mula sa kung ano ang noon - around the world in 14...
TRANSCRIPT
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“Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon ”
(From What is Before)
2014
Synopsis:
Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are
hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad and houses are burned.
Military operations are becoming common. Brutal militias rule the countryside. Ferdinand E.
Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law.
Greater cinema fulfills one of its promises—that of reclaiming the Malay Philippines’
provenance. Banished traditions/practices of the pre-Hispanic and pre-Islamic periods are
resurrected and immortalized.
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Director's statement:
The title of the film is from the Latin phrase “a priori”, used in Western philosophy as knowledge
independent of all particular experiences, an argument/justification on the essentiality of truth
that is easily gleaned even without empirical evidence.
In 1972, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed Martial Law plunging the entire Philippines
into its darkest period. The epoch practically obscured everything that is essentially Filipino
then. Marcos’ political methodology was clinical and brutal.
The story of the film revolves around the lives of poor villagers in one of the remotest regions of
the Philippines before Martial Law was declared. Loosely based on real events and characters,
the film examines how an individual and collective psyche responds to extreme and mysterious
changes in social and physical environment.
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STILLS
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CAST
Perry Dizon Sito
Roeder Camañag Tony
Hazel Orencio Itang
Angelina Kanapi Heding
Karenina Haniel Joselina
Joel Saracho Father Guido
Ching Valdes-Aran Babu
Maria Victoria Beltran Bai Rahmah
Ian Lomongo Lt. Perdido
Reynan Abcede Hakob
Noel Sto. Domingo Horacio
Evelyn Vargas Miss Acevedo
Teng Mangansakan Principal
Kristine Kintana Ramon
Dea Chua Tinang
Kristian Chua Narsing
Kaninah Sabine Chua Kondring
Kyrie Usha Chua Junjun
Paul Jake Paule Magno
Richard Bolisay Father’s assistant
Kim Perez Maria
Liryc Paolo Dela Cruz Mr. Hashmi
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Justine Tabara Dindo
Kyla Domingo Aida
Jun Catenza Mariano
Abraham Abdullah Maguindanaoan shaman
CREW
Director, Producer, Writer, Editor, Director of Photography Lav Diaz
Assistant Director Hazel Orencio
Production Manager Liryc Paolo Dela Cruz
Asst. Production Manager/Production Assistant Kyla Domingo
Camera Department Hazel Orencio
Che Villanueva
Lights Crew Hazel Orencio
Che Villanueva
Sound Mark Locsin
Additional Sound Sultan Diaz
Sound Design Lav Diaz
Production Designer Perry Dizon
Art Director Kim Perez
Liryc Paolo Dela Cruz
Wardrobe Lucky Jay De Guzman/Kim Perez
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REVIEW
Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon (From What is Before), Lav Diaz’s follow-up to his highly
acclaimed Norte: Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (Norte: The End of History), opens with views of
rolling hills and untouched landscapes.
From a forest of bananas, a little boy (Reynan Abcede), carrying a large bunch of bananas,
walks towards the field. A voice, presumably of the invisible storyteller, breaks the peace
established by the stretched minutes of Diaz’s monochrome vistas, saying that everything is but
based on memory.
Memory, like history, is a malleable commodity in Diaz’s films. The memory spoken by the
invisible storyteller is not the same memory that we commonly understand. In fact, the invisible
storyteller may not even be the little boy, or Diaz himself, but of the film’s most prominent
character, the town. Diaz has crafted a community, much like the Philippines, that aches and
bleeds because of the acts and decisions of the people that comprise it.
Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon works best as an allegory. The events that happen in the small
town, although specified as though they have happened a couple of years prior to the events of
the martial law era, mirror the vast history of the Philippines as a nation. From the pertinent
connection of the people with the land to that connection’s slow but sure dissipation because of
the subtle entry of religion and politics, the town’s harrowing experiences evoke a certain sense
of familiarity that is discomforting.
