The 2009 National Artists Massacre: Lord, Have Mercy on Us!

Granted, the process of selecting National Artists, whether by committee or by the President's prerogative, has always been flawed. But after looking at the list of the most recent honorees--I mean, come on! Seriously?!

The present NCCA executive director, a newly-minted National Artist for Theater? True, she founded one of the country's finest theater companies, but to be named for that alone? What the hell?! And the sunglass-wearing moviemaker best known for his string of cheap "massacre" movies, a National Artist for Film and Visual Arts?! Naknamputsa naman.

My heart goes out to the other, much more deserving five who have to share the now-tarnished honor. I'm expecting a hell of a storm brewing. If it does, it can turn real bad.

Cinemalaya 2009: 24K

The story may not be new, but just the same it promises to be fraught with drama: encouraged by a good omen, three treasure hunters--Manok (Julio Diaz), Freddie (Archi Adamos), and Boyet (Jojit Lorenzo)--return to their digging site in Suyo, Ilocos Sur and rejoin Karlo (Miguel Vasquez) and Arturo (Alchris Galura) in excavating what they believe is gold that the Japanese had buried during World War II. Signs at the site--shadow formations and nearly indistinguishable marks on rocks included--tell them that they're certain to unearth the treasure. But the locals are already aware and suspicious of their prolonged presence, and fear and paranoia inevitably set in.

Truth to tell, there are several things to like about 24K. There's the competent camerawork and editing, for one. The musical score is another, serving its purpose well, even if it has a suspiciously East Asian flavor to it. The amusing repartée between Manok, Freddie and Boyet, and their long climb back to the site, fly. And those smaller-scale rice terraces are quite lovely to behold. Compared to Chito Roño's Yamashita: The Tiger's Treasure (2001), this film is several notches higher.

Unfortunately, I couldn't add the characters to that list.

It's not that I didn't like them. It's just that I ultimately didn't find them as interesting as much as I (and they) should. The way I see it, writer-director Ana Agabin didn't flesh them out further, didn't make their personalities distinct enough. They even sound oddly alike, if one thinks about it. She also didn't delve that deeply into their desire and drive for treasure hunting, but to be fair she did touch on it in a nighttime scene midway through the movie. As a result, whatever tension the characters created among themselves comes off as superficial or weak. It's a shame, for the uniformly solid cast got shortchanged by this shortcoming.

Among the five, only Boyet stands out due to his habit of leaving food, beer and lit cigarettes for the site's guardian spirits, but I failed to know anything else about him beyond that. And when Manok hurries down the site and eventually unearths something unexpected in the end, it startled me. Specifically, it startled me that I didn't feel anything for him. No sense of loss, nada. It certainly didn't help that the fortysomething Diaz, who I must say could still reasonably pass for someone a few years younger, has never been a compelling, intense performer.

Also: that tribal dance toward the end, interesting as it was to watch, didn't serve the plot at all.

Too bad, really: I honestly wanted to like 24K more. But with characters I barely got to know or care, this movie is not exactly the goldmine it could have been.

Cinemalaya 2009: Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe (The Rapture of Fe)

On paper, the material is as melodramatic as they come: an antagonistic, very resentful rattan harvester (Nonie Buencamino) constantly lashes out at his basket-weaving wife (Irma Adlawan) since she returned home after being laid off in Singapore. No longer able to endure the abuse, she rekindles her relationship with a former lover who's now her employer (TJ Trinidad), hoping he would help her out. However, the inexplicable and persistent delivery of dark-skinned fruits at her house suggest the presence of a suitor, who may or may not be her savior.

So many things can go wrong in this surprisingly short full-length film, but screenwriter-director Alvin Yapan admirably manages to avoid the pitfalls that usually accompany his chosen material. His decision to introduce elements of folklore elevates and enriches the story, and the measured pace and subdued tone he maintains throughout the film reminds one of short fiction. Which is no surprise at all: Yapan is a Palanca-winning fictionist in Filipino. The first few scenes show the filmmaker at his most confident, but the ones with Fe and Arturo, especially inside that huge rattan lounging chair--they come across as rather show-offy.

The cast give committed, textured performances, especially by Adlawan. Her part may invite less talented actresses to go on histrionics at every possible turn, but under Yapan's helming she inhabits Fe credibly, simply and without any fuss. Buenacamino similarly underplays his role and consequently shows Dante as a once-good husband who lets his disappointment and frustration at the cards life had dealt him with turn him into an unapologetic wifebeater. Though Trinidad is adequate as Arturo, one gets the feeling that the role is better suited to an older actor.

