-
Narrative Conflict and The Elite
During the past few weeks, I was faced with a challenge over at a writing-gig/sideline to write about the “ultra rich,” as our creative head put it. He’s having me and my co-writer imagine their life. Of course, with the lack and impossibility of social practice, i.e. my class disposition, I am slumped to take…
-
Jam (Japan, 2018) [NYAFF 2019]
Jam is return to form for actor-director, Sabu. After some thematic and stylistic drift, which has seen him give light-hearted family drama a chance with Usagi Drop (2011) then try his hand at romantic comedy with Chasuke’s Journey (2015), Jam, along with another recent film, Mr. Long (2017), sees the return of Sabu’s signatures His better known films feature walking, running, and other…
-
Reason (India, 2018) [LIFF 2019]
Veteran Indian documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan takes on the case of the relatively recent political killings of rationalists in Reason. The film is clear in its voice and its form supplements its content. Much as it calls for a nation guided by reason and the film is told in such a way that it questions what…
-
Kuldesak (Indonesia, 1999) [Aperture 2019]
On the surface, Kuldesak might look like a mish-mash of Western pop culture references that have been forcefully re-appropriated to then-contemporary urban Indonesia. Helmed by first-time directors Nan Triveni Achnas, Mira Lesmana, Rizal Mantovani, and Riri Riza in 1999, this film is made up of seemingly unconnected narratives and is often referred to as an omnibus. But…
-
Between Representation and Visualization
Concerns over “proper” representation has been hot cake since liberal academics weaponized semiotics away from its concern over information and/or data towards a less scientific concern for sentimentalism. There really isn’t any contradiction between the two before this weaponization happened. However, more recent developments on the production of images makes looking at visualization more urgent…
-
Empty By Design (Philippines/USA, 2019) [CAAMFest 2019]
Empty By Design, the directorial debut of writer-producer Andrea A. Walter, is a tale of approximation between familiarity and difference. It tells the familiar story of coming home to a foreign land, but its two main characters occupy different contexts. The tempo of Walter’s direction seems to reflect these tugging feelings, of familiarity and difference.…
-
For A Theory of Movie-going?
Last saturday, April 27, 2019, a concern over the current film industry’s overproduction of films was raised by Prof. Nick Deocampo on his talk on the Boom-and-Bust pattern of Philippine Film Economy, at the UP Film Institute. The concern centers on the concept of “demand”, something the Boom-and-Bust, being the liberal economic model that it…
-
Waiting for Sunset (Philippines, 2018) [SDAFF Spring Showcase 2019]
Waiting for Sunset, directed by Carlo Encino Catu, tells the story of marriage, or the failure of it. It follows an old unmarried couple, Teresa (Perla Bautista) and Celso (Menggie Cobarrubias), who are celebrating their 27th year together, and Bene (Dante Rivero), Teresa’s former husband of 26 years. Bene reaches out to Teresa as he’s fallen…
-
My Key Take-aways from the Zizek-Peterson Debate
Peterson is, of course, a conservative. That we do not need to verify over and over again, but something worth noting. But is he a conservative in the worst sense? At the most, he isn’t quite a fascist, but sure harbors ideas which can possibly help forward authoritarian agenda. Reasonable leftists watched this to enjoy.…
-
DMRTLW 3: “Everything is connected” / “Everything is political”
I once subscribed to the thought. But now when I think about it, I could hear Joey Ayala singing “ang lahat ng bagay ay magkaugnay/magkaugnay ang lahat” with his “lumad” voice. The thought that “everything is connected” brought comfort to my younger self who was trying to get involved with politics. But to acknowledge Marxism…