MANILA, Philippines — Remember when Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz reunited via Instagram live a few days ago, sending their fans into a frenzy? Their reunion is actually a project with Antoinette Jadaone, the director herself revealed on Wednesday.
In an Instagram post, Jadaone revealed the livestream was an experiment titled “Unconfined Cinemas presents ‘Love Team’”, with her as director and Erwin Romulo, Philbert Dy and Dan Villegas as producers.
“The Unconfined Cinema was founded on the idea of exploring what else cinema could be, freeing our stories to be told outside of the traditional spaces and conceptual boundaries set by the last century of the medium,” Jadaone said about the project. “In this unprecedented time of quarantine, in a time when movie production is impossible, we found it especially pressing to find ways to tell our stories.”
Jadaone added that since love stories were always popular in Filipino cinema, their team wanted “to bring the feelings that those movies inspire” by bringing it to social media, especially Instagram since it was heavily used.
“This was a story told over two weeks, adapting and evolving to real-life events, integrating our genuine sentiments over the state that we’re in,” the director said.
“We are in a culture where the usually distinct line between reality and make-believe blur,” Jadaone added. “We started this story by stating that ‘any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is intentional.’And that remains true. It was the only way this was possible.”
The director then invited filmmakers and artists to join them in the “Unconfined Cinema” project, which will “explore the possibilities of cinema.”
Alonzo and Cruz went live on Instagram Monday night, where they exchanged playful Q&As, and even exchanging lines from their best movies.
In February, the two reunited for a live script reading of “That Thing Called Tadhana.”
‘Tadhana’ live script reading reunites John Lloyd, Bea on Valentine’s Day
The two have had a history of projects together, dating back to 2002 with the teleserye “Kay Tagal Kang Hinintay” Their last project was 2015’s “A Second Chance”, the sequel to the much-beloved “One More Chace” released in 2007.