Exhibit on 'Cesar Asar' creator Roxlee to be mounted in UP

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Exhibit on 'Cesar Asar' creator Roxlee to be mounted in UP

Rick Olivares

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Roxlee. Photo by author

MANILA -- Helping celebrate almost 40 years in cartooning, animation, and film, famed artist Roque Lee, more known as Roxlee, will participate in an exhibit at Cine Adarna at the University of the Philippines Film Institute on February 26.

Entitled “RetRox,” the exhibit will show several documentaries and films done by the artist over the years.

Nearly 40 years after he first gained fame with his irreverent cartoons and "Cesar Asar" strip in Jingle magazine and later, Manila Bulletin, Roxlee, essentially the Manix Abrera of Gen X, is amazed that millennials are discovering his work.

“I think it is great,” says the 68-year old artist of the young discovering his work during a lull of a film shoot by independent filmmaker and artist Khavn Dela Cruz outside his home in Cainta. “Imagine when I started out, I was just doing weird and satirical strips. Even at a time when there was Martial Law, Jingle and myself were pushing the boundaries to see what we could do.”

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And speaking of pushing boundaries, even before the 1980s were over, he began to delve into film and animation. “Siguro bilang artist, gusto mo mag-grow beyond 'yung comfort zone mo. I was adventurous and I wanted to try it out because I knew that this was the direction art was going into.”

In his opinion, getting into film and animation, Roxlee believes, allowed him to remain vital all these years. “Lalo na with 'yung changes in technology, kailangan makipagsabayan ka if you are not ahead of the curve.”

At "RetRox," several of his documentaries – shot on Super 8 and 16mm and featuring a series of stories, at times disjointed, but with a method to the madness – will be shown.

“These are old things I have done. So you will not only see some of my old Jingle or Manila Bulletin strips, but also what I have done,” he says.

The artist is also looking to publish a second book of his works. It has been a little over 10 years since Khavn Dela Cruz published a collection of Roxlee’s Cesar Asar strips (Monlee and Roxlee’s "Cesar Asar in the Planet of the Noses" as published by.mov).

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“I don’t think I have all my works or comic strips,” he relates. “I lost a lot of them during (Typhoon) Ondoy and I wish I did a better job of filing and keeping them. But I still have enough for a book.”

“Nagagalak ako may opportunity to connect with young filmmakers and students today,” sums up Roxlee of the upcoming event at Cine Adarna. “Malakas pa ako. Marami pa tayong magagawang trabaho. Alam mo naman ang artist – never satisfied and always growing.”

For more details about "RetRox," check out announcements on the UP Film Institute’s Facebook page.

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