Cinemanila 2002 was then screening 13 promising short films from independent Filipino filmmakers at the relatively smaller theater near the Greenbelt carpark. The crowd was “overflowing,” so to speak (“standing room only” is an understatement and I even saw actor Ronnie Lazaro standing at the back), eager to watch the different shorts selected for screening in the special section of the festival. Probably not to mention that screenings here are for FREE, as compared to the 76 pesos being charged at the two main GB movie theaters for filmfest entries (or even 150 pesos in the case of the much-hyped “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and the Wong Kar-wai romance melodrama “In the Mood for Love”).

Opening the “shorts marathon” was Ogi Sugatan's “SUPOT,” a film about an uncircumcised man's struggle to free himself from society's ridicule. This short film, which was previously screened earlier this year at the Mowelfund's 2002 Pelikula at Lipunan at SM Megamall, had the anthemic “Never Meant to be This Way” by Pinoi punk band Betrayed as background music, highlighting the alternative feel of this “liberating” treat.

Next in line was Pamela Ann Miras’ “BONGGA: BEST IN WEDDING GOWN,” about a scheduled wedding which suddenly went wrong on the part of the bride’s family on the big day itself, thus making her European fiancée wait for several hours at the church. Among the actors in this film is Hammy Sotto, to whom the GB preview room is now named after (and I’m still wondering why). This is the third short film directed by Pam, 24, a product of the UP Film Department and Ogi’s batchmate at Ricky Lee’s 14th scriptwriting workshop.

Lawrence Cordero’s “BATINGAW,” still another take on the life of people struggling for survival at the Payatas dumpsite but this time with a Jesuit touch (maybe the people behind this film are from nearby Ateneo), took home the grand prize among the Filipino shorts in competition this year (the others were selected by the organizers for screening purposes only). It looks more like a simple documentary on the poor but the narration of the main character Francis Alvarez, SJ, brought poetry and drama to fore.

“DIRTY MIRROR” by James Flores and Ana Gonzales is one of those abstract shorts that usually leave the ordinary members of the audience asking what the film was really all about. The directors explained that this experimental film deals with a woman’s search for her true self based on the image that she sees in the mirror. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to derive that idea from the film. Congratulations to Ms. Gonzales, though, for a job well done as one of the festival associates for International Desk in this year’s Cinemanila.

Meanwhile, Daniel Gabriel Matutina and the cool guys and gals from the UP Cinema as Art Movement (with Philippine Collegian graphics staffers Kendrick Bautista and Raffy Lerma) came up with “BIYAHENG BARYA,” which was, literally speaking, the journey of a five-peso coin with a red paintmark. Familiar sights like the Commonwealth overpass and UP-PHILCOA jeepney remind UP graduates now working in the Makati area of their alma mater. Joel Torre appears in a brief role driving a van and stopping near a gasoline station to buy something from a street vendor, dropping the elusive coin in a crack on the wet pavement.

Khavn dela Cruz, the guy who brought us the revolutionary .MOV digital filmfest earlier this year, had Eric Quizon and Lou Veloso star in his techno/poetic (“psychedelic” may be the more appropriate term) “Greaseman,” previously screened at the CCP/Manila Film Center Full Moons by the Bay. Khavn, the man who’s also behind the now-defunct Ora Café, wrote the script, provided the cinematography, and edited the film, probably even improvising its musical score. Good thing he was able to acquire the services of the comedian-turned-councilor of Manila in the title role and Dolphy’s most talented son in the business, that is before Jeffrey Quizon came along.

Bernice de Leon’s “LITRATO” focuses on the obsession of a photographer with the girl he took pictures of before she died in an accident not long after their pictorial. What seems to be a glaring mistake in this film was the improper use of the Sugar Hiccups hit “Five Years” as its background music as the guy thinks about the girl, develops his rolls of film, and forms something like a jigsaw puzzle from parts of different women’s faces just to come up with the girl’s haunting image. I’m still thinking where I saw this concept before, probably from a recent Hollywood film. Ah, never mind. At least, the director was able to shoot the film at Rockwell, amidst the prying eyes of the very strict, not to mention military-like, security guards there at that rich man’s mall.

