ABAYA. A day spent with her is a dazzling celebration of words, ideas and feelings.
Exactly 10 years ago this month, Marilou Diaz-Abaya and I were in Fukuoka, Japan, where she was to receive a highly valued regional award, the first Filipino to be so honored.
I was sleeping in my hotel room on September 11 when I heard agitated sounds emanating from the TV set, which I hadn’t switched off. Opening one bleary eye, I saw a disheveled TV reporter giving the earliest “breaking news” report on what he was told was a “small” plane “accidentally” crashing into one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
As he continued to piece things together, viewers saw a second plane hitting the other tower – and the “small accident” finally revealed its truly monstrous dimensions – as what would later be known as the traumatic terrorist “9/11” attack and carnage. I woke Marilou up immediately.
A full decade after that sullen and sordid epiphany, I find myself holding an invitation to the premiere screening of a documentary on Marilou’s life and films.
September really is Marilou’s month. The back-to-back screenings of Marilou’s inspirational feature film, “Ikaw ang Pag-ibig,” and the documentary about her is a double celebration. But, it’s also a bittersweet time for the many people who love and cherish her, because she continues to fight the Big “C.”
While our love and concern for Marilou are as pure as the driven snow, we must confess that we also have a “selfish” reason for haranguing the gates of Heaven: She still has many great stories to film for our communal inspiration, edification and entertainment.
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In addition, Marilou’s film students at the Ateneo and at her own film institute need her guiding hand – and heart – to learn, not just how to make meaningful movies, but also how to do them ethically and with the same passion and generosity that have characterized her own film output.
Most “selfishly” of all, as a doting and devoted friend, I want to have more time to bask in Marilou’s ardent, antic aura, to empathetically revel in her love for life, and to “drown” in the cascade and waterfall and whirlpool and tsunami of her voluble vocabulary!
A day spent with Marilou is a lovely celebration of words and ideas and feelings expressed in the most deliciously liquid and aqueous of ways – culminating in a seemingly endless fireworks display of even more psychedelic words and emotions!