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Friday, January 28, 2005
Yap: Video/‘duende’
By Januar Yap
Meanwhile
The last time I was here wasn’t for a haircut. I came to ask this bunch of Edward Scizzorhands how they saw then Da King cartwheeling into politics and shot them on video. This time, I submit my hair’s fate to them.
“After Da King,” says the goateed cropper as he swings forth his shears on the thick vegetation before him, and declares, “Nothing!” He clutches on the man’s chin, moves his head to and fro. Swathing a handful, he drove the blades into the clump.
“Why should we mourn the death of a dinosaur,” says filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik, sporting long gray hair and goatee, at the first ever gathering of filmmakers from different regions. He means the mainstream movie industry, not Da King.
“The industry isn’t dying. It’s the producers who are dying...and, well, let them,” says director Peque Gallaga, likewise wearing his signature balbas.
Hey, I made a movie and spent for only two cases of beer and pulutan to treat my actors, I wanted to tell the goateed barber. The digital age has made the business of moviemaking as easy as skinning a cat.
Kidlat Tahimik says he only learned non-linear editing some two years ago, courtesy of his son. He refuses to give up his film camera, but just the same, he declares, “Video releases the duende!”
Man! Hear that? Video releases the duende! This time, I contemplate barbicide. With Kidlat, who needs a barber? After Da King, great things are going to happen in Philippine cinema, Mr. Scizzorhands!
I think the urgency lies not so much on saving an ailing industry but on how filmmakers in the regions seize the opportunity to democratize the market, the industry. “By all means, let’s use the piracy network to market our small films,” says Kidlat Jr.
I just saw the impatient Luis Chiong train the askewed spotlight unto the stage. I think I saw the grand old cinematographer shedding light, too, on the prospects of Cebuano cinema. Video releases the duende, man.
(January 28, 2005 issue)
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