Tales of disinformation, red-tagging, and martial law are featured in three competing full length films in the 21st Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.
Cinemalaya as a platform for political commentary opened the doors for ‘Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan’ by Dustin Celestino, ‘Bloom Where You Are Planted’ by Noni Abao, and ‘Padamlagan’ by Jenn Romano for this year’s Cinemalaya with the theme ‘Layag sa Alon, Hangin, at Unos.’
‘Hydra’ divides itself into eight chapters, each orbiting a different figure caught in the undertow of political loss as four Filipinos cope with life after a painful political defeat.
Kiko (Jojit Lorenzo), a strategist whose cynicism threatens to calcify into apathy; David (Zanjoe Marudo), a speechwriter whose faith in reason falters against the machinery of lies; Bea (Dolly de Leon), a history teacher tasked with teaching a past her nation refuses to remember; and Mela (Mylene Dizon), a lawyer forced to reconcile her family’s complicity with her own ideals.
They struggle with the shifting political landscape, dissecting the loss of history through technology and changing social norms, while desperately trying figure out where hopes lies when the truth no longer holds power.
The film navigates the complexities of a state consumed by disinformation, historical amnesia and revisionism for which the characters grapple with their past, and affects them in the face of adversity.
Celestino sketches the emotional geography of disillusionment as each one searches for purpose while truths fade, histories blur, and memory itself becomes an act of defiance.
Celestino associated history with Greek mythological characters: Hydra, Sisyphus, Cassandra, and Tantalus.
He used hydra as ‘a monolith with a million faces and a metaphor for disinformation [a monster with many heads that tell different lies], for persistent corruption [cut off one head, two will emerge], and for our private, personal, and varied relationship with history.’
Like Sisyphus, we may keep pushing our boulder uphill only to watch it roll back down. Like Tantalus, we reach for dreams that seem to drift farther away the closer we get.
‘When hope can no longer be found in the outside world, it must come from within, not as a fleeting emotion, but as a creative and defiant decision; a divine will to create light out of darkness. Hope inspires us to act, to believe, and to love. So even if the struggle against evil and injustice lasts a lifetime, a life lived with love, belief, and action toward goodness is a life of immeasurable value and meaning,’ Celestino said.
‘Red-tagging’ is the focus of Abao’s ‘Bloom Where You Are Planted.’
The Cagayan Valley Region serves as the dedicated workplace of Agnes Tadeo Mesina (a development worker), the chosen home of Amanda Echanis (a jailed mother-artist-activist), and the birthplace of Randy Malayao (a slain peace consultant). Yet, they find themselves unable to return home: one is relentlessly pursued by the government, another is imprisoned, and the third is killed on his journey home. Mesina and Malayao were both my colleagues from the University of the Philippines.
The film exemplified the pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Deduro v. Maj. Gen. Vinoya (GR 254753, July 4, 2023) that ‘red-tagging is a threat to people’s life, liberty, and security.’
Labeling a person ‘red’ often comes with frequent surveillance, direct harassment, and in some instances, eventual death. The Court stressed that being associated with communists makes a red-tagged person a target of vigilantes, paramilitary groups or even state agents. It also noted that red-tagging uses threats and intimidation to discourage ‘subversive activities.’
‘Padamlagan’ (which means ‘night light’ or ‘overnight vigil’ in Bicolano) by Jenn Romano is set just days before the declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972, the film follows the desperate search of Doring (Ely) for his son Ivan (Esteban), who goes missing after the collapse of the Colgante Bridge during the fluvial procession of the Peñafrancia festival. It claimed the lives of 138 devotees and onlookers.
The imposition of Martial Law caught Naga City by surprise as it was still mourning the victims of the Colgante Bridge collapse and caring for the injured. The city felt the repression through the closure of local radio stations and media outlets along with the arrest of Naga’s citizens that aggravated the disaster.
Amid the heavy barrage of false information both online and offline, there is an urgent need for concerted efforts to assert the truth and combat disinformation and historical amnesia/revisionism.