The advantage of romantic partners in indie filmmaking

Jun Lana (right) and Perci Intalan

In local indie filmmaking, the most effective director-producer tandems are those who are also romantic partners.

Such is the case between award-winning filmmaker Jun Robles Lana and his life partner of seven years, film-TV producer Perci Intalan.

“If you are a filmmaker, especially the kind who wants to pursue passion projects—the very personal ones with a niche audience—it’s important to have a producer who really believes in you, who is going to encourage you, and also find financiers for you,” he tells Inquirer Entertainment.

Lana says it’s not always easy for filmmakers to sell their own projects to financiers. “That’s why it’s also a big deal if you have a personal relationship with your producer, like if he is your husband, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend,” he explains.

Similar “effective tandems” in the industry are those of director Dodo Dayao and producer girlfriend Patti Lapus, Bradley Liew and producer wife Bianca Balbuena-Liew, Antoinette Jadaone and producer fiancé Dan Villegas.

“He understands where I’m coming from and how passionate I am about a particular project,” says Lana of Intalan, who is also a filmmaker. “It’s difficult to understand a filmmaker as to why he wants to work on a passion project, one that will not necessarily earn him money. Who is going to fight for you if you don’t have a producer who totally understands your personality and eccentricities?”

Lana adds: “Even outside the Philippines, in international film markets that I’ve attended where we pitched our projects, I noticed that partners are either married couples, best friends or mag-jowa! It’s because they have to really be in sync.”

“Who is going to produce a movie like ‘Kalel,15’? We hope to tour it in schools, but I don’t think we will be able to recoup our investment for at least 10 years.”