The Cinemalaya 2013 Experience Part 4

Skipping one day gave me a very much deserved break from all the Cinemalaya madness but I was back again at the Cultural Center of the Philippines to catch the last three days of the festival with four more films in competition and one closing film to watch. It was during this time when the weather finally made its presence felt and somewhat spoiled this year’s edition for me by making me miss out one feature film in competition.

Babagwa

I’ve heard a lot of positive buzz regarding this film during the early days of the festival. That’s why I’ve had very high expectations of this movie directed by Jason Paul Laxamana. After watching it, I finally understood why it became a popular favorite especially among the younger set. Alex Medina, as con artist Greg who poses as the hunk Bam Bonifacio online delivers a memorable performance. In the film, he falls in love with one of his prospects, Daisy Simbulan played by Alma Concepcion who is aiming for a showbiz comeback. This doesn’t sit well with Greg’s accomplice Marney (Joey Paras) since Greg falling in love spells disaster for the Bam persona that they’ve concocted. There were exciting moments in the film especially when Greg and Marney race each other in reaching Daisy first that had the audience inside the cinema screaming and at the edge of their seat. But even before midway through the film, I figured out the twist towards the end so it became already anticlimactic for me. Also, there were subplots that felt weak for me like Marney’s search for an apartment and also the scenes involving the ubiquitous Nico Antonio who featured in a bunch of Cinemalaya entries this year.

Kiko Matos from Babagwa

Joey Paras from Babagwa

Quick Change

This film by Eduardo Roy Jr. is definitely not for the squeamish. Quick Change is yet another film about people who would go through such lengths in their quest for beauty. In the film, Dorina (Mimi Juareza) is a transvestite who earns a living through administering illegal cosmetic surgery to her transvestite clientele. She drags along her young nephew Hero (Miggs Cuaderno) who has no qualms in assisting in her procedures. While most of her clients are eager to go through all means to be more feminine, Dorina remains reluctant to go that extra step herself. This is the main source of friction between Dorina and her lover Uno (Junjun Quintana) who ends up falling in love with another transvestite. Soon enough, things unravel for Dorina considering the high risk of her illegal practice. But the disturbing thing about this film is that people still patronize people like Dorina for a quick and inexpensive change despite the risks.

Mimi Juareza from Quick Change

Miggs Cuaderno from Quick Change

Junjun Quintana from Quick Change

Liars

I expected more from Liars since it was inspired by a Little League baseball cheating scandal that I’ve followed back then when it broke out during the early 1990’s. The film aimed to reexamine the hard choices people make in order to improve the lives of the poor, give honor and prestige to the country and most importantly, to expose the truth. I really wanted this to be a good film considering that it’s by Gil Portes and part of the Directors Showcase Category. But the shoddy production design like the literally cut and paste newspapers, the very amateurish microphone flags, uninspired welcome banners and very fake meteors bothered me a lot to the point that it became hard for me to take the entire film seriously. The acting prowess of veteran actors like Alessandra de Rossi, Arnold Reyes, Cris Villanueva, Richard Quan and Sue Prado weren’t enough to salvage the film. And what was supposed to be touching moments between the two child stars Jan Harley Hicana and John Michael Bonapos came out as a bit too homoerotic and brought out a few snickers from the audience.

John Harley Hicana from Liars

Arnold Reyes from Liars

Burgos

The closing film for this year’s Cinemalaya was the advocacy film Burgos by Joel Lamangan. The main star of the film, Lorna Tolentino once again gave a very convincing performance as the searching mother Edita Burgos. She showcased myriad of emotions, from hopefulness to desperation, interspersed with respites of laughter as Edita continues to search for her son Jonas (Rocco Nacino) who was abducted and whose whereabouts are still unknown up to this day. What I liked about this film is that it didn’t portray the Burgos family as saints. They do have their good points but they exhibited some traits which I found odd but I just had to accept that that was their nature. Despite not agreeing with some of the beliefs of the Burgos family, I was still moved by the suffering that they’ve been enduring for the longest time as they are still uncertain with what happened to Jonas. Very crushing was the scene when they thought that the tip they got would eventually lead them to Jonas only to be bitterly disappointed in the end.

Lorna Tolentino from Burgos

Rocco Nacino from Burgos

Allen Dizon from Burgos

Awards Night

Director Hanna Espia from Transit 

After the last day of regular screening, some Cinemalaya regulars and I were able to have a brief chat with Laurice Guillen. She asked us what our favorites were and I responded Transit and Sana Dati adding that I wish that these two would dominate the awards the day after. I also expressed my relief that these two films belonged to different categories or else, they would’ve fought with each other come the awards night.

In the Directors Showcase Category, Ekstra’s awards prevented a near sweep by Sana Dati. Vilma Santos’ Best Actress win for Ekstra set such a high standard that the jury felt that they couldn’t give one for the Best Actor category. I do agree that there was a shallow field for both lead actors and actresses in the Directors Showcase. And if Vilma didn’t win, I would’ve expected the wrath of Vilmanians immediately right after.

Producer Paul Soriano from Transit

The New Breed Category had some surprises starting with Transit winning the Audience Choice Award. I really expected that Babagwa, who reigned at the box office alongside Ekstra, would bag this award. The other surprises were Quick Change’s awards especially in the Best Actor category. I thought that Alex Medina had a lock on it already but Mimi Juareza managed to pull of an upset. But this was the year of Transit and it really dominated the awards night.

Members of the jury for this year included film makers Peque Gallaga, Ditsi Carolino and Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, and foreign critics and fest programmers Maggie Lee and Bastian Meiresonne.

I find it surprising that Transit’s dominance in the awards didn’t cause any stir unlike in the past two years wherein I’ve heard some people who weren’t too happy with the jury’s decision. Compared to the past two awards nights, this year’s production was a bit lowkey and sparse. The awards night was hosted by Tanghalang Pilipino’s Regina de Vera and featured musical numbers by Baihana and show violinist Juleous Gacang.

This was how Cinemalaya 2013 for me and yes, I failed to see The Diplomat Hotel. I was about to see it but a sudden downpour delayed me from getting to the CCP. When I got there, the movie was already over and there were no more chances left for me to see it since the festival was already on its last screening day. When people learned of this incident, they told me that it wasn’t a loss at all that I failed to see this film. I will just leave it at that.

Part 1 2013 Winners, Jazz in Love, Boses, Rekorder, Ekstra & Transit

Part 2 Instant Mommy, Purok 7, Debosyon & Nuwebe

Part 3 Porno, David F, Sana Dati & Amor y Muerte