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I took the lovely trip to Cinema 76 at Anonas in Quezon City to see Director Alvin Yapan's latest work called HULAGWAY: Dokyumentaryo ng mga Wika at Kulturang Filipino (A documentary of Filipino Language and Culture) a few days ago. Dr. Yapan was tapped by the National Commitee on Language amd Translation under the offices of NCCA (The National Comission for the Culture and the Arts) to direct this film.
Hulagway means "a portrait" and this film lengthily has taken a look at the person, how one lives, how they communicate with their peers or the community. There are also a lot of metaphorical representation of their struggles, even if they're literally not working with a script, the conversations was molded off how language was used as a tool to enrich lives with stories, songs and poems deeply rooted in culture.
Needless to say, he's a genius when it comes to really complex artsy topics like these and interpreting it for cinema must have been a tall task. His treatment in telling this one is like a documentary. He anchors it with two characters Consuelo (played by Sue Prado) and Robert (which is played by Kalil Almonte). They took the long hard trek to far flung communities in the eastern side of Isabela (up north) and islands off Palawan.
Imagine, they started this in 2018 and had to work together with only 15 other crew carrying with them loads of equipment to capture unadulterated views, communities and the few men and women who still have a grasp of the dying languages Dupaninan Agta and Tandulanen Tagbanua. This is officially the most difficult film Alvin Yapan has ever made, he made mention of this during the talk we had after the screening. Initially, they had planned to include 6/7 of them (dialects/languages) but the material was too precious to cut off the block. It was also a little too tedious as it involved time consuming research, with little information from various universities (mostly from outside the country) who have conducted studies about them in previous years, they roughed the process of filming and took on talking to the few descendants left who still have a grasp of the language. My favorite scene was the boat traversing a line of mangroves in Palawan, they talked about that on the video.
Here's the press conference in two parts where they explained the film and the cause of saving the dialects from these two regions.
During the latter part of the press conference I asked about what concrete plans they have about saving the dying dialect, and they replied that this is just the first step, to become aware, educated, and acknowledge that there is something precious to save.
The plan is to also have this film be viewed by educational institutions to not just prove its existence, but to formulate a way to find ways to have people teach these dialects and pass on to the next generation. To not lose their identity as IP, and celebrate their uniqueness, their differences, which makes them cool. If this sparks efforts to do so not just from the government, but the citizens of this country, then this film made its mark. Make sure to coordinate with NCCA if you want your school to be part of the film's tour in the coming months. There's more languages/dialects to save in the country, and telling their story is essential.
I was waiting for this, the project alone had me excited and in some way I was already so happy with the cast, but last night's reveal had us all dumbfounded. They kept it a secret for a long time, I was even there before the shoot and I had no idea he was even in the movie. We got the shock of our lives when a familiar face appeared, it was John Lloyd Cruz and I could hear the gasps from people in the back during the first teaser reveal.
The movie CULION is gunning for the last 4 slots in this year's Metro Manila Film Festival and the script from the legendary Ricky Lee, director Alvin Yapan and Producer Shandii Bacolod tells us about the life and love which happened in the leper colony in the 40's. Officially cured of it all in 2006, people had no grasp of how gorgeous CULION is. I have personally visited the place and it was just jaw dropping views, one after another, and the huge difference is its people whom the story will delve on. You will feel their welcoming vibe, much like any Filipino, they will talk about resilience, hope, of which they have shown the whole world they can do. Ms. Iza Calzado tells us how it all became so real for her, also for Jasmine Curtis Smith who plays the lead roles for the film. They got to connect with their characters and how they have shown their capacity to love despite of their condition. It showed the strength of their spirit, how they all have encompassed Hansen's disease and overcome adversities despite the stigma attached to the then incurable plight of people from around the country. There are a lot of stories which can be told, and are still being told now by residents in CULION. This should show you how they've all gone through that and become the proud people they are today. Here's part of the press conference and the reveal of the posters last night.
There will be a lot of things to watch out for especially iconic lines from characters in the film, take for example Ana (played by Ms Iza Calzado) who said "Sipingan mo ko, sipingan mo ko ng paulit ulit.." (which asks a man to make love to her again and again).
I also had the chance to talk to Papang Lee O'Brian whom I had the pleasure of asking a question about his role before they went to CULION, and I was glad to see how he got immersed with the people there after spending several shooting days in the island. He saw what we saw, what the treasure was, it was Culion's people. Their warmth and hospitality, their triumph over adversities, it was what made them all so endearing to anyone who visited the place. You will discover that too, aside from the island's beauty, when it shows on December hopefully as part of MMFF.
Heto na ang unang pasilip sa "Culion". #CulionTeaser Watch till the end.
Directed by Alvin Yapan
Story and Screenplay...
Posted by Culion on Monday, September 30, 2019
Oh and yes, this is so much more than John Lloyd alone, but dang, he just shocked us all.
Let me leave also what Ricky Lee told us would be the cure for the stigma, when I asked him about not being a doctor and what he thinks about curing the stigma, he replied "I am a doctor (Honoris Causa recently, everyone laughed). I could say the cure for the stigma is knowing that they are human too." I felt that.
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