Diaz, however, does not settle for just symbolisms and representations. The stories of the
town’s dwellers are by themselves worthy of their own multi-hour features. The little boy from
the film’s opening, believing all his life that his parents are lepers in a colony in Palawan, has
been saving money to search for them. Sito (Perry Dizon), the boy’s ward and concocter of the
grand lie, acts as the film’s central figure, the only person to completely witness the village’s
transformation.
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Suffering and deceit
Itang (Hazel Orencio) and Joselina, her sister who suffers from cerebral palsy and has the
power to heal some of the villagers’ many ailments, provide the film its moral dilemma. Through
the rumors spread by Heding (Mailes Kanapi), the outsider who has suddenly started to sell
various knick-knacks to the villagers, the sisters have become the center of suspicion as to why
the town has been suffering. Tony (Roeder Camanag), the town’s winemaker, surreptitiously
visits Joselina to ease his carnal longings.
The town, although far from perfect especially with its many tales of suffering and deceit,
reflects the very same dilemma that plagues the Philippines. Diaz, by weaving together those
tales into a single epic, has summarized a country’s painful history not with facts and dates but
with impressions and emotions. Mula Sa Kung Saan Ang Noon is sustained by evocative
tableaus of human beings in various degrees of personal, spiritual and political strife.
This country is built on the sins of its citizens, Diaz seems to be proclaiming with Mula Sa Kung
Saan Ang Noon. Its history is carved from the lies, the duplicity, the greed, and the violence that
have been constant tools for survival. Projected away from the film’s narrative and into what the
country has actually experienced, it is the Philippines’ history of repeated exploitation that has
allowed for certain evils to triumph. Marcos, and everything that has happened thereafter, are
but products of our own inhumanity and complacency.
Mula sa Kung Saan Ang Noon, which deservedly won the grand prize in the ongoing World
Premieres Film Festival by the Film Development Council of the Philippines,is five and a half
hours long. It is short compared to Diaz’s other eight to eleven hour masterpieces. Let this not
daunt you. What Diaz has done is to distill centuries of the country’s sorrows and agonies into a
fascinatingly fractured narrative that will never ever leave you. This is a memory that is worth
making your own.
-Oggs Cruz (via http://www.rappler.com/entertainment/movies/62491-mula-sa-kung-ano-ang-
noon-movie-review-lav-diaz)
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WRITE-UPS
Filipino film on lost rituals takes World Festival prize
By Marinel Cruz (July 7, 2014)
MANILA, Philippines–A five-hour drama set on the brink of martial law, the Philippines’
sole entry to the 2014 World Premieres Film Festival (WPFF), bagged the Grand
Festival Prize at the awards ceremony on Wednesday night at the Centerstage theater
of SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
Lav Diaz’s “From What Is Before,” the winning piece, is a recollection of the acclaimed
indie filmmaker’s high school years in Sultan Kudarat before martial law.
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“According to Lav, the movie shows three Maguindanaoan rituals ‘erased’ after martial
law,” said cast member Kristine Kintana in an earlier interview.
The film, which almost failed to make it to the festival because of technical problems,
likewise won the Best Ensemble Production award.
Kintana said in a press conference on Sunday that the hard drive containing all the files
from the start of Diaz’s filming in December 2013 got “corrupted.” While Diaz had kept a
backup, Kintana said not all files were restored. The director failed to make it to the
festival’s opening ceremony on Monday because he was still busy with last-minute
editing work.
The WPFF, which will run until July 8, is organized by the Film Development Council of
the Philippines (FDCP).
FDCP chair Briccio Santos was pleased that a compatriot won the award. “Lav rightfully
deserves this. I hope [his victory] will entice other Filipino filmmakers to create more
movies and explore new narratives,” he said.
The Ecuadorean drama, “Open Wound,” a true-to-life story based on the territorial
conflict between Ecuador and Peru in the 1940s, bagged the Grand Jury Prize. The
Alfredo Leon Leon film also brought home the Technical Grand Prize and the Best
Performance by an Actor award for Rene Pastor.
