Indie director’s latest project in limbo

DIRECTOR Mark Shandii Bacolod (center) pushed the cast over the edge, on the set in Zapote, Las Piñas.

Indie filmmaker Mark Shandii Bacolod has accepted the fact that his latest movie “Sponsor” will never see the light of a commercial run.

Although “Sponsor” was screened to a packed venue during last year’s Cinemalaya, its fate remains in limbo.

“My film was among the biggest crowd-drawers in Cinemalaya,” Bacolod recalled. “But I’m afraid it would be given an ‘X’ by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.”

He jokingly refers to “Sponsor” as his “soft-porn project”—primarily because of an explicit sex scene.

“I originally wanted to make a five-hour, unscripted, black-and-white film,” Bacolod recalled. “But I realized that I am no Lav Diaz.”

He made a shorter cut (1 hour and 40 minutes) for Cinemalaya’s Midnight Screenings section.

Bacolod related that foreigners have expressed interest in “Sponsor,” which tells the intersecting stories of various slum dwellers.

A financier wanted Bacolod to re-edit and reshoot the film, this time with a script. “But the original idea was to make it improvisational,” Bacolod pointed out.

Making the reshoot impossible are two cast members who have vanished since the film’s shoot last year.

(He tapped his friends, professional actors like Marife Necesito, Angelina Kanapi and Alchris Galura, to work with amateur actors from the community.)

“Love Mae, one of the amateur actresses, changed her name and address. John Brocka went back to the province,” Bacolod related.

Making matters worse, the film’s setting was practically erased from the map.

“We rented a squatters’ area near Zapote in Las Piñas,” he recounted. “When I went back recently for an ocular, I discovered that the entire barangay had been swept away by a typhoon. It was flooded. The place now looks totally different.”

He has come to terms with his film’s destiny. “I don’t mind if it goes straight to video. I just want the producer to break even. Making money was not my priority anyway.”

The pros regard “Sponsor” as one of their toughest projects, Bacolod said. “Angelina had a 20-minute confrontation scene. Marife had a long monologue as well. Alchris agreed to do nudity.”

Undaunted, Bacolod plans to revisit “Sponsor” with his new film, “Paano Magmahal ang Tumatalon na Kuneho.”

“It recounts a day in the life of male porn star whose bootleg movies are often sold in Avenida and Quiapo,” he said.

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