Sine ni Lav Diaz

A Long Take on the Filipino Auteur

Parichay Patra, Michael Kho Lim, Parichay Patra, Michael Kho Lim

• Publisher: Intellect Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781789384246
• eBook ISBN: 9781789384260
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

This original collection fills a gap in the literature on Lav Diaz, and more broadly, on slow and durational cinema. The importance of the director in contemporary world cinema is beyond doubt. 

This collection considers Lav Diaz and his works holistically without being confined to a specific approach or research method. On the contrary, it involves almost all the major contemporary academic approaches to cinema. It focuses on an auteur who has been celebrated immensely in recent times and yet has remained largely unexplored in cinema studies. The book will address this research gap.

As such, this book aims to situate Diaz at the crucial juncture of 'new' auteurism, Filipino New Wave and transnational cinema, but it does not neglect the industrial–exhibitional coordinates of his cinema. The rationale behind this project is to raise questions on the oeuvre of a significant auteur, to situate him in and outside of his immediate national context(s), to present a repository of critical approaches on him, to reconsider the existing critical positions on him, to find newer avenues to enter (and exit) his canon that will consciously avoid the time-worn rhetoric of long take and slowness of the proverbial 'slow cinema' camp and to find corridors in him that will lead to informed ways of reaching other movements/auteurs in other times, other places.

It explores various other aspects of Diaz and his cinema whose notoriety, the editors believe, should not rely solely on its incredible running time. The collection looks at Diaz from the perspectives of a national and a transnational critic – one of the two editors is from the Philippines, the other from another Asian location. It concentrates both on the spatial and the temporal, to place him within the intricacies of the culture and creative industries and the distribution practices and politics in his native place, to allow space for his 'detractors' who (perhaps rightly) focus on and object to his 'artlessness', and also to read him in the context of his fascination for the epic novel and novelistic cinema, his engagement with Dostoevsky and Jose Rizal, among others.

This is the first book-length study on the Filipino auteur Lav Diaz. It looks critically at his career and corpus from various perspectives, with contributions from cinema studies researchers, film critics, festival programmers and artists. It offers a nuanced overview of the filmmaker and the cinematic traditions he belongs to for film enthusiasts, researchers and general readers alike.

Primary readership will be researchers, scholars, educators and students in film studies. Also academics and researchers interested and working in cultural studies and Philippine studies.

PART 1

LAV DIAZ THROUGH CINEMATIC HISTORIES

1

After Brocka: Situating Lav Diaz in Philippine Cinema

Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr.

In 2019, the Philippines celebrated the centennial of Filipino cinema. Although motion picture entertainment was introduced in the country towards the end of the Spanish rule in the 1890s and some form of film-making was started by American soldiers and businessmen at the turn of the century, 1919 was the landmark year when Jose Nepomuceno made his film Dalagang Bukid. Since then, several generations of Filipino film-makers have contributed towards the formation of a national cinema. Lino Brocka, eminent film-maker in the 1970s, led the third generation of Filipino film-makers to create some sort of renaissance in Philippine cinema. Today, another film-maker is leading his generation towards new heights – Lav Diaz.

Before moving on to the post-Brocka generations, it would be instructive to look at what happened pre-Brocka. The first generation of Filipino film-makers (late 1910s–early 1940s) was active during the pre–Second World War years. It was a period of learning a borrowed medium and adapting or indigenizing film to make it local. The film-makers of this early generation used the entertainment forms that were familiar to them and their audiences, such as the Spanish zarzuela and the comedia which the Filipinos adapted into the indigenized forms called sarsuwela and moro-moro, respectively. Thus, the first full-length Filipino film, Dalagang Bukid (1919), was adapted by Jose Nepomuceno from a popular sarsuwela. The sarsuwela films of this period show signs of the theatrical form with the stock characters and drama cum music and songs. The moro-moro movies, however, are based on the fantasy world of the comedia dealing with the encounter between Christians and Moors. Of course, in the 1930s, local film-makers were also exposed to Hollywood and other foreign movies and were challenged to adapt to the changing times while adhering to the forms that remained ingrained in Filipino film practice. The early beginnings of a film industry happened during this period, but its flowering was interrupted by the Second World War. There are not too many films to judge the quality of the work of the first generation of Filipino film-makers. Only five full-length films are known to be extant – Zamboanga (1937), Giliw Ko (‘My dear’, 1939), Tunay na Ina (‘Real mother’, 1939), Pakiusap (‘Plea’, 1940) and Ibong Adarna (‘Adarna bird’, 1941). Very little film-making happened during the Japanese Occupation of the country, and two of the known films during this period were made under strict supervision of the censors.