Not one but 3 prizes
Iranian thespian Roya Teymourian won Best Performance by an Actress honors for her
work in Reza Azamian’s “Romantic Nostalgia.” The Best Artistic Contribution
(Cinematography) award was handed to the Spanish film “Crustaceans” by Vicente
Perez Herrero.
Other films that competed under the International World Premieres category were: “The
Sharks of Copacabana” (Rosario Boyer, Brazil); “Autopsy of Love” (Arturo Prins, Spain);
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“New York Shadows” (Juan Pinzas, Spain), and “Our Hodja” (F. Serkan Acar and
Yilmaz Okumus, Turkey).
“I didn’t expect to win even one prize but I got three,” said Leon shortly after the awards
ceremony. “I’m the youngest of the eight competing filmmakers, and while they have
been making films for a while, this is only my first. I’m really happy for the opportunity to
show the film so far from home.”
The 81-minute Spanish documentary “Coast of Death” was declared winner of the Cine
Verde Prize for Best Environmental Feature. The film by Lois Patino tells of the
historical region of Costa de Morte, its people and its mysterious landscape.
Composing the festival jury were Benjamin Illos, member of the Cannes Film Festival’s
Quinzaine des Realisateurs selection committee; Roger Garcia, executive director of
the Hong Kong International Film Festival; and John Badalu, a founding member of the
Indonesia Film Festival.
Reputable jurors
“We selected jurors who are very reputable,” Santos said. “They have been invited to
other international festivals and are very prolific and proficient in their own right. We
made sure to select the right ones also to keep the integrity of the winners.”
Santos said the WPFF would be an annual event. Some 40 films from 27 countries
which participated in the festival will be screened in SM Cinemas in Metro Manila until
July 8.
Ecuadorian director Leon said he hoped more Filipino audiences would get to see his
work.
“It’s important for festivals to build an audience. You have to let the common people
know that [through the WPFF], they are given a unique opportunity to watch films from
different parts of the world,” Leon said. “Filipinos should come to the festival every year
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because it should be a great experience for them. I wish this festival would last a very
long time, that in the years to come it would build a bigger audience.”
“Open Wound” is Best Actor Pastor’s first full-length feature, said Leon. “He auditioned
for the role and I thought he did a great job. I liked that he’s very natural. It’s like he is
not acting at all. Through his eyes, without speaking, he is able to communicate a lot of
things. He is going to be very happy to know that he won an award here.”
Leon described his film as “very sincere.”
“This is actually not about war but a coming-of-age story of a young soldier,” he said. “I
think everyone, no matter where you are in the world, can relate to that—to the inner
struggles of growing up. We’ve all had to face difficulties in different times in our lives.
This shows that we’ve all had a hard time finding out who we are and why we’re here.”
Source: http://entertainment.inquirer.net/146426/filipino-film-on-lost-rituals-takes-world-
festival-prize#ixzz36tnHWMcb
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The World Premieres Film Festival Bringing the world to the Philippines
By Philip Cu-Unjieng (July 7, 2014)
MANILA, Philippines - Cannes, Venice, Berlin. It’s interesting to note how cities stage
film festivals that become annual beacons for cultural enlightenment, business dealings
and tourism. Here in Asia, Hong Kong, and more recently, Singapore and Pusan, have
also begun the tradition of staging such festivals. And there is some irony in the fact that
our very own Manila enjoys having on historical record one of the region’s earliest
commercial film exhibitions (1898); and yet, we have not been able to sustain the
staging of an annual landmark film festival. Hopefully, all that changes with this year’s
World Premieres Film Festival Philippines 2014. Organized by the Film Development
Council of the Philippines (FDCP), in partnership with SM Cinemas, the ongoing festival
(at SM Megamall, Mall of Asia, North EDSA, Manila and Sta. Mesa) is a virtual
showcase of nascent possibility, with films from all over the world vying for our
consideration. Given the enthusiastic response of the film directors involved in the main
competition to the brand of Filipino hospitality they’ve been enjoying, it’s very likely that
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they’ll be spreading the word of just how precious a festival this can be — auguring well
for the future of this festival!
