Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Yap: Function
By Januar E. Yap
Meanwhile
THE late national artist Nick Joaquin, in his speech on “Literature vs. Journalism,” said that we are in an age when “imagination” has taken a backseat to give way to “information.” Today, he said, people would rather read a book on James Joyce rather than read the writer himself. Reportage, he said, becomes the reason for publishing. Even science fiction is a work of reportage—on “science in progress.”
The journalist and creative writer must reinvent themselves, he said, or try a tenure on the other side. The creative writer, possessed by self-indulgence, must learn “responsible communication,” while the journalist, smug with cold facts, needs training in “fine expression.”
Either baffled or plain absent-minded, one student asked about the term “infotainment.” You call that “portmanteau,” I said, fusing parts of two words to load up a new specie of meaning, say, “animatronix” for animation and electronics or “blaxploitation” for black and exploitation. You can add “Sugbuak,” for Sugbu and buak.
You may think “infotainment” is a 21st century original. No, two thousand years ago, the poet Horace evoked the notion of “dulce et utile,” literally “sweet and “useful,” or “delight and use” as being the function of poetry, or literature in general. Today, Horace’s notion can wear the suit of journalism.
And dulce et utile I found in two freshly made documentaries: one, “Covering the Priests: Clearing the Air, Bridging the Gap” presented by the Cebu Citizens-Press Council and the Press Freedom Week, Inc., directed by Publio Briones III and written by Pachico Seares; and, two, Mananga, a winning documentary my creative writing class produced for the university’s “Green Screen: An Earth-friendly Videodocumentary Film Festival.”
The first one you can request for viewing through line producer Cherry Ann Lim, a phone call away at the Sun.Star Cebu newsroom.
But Mananga I’d like to share to you. Multi-awarded playwright and screenwriter Levy Balgos de la Cruz, who is in town, was one of the judges. Diligently, he wrote his observations on some of the works.
Levy saw an inspired teamwork, but striking most of all is the stuff the documentary is made of. “Mananga’s strength is in its content—a powerful narrative of lives striving to survive in the dumpsite, making a living out of junks amidst all the health hazards and among the stray dogs and disease-carrying pests; or trying to eke out a ‘living’ by making pork chorizos where yards and yards of pigs’ intestines are washed in the river polluted by the toxic seepage from the dumpsite…”
Mananga shows a shuffle of striking images. One of the scavengers wears a plastic nose, that toy that makes you look like a Mexican gringo, when he goes about his job. At once, you get a caricature of the very routines the poor have dwelling in a dumpsite so vulnerable to the mood swings of sky and river, fly and rubbish.
Lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines–National Environmental Action Team, which is co-presentor of Green Screen along with the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., wants to bring Mananga, the documentary, in her talks. The students are elated.
You might want to get a dose of dule et utile, get a copy of the two documentaries.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (October 3, 2007 issue)
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