Push Admin

Bells ringing louder for 'Balangiga' director Khavn dela Cruz

Article (news)

Totel V. de Jesus

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/07/15/20180715-khavn-dela-cruz1.jpg"/><figcaption>Khavn dela Cruz reviewing the script during the final shooting day. Photo by Don Gordon Bell</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA -- Since October last year when “Balangiga: Howling Wilderness” made its premiere at the 2017 QCinema International Film Festival, Khavn dela Cruz’s name has been ringing louder and louder, starting faintly like those from our friendly dirty ice cream vendor to as deafening as, well, church bells. And now, the final version (or the director’s cut) of “Balangiga” is part of the upcoming Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino, which will happen from August 15 to 21.When it won the Best Picture in QCinema, dela Cruz submitted “a work-in-progress.” But because of the award, “Balangiga” was invited as guest entry under the PPP’s Special Features Section. It gathers all Best Picture awardees among local independent festivals from last year to be shown in PPP as exhibition films. Unlike the eight films in competition that will be shown in select cinemas nationwide, those that fall under the Special Features Section will be shown in nine theaters in Metro Manila.Prior to PPP, “Balangiga” bagged back-to-back best picture trophies and other major citations from two of the more enduring award-giving bodies in the country. On June 10, “Balangiga” was the biggest winner in the 66th Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences or FAMAS. Besides Best Picture, dela Cruz brought home the Best Original Screenplay trophy with co-writers Achinette Villamor and Jerry Gracio. Dela Cruz’s composition “Katurog Na,” sang by legendary folk rock artist Lolita Carbon, was awarded Best Original Song. The film also brought home the Best Production Design trophy for Marija Vicente, Timmy Harn and visual artist Zeus Bascon, while Albert Banzon, one of dela Cruz’s long-time collaborators, won the Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography award. <div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/07/15/20180715-khavn-dela-cruz2.jpg"/><figcaption>FAMAS trophies for &#x27;Balangiga.&#x27; Photo courtesy of Khavn dela Cruz</figcaption></figure></div>Four days later on June 14, “Balangiga” won the Best Picture and Best Music awards at the 41st Gawad Urian. Renaissance manIt may sound a surprise to many but “Balangiga” is dela Cruz’s 51st feature-length work, on top of 115 short films. In the realm of digital filmmaking in the Philippines, dela Cruz is seldom credited for starting it all. Millennials may have a vague idea of .MOV (pronounced dot-mov), the international digital film festival that ran from 2002 to 2011 in Metro Manila that he organized. Through his Filmless Films Inc. and .MOV, dela Cruz showed that with the use of digital cameras and a meager crew, aspiring filmmaker need not bleed for funds or prostitute themselves in mainstream studios before they can direct their dream projects. Dela Cruz is considered by friends as a renaissance man because his creative juices spill into other fields. He has won Palanca awards for his poems, short stories and screenplays. With his skills with the piano and electric organ, he has played in jazz and blues bars in Taipei, Rotterdam and Vladivostok. As of last count, he has composed around 5,579 musical pieces, ranging from blues, jazz, rock, R&amp;B, bebop, hip hop, pop and kundiman. They are love ballads and instrumental mood music he uses for his films. Others are classical pieces like adagios, cantatas, symphonies, minuets, nocturnes and believe it or not, rock operas.<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/07/15/20180715-khavn-dela-cruz3.jpg"/><figcaption>Cover image of Khavn&#x27;s &#x27;Shockbox,&#x27; a collection of poems. Photo from Khavn&#x27;s FB page</figcaption></figure></div>Then again, only his friends, collaborators and family members may have heard of them because he’s not the type who would announce what he’s finished or has won in competitions. But who is Khavn dela Cruz and how come he’s made 51 films that can’t even be found on cable TV, Netflix or even in a few existing pirated DVD stores? How can you know more of him if all his works are inaccessible except for some excerpts on You Tube?Why is there a disclaimer “This Is Not A Film By Khavn” in almost all of his films? A quick Google search would yield articles about the filmmaker, his name usually preceded by maverick, cult, avant garde, eccentric, prolific, revolutionary, punk and the most trite, “indie” and award-winning.