Story of Inquirer lensman in Mae Paner’s film on EJK to premiere in Cinemalaya 2021

Scenes from the movies (clockwise): “He Who Is Without Sin,” “Highest Peak,” Mae Paner in “Tao Po,” and “Love and Pain in Between Refrains”

While the annual Cinemalaya fest will not be showcasing full-length features in competition this year because of the pandemic, its organizers made sure to include in the lineup four films that have never been screened locally under its Premieres section, festival director Chris Millado announced on Wednesday.

One of these is Mae Paner’s (aka Juana Change) social monologue “Tao Po,” which features four individuals who, at some point in their lives, have experienced or witnessed extrajudicial killing (EJK). One is a photojournalist, whose story Paner said she based on Raffy Lerma (formerly from Inquirer, which published his now-viral photo titled “Pieta”).

“Another character is Nanay Rosing, a Zumba instructor, who witnessed 14 uniformed men enter their house and shoot her husband and child. The third character is a policeman who turned into a vigilante. He is convinced that while his job as a police officer enables him to feed and care for his family, he has a bigger responsibility when it comes to keeping his community safe. The last character is named Vanessa, whose parents were killed right in front of her.”

‘Senseless deaths’

According to Paner, “Tao Po” used to be a stage play she cowrote with Maynard Manansala in 2017. “I had a hard time sleeping because I was seeing all these senseless deaths in the news. I’ve reached a point when I no longer felt anything about it. As an artist, this scared me even more, so Maynard and I did research on extrajudicial killings and tagged along with what are called night crawlers, or those who go out every night to respond to news of killings,” she explained.

Paner said it was good that she was able to turn the stage play into a film when she had the chance because this enabled her to show it to a bigger audience, even while during the pandemic. “This was first screened at CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines). It has joined a festival in Australia, and was screened in six countries in Europe,” she beamed. “Tao Po” will start streaming at the Cinemalaya on Sept. 3.

The three other full-length features are: Arnel Barbarona’s family drama “Highest Peak,” Jason Paul Laxamana’s dramatic film “He Who Is Without Sin,” and Jay Altarejos’ noir film “Love and Pain in Between Refrains.” Asked to share something about his film “Highest Peak,” Barbarona said: “Around 75 percent of the film was shot in Mt. Apo (in Davao del Sur). It is the first feature-length film made on the tallest mountain in the country.

“Its theme, similar to most of what I’ve done before, is about our lumad brothers. It is also about how they are able to coexist peacefully with other settlers and those from other towns. The characters in this movie are traumatized because of an accident. This will be tackled throughout the film, which depicts their journey as they ascend Mt. Apo.”

Screening from Aug. 7 to 14, the film stars Dax Alejandro, Mara Lopez, Henyo Ehem, among others.

Before the lockdowns

According to Laxamana, “He Who is Without Sin” is special to him because it was the last one he shot before the pandemic lockdown. “I’m glad it will finally be screened in a festival that shapes me to be the filmmaker I am now, Cinemalaya,” he declared.

The film is about Martin (Elijah Canlas), an aspiring broadcast journalist who finally got to meet his idol reporter (Enzo Pineda). “During their meeting, however, a lot of questionable things happened. The film is sort of an examination of Martin’s thought process at the time when the person he looks up to the most ends up not being the respectful guy he thought. It shows Martin’s various reactions in the different stages of denial, anger and self-blame.”

“He Who Is Without Sin” streams from Aug. 15 to 21.

Meanwhile, Altarejos’ “Love and Hate in Between Refrains” is a romantic film “bonded with music and violence.” The director explained: “It deals with the psychology of the abused and the abuser, in the cycle of violence. It doesn’t dwell much on why they continue to love each other but on the cyclical nature of violence; as well as on how we become addicted to this particular kind of relationship.”

Altarejos further said: “Since the topic is very complicated and delicate, we’ve decided to tell the story in a very ‘minimalist’ way. The shots are kind of claustrophobic but are framed beautifully. The colors in every scene is our allegory to the feeling when we are in love—our surroundings can look blindingly colorful. At the same time, the story is told in a nonlinear way to show the cycle of abuse and violence in a relationship. It is like a refrain that’s always being repeated in a song.”

Challenges

The film, which streams from Aug. 22 to 28, features Oliver Aquino, Elora Españo, Richard Quan, Natileigh Sitoy, among others.

“If it wasn’t the pandemic, we would have been at our nicely lit and very scenic Silangan Hall [of the CCP], sharing a simple buffet and meeting our filmmakers face-to-face. As you know, in this 17th edition of the Cinemalaya we continue to be online because of the many challenges we’re facing in relation to production and public gatherings,” Millado explained to reporters during a virtual media gathering.

This year’s edition will showcase 13 short films in the competition section.

“Our finalists were slated to screen their competition films last year, including this second batch, but they have decided to postpone their shoots until there is a better time. So I hope by 2022, Cinemalaya will have not only 10 feature films in competition but 20. That is the reason these premieres of full-length features are especially significant this year, along with the 13 short films, which we consider our highlight,” he said.

Tickets for the Premieres are priced at P250. You can get them at ktx.ph.