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INQUIRER ENTERTAINMENT TELLING THE FILIPINO STORY TO THE WORLD 3THURSDAY, DECEMBER9, 2010
Adolfo Alix Jr.
Alvin Yapan
juangco,the festival’s mainbenefactor.)
Adolf’s second Cinemalayafilm, “Kadin,”scoredthe Geber Awardat the JogjaNETPACFest (Indonesia) in 2009.He was declaredone ofthe top20entertainment personalitiesor“Next Generation Asia”by TheHollywoodReporter thisyear.Hislatest film,“Chassis,”wasrecentlyshown in Pusanand Vancouver andcompetedat theMardel PlataFestin Argentina.
Well-known in the global cir-cuit, Adolf, whose workshavealsoreceivedseveralawardsinlocal competitions,points out:“A filmmakershouldmakemoviesfor his people, notforanyfestival.Nobody canpre-dict thetaste offestivalpro-grammers; people canonly speculate, butin theend,the
moviewill speakfor itself.”He asserts thatFilipinocine-mastands outin theworldscene because of its “unique-ness and variety.”
Adolf wasamong the first
batchof mainstreampractition-erswhofoundtheir ownvoiceinthe digital revolution ofthelastfive years. “A plethora of voices,”is hisdescription of theresulting scene.
He explains:“Digital technol-ogy democratized the medium,freedus from yearsof being
limited by theneeds of capital-ists andtheconventionsof old-school filmmaking.”
Adolf is cautious,however,aboutdeclaring thisupheavala“newwave” or Philippinecine-
ma’s thirdGolden Age, assomecritics suggest.“Only timecan judge,”he says.“It’sjustthe be-ginning.” He likens the newtechnologyto a “weapon”forthe storyteller. “We havetoforgeahead,like soldiers, to winthe battle.”
He counselsyoung filmmak-
ers:“Know the medium. Knowour own cinema. Continuebe-ing sensitiveto our country’ssensibilitiesand truths morethananythingelse.” BayaniSan Diego Jr.
The directorworked as supervising pro-ducer of “Tambolista,” a Cinema OneOrigi-nals (ABS-CBN) 2007 finalist.He iscur-rently working on hisnext film,“Gayuma.”
Alvin is convincedthat digital technolo-gy has“democratizedfilmmaking.” He ex-plains: “It gavecreativeindividualsa venueto express their ownartistryoutsidemain-stream producers’ profit concerns.”
However, hesays,it isstillimportant to en-courage thebig producersto fund filmsthat“donot fitthe usualformulaand mold.Chang-ingaudiencetaste andsensibility willtaketime.We need producerswhocan make thesekindsof filmsfor a sustainedperiodof time.”
Alvin acknowledgesa growing interestin independent cinema locally, but can’tsay
thatthis is another so-calledgolden age.“Idon’t presume I can[label]thisrecent phe-nomenon…sinceI ampart ofit,” hestress-es.“Thebestpeople to dothisare thecrit-ics. This recentsurge ofoutput shouldbematched by a commensurateamount ofen-thusiasmfromfilmcritics…anda mass au-dience.” MarinelR. Cruz
ADOLFOALIX JR.:“Know yourown cinema.”
ALVIN YAPAN:“Weneed a massaudience.”
“GAYUMA”
“ADELA”
A U G U S T D E L A C R U Z
J I M G U I A O P U N Z A L A N
Y OUNGMANin ahurry? That’s Adol-fo “Adolf” Alix Jr. In
thebreathless pace of atriathlete, the writer-di-rector-occasional produc-tion designer crafted 17films in just five years.
Heis notjustprolific. HisCinemalaya-winning debut,“Donsol,”won JuryPrizesattheFort Lauderdale (UnitedStates) andAsian Marine(Japan) filmfestivals in 2006.Two yearslater, “Manila,”a filmhe co-directed withanotherI N-QUIRER honoree, RayaMartin, wasscreened in Cannes.
(Cinemalaya is an annual all-digital film festival/competi-tion mounted bythe Cine-malaya Foundation withthe
support of the CulturalCenterof the Philippines, FilmDevel-opment Council of the Philip-pines andEconolinkInvest-mentsInc.,headed by business-manAntonio “Tonyboy” Co-
A LVIN YAPAN made hisfirstfilm after being dared by fellow professorsat theUni-
versity of thePhilippines. “Thechallengewas to produce a filmonour own instead of griping aboutthe state of Filipino mainstreamcinema,” says Alvin,who teachesFilipino Literature.
The product wasthe 17-minuter“Rolyo,”which wontheBest ShortFilmaward at the Cinemalaya Philippine Inde-pendent FilmFestival andthe Urian fromthe Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (crit-icsgroup) both in2007.The moviecom-petedat theParisFilmFestival in2008.
Alvin,also a fictionist, hadearlier wontheDonCarlos PalancaMemorialAwardfor Liter-ature(1997, 2002,2003),andNCCA Writer’sPrize(2005).Hiscollection of short stories,“AtNabulagangTagapagsalaysay”wasincludedin NCCA’s“UbodNew Authors Series.”His firstnovel,“AngSandaling mgaMata,”won the2006NationalBook AwardforBestNovel.
Alvin directed “Huling Pasada,” which wonBest Cinematographyat the Cine-
malaya 2008.His first solofull-lengthfilm,“AngPanggagahasa kay Fe,” wonthe Spe-cial Jury Prizeat Cinemalaya 2009.It isthefirstFilipinofilmto wintheGolden Awardat the 2009Cairo InternationalFilm Festi- val (Egypt). Itwas also screenedat theChicago IFF, the Osian Cinefanin India andthe Bahamas IFF.