After the war, film-making resumed to signal a return to normalcy. Film-makers who started making films towards the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s continued their interrupted careers. This second generation of Filipino film-makers (1940s–60s) developed during the period of the Studio Years. Three major studios (Sampaguita and LVN, established in the late 1930s, and Premiere, established in the mid-1940s) created a little Hollywood. The Big Three Studios had their respective contract stars, directors and production people, their sound stages and their own distribution and exhibition outlets. This second generation saw the flowering of film-making in the country, both commercially and artistically. Three of the major film-makers of the period who went beyond the commercial needs of the industry and made films in the aura of art were Gerardo de Leon, who made a number of films for Premiere, for example, Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo (‘Python in the old belfry’, 1952), Ifugao (1954) and Huwag Mo Akong Limutin (‘Forget me not’, 1960); Lamberto Avellana, who did his major films for LVN, for example, Anak Dalita (‘Child of misery’, 1956), Badjao (1957) and Kundiman ng Lahi (‘Song of the race’, 1959); and Manuel Conde, who produced his major works himself, for example, Genghis Khan (1950) and his satirical takes on the folk character Juan Tamad.

The second generation of Filipino film-makers took Philippine cinema to new heights. Unfortunately, the rise was followed by the inevitable fall. The 1960s sounded the death knell for Philippine cinema. Even though what could be argued as the best films of Lamberto Avellana (A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, 1965) and Gerardo de Leon (Ang Daigdig ng mga Api [‘The world of the oppressed’], 1965) were made in the mid-1960s for the Manila Film Festival, which was designed to rescue a dying cinema, the depths that commercialism had brought a national cinema had reached the pits. In the 1960s, the Big Three Studios lost their control of the movie industry. Labour issues, big stars building their own production companies, small-time companies getting into the business to get their share of the pie, the changing taste of the audience – in short, a new regime was taking over the industry. Coupled with these developments (or retrogression, to be more exact) was the advent of sex movies that enterprising film distributors imported from Europe and the United States. Finally, in 1970, local movie producers joined the bandwagon in making home-grown sex movies that came to be labelled as bomba (‘bomb’). It was during this time that a new generation of would-be film-makers was waiting in the wings, armed with the knowledge of art cinema that they had learned in school or in special screenings that the foreign embassies and cultural centres were offering as alternatives to commercial movies. The theatre was set for a new generation of Filipino film-makers, the third in the history of Philippine cinema (1970s–80s).

In the 1970s, there was very little film-making that happened outside the industry. Kidlat Tahimik (Mababangong Bangungot [Perfumed Nightmare], 1977) was one of the very few doing their thing outside the mainstream. Anyone who wanted to make full-length films had to break into the industry. And that was what Brocka and his generation of film-makers did. Brocka established his name doing commercial films that appealed to the popular audience. In 1970 alone, he made Wanted: Perfect Mother, Santiago and Tubog sa Ginto (‘Dipped in gold’) for Lea Productions. Soon, he was able to make films under his own company, CineManila, starting with Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang (‘You were weighed but found wanting’, 1974) which was a commercial and critical success. Then, he made Insiang (1976), the film that would reintroduce foreign audiences to Philippine cinema. A new wave of film-makers would crash the gates of the dead, or dying, industry. The long list of this new wave of film-makers includes Ishmael Bernal, who introduced himself with Pagdating sa Dulo (‘At the top’, 1971) that was bankrolled by his friends. Bernal’s later major works include Manila by Night (or City after Dark, 1980) and Himala (‘Miracle’, 1982). Mike de Leon, who produced Maynila … Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila … In the Claws of Light, 1975), which was directed by Brocka, made his directorial debut with Itim (Rites of May, 1976). Later, he would do two major films: Kisapmata (‘In the blink of an eye’, 1981) and Batch ’81 (1982). Peque Gallaga, who was known as a production designer, made his magnum opus, Oro Plata Mata (‘Gold silver death’, 1982). Mario O’Hara, who worked as actor and writer for Brocka, made his debut with Mortal (1975), followed by Tatlong Taóng Walang Diyos (‘Three years without God’, 1976). Women film-makers of this generation include Lupita Concio, who did Minsa’y Isang Gamu-Gamo (‘Once there was a moth’, 1976); Marilou Diaz-Abaya, who introduced herself with Tanikala and Brutal, both done in 1980; and Laurice Guillen, actress-turned-director, who made Salome (1981). Celso Ad. Castillo (Asedillo, 1971), Maryo J. de los Reyes (High School Circa ’65, 1979), Mel Chionglo (Playgirl, 1980) and Gil Portes (‘Merika, 1984) are other noteworthy film-makers of the third generation. Moreover, it should be noted that the wave consisted of other film-makers who were instrumental in the success of this generation. New screenwriters, cinematographers, production designers, music composers, editors and actors contributed to a lively Philippine cinema. Notwithstanding the continuing commercialism and the repressive regime of the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s, the third generation of Filipino film-makers created a worthy national cinema.

