SCENE from “Estela (Wake: Subic)”
Three films on the Philippines are featured at the fifth Riviera Maya Film Festival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, ongoing until June 30. Apart from Lav Diaz’s “Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis,” Brillante Ma. Mendoza’s “Taklub” is also in the program.
The fest’s website related that Mendoza was able “to portray…the resilience of a country [in the face of] adversity…in a naturalistic tone” in “Taklub,” which is part of the Gran Publico section.
The fest’s website called Diaz’s “Hele” a “unique aesthetic experience for the viewer.” “Hele,” which is included in the Panorama Autoral section, is hailed as “a choral work where different stories merge as if they were nesting dolls.”
Meanwhile, American professor John Gianvito’s documentary, “Estela” (also known as “Wake: Subic”), is featured in the Seleccion Planetario. “Estela” is the second part of Gianvito’s “investigation” into the “environmental and social consequences of the military presence of the United States in the Philippines.”
While his 2006 docu, “Vapor Trail,” focused on the former Clark Air Base in Angeles, Pampanga, Gianvito’s latest film centers on the old Subic Naval Base in Olongapo, Zambales, and “delves into the plight of families who have been affected by pollution.”
The fest’s website described the docu as “an exercise against amnesia and serves as a cautionary tale” because what happened in the Philippines might also happen in other countries.
Gianvito is an associate professor of visual and media arts at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Bayani San Diego Jr.