Cinemartyrs
Filmmaker Shirin Dalisay (Noor Hooshmand) screened her film about the a bloody episode during the Philippine-American War in the Ilocos before a panel of critics (Soliman Cruz, Rolando Inocencio, Emmanuel dela Cruz) in an effort to qualify for a full grant. She was recommended to fill in the "gap in historical perspective" by filming about another bloody episode during the Philippine-American War, this time in the south, in Sulu.
"Cinemartyrs" is said to be based on writer-director Sari Dalena’s own experience making her first feature length documentary “Memories of a Forgotten War” (2001), about the Philippine-American War, a war that killed more Filipinos at the hands of American soldiers than in 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. Here, Dalena recreates the challenges faced by female film directors like her from misogynistic colleagues and critics.
The film started with production assistant Oscar (Giancarlo Abrahan) going around gathering cast and crew together so their remote location shoot in Ilocos can get going. They had light-hearted moments before the shoot, with stars Angel Aquino (as Mother Mary) and none other than Lav Diaz (as Kristo). Tensions rise when suddenly all the cameras fail to function at a critical moment of the shoot, invoking a sense of supernatural protest.
In between the Ilocos and the Sulu shoots, we see Shirin frolicking with her boyfriend Kevin (Cedrick Juan) in the UP Film Center, and their encounter with National Artist Kidlat Tahimik talking about his "dwende." There was also a sidebar to Shirin's mother Prof. Lena and her research on three pioneer female film directors -- Consuelo Osorio, Carmen Concha, and Susana de Guzman, all played by Raquel Villavicencio!
The highlight of the whole film was Shirin's shoot in Patikul, Sulu with an all-Tausug cast led by Laila Urao as the bride Karsum. In obedience to Islamic rules, Shirin had to designate the imam's son Medzfar (Bong Cabrera) to bark out her orders. It started smoothly enough, with a reenactment of a Moslem wedding feast that ended in tragedy. As a famous photograph of the resulting carnage was recreated, a terrifying mystical experience engulfed the whole crew. This was a most mesmerizing sequence, especially since this eerie episode of possession really happened in real life.
The bizarre editing choices for the varied eclectic elements of this film may prove confusing for mainstream viewers. Between a full-length Muslim dance led by 82-year-old Ramon Magsaysay awardee Ligaya Amilbangsa and a montage of local pre-war Filipino films directed by women, Shirin had an extraordinary scene of radiant birth that you need to see to believe -- a startling metaphor about filmmaking that no viewer would soon forget.
Paglilitis
Jonalyn Samuel (Rissey Reyes-Robinson) worked as the second executive assistant of Eduardo Guzman (Leo Martinez), CEO of Mother's Pride, makers of infant milk formula. Over the three years that she had been working for him, there had been several instances that she was alone with him in his office, being ordered to do things that made her feel sexually harassed. When she threatened to report him, she was immediately fired.
Two years later, Jonalyn's case was brought to the attention of Atty. Sylvia Ardenia (Eula Valdez), who had been actively posting her advocacy against sexual harassment in the workplace on social media. Jonalyn had already moved on and found work as an online virtual assistant, so she was hesitant to file the case. However, upon prodding by her mother Myrna (Cherry Malvar) and younger sister Jasmine (Barbara Miguel), Jonalyn acquiesced.
The title suggested that this second feature film directed by Cheska Marfori would be a courtroom drama. However, this case of sexual harassment and wrongful termination never really reached any courtroom. This was a trial in the court of public opinion via social media. Despite promises made by Atty. Ardenia about , details about Jonalyn's case still leaked out on the world wide web for the netizens to comment about and feast upon.
Playing the character at the center of all this turmoil is Rissey Reyes-Robinson in her first lead role in a feature film. She had two memorable scenes that sears into the hearts of viewers. The first scene was Jonalyn narrating her traumatic experiences in first recorded testimony with her lawyer. The second was a painful scene of Jonalyn slowly breaking down in tears when she realized that she might have made wrong decisions. Impressive deeply-felt acting.
Eula Valdez gave Atty. Ardenia a nebulous character that Jonalyn, and all of us, could never really figure out. Was she doing this for Jonalyn, or was she doing this for herself? Jackie Lou Blanco played Eduardo's deeply religious wife, Mrs. Mildred Guzman. She channeled Glenn Close's Marquise de Merteuil wiping off her makeup in front of a mirror, followed by a powerful wordless scene of her clearing out her husband's cabinet of his porn collection.
Over the final scenes, Marfori flashed statistics of women who have experienced sexual harassment in their welfare, and that there was probably a lot more who never reported their traumatic experiences at all. Ironically though, most of this film just showed all the reasons exactly why women decide not to fight for their rights in these cases. When Marfori tried to offer a solution at the end, she never came around to telling these women what to do.
These reviews were originally published in the author's blog, “Fred Said.”