Suchergebnisse

A Review of Cine: Spanish Influences on Early Cinema in the Philippines (2003), Quezon City: National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Film: American Influences on Philippine Cinema (2011), Mandaluyong City: Anvil Publishing, Inc.

With the rise of indie cinema in the Philippines, many say that another golden age is again in the making, and, like its predecessor, the films are being produced in the midst of widespread poverty and political instability. Understandably, a significant number of indie films has consciously returned to and explored the limits of the urban realist film of the 'golden age' (1975-1984), revisioning city spaces and signifying patterns in Philippine and global film cultures. The essay has three intricately connected sections. On the one hand, it delineates the shifting contexts of Philippine and global film cultures and situates current indie cinema in these contexts. On the other hand, by considering several key films, it traces the development and revisions of urban realism from its birth until today and reflexively problematizes the critical discourses that define and are defined by such realism.

This paper aims to compare the narrative form and themes of folk epic (as typified by Labaw Donggon) and the contemporary fantasy-adventure film (as typified by the four Enteng Kabisote films). Labaw Donggon, an epic from the Sulod society of Central Panay, possesses all the universally decipherable elements of the epic narrative. On the other hand, the Enteng Kabisote films' narrative forms, themes, social contexts, and function may be generalized as applicable to most, if not all, of the other fantasy-adventure films at the turn of the century. The four films are found to be episodic like ethnoepics as they have loosely connected episodes, adventurous detours, and skirmishes forestalling a final battle. The contemporary fantasy-adventure film is also found to be cyclical with its repetitions and recreations, novel retellings, sequels and prequels, and the addition of new episodes and characters. As typified by the Enteng Kabisote films, the contemporary fantasy-adventure film perpetuates a narrow, even muddled, sense of nation. It has shrunk its vision into the comfort zone of the family, insecure about and unsure of the individual's and the nation's abilities to aspire for heroism and expansion. Instead of expanding the oft-repeated centrality of the family in the ethnoepic, the fantasy-adventure film has remained fixated on this theme and has neither widened, deepened, nor problematized it.

With the rise of indie cinema in the Philippines, many say that another golden age is again in the making, and, like its predecessor, the films are being produced in the midst of widespread poverty and political instability. Understandably, a significant number of indie films has consciously returned to and explored the limits of the urban realist film of the 'golden age' (1975-1984), revisioning city spaces and signifying patterns in Philippine and global film cultures. The essay has three intricately connected sections. On the one hand, it delineates the shifting contexts of Philippine and global film cultures and situates current indie cinema in these contects. On the other hand, by considering several key films, it traces the development and revisions of urban realism from its birth until today and reflexively problematizes the critical discourses that define and are defined by such realism. Keywords: Philippine cinema, realism, city studies, film culture