Petersen Vargas' 2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten takes place in Pampanga some time in the late 90s. It tells the story of high school student Felix (Khalil Ramos), who, while being one of the top students in his school, feels alienated from the rest of his class. And then the half-American Snyder Brothers (Ethan Salvador and Jameson Blake) enroll in his school. Older brother Magnus asks him for help with his schoolwork, hoping to finally graduate so that his father will make good on his promise to bring him to America. Felix gets to know the strange world of these brothers, and starts to develop feelings for his new best friend that he doesn’t quite know how to express.
The movie takes a pretty dark turn somewhere in the middle, and the transition to that part of the narrative feels really awkward. The rest of the film mostly functions on this sweet sense of nostalgia, it scenes brimming with details that evoke a gentle recollection of things past. Its alluring aesthetics invite one to share in a collective memory of youth in the 90s, and it is there that the film finds its heart. The shift to darkness isn’t really bad, but it doesn’t really feel like it fits within the context of what the rest of the film is showing. Still, this is a very skillful film with very strong performance from the three main actors in the cast.
Malay Javier’s Every Room is a Planet applies science fiction aesthetics to a mundane situation. Elly (Rap Fernandez) is made to visit his sister-in-law Yannie (Valeen Montenegro), who is in the mental hospital for treatment following the disappearance of Elly’s brother Alan (Quark Henares). Elly has trouble connecting with Yannie, but as he spends more time with her, he is taken by her particular brand of strangeness. And along the way, Elly is made to confront what it is that happened to his brother.
There is merit to the strangeness of this movie, the odd aesthetics conveying a palpable sense of general alienation. In this film, every door opening is matched with a sound effect that makes it feel like we’re on the Starship Enterprise. The sound design makes it clear that to these broken characters, they may as well be in outer space. And that’s an intriguing idea. That said, it doesn’t really go anywhere, and after a while the effect just starts to feel oppressive. And in the coldness of the depiction, it can be hard to hold on to who these characters are and what they want.
The three documentary features in the new section of the festival are three very different animals. Forbidden Memory, by Mindanao filmmaker Teng Mangansakan, is the most straightforward of the three. The filmmakers interviews survivors of the Malisbong Massacre, and often-overlooked chapter of Martial Law that involves the deaths and abuse of hundreds of people in Sultan Kudarat. This is an unadorned portrait of the evils of our history, the film mostly pointing a camera at the subjects, letting them tell their stories plainly. Given the current political situation in this country, this film feels important. It is rough around the edges, and it could probably be a little shorter. But with a subject like this, the film transcends aesthetics. There is simple merit in preserving the stories of these people for generations to come.
It is a challenge to try and explain John Torres’ People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam Rose. The project basically begins with the surviving footage of an unfinished film by the late director Celso Ad Castillo. Torres reshapes the film into something else, combining what was already shot with new footage and new sound. Some of the sound is derived from interviews with the surviving members of the cast, which appears to have been recorded while they were watching the footage. And the film ends up building parallels between the experiences of the people who were on the shoot with the story that was being told within Castillo’s film. In both narratives, the film tells the story of people trying to escape a bad situation, undergoing an incredible ordeal of hunger and abuse on their way to promised salvation. It is just utterly brilliant, the film able to harness footage from a completely different time to tell its own particular story of the past, present and future of our cinema. This is a masterful work.
Paolo Picones and Gym Lumbrera brought us Piding, which is a pretty mysterious film. It casts several actors (among them the great Spanky Manikan) to play Oliver Carlos, a Filipino scientist who specializes in evolutionary science. After years abroad, he returns to the Philippines and wanders the wilderness of Calayan in search of a bird. If you weren’t told this was a documentary, you probably wouldn’t know it. The film is hypnotic at points, and its footage often captures the strange and unique rhythms of rural life in this country. But it doesn’t quite feel like a whole thing yet. It is seductive in its own way, but it ends up drifting too long in its own mystery.
The Awards were held last night. Here are the winners of this year’s festival.
Best Picture
"2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten"
Special Jury Prize
"Si Magdalola at ang Mga Gago"
Special Jury Citation
"People Power Bombshell: Diary of Vietnam Rose"
Best Documentary
"Forbidden Memory by Teng Mangansakan"
Best Director
Keith Deligero, "Lily"
Best Actor
Rocky Salumbides, "Lily"
Best Actress
Jasmine Curtis-Smith, "Baka Bukas"
Best Supporting Actor
Jameson Blake, "2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten"
Best Supporting Actress
Natileigh Sitoy, "Lily"
Best Short Film
JP Habac's "Maria"
Best C1 Minute Top Student Film
Nino Justin Tecson's "No Seguir"
Best Screenplay
Jose Abdel Langit, "Malinak Ya Labi"
Best Cinematography
Carlos Mauricio, "2 Cool To Be 4gotten"
Best Production Design
Michael Espanol, "Tisay"
Best Editing
"Lily"
Best Music
Francis De Veyra, "Tisay"
Best Sound
Andrew Millalos, "Baka Bukas"
Champion Bughaw Award
"Tisay"
People Choice Award
"Baka Bukas"