The movie may touch substantially on domestic abuse, but in my mind it actually deals with the idea of escape. The way I see it, Fe is always looking for a way to escape, be it from the harsh life she and Dante were living (as gleaned from the fact that they had to reluctantly sell their land so that she could work abroad) or the hostile situation she found herself in when she came home. This is reinforced at one point by Arturo's brother, who wants to return to Manila and escape the hardship in helping to take care of his incapacitated father. It is this need to escape that drives her to seek out her suitor, who may and may not offer her a way out. The ending reflects this clearly, and whatever choice she makes saves and dooms her. She is a truly tragic figure, much more so than what may be her closest counterpart, Persephone.

A battered wife. An abusive husband. An attractive ex-lover. An unseen suitor. In lesser hands, such a combination of these characters promise melodrama at its lowest. Luckily, that isn't the case here. Solidly scripted and directed, Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe is an effective and restrained film that offers a portrait of a woman always looking for a way out.

Untried, Untested, Unstaged, Unpublished

For many people, this year's edition of the just-concluded Virgin Labfest will be memorable for many reasons. Some will remember the unprecedented increase in ticket sales, despite the harsh and honestly hole-riddled arguments of a stubbornly sharp-tongued university-based theater reviewer. Others will recall not so much of what happened onstage, but more of what took place offstage. A few may probably dwell on what went wrong this time around. But most will not forget, at the very least not now, the fact that this year's festival, like in the past, has been a solid success.

I had planned on not writing at all about this year's edition, which would have been a first. But the way I (later) saw it, to not write about it means that I'm indifferent to it: to the diversity of the plays mounted, to what each has accomplished despite its flaws. And it's very difficult to be indifferent to something like the Virgin Labfest, especially when the people behind it cared so much for it. To be indifferent is a great disservice, and apathy is one thing that we seem to have in appallingly enormous supply nowadays.

That said, below are what I think made this year's Virgin Labfest such a treat:

ACTOR: Jonathan Tadioan, in Layeta Bucoy's Doc Resurrecion: Gagamutin ang Bayan.

"Ferocious" is perhaps the perfect word to describe this actor, both for his commitment to every role he takes on and the performance that it results. His appearance, thick facial hair notwithstanding, may not strike me as particularly menacing, but the way he projects danger does. I used the aforementioned word to describe his performance in Tim Dacanay's Pamantasang Hirang last year, and I'm using it again for his portrayal of the rude, crude and corrupted cousin of the title character in Layeta Bucoy's gripping and ultimately unsettling drama.

ACTRESS: Marjorie Lorico, in Tim Dacanay's Ang Huling Lektyur ni Misis Reyes.

The Virgin Labfest has always featured works that have substantial lead roles for actresses, and this year's edition was no exception. Gigi Escalanate in Maliw, Mayen Estanero in So Sangibo a Ranon na Piyatay o Satiman a Tadman, Mailes Kanapi in Kitchen Medea, Skyzx Labastilla in Isang Araw sa Karnabal, Sherry Lara and Raquel Villavicencio in Asawa/Kabit--I would have chosen any one of them on any other day. But I chose Marjorie Lorico for the simple reason that I remember her performance the most, and remember it positively. I have admired this actress' considerable talent for a long time now, and her engaging portrayal of the easily distracted and stressed-out title character is, without a doubt, the highlight in Tim Dacanay's monologue.

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Sugus Legaspi, in J. Dennis Teodosio's Salise.

For some reason, I never found this actor's past performances particularly noteworthy. But his role as the kubrador dad in J. Dennis Teodosio's latest comedy changed that. It helped a lot that his character has much of the play's most hilarious lines, and I thought he delivered them very well. I may be wrong, but I believe this is the second time he has taken on a comic role, the first being in Nicolas Pichay's Tingnan Natin ang Mukha Niya waaaaay back in 2001. Maybe it's just me, but I feel his talent is better suited for wisecrack-filled comedies.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Julia Enriquez, in Reuel Molina Aguila's Maliw.

In any other day I would have selected Roence Santos for her competent turns in Salise and So Sangibo a Ranon na Piyatay o Satiman a Tadman, but there's something about Julia Enriquez's role as the desaparecido eldest daughter of former activists-turned-academicians that's inherently compelling. The daughter's expected-yet-unexpected visit in the play (as wishfully imagined by the denial-gripped mother) powerfully lends flesh and blood to the protagonist's gnawing grief and eventually gives the latter the closure she needs. In that role, I felt Julia Enriquez turned in a fine performance.

(Note: Though I failed to watch it, I heard that Cats Racsag, a last-minute replacement for Julia when the latter was hospitalized for appendicitis and therefore couldn't perform in the last show, was--let me put it this way--miraculous as the daughter. I would've loved to watch her.)

ENSEMBLE: The cast of Sheilfa Alojamiento's Boy-Gel ang Gelpren ni Mommy.

