May B. Jurilla teaches book history andproducing documentaries for Philippine broadcast

literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

channel ABS-CBN before she ventured in international

She earned her PhD on the History of the Book in the

co-production with networks like MediaCorp, NHK,

Philippines from the School of Oriental and African

Britishand playing an active role in exchanging stories with

Council,

EuroNews,

National

Geographic,

autoethnographical trilogy on internal diaspora in the

Dodo Dayao is the director of Violator (2014) andStudies, University of London. The first formally trained

Philippines currently comprised of Walai (2006) and

If You Leave (2016). He is currently working on his first

Filipino book historian, she has authored several books

filmmakers and producers. She is part of a team that

War is a Tender Thing (2013). Her other works include

book of essays about independent cinema and his next

and articles on Philippine bibliography, printing, andsupports Voyage Studios, Film Producers Society andNanay Mameng (2013), a feature on the life of anfeature. He lives in Quezon City.

publishing.

DokyuPeeps that champion great local stories to reacha wider engagement.

octogenarian Philippine urban mass leader; and fulllength documentary videos produced for a local direct

TARA FT SERINGNICK DEOCAMPO

She is a Chevening scholar of the British government

Nick Deocampo is Associate Professor at the U.P.

Tara FT Sering attended the Silliman National Writers

who recently finished her post-graduate degree invarious film festivals including Yamagata InternationalFilm Institute in the College of Mass Communication,Workshop in the summer of 1996. She is the author ofFilm Marketing and Distribution with commendation,

Documentary Film Festival, Beijing Independent Film

University of the Philippines Diliman. He is aseveral books of fiction and is currently at work on aa visiting lecturer at the University of the Philippines

Festival, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival,

prizewinning documentary filmmaker and author ofnovel. She is also the former editor of Smile, the inflight

Film Institute and the newest member of the National

ChopShots Documentary Film Festival, Southeast

film books. Deocampo’s academic credentials include

magazine of Cebu Pacific Airlines, and the founder of Sit,

Commission for Culture and the Arts on Cinema. She is

Asian Film Festival, ASEAN Film Festival, Jocelynea Master of Arts degree in Cinema Studies at New

a new travel magazine advocating slow and immersive

the film director behind Metro Manila Film Festival 2016

Saab’s Cultural Resistance International Film Festival,

York University under a Fulbright Scholarship Grant.

travel, and VisionAria, a boutique publishing firm that

Best Picture Sunday Beauty Queen, setting a historical

Doclisboa 12th Festival Internacional de Cinema, andHe received his Certificate in Film in Paris, France andfocuses on narratives about young women.

feat as the first documentary film that ever made it in the

London 1st Essay Film Festival, among others. She isgraduated with a degree in A.B. Theater Arts at thecurrently pursuing postgraduate studies in Goldsmiths,

University of the Philippines.

cinema television show. Her works have been shown in

University of London.

festival, shattering mainstream and indie labels into One
KATRINA ROSS TAN

Known for his gritty documentaries and personal
international

Humanities at the University of the Philippines Los
Baños. She is currently a PhD candidate in Film, MediaJohn Bengan teaches writing and literature at the

prizewinning author, he garnered the National Book

and Communication at Monash University, where she

University of the Philippines Mindanao. He received aAward four times for his books on the history of

pursues a research on Philippine regional cinemas.

Ford Foundation International Fellowship to pursue an

Philippine cinema. Deocampo received international

Katrina served as a Cinema Committee member in the

MFA in Creative Writing at The New School. His stories

academic honors as Scholar-in-Residence at New YorkNational Commission for Culture and the Arts. She is theand essays have appeared in Kritika Kultura, Likhaan:

University, Chancellor’s Most Distinguished Lecturer

founding festival director of Pelikultura: The Calabarzon

The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature, Hoard

at the University of California, Irvine; and InternationalFilm Festival held annually in Los Baños, Laguna.

of Thunder, Asiatic, Books Actually’s Gold Standard, andFellow at the University of Iowa. He was a recipientthe “Writing the Philippines” issue of Cha: An Asianof research grants from the Japan Foundation, theLiterary Journal. He lives in Davao City.

Sumitomo Foundation and the Nippon Foundation. He

Patricia Tumang is an arts writer and editor basedis chair of the UNESCO Philippines Memory of the Worldin Los Angeles, California (United States). A contributing

National Committee and the President of NETPAC

editor of Asian Art News and World Sculpture News, she(Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema).

was awarded an Arts Writers Grant from the Creative

PATRICK F. CAMPOSPatrick F. Campos is currently the director of the

he

won

severalawardsin

University of the Philippines Film Institute and is part of
the Cinema Committee of the National Commission for

Filipino Cinema.

Katrina Ross Tan teaches in the Department offilm festivals for his various documentaries. As afilms,
JOHN BENGAN

106

BABY RUTH VILLARAMA

PATRICIA TUMANG

Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation in 2012 to write about
ANDREA PASION-FLORES

the lives and work of contemporary Filipina artists.

Culture and the Arts (NCCA). He is an active member

Andrea Pasion-Flores is the General Manager of

In 2009, she was a US Fulbright Scholar in Manila,of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, which holds theAnvil Publishing, Inc., one of the larger trade publishers

Philippines. She regularly publishes articles, reviews,

annual Gawad Urian, and was part of the jury of thein the Philippines. Before Anvil, Andrea was a literary

and catalogue essays on contemporary art, artists,
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The Japan Foundation, Manila
ART ARCHIVE 02

Editor-in-Chief
Patricia Tumang
Managing Editor
Anna M. Rosete
Associate Editors
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Maria Gabriela Martin
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Copy Editor
Ricci F. Barrios
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The Public School Manila
Vince S. África & Reymart V. Cerin
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Mariko Okeda, JFM
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Carlos Ortiz, JFM

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Published in October 2019
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