Posts tagged ‘gay’
Everybody Needs a Shipwreck Once in a While
Temptation Island
Director: Chris Martinez
Cast: Marian Rivera, Heart Evangelista, Lovi Poe, Solenn Heussaff, Rufa Mae Quinto, Aljur Abrenica, Tom Rodriguez, Mikael Daez, John Lapus
2011
Temptation Island
Director: Joey Gosiengfiao
Cast: Dina Bonnevie, Azenith Briones, Jennifer Cortez, Bambi Arambulo, Deborah Sun
1980
Wherever you go, in any Pinoy barkada with a sizable bakla/babaeng bakla percentage, one has probably heard overenthusiastic recommendations of Joey Gosiengfiao’s 1980 film Temptation Island, whether in the form of discreetly swapped VCDs and DVDs (rare kung orig) or the more common “uy bakla pakopya naman ng torrent mo.” Blurt out in the presence of any gay urbanite “Rub a dub dub” and someone will finish the line, “two bitches in a tub.” (more…)
The Main-die Malady
Pilantik (Flick)
Director: Argel Joseph
Cast: Mon Confiado, Maria Isabel Lopez, Pen Medina, Chris Martinez, Jao Mapa
2010
Pilantik’s poster describes it as “an Argel Joseph first main-die film.” Main-die? I was stumped. Is it because the main character dies or something? I wish some filmmakers would just focus on the material and stop fussing with outlandish labels.
I enter the cinema mulling (in annoyance) why Pilantik’s filmmakers chose to set themselves apart from both mainstream and indie films. What is an indie film anyway? What makes a mainstream film mainstream? With the boom in digital filmmaking, the subject of “independence” has been a continuously contested ground, evading both definition and encouraging debate. (more…)
What’s Morality Got to Do With It?
I Am Not Immoral video campaign
Director: Jethro Patalinghug
2010
The weakness of the “I Am Not Immoral” video campaign is its hell-bent insistence into being included in the state’s present notion of morality. Remember, this is a heterocentric state which condones corruption, rape and murder. The last thing we should be doing is to associate ourselves with it.
The LGBT sector should instead be fighting to expand our society’s notions of morality and push it behind the dominant Church position. (more…)
Memories of Underdevelopment
Lovebirds
Director: Roni Bertubin
Cast: Joseph Izon, Andrés Alexis Fernandez, Boots Anson-Roa, Tommy Abuel
2008
On the surface, Roni Bertubin’s Lovebirds is a lighthearted romantic comedy, filled with trite-and-tested tidbits characteristic of the genre. Mario (Joseph Izon) is a closeted mama’s boy in the province. When his Spanish cyberfriend Alexis (Andrés Alexis Fernandez) flies to the Philippines to meet him, the forward-thinking foreigner’s presence challenges the backward community’s beliefs. His conservative mother Amelia (Boots Anson-Roa) freaks out at her son’s apparent homosexuality, and tries to nip the fledgling relationship in the bud. Mario and Alexis fight for their love, of course, and the story ends, like all rom-coms, with a wedding—or at least something resembling it, because obviously, the gay marriage battle is far from won.
In spite of the conventions, however, Lovebirds manages to paint a thoughtful picture of why homosexual relationships are so difficult for Filipinos like Mario. Indeed, more than just the topical boy-meets-girl (or in this case, boy) scenario, Lovebirds is a film about underdevelopment in both the private and public spheres. (more…)
Mum’s the Word
In My Life
Director: Olivia Lamasan
Cast: Vilma Santos, Luis Manzano, John Lloyd Cruz
2009
Shirley walks over to a group of four white sculptures. Her son Mark sheepishly stands beside her. “Father and son, mother and daughter,” she says, pointing to the two pairs of figures. She gestures at her and Mark, the third pair: “Mother and son.” Shirley smiles triumphantly at her seemingly clever parallelisms. “Family! Kaya nga gusto ko dito.” Mark’s lover Noel laughs and takes the photo.
The scene is short, almost forgettable, buried somewhere in a touristic sequence where Mark (Luis Manzano), with his boyfriend Noel (John Lloyd Cruz), shows his mother Shirley (Vilma Santos) around New York City. The white sculptures are George Segal’s Gay Liberation, a site-specific installation in Greenwich Village built in 1980 to commemorate the Stonewall riots which catalyzed the gay rights movement in the US. Shirley, however, is unaware of the monument’s nature, recognizing it only as innocent males and females in a “family.” (more…)
Even the Fantasy is Heartbreaking
Were the World Mine
Director: Tom Gustafson
Cast: Tanner Cohen, Wendy Robie, Judy McLane, Nathaniel David Becker
2008
In a queer world, the happiest spectacles can be the saddest things.
Tom Gustafson’s Were the World Mine is a creative adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The story is familiar, clichéd even. Timothy (Tanner Cohen) is a student in a small-town exclusive school, ostracized by his male peers because he is gay. He has a crush on a jock, Jonathon (Nathaniel David Becker). Beginnning as a largely passive character, Timothy keeps mum about his crush, even to his best friends. He puts up with the crap his chauvinist classmates throw at him. He is patient with his mother despite her qualms about his sexuality. Timothy lives with his queerness as best as he can, enduring each day, waiting for the time he will graduate and leave that backward backwater of a town. His life begins to change when his English teacher Mrs Tebbit (Wendy Robie) announces auditions for the senior school play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Timothy clinches the role of Puck, and Jonathon, Lysander. (more…)