It is ironic that with the newfound freedoms after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986 Philippine cinema would undergo another cycle of decline. A confluence of reasons, including the conditions of an oppressive commercial system and, more significantly, the disenchantment with the ineffectual Aquino government that was beset with economic problems left by the Marcos regime, was responsible for this slump. Lino Brocka’s better films of this period would be funded by foreign sources. He had made a name for himself which enabled him to get foreign funding in the 1980s. Stephan Films, a French company, co-financed Bayan Ko … Kapit sa Patalim (‘My country … seize the blade’, 1984) which dramatizes the urgency of the personal condition that takes precedence over the community action of the labour union. Written by Brocka’s close collaborator Jose Lacaba, Bayan Ko was chosen as one of the best films of 1984 by the British Film Institute, sharing the honours with Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth. Cannon Films produced Orapronobis (‘Pray for us’/‘Fight for us’, 1989) in which a man’s quest for change through non-violent means is thwarted by the madness of a paramilitary vigilante group. Mike de Leon, however, virtually retired from film-making after 1986. Ishmael Bernal made feature films sporadically and, like Gerardo de Leon of the preceding generation, earned a living by directing advertising commercials. Marilou Diaz-Abaya shifted to directing a public affairs programme and a satiric gag show for television. Laurice Guillen chose to interrupt her film-making to follow the calling of Marian devotion. Others played the game of the commercial industry or remained silent.

Towards the end of the 1980s and until the fatal car accident that claimed his life in 1991, it was Brocka who continued struggling to work within and against the system. Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak (‘Crawl in the mud’/Dirty Affair, 1990), set against the corrupt and immoral world of politics, is a quintessential Brocka commercial movie, a melodrama with a dose of sociopolitical critique. Ishmael Bernal’s sporadic feature film-making resulted in Wating (1994), another Bernal film that is set in the exploitative world of the city where one has to be cunning and street-smart, a wating, in order to survive. It is one of Bernal’s more worthwhile projects during this period – and his last. In 1996, he died from an aneurism. The loss of Brocka and Bernal was a big blow to a generation of film-makers that needed to recapture the idealism that energized its takeover of Philippine cinema in the 1970s.

What happened to Philippine cinema after the 1970s and the 1980s when Lino Brocka and his generation of film-makers produced their key works? What happened to Philippine cinema while film-makers from Iran, Taiwan, China and Korea had been winning recognition around the world?

What happened to Philippine cinema in the 1990s during the fourth generation of Filipino film-makers (late 1980s–early 2000s) was a history of footnotes. No film-maker, I dare say, deserves a main entry in this history. In other words, no one is important enough to deserve a treatment in the body of the chapter. Certainly, there were film-makers who attempted to go beyond the commercial, but the contribution of these film-makers after Brocka and his generation was few and far between.

When we talk of Philippine national cinema, it is still the films of Brocka and his generation that we would go to, together with some homage to Lamberto Avellana, Gerardo de Leon and their generation of film-makers in the 1950s. The succeeding fourth generation could not equal the achievement of Brocka’s Insiang, Bernal’s Manila by Night (1980), Mike de Leon’s Kisapmata (1981), Peque Gallaga’s Oro Plata Mata (1982), Mario O’Hara’s Tatlong Taóng Walang Diyos (1976), Lupita Concio’s Minsa’y Isang Gamu-Gamo (1976) and Celso Ad. Castillo’s Burlesk Queen (1977). In fact, many of the worthy films of the 1990s were done by third-generation film-makers who continued making films into the 1990s and early 2000s, for example, Peque Gallaga’s Gangland (1998), Pinoy Blonde (2005) and Sonata (2013); Mike de Leon’s B...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword: Lav Diaz, Artist
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Lav Diaz: Cinema beyond Time
• Part 1 Lav Diaz Through Cinematic Histories
• Part 2 From Death to the Gods: The Resurrection of the National?
• Part 3 No Cinema, No Art Either
• Part 4 Interview with Lav Diaz
• Part 5 Tribute
• Notes on Contributors