<div>Modern-day iconoclast </div>Personally, watching a film by dela Cruz is like eating pinikpikan, the chicken broth for the soul originally concocted by shamans as part of an offering to ancestors in the Cordillera mountains. You savor it even with the knowledge that the fowl was whacked in the head and beaten up with a stick in slow calculated phase for the appropriate blot clots. You either love it like how a highlander would devour the dish up to the last battered bones and meat or avoid it like an animal rights advocate because your sensibility is piqued and you feel “kawawa naman the chicken.”In 2010, dela Cruz did “Mondomanila,” an adaptation of the Palanca-winning cult novel “Kung Paano Ko Inayos Ang Buhok Ko Matapos Ang Mahaba-haba Ring Paglalakbay” by writer Norma Wilwayco. The novel was published independently by dela Cruz. Laden with expletives, the book became controversial even National Book Store won’t sell them. It follows the story of Tony De Guzman, a modern-day gigolo surviving in the slums and trying to preserve his sanity in a world full of dela Cruz’s favorite characters: prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, drug addicts, marginalized gays, the sexual perverts, the differently abled. “The misfits and outsiders of society,” as he called them.<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/07/15/20180715-khavn-dela-cruz4.jpg"/><figcaption>Khavn dela Cruz during the world premiere of &#x27;Simulacrum.&#x27; Photo courtesy of Khavn dela Cruz</figcaption></figure></div>In the film adaptation, for which dela Cruz co-wrote the script with Wilwayco, he gave the nearly obscure and ailing ace comedian Palito his final role before he died, penniless. Palito played the quirky Pablong Shoeshine. A drummer before he entered show business, Palito was also invited by dela Cruz to jam with his band, The Brockas, originally composed of Lav Diaz, Wilwayco and Rox Lee. During their active years, people would gravitate to The Brockas every time they played in multi-band gigs.In 2014, dela Cruz did “EDSA XXX: Ganito Kami Noon, Ganito Pa Rin Kami Ngayon” for Cinema One Originals, a sci-fi black-comedy rock opera on the supposed 30th EDSA Revolution starring Epy Quizon as the young president with a third eye. Hollywood Reporter described it “a musical satire about the political chaos in 2030 in a fictional nation based on his home.”Personally for dela Cruz, it was a fulfilment of his promise to his friend, the slain film critic Alexis Tioseco. Finishing “EDSA XXX” was one of Tioseco’s entries in his highly influential essay, “Wishful Thinking In Philippine Cinema.”<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/07/15/20180715-khavn-dela-cruz5.jpg"/><figcaption>Tadanobu Asano (left) and Christopher Doyle (rightmost) listen to Khavn dela Cruz (middle) during the shoot of &#x27;Ruined Heart.&#x27; Photo from Khavn dela Cruz</figcaption></figure></div>Also in 2014, in his more celebrated work, “Ruined Heart: Another Love Story Between A Criminal and A Whore,” dela Cruz worked with Japanese superstar Tadanobu Asano (“Thor,” “47 Ronin,”) and legendary cinematographer Christopher Doyle (“2046,” “In The Mood For Love,” “Hero” ). Asano, who also appeared in Takeshi Kitano’s classic “Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman,” saw “Mondomanila” in one of the film festivals abroad and sought the director. They became fast friends as they shared mutual admiration for each other’s works. Asano eventually played the criminal in the punk noir “Ruined Heart.” Doyle, who professed admiration for Khavn’s earlier works besides “Mondomanila,” gladly offered his services for “Ruined Heart.”It was the second time Doyle did a project in the Philippines. The first was in the 1990s for “Days of Being Wild,” with director Wong Kar Wai. One third of the film was shot in Manila and some parts in Laguna and Quezon provinces. For those who’ve seen “Ruined Heart,” which is mostly set in Quezon City’s filthiest dump and economically challenged communities, it is easy to see the difference in the work of a master from what we’re accustomed to. His vivid lighting technique transformed scenes in the slums like straight out of paintings by—closer to home—Antipas Delotavo and Toti Cerda. In 2016, there’s “Alipato: The Very Brief Life Of An Ember,” which dela Cruz described an anti-sequel to “Mondomanila.” It has Dido dela Paz’s greatest performance as a bad-ass villain before he became more known for his role as an aging riverbank poet in Treb Monteras’ “Respeto.” The story is about child-gangsters set in 2031. <div>Awards for &#x27;Balangiga&#x27;</div>After “Balangiga” won four major awards, dela Cruz declared that awards can be dangerous.