Among the plays staged this year, Alojamiento's work charmed me the most. I truly admire how it tackled lesbianism simply, sensitively, and without needless fuss. And I find her decision to use the children's perspective to be rather refreshing. The cast responded accordingly and I, in turn, responded very well to their chemistry. They performed as a solid team; no one tried to upstage the others. Isn't that what a true ensemble is?

DIRECTOR: Riki Benedicto, for Rogelio Braga's So Sangibo a Ranon na Piyatay o Satiman a Tadman.

A few may dispute this, but I feel the debuting director's helming is the most striking thing about this play. Rogelio Braga's elegiac play on the 1971 Tacub Massacre as filtered through the memories of a consequently jaded Christian witness presents challenges that can give any director, experienced or not, a lingering, thoughtful pause. That said, I'm quite impressed at how deftly Riki Benedicto handled the play's three timelines, and his flashlight-illuminated staging of the roundup and subsequent massacre of the innocent Maranaos was nothing short of riveting.

PLAY: Isang Araw sa Karnabal by Nicolas Pichay.

The recent increase in forced disappearances in the country has made the topic of desaparecidos a very relevant one once more. The heartbreaking loss, the unbearable lack of closure, the need for relief, the gradually fading hope that the loved one will return--Nicolas Pichay wonderfully addressed all these and more in typical Pichayesque fashion. No one but him can think of setting a play on desaparecidos in a place so unusual and rich in irony and comic potential like an Enchanted Kingdom-like theme park. No one but him can use a comic tone and get away with it, especially with the subject his play deals with. And most of all, no one but him can think of the idea of faux, beehive-shaped shit as candy. I won't be surprised if this play will be restaged next year as part of Virgin Labfest 5 Revisted.

To the VLF playwrights, actors, directors and behind-the-scene staffers: Bravo!

Prize-winning Penmasters

Winners of this year's Philippine Graphic-Nick Joaquin Literary Awards were published in the July 6, 2009 issue of the said magazine. Literary editor Marra PL. Lanot headed the Board of Judges, which was also composed of award-winning fictionists Luis Katigbak and Susan Lara. Awarding rites were held last June 25 at the Manila Grand Opera Hotel in Santa Cruz, Manila.

The winners are:

First Prize: Rosario Cruz Lucero, for Papa's Field.
Second Prize: Erwin E. Castillo, for Cape Engaño.
Third Prize: Sasha Martinez (published as Fe P. Koons), for This Fleet of Shadows.

This is the second time Lucero won first prize in this particular contest. I loved her stories since owning a copy of her National Book Award-winning Feast and Famine: Stories of Negros, and had an ultimately rewarding time learning from her in the fiction-writing class I took several semesters ago. I find it so amazing that every time she wins in a literary competition, it's always first place. Kainis, ang galing.

Congratulations to Ma'am Chari and the rest of the winners!

Protagonists, Politics, Poison

Last week I watched two one-act plays that startled me, not because of their apparent differences, but rather for their accidental similarities. The first, Oggie Arcenas's Isang Mukha ng Pandaraya, is inspired by the cheating controversy that rocked the UP School of Economics early last year. His interpretation of the scandal uses a she-said/she-said setup--to prevent a clear-cut presentation of the facts, one strongly suspects--that exposes the less-than-noble qualities of all (well, almost; one may argue that the complainant's attorney is an exception) those involved in the case. The second, Layeta P. Bucoy's Doc Resurrecion: Gagamutin ang Bayan, features an increasingly discomforting clash of wills between two adult cousins, both sharing the same surname and the same ambition to run for their town's mayorship and nothing else. Like most of Bucoy's plays, it does not end well.

Two things about the plays gave me pause. One, both protagonists have serious flaws. Isang Mukha has a hotheaded complainant who possesses an unwholesome reputation on campus, which the memorable last scene decidedly confirms. As for the title character in Bucoy's play, his appalling but understandable sense of shame about his impoverished roots threatens to undermine his well-intentioned plans for his hometown. Their less-than-sterling character threaten to bring them down. Both dare the audience to dislike them. True, many other, greater plays have featured such characters, but one could not help but remain compelled by them.

The other? In my mind, what struck me most about Isang Mukha and Doc Resurrecion was that it highlighted the role politics--academic, familial and everything in between--play in poisoning (surprise, surprise) institutions and societies, even families. Bucoy's play especially demonstrates this, with cousin turning against cousin, with disturbing consequences. Even more disturbing, we often see this poison working in real life, right in our faces, right out in the open. But you know what's most disturbing? Most of us have become indifferent--numb--to it. Sad thing is, we're aware of it.

The protagonists may be tragic. But then again, so are we.