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Mario Bautista, has been with the entertainment industry for more than 4 decades. He writes regular columns for People's Journal and Malaya.

Jul 24, 2013

A Primer On The Five Cinemalaya Entries In The Director Showcase's Category

THE CINEMALAYA entries will start showing at the CCP, Trinoma and Greenbelt 3 theatres starting this Saturday. To serve as a guide in the Director’s Showcase category (for directors who have helmed 3 full length films and above), here are the five entries.

“EKSTRA, THE BIT PLAYER” – Directed by Jeffrey Jeturian. This is one day in the life of a marginalized extra, Loida Malabanan (played by Vilma Santos), while shooting a soap opera. We see her interacting with her co-extras and the people involved in the production: from the stars to the directors. Big name stars appear in cameo roles. Marian Rivera and Piolo Pascual are ill-starred lovers in a soap that they’re shooting. Cherie Gil is the kontrabida who beats up Loida. Pilar Pilapil appears as the diva on whom Vilma gets starstruck and makes her forget her lines. Richard Yap also has a cameo role as the star of another teleserye where Loida serves as a bit player. Other guest stars are Eula Valdes and Cherry Pie Picache.

“AMOR Y MUERTE” – Directed by Cesar Evangelista based on the script of Jerry Gracio. An erotic costume drama set in the 16th century, "Amor Y Muerte" ("Love and Death") is about the initial encounter between the Indios (natives) and their colonizers (Spaniards) and examines their conflicting views on love, passion, religion, and sexuality. Markki Stroem is Diego de Saavedra, a young Spanish officer married to dusky native beauty Amor Salonga (Althea Vega), an earthy woman who has no reservations in giving and receiving pleasure while in the throes of lovemaking, typical of women that time who’s not yet restrained by Catholic notions on sin and guilt coming from the pleasures of sexual desire. She is very noisy when making love, scandalizing the town friar (Kuya Manzano) who orders Diego to tell his wife to keep quiet. Curtailed by the priest, Amor finds new love in a hunky native boy (Adrian Sebastian), resulting into a deadly love triangle that ends in violence.

“LIARS” – Directed by Gil Portes, script by Sennedy Que. Based on a a true story about a Little League baseball team from Zamboanga that won in the World Championship series in 1992 but was stripped of its title when a local journalist revealed that they cheated, the film is about the quest for truth and the evil effects of lying and cheating. The fictional version is now set in Smokey Mountain, with Alessandra de Rossi playing Eloisa, the journalist who exposes the truth and later questions the validity of what she did. It focuses on two boys who are part of the baseball team, Dante (John Michael Bunapos) and Ato (John Harley Hicana), the best of friends who parted ways when Dante is replaced by a new boy who even took away his identity. The film also examines the aftermath of the cheating, with the boys now grownups played by Dax Alejandro and Ping Medina, respectively.

“SANA DATI” - Written and directed by Jerrold Tarog of “Confessional”, “Mangatyanan”, “Aswang”. This is a drama about a woman, Andrea Gonzaga, played by Lovi Poe, who’s about to marry TJ Trinidad. But on their wedding day, she meets the videographer, Paulo Avelino, who reminds her of her past true love who has died, Benjamin Alves. Because of this, she has second thoughts about her wedding, making this a film about bittersweet compromises and pivotal decisions.

“PORNO” - Directed by Adolfo Alix Jr., written by Ralston Jover. It’s about people involved in the underground and illegal industry of making of local porn sold on video as “scandals”.

With pornography, they try find the ultimate joy in their empty lives, making it a safe haven where passion and love mean humanity, ecstasy means enlightenment. Angel Aquino plays a transgender named Alessandra who had a sex transplant operation in the past. Even though she gained a new body, she can still feel the stigma of her past identity. Carlo Aquino plays Alecks, a teenager who works as dubber for sex footage they record secretly in sleazy hotels where lovers on a tryst have no inkling that their lovemaking is being recorded by hidden cameras. Yul Servo is Xander, an assassin who loves watching porn, while Rosanna Roces is his willing sex partner. This film will only be shown in CCP and not in Trinoma or Greenbelt due to delicate scenes of nudity and sex.

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