Self-parody is hit indie’s feisty paradigm

EUGENE Domingo (third from left) with fellow “Septic” cast members JM de Guzman, Cai Cortez and Kean Cipriano

Indie movies are hailed as the salvation of the Filipino movie industry, but insiders know that the independent film scene has its share of clunkers and shysters. The more embarrassing tics and shticks on the indie scene includes the exploitation of poverty situations for the delectation of judgmental cineastes abroad—the better to fly high on the international film festival circuit.

This exploitative bent is roundly and even gleefully satirized in “Ang Babae sa Septic Tank,” the Cinemalaya prize winner that has become one of the few indie productions to do well on mainstream release.

‘Authentic’ spirit

The satire is so self-critical that it sometimes stings—but that’s all to the good, since the indie scene has spawned its own share of cinematic shysters who are too “wise” for our own good.

Some introspection and self-derision are definitely in order, if the scene’s practitioners want to reclaim their authentic spirit as alternative filmmakers.

(Incidentally, the exploitation of poverty issues and situations can also be seen at work in quite a number of ostensibly well-meaning “social documentaries” on TV.)

Director Marlon Rivera and scriptwriter Chris Martinez should be cheered for their spot-on spoof of indie filmmakers who have sold their souls to the international-festival imps. Very occasionally, however, they revel too much and for too long on some of their droll conceits, like the overlong suite of sequences in which a “musical version” of their poverty plot is unfurled.

But those few moments of overkill are easy to overlook as the film’s more spot-on elements hold sway. To us, the best bit in the poverty charade is the dumpsite scene in which the indie project’s director and producer dance ecstatically around their perfectly dirty location—only to scream in horror as they see a gang of squatters and goons cannibalizing their car!

Serves them right, too. They revel in the slum community’s extreme poverty, because it’s their ticket to international fame and fun on the festival circuit—but, they’ve forgotten the dire consequences of that deadly poverty, until it nastily intrudes into their own existence.

The production’s self-spoofing proclivity is made even more pointedly ludicrous when it comes to bear on the poverty movie’s star, Eugene Domingo—who gleefully, even ruthlessly, spoofs herself. Or, at least, the movie’s version of her, a “sincere and humble” actress who hasn’t been blinded by fame and fortune—but actually has!

Acting showcase

She agrees to star in the film because she believes in it, but it soon becomes clear that she just wants a great acting showcase for herself—and her own ticket (business class, please) to fly to all those glamorous festivals abroad!

While pretending to be humble and focused only on the movie’s artistic merits, the star proceeds to insist on her own inputs and changes—that end up making the film anything but genuinely artistic!

Of course, Eugene gets her comeuppance in the end, when she falls into the septic tank cited in the movie’s title, where she could literally drown in excrement—but, not before turning in a horrendously horrible final performance that could very well constitute its own pool and pile of cinematic s–t!