Present Confusion Campus Tour: Short Reviews of UPFI Thesis Films, Ateneo Video Open and Bagong Sibol Dos

Today we'll be talking about a bunch of films from the next generation of filmmakers: the four production theses of the UP Film Institute, Ateneo Video Open and Bagong Sibol Dos (produced in conjunction with UP Visayas.) Making films in the middle of a pandemic is still pretty difficult, even with the reduced alert level.

UPFI Production Theses

The UPFI thesis defense program was fully online and made available to the public. Much of the program consisted of defenses of non-production theses, either to pitch a movie idea, or to discuss a particular scholarly topic about film. Watching the former, even when there is no finished product (yet), is fascinating. Seeing the process of ideas to film, discussed and dissected by colleagues and fellow filmmakers, can be just as engaging as seeing the finished product itself.

Because of pandemic limitations, only four students managed to produce films. That in itself is quite the achievement, given the limitations of budget, location, and resources available to filmmakers at that time, much less younger, newbie filmmakers. There is the film Kubling Kulay, a story of repression made visual through its treatment of color. Films about pandemic anxieties were not in short supply - Sukat and Looped approached it in different ways. The former expressed these anxieties as claustrophobic spaces, often filled with various forms of violence; the latter expressed these anxieties as repetitive yet stagnant moments of time that blurs the boundaries between one minute and the next.

But my favorite of all four films is Mad Red, a documentary about a person (also the filmmaker's younger sister) living with a diagnosis that affects her menstrual flow. At first the film tackles how this person deals with their illness and how it is perceived by the people around her, but then it evolves into a larger conversation about how we still hesitate to talk about what are, for all intents and purposes, normal bodily functions and how that reflects on how society views women as a whole. It's so conceptually rich and so layered. It's honestly one of my favorite shorts of the year.

Ateneo Video Open

KTX recently re-aired the Loyola Film Circle's Ateneo Video Open, featuring short films from student filmmakers from all over the Philippines. The entire collection (more than four hours long!) contains films that I've seen before, such as Vincent Joseph Entuna's Ang Amomonggo sa Aton, and JT Trinidad's as if nothing happened (both are good for different reasons.)

Among the documentaries that caught my attention are Kambalingan, about Marawi and the city it used to be, as compared to the city as it is now, and Spacebound, which uses its viewpoint to look at how our children are being educated, how it has changed over the past two years, and how that is affecting their eventual future. There's also Pasilong, a film that shows how trauma, a degraded self image, and emotional pain can affect people over the years through words and distorted ideologies. 

There were also a bunch of narrative films that were fun to watch: Kubli and Sina Alexa, Xander at ang Universe approach the same topic (of sexual repression) in very similar ways, though the former is a lot more bleaker and tragic than the latter. Another film that approaches the same topic would be The Misfit, which takes a very cute and humorous approach to the whole thing. Films like Ang Huling Hukuman have concepts that are nothing new (a similar short was featured just last year), though it does pull a number of twists that are interesting. There are also films like Slapjack Confetti, which is mostly humorous nonsense but you can tell the filmmakers are having fun with the material. It's almost surprising the same collective of filmmakers were responsible for A Year to Breathe, a sci-fi film with visual effects that would rival many local productions. The latter two shorts are available on YouTube.

Other narrative films were more contemplative, such as Safety Shots and how it looks at footage that would otherwise be forgotten, or From You, 60 Years From Now, which is a spoiler onto itself, or No Exit, exploring the various social dimensions and repercussions of a sexual assault. And although I wasn't a big fan of Yours in a Variant (oh you sweet summer children), there's this quality to its naivete that interests me. I'd be interested if these filmmakers redid the film in 10 or so years to see how their views on love have changed.

Bagong Sibol Dos

Last but certainly not the least Bagong Sibol Dos has a lineup of shorts that, in all honesty, is the most impressive of the bunch given that these are student films! There's Itom Nga Bugas Kanaryo Nga Ugat and Biboy and the Sigbin in the City, which both used metaphor and myth to examine contemporary social issues (the former, also quite effective as a horror film).

There's also 'nara, a narrative film-as-therapy that is also a personal reflection on the filmmaker's own regrets, and the well-made and charming Always a Little Bit Mad, about the most timeless of stories: a boy and a girl. Longing and dance intertwine in Sayaw sang Buhi, reminiscent of one of my favorite local films Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa. And the downfall of a relationship intersects with interesting usage of split screen with on the rocks.

But perhaps the most impressive of all the shorts I've mentioned in this entire article is Maria Kydylee Torato's Si Oddie, a social realist pandemic story that hits very close to home. The storytelling at play is frankly impressive, peeling back layer by layer of its story until it reveals its bleak entirety.

There are many other films (and film ideas) that I've not mentioned in this piece, but I think they're all worth watching! Though Ateneo Video Open has finished, many short films are available elsewhere. Bagong Sibol Dos, on the other hand, has its last day today as of this writing, so please catch these very nice shorts while you can.