After the award-winning “Batang Trapo,” Mes de Guzman is back with his new film “MIDNIGHT SALE.” Don’t expect the same serious treatment, though. For one, Mes got Lara Fabregas to star as Karla, a TV commercial model. Plus there’s Croco, a small alligator mascot who talks like a creature from another planet (reminds me of “Kokey,” the cheap E.T. copycat from Star Cinema) and Candy Quinto as Donna, a hooker acting as a saleslady in the mall where Karla is expected to shop because of its midnight madness promo. The background music even resembles that of the SM jingle or some sort of an SM ringtone, if there’s something like that. Seriously speaking, though, the director intended this as a spoof to the Filipino’s mall culture, how we’re being consumed by this materialistic world.

The animated crowd’s favorite, “SITCOM,” was another spoof at pop culture. It’s a film within a film or more appropriately, a situational comedy within the making of that sitcom by John Paul Sta. Maria. We’re just shown the scriptwriter typing his story on one end and his sitcom “Wonder Boarders” unfolding on the other end. A satire at the different TV sitcoms that are being fed to us by our local channels, it reminds me more of “Palibhasa Lalake” with its three main characters having superpowers, though. Wondering how the “Wonder Boarders” look like? Think of Herbert Bautista during his Super Islaw era, Lee Nadela during his pre-Slapshock days (or was it Makiling Ensemble’s Otto Hernandez), and any ordinary curly-haired comedian (Blakdyak, perhaps) wearing something like Robin’s costume. The weapons that they used to battle their Darth Maul-looking opponent were enough to tickle the fancy of the generally young audience inside the theater that afternoon.

“SAPATERO” by Anjanet Rase, meanwhile, is about an old man who was being taunted by most of his neighbors just because of the fact that he’s already old and lives alone in a simple house. Those who were delighted by the famous “Lolo” in the recent McDonald’s commercials will see a more serious role for Rudy Francisco as he struggles to gain acceptance from the community until a young street vendor played by Ronnel Ladiana came along. This short film stresses the importance of self-worth to an aging person and how big the role his immediate family and surroundings play in the development of this worth.

Chris Martinez again fielded “BAKAS,” which won third prize in the 2000 Gawad CCP para sa Video at Alternatibong Pelikula and second prize in the 2002 UP Diliman Video and Film Festival, to the competition at Cinemanila. It casts Eugenia Domingo as an ordinary woman who traces the extraordinary relationship of love and forgetting. Her different journeys around the metropolis, carrying a different blue plastic bag each time, will stun the viewer when the contents of the plastic bags, which she leaves wherever she chooses to, are eventually revealed.

Martinez made it two in a row this year through “KILAPSAW,” another haunting film that will definitely entertain the poets in us. The director explained that this movie is about the main character’s memories of lust and his longing for love as they create ripples of emotions that would later make him take hold of his fate. Whatever that means, calling our friends from the UP Quill, LIRA, among others, please translate this short film to ordinary viewers like us, please. I guess this is what they call a “poetic film,” the new trend in independent filmmaking nowadays.

Last, but definitely not the least, is a late addition to this year’s line-up of Pinoy shorts at the Cinemanila. “HOUSE UNDER THE CRESCENT MOON” by Gutierrez Mangasakan III is definitely a brave documentary on the lives of the Muslim people caught in the crossfire in Mindanao. The narrator traces his roots to the founder of the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM), his grandfather Datu Ugtog Matalam, and eventually to his uncle, Hashim Salamat, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Given the character of the crisis in Mindanao, it emphasized that the conflict cannot be solved in a purely militarist point of view because, as the narrator has discussed, it has deep-seated economic, social, cultural and political roots. The battle is being waged for self-determination on one side, and mad greed for super profit on the other. But the given reality is that, the all-out military offensives by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have resulted in untold sufferings on the part of his people.

All in all, the balance of funny and serious Filipino short films in this year’s staging of Cinemanila was commendable, leaving the mixed audience of Makati yuppies, students, and indie/alternative film buffs asking for more. We just hope that the filmfest organizers will screen more creative products like these short films at a larger venue next year. Not to mention that they show them again for free as an added feature or even as an alternative to students who cannot afford to pay for most of the quality foreign films in exhibition at the larger Greenbelt theaters.



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