“They condition decision-makers, the public, and even the artists themselves that the only projects and artists worth supporting are those that can win or have won. Not true. The arts should be supported because it is the arts. It does not need to win anything. The only real competition is one&#x27;s self. The real award is in outdoing one&#x27;s self,” he said in a Facebook post. <div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/07/15/20180715-khavn-dela-cruz6.jpg"/><figcaption>The cast and crew of &#x27;Balangiga&#x27; during the Gawad Urian night. Photo from Balangiga FB page</figcaption></figure></div>Those who’ve seen his previous works would agree that “Balangiga” is one of the few that dela Cruz has restrained himself as a surrealist and shock artist. Still, he created a stir in the local film community and some animal rights activists. Though intended as a historical film for children, some sectors found the slaughter of animals and some scenes —like the cameo role of visual artist-cartoonist Rox Lee — not suited for the very young.Despite some protests, “Balangiga” won Best Film and Best Director awards. For first-time actors, or as how dela Cruz called them, “non-actors,” 66-year old Pio del Rio and nine-year-old Justine Samson, the jury gave them the Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor trophies, respectively.The feature length competition festival jury members were Erik Matti, Malaysian media content strategist Najwa Abubakar, German cineaste Axel Estein, and French-Cambodian director Davy Chou. <div>Khavn signature</div>Matti was the most outspoken. In a recent conversation with co-screenwriter and producer Achinette Villamor on Facebook following the PPP announcement, Matti confessed he has seen “Balangiga” twice. He said, “I can still run down the whole film in my mind frame by frame. Beautiful may not be the best adjective to describe the film but it really is.”<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/07/15/20180715-khavn-dela-cruz7.jpg"/><figcaption>Shooting the most difficult scene of &#x27;Balangiga.&#x27; Photo by Don Gordon Bell</figcaption></figure></div>“For people like us who know the Khavn signature on film, I think this unpredicted left turn added to ‘Balangiga’ being so much interesting. And it’s not because of the accessibility of the story that ‘Balangiga’ told. It’s mainly because of the sensitivity and the humanity that Khavn has shown here. Ganda talaga! Not a single dishonest moment in the film,” Matti added.Much earlier, in their year-end report, film critics Oggs Cruz, Richard Bolisay and Philbert Dy cited “Balangiga” as among their best films for 2017. Cruz ranked it number one in his top 12 choices and called it “an absolute gem.” Bolisay said, “Khavn is not called the ‘enfant terrible’ of Philippine cinema for nothing, and although he is no longer young he remains ‘terrible.’” For Dy, “Balangiga” is “Dela Cruz’s sweetest, most heartfelt film.”Early 2018, dela Cruz told us “Balangiga” is an unfinished project. He said he’s focused on re-shooting “Balangiga,” deleting and adding scenes here and there to make it more accessible to children, as the powers-that-be in the industry might deem appropriate. “It’s a shorter version of what we’ve shown in QCinema. If you stayed up to the end credits, nakalagay naman dun na ‘Balangiga’ is still a work in progress,” he said. Multi-hyphenate artist Lee’s cameo role as a “holy man,” sadly for his fans, has been deleted. For the PPP, as of posting, dela Cruz is hoping the film will get a general patronage or PG rating.<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/07/15/20180715-khavn-dela-cruz8.jpg"/><figcaption>The picturesque Botolan town in Zambales was ideal for &#x27;Balangiga.&#x27; Photo by author</figcaption></figure></div>With the FAMAS and Urian awards, “Balangiga” has proven how successful it has always been in explaining the horrors of armed conflict in the name of colonialism through the eyes of a child during the Philippine-American war. The eloquent Villamor in her thank-you speech at the Gawad Urian said it best: “They call us a third world country. That is wrong. What they should call us is previously colonized country. We are not behind Europe and the U.S because we’re poor, lacking in resources, or just slow in development. We are behind them because for each decade we’ve devoted our labor, resources, and land to developing their country is a decade we could not use developing our own.”“Colonialism is evil, and in the present time, there is no bigger symbol of colonialism than those three bells that the US took from Balangiga. Those bells belong to us. We have the right to ask that they be returned because they belong to us. Let’s bring those bells home,” she added.The bells in dela Cruz’s cathedral have never been this ear-splitting to the powers-that-be.

“Balangiga” will be finally shown nationwide in the upcoming Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP), which runs from August 15 to 21.

“Balangiga” will be finally shown nationwide in the upcoming Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP), which runs from August 15 to 21.