June 29 saw the opening ceremonies of the festival held at the Esplanade, Mall of Asia;
and it was a potent mix of the artists from all over the world, Manila society and
personalities from the local film industry. Last Monday, the foreign film directors were
invited to a special dinner organized by Hans Sy of SM Cinema, who along with FDCP
chairman Briccio Santos, were the perfect hosts, regaling the guests with anecdotes
about the Philippines, and treating them to a small showcase of folk dancing. I know the
Spanish directors were especially enamored by how some dances and musical
instruments paid homage to our Spanish colonial heritage. On July 2, we had the
awards night. With an international jury composed of Benjamin Illos, who has served on
the Cannes Fortnight Selection Committee; Roger Garcia, executive director of the
Hong Kong International Film Festival; and John Badalu, a founding member of the film
festival in Indonesia, the World Premieres Film Festival had several prizes up for grabs.
Best Picture would garner the Grand Festival Prize, and there were Grand Jury Prizes
and Special Jury Prizes for Best Performance by an Actor, by an Actress, for Artistic
Contribution, for Ensemble Performance and a Technical Grand Prize. These were for
the eight films vying in the main competition.
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People watching one’s work is true triumph
By Marinel Cruz (July 8, 2014)
Award-winning indie filmmaker Lav Diaz, whose film “From What Is Before” won the
Grand Festival Prize at the 2014 World Premieres Film Festival (WPFF, ongoing till July
8), exhorts industry leaders to work on bringing the arts to the common people.
“We should reach out to the masa. Ignorance is a major issue. We have to address this
for our culture to grow and develop,” Diaz told the Inquirer, a day after the awards were
handed out in a ceremony at the SM Mall of Asia’s Centerstage theater.
“Let us promote our own films. We could redirect promotional funds to give free tickets
to barangays and hire shuttle buses to bring them to the cinemas,” Diaz added.
His five-hour drama almost didn’t make it to the competition because of technical
problems. In the end, its cast also won Best Ensemble Performance. Diaz was a no-
show, but actors Hazel Orencio, Liryc Paulo de la Cruz, Kim Perez and Perry Dizon
attended the hour-long ceremony.
Competing filmmakers
Diaz competed with seven other filmmakers: Rosario Boyer from Brazil, who directed
“The Sharks of Copacabana”; Alfredo León León from Ecuador, “Mono Con Gallinas”;
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Reza Azamian from Iran, “Romantic Nostalgia”; F. Serkan Acar and Yilmaz Okumus
from Turkey, “Our Hodja”; and, from Spain, Arturo Prins, “Autopsy of Love”; Vicente
Perez Herrero, “Crustaceans”; and Juan Pinzas, “New York Shadows.”
“From What Is Before” is set in 1972, at the start of martial law. It examines what Diaz
calls the country’s “darkest period.”
His WPFF victory came on the heels of his Gawad Urian Best Picture win for another
film “Norte, the End of History,” from the local critics’ group.
Like most independent filmmakers, Diaz said he did not create the film to aim for
winning an award. “What’s more important is for the film to be seen by as many people
as possible,” he stressed. “An award is but an affirmation of one’s work.”
“Mono Con Gallinas,” a true-life story based on the territorial conflict between Ecuador
and Peru in the 1940s, bagged the Grand Jury Prize. It also won the Technical
Excellence award and Best Performance by an Actor honor for lead Rene Pastor.
Other awards handed out were Best Artistic Contribution (Cinematography) for
“Crustaceans” and Best Performance by an Actress for Iranian Roya Teymourian for her
work in “Romantic Nostalgia.” The 81-minute Spanish documentary “Coast of Death”
was declared winner of the Cine Verde Prize for Best Environmental Feature.
The WPFF is organized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines. Council
chair Briccio Santos said it will henceforth be an annual event. Issa Litton was master of
ceremonies on Wednesday night. Some 40 films are being screened at SM cinemas in
Metro Manila until Tuesday.
Source: http://entertainment.inquirer.net/146550/people-watching-ones-work-is-true-
triumph#ixzz36to8PXlX