Ang pagsapit ng kamuwangan sa pelikula: Isang panimulang pagsipat sa naratibo ng piling coming-of-age films ng Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival
Article
Abstrakt
Isang panimulang pagtatangka ang papel na ito na makapag-ambag sa literatura ng coming-of-age cinema sa Pilipinas. Gamit ang mga piling konsepto ng coming-of-age cinema ni Alistair Fox (2017) na hinulma sa balangkas ng Three Dimensions of Film Narrative ni David Bordwell (2007), sinasaklaw ng papel na ito ang panimulang pagsusuri sa naratibo ng mga piling kontemporanyong coming-of-age film mula sa Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. Hangad ng pananaliksik na makapaghain ng ilang mahahalagang punto sa katangian ng isang Filipino coming-of-age film.
Abstract
This preliminary study aims to make a modest contribution to the literature on coming-of-age cinema in the Philippines. Using coming-of-age cinema concepts from Alistair Fox (2017) woven into the Three Dimensions of Film Narrative of David Bordwell (2007), this paper is a preliminary narrative analysis of selected contemporary coming-of-age films from the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. This study aims to offer insights about the characteristics of a Filipino coming-of-age film.
“Yes, you belong to me!”: Reflections on the JaDine Love Team Fandom in the Age of Twitter and in the Context of Filipino Fan Culture
Article
The concept of love teams—a pair of good-looking stars launched by a mainstream studio to appear in a succession of films, TV series, adverts, mall shows, etc.—is unique to Philippine entertainment not just because of their intense popularity among mass audiences but also because of their rich cultural history spanning decades since the beginning of Philippine cinema. This paper looks into one of today’s biggest Filipino love teams, JaDine, the portmanteau of James Reid and Nadine Lustre. It situates them contextually in the past (how love teams are packaged and sold, how the audiences express their fanaticism, etc.) and present (in the age of Twitter and “block” screenings, the fan behaviour developed in social media, etc.). As equally important for analysis as these stars are their fans, and in light of JaDine’s most recent film, Never Not Love You, this paper also looks into an incident on Twitter that reveals a lot about fan culture enabled by technology that further complicates the often overlooked position of love teams in cultural studies.
Between the Walls: The Shanty in “Hellow, Soldier” from Lino Brocka’s Tatlo, Dalawa, Isa (1974)
Article
“Hellow, Soldier” is the second episode in Lino Brocka’s Tatlo, Dalawa, Isa (1974). It is set in the slums of post-war Manila and follows a young slum dweller named Gina who lives with her mother, Lucia, as they attempt to work out the knots in their internal and domestic conflict. This paper attempts to illustrate how the shanty reveals the characters’ nature through their use of their space, which leads to crafting their identity and their perception of society. The study inquires: how does the shanty reflect the characters’ self-identity? How do they shape the space in relation to their perception of society?
Bamboo Gods and Bionic Boys: A Brief History of the Philippines’ B Films
Article
As one of the Asian region’s and (at one point) the world’s most prolific film cultures, the Philippines is distinguished by an under appreciated parallel cinema that comprises films for international release. This paper considers the heretofore untold history of the emergence of this phenomenon, from the breakdown of the post-WWII studio system, inspects the usefulness of available descriptors such as “independent” and export films, and focuses on the still-problematizable “B films” term as the most appropriate one for the present study. It tracks the many twists and turns in the narrative of B-film production, with careful attention to the auteurs (not just directors but also producers and performers) who played prominent roles in ensuring that this parallel sub-industry would be able to thrive alongside the better-recognized mainstream one.
Thinking Straight: Queer Imaging in Lino Brocka’s Maynila (1975)
Article
The separation in so-called public political discourse and private identity issues attained recent cultural cutting-edge status in the articulation of gender issues. In view of the artificiality of disciplinary boundaries, this paper seeks to evaluate the potential of queer politics (focused on gay-male practice) within the exploratory terms provided by a major city film, Lino Brocka’s Maynila: Sa mga kuko ng liwanag (1975), produced during martial rule. The area of application of this analysis will be Philippine popular culture, in consideration of the country’s position as a post-colonized territory that had set up a dictatorial regime to facilitate neocolonial control by the US.
The Intersection of Philippine and Global Film Cultures in the New Urban Realist Film
Article
With the rise of indie cinema in the Philippines, many say that another golden age is again in the making, and, like its predecessor, the films are being produced in the midst of widespread poverty and political instability. Understandably, a significant number of indie films has consciously returned to and explored the limits of the urban realist film of the ‘golden age’ (1975-1984), revisioning city spaces and signifying patterns in Philippine and global film cultures.
The essay has three intricately connected sections. On the one hand, it delineates the shifting contexts of Philippine and global film cultures and situates current indie cinema in these contexts. On the other hand, by considering several key films, it traces the development and revisions of urban realism from its birth until today and reflexively problematizes the critical discourses that define and are defined by such realism.
