BREAKING out of the gloom that pervades Philippine cinema's recent and lingering production drought, once again pathblazer film auteur Crisaldo Pablo remains slavishly driven to churn out international gay-themed works that keep the country in the pink of health in the queer global scene.
Pablo's Sinehan Digitales just premiered in Manila the gay urban drama QUICK TRIP, the indie film outfit's latest installment in this year's series of Queeriosity Video Productions. The gripping realities of poverty in the city slums provide the same milleaus that entangle the brutish lives of characters that paraded in the reliable Filipino gay classics that in turn became film festival favoritess three decades ago. But the similarities stop there, as Quick Trip departs from the traditional formula of depicting queer Filipino sexuality with Pablo's own paradigm shift, his own new cinematic idioms.
Whereas hordes of flawless skinned exotic dancers desperate for money gyrate erotically in between bouts of battling crooked politicians and their hired killers lurking in dark corners of gay bars in celluloid soap operas of the last century, Quick Trip explores the redefined terrain of today's technology-driven queer clonedom. Cris (Topher Barreto) is a drop dead gorgeous rice cake with golden brown skin, yet he's not found caressing soapsuds across his groin on the dance stage. Instead he earns a bare minimum wage waiting on tables in a second-rate diner. We do not find either barely visible under the light of a disco ball a room packed with aging closet queens, invariably cynical and sex-starved yet have hearts of gold underneath their crusty exteriors. In this new millenium, we instead see in the glaring light of day his social climbing lover Dexter (Ian Atacador) carrying over his English language skills for a call center job into endless hours of chatting and texting with his gang of barhopping queens about the glam lifestyles of the globalized gay community.
If seen as one of the filmmaker's biographical essays, Quick Trip presents Pablo as a social realist who differs not only from the Brockas (director of Macho Dancer, Tatay Kong Nanay/Dad is My Mom) and Chionglos (Sibak and Twilight Dancer), masters of the past glorious heydays of gritty gay film. Pablo also markedly differs from the Filipino gay filmmakers whose major themes center on culture wars of sexual politics.
The 21st century’s bumper crop of sexy queer features and shorts from the country's indie scene dwells on the wit, humor and drama of effems taking revenge on the butch guys, the ugly ducklings defeating the beauty queens or the bottoms voting to rebel against tops, all so far removed from the drudgery of real life concern for earning a living. The main point of conflict in Quick Trip is as real as today's financial meltdown on Wall Street - boyfriends splitting and the meaning of love and romance corrupted because of money problems as front and center of an entire story, minus the business suits and weekend romps at a Malate gay bar.
In harrowing detail, Pablo decidedly latches his teeth on the conflicts between the dirt poor underbelly of queer Manila and its ambitious gay middle class and by extension, the upper classes whose values chase the digital dreams and rainbow pride of white folks abroad. The film opens with Dexter dumping Cris when Cris has to forego their anniversary dinner in favor of buying diabetes medication for his sick mother. The rest of the story unfolds in a span of 24 hours as Cris tries to win back Dexter through texting, how else? Along the way, he has to help mother pack their belongings before they get evicted from their shanty, moonlight as a garbage recycler and relieve his love pangs by cruising for men in a dilapidated cinema.
The flow of time in the real world of a Cris unable to stop his day to mope on his hardships is captured by a voyeuristic camera that follows the nuance of his every action. This real time story telling movements are made even more painfully dreary as the character encounters situations where he has to shell out the few bucks in his pocket. After Cris picks up Andro (Andro Morgan), his trick from the moviehouse for the night, they go on a merry goose chase on foot trying to find the cheapest motel room. Their oddly romantic city tour leads to a world that would depress a Pink dollar marketing queer - it is a world where the concepts disposable income and upwardly mobile urban professional simply do not jive with the realities of a paltry paycheck of a typical Filipino single head of household.
Having the potential of redefining the personal politics of the Filipino gay filmmaking is not the same as saying this film does not have its fair share of skin. After baring the cruelties of the urban jungle, Barreto and Moran get themselves exposed in a torrid clash of muscle and skin, the sex made all the more tense under the crush of their respective burdens. Morgan holds his own forte as the perennial bad boy of other films directed by Pablo.
Newcomer Baretto's raw Asian innocence and sexy sultryness is sure to signal the return of dusky hunks to Philippine showbiz that has seen domination by Eurasian-looking actors during the past short decade. Pablo has certainly struck gold in Barreto with the depth of his acting despite this being his first strike in any movie role.
Contact information
Quick Trip is currently being promoted in major gay and lesbian film festivals around the globe. Contact Sinehan Digitales for screening opportunities, merchandising and distribution through email crisaldopablo@yahoo.com or call +632 9720474. The trailer can be downloaded from this website: http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=OEXXpce3_Zs
Quick Trip is a Queeriosity Video Project, a series of independently produced LGBT-themed media products aimed at promoting positive representation of the queer community in Philippine cinema.
Quick Trip is also a product of the Sinehan Indie Summer Workshop (SISW) for 2008. Every year, SISW provides low-cost on the job training and learning opportunities for students enrolled in or graduated from mass communication schools in Manila with real world film management and production skills beyond textbook-based only designs available in schools. For many participants, SISW provides the much needed and critical introduction to actual media job skills that can qualify them for major responsibilities in studios.
This is the credit information for Quick Trip:
Assistant Director: James Harvey Estrada
Associate Producer: James Harvey Estrada
Director of Photography: Jeyow Evangelista
2nd cameraman/gaffer: Jonathan Batoy
Editor: Crisaldo Pablo
Production coordinator: Rodel Dapulag
