The Films of Khavn De La Cruz

The camera zips around a small room, then down the stairs, looks around the surroundings and then rises above the building to give a view of the neighbourhood. From the street view to the sky, then back down before settling for a long ride inside a van. The film is Khavn’s Bamboo Dogs (2018) and the van is different from that shown in Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay yet the air is sinister, not murderous but it feels ominous. What follows is a potent mix of corruption and crime all depicted in cool lighting, a stylish flourish that also lights up Khavn’s earlier film Ruined Heart (2014), shot by master cinematographer Christopher Doyle. 

The lovely cool colours of these two films contrast the black and white images that populate Khavn’s other films. In fact, he isn’t afraid of depicting the ugliness of the world around him, a world where violence is abundant but that violence is cyclical and follows a long history dating back to the barbaric colonial times. This aspect is illustrated by Balangiga: Howling Wilderness which is based on a historical incident involving a colonial massacre.

In just a few films, it is clear that Khavn has his own unique style, one where music plays a key part and that is because Khavn composes the music for a lot of his own films. In fact, it was the music Khavn worked on another director’s film that first drew my attention to him. Khavn worked on the music for John Torres’ award-winning Todo Todo Teros (2006). Torres’ film opened a new path for my journey into the new Philippine cinema that was making the rounds at film festivals during the 2006-2010 time period. During these few years, I sought out as many Filipino films as I could at film festivals and some finds included Jeffrey Jeturian’s brilliant The Bet Collector (2006), Brillante Mendoza’s Tirador and Foster Child (2007), Lav Diaz’s Death in the Land of Encantos (2007), Adolfo Alix Jr.’s Adela (2008), Raya Martin’s Independencia, in addition to Khavn’s Squatterpunk (2007).

Over the last decade, I focused more on the works of Lav Diaz and Mendoza while stopped following the works of Khavn.  As it turns out, Khavn has been incredibly prolific over the last decade and has directed more than a dozen features (fiction and documentaries). A correction was in order so a mini-spotlight of the following features:

Bamboo Dogs (2018)
Balangiga: Howling Wilderness (2017)
Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember (2016)
Ruined Heart (2014)

The availability of digital cameras played a key part in the production of the Filipino movies I encountered in the 2006-2010 time period as the digital medium allowed new directors to make films on a shoe-string budget and get their voices out. A point highlighted by John Torres when he won the VIFF Dragons and Tigers Award for Todo Todo Teros in 2006. When Torres was given his cheque for $5000, he remarked that money would enable him to make 10 more movies! The rise of digital cameras also played a key part in the evolution of Khavn’s cinema, an aspect on display in his “Digital Dekalogo” manifesto where he writes:

“But technology has freed us. Digital film, with its qualities of mobility, flexibility, intimacy, and accessibility, is the apt medium for a Third World Country like the Philippines. Ironically, the digital revolution has reduced the emphasis on technology and has reasserted the centrality of the filmmaker, the importance of the human condition over visual junk food.”

When discussing films that show the harsh lives of ordinary Philippine people, I often end up drawing lines back to the works of Lino Brocka. This real or imaginary line to Brocka’s films can be drawn from the works of Lav Diaz and Brilliante Mendoza. I can now drawn this line to Brocka from Khavn’s films. In addition, Khavn’s films overlap with some aspects of Lav Diaz and Raya Martin’s works (Independencia) in their depiction of colonialism’s brutal aspects while having shades of Mendoza's works in highlighting corruption and poverty. However, these references form just a subset of Khavn’s entire arsenal of filmmaking. Ruined Heart is a perfect example of his divergence from other Filipino directors. The film is an immersive musical journey where hardly any dialogue is spoken. The few words that are heard are akin to poetry. 

A love story against the backdrop of a criminal world is depicted in a musical video format. The baggage of dialogue isn’t required because cinema has long fed us enough to know what is happening. Instead, we can get lost in a world of dazzling images and pulsating music. This world is a complete contrast to that of his other films and illustrates that Khavn has a lot of creative variety to offer. This is again emphasized with his 2020 film, Orphea, co-directed with Alexander Kluge. 

Khavn's films won’t be found on the regular streaming options heavily used in 2020 but thankfully, there is a place to view his films legally:

Khavn De La Cruz films on vimeo demand.

Two films by Lino Brocka

Manila in the Claws of Light (1975, Philippines, Lino Brocka)
Insiang (1976, Philippines, Lino Brocka)

“The film is the same….It’s your eyes that have changed.” — Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar)

The above words from Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory came to my mind recently when I revisited two of Lino Brocka’s essential films. In Almodóvar’s film, the film director Salvador (Antonio Banderas) praises the acting of his lead Alberto (Asier Etxeandia) more than three decades after their movie Sabor came out. Back in the day, Salvador disliked Alberto’s performance in Sabor and stopped talking to him. When a local cinematheque plans to hold a screening of Sabor, Salvador decides to revisit the film and mentions that he appreciates Alberto’s performance and he feels it has gotten better. The above line is the response to Salvador because it is still the same film but Salvador’s life has changed and thereby his ability to critique his own film.

I had a similar reaction when I revisited Brocka’s films after more than a decade. I found my appreciation of these films has increased with time. They are still the same films albeit I saw them in a better print. It is in fact my eyes that have changed and I found it exciting to compare the newer Filipino movies with that of Brocka's and draw a line from his cinema to that of directors he has clearly influenced such as Lav Diaz and Brillante Mendoza. Back in the late 1970’s, Brocka put Philippine cinema on the map and Insiang was the first Philippine film to play at the Cannes Film Festival (1978).

Some reading material on these films:

1. Cinema Scope
2. Culture Trip
3. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation
4. Criterion
5. Noel Vera, Insiang
6. Noel Vera, Manila in Claws of Light

Cinema of the Philippines, Part I

Asian Spotlight, Filipino Films

Two years I had not seen a single film from the Philippines. Then at VIFF 2006, I came across Jeffrey Jeturian's Kubrador (The Bet Collector) and was left in awe. Kubrador, shot on digital camera, followed the lead character Amy (played by Gina Pareño) as she went around a shanty town slum collecting money from her neighborhood to place on a local numbers game (Jeuteng). We watch Amy move from street to street, gossiping along the way, and honestly talking people out of their hard earned money. The people Amy hits for money are already poor and winning the Jeuteng lottery is their ticket to a better life. I enjoyed the verite style and liked how the camera invited us to spend some time in Amy's life. Also at VIFF 2006, John Torres won the Dragons and Tiger Award for his debut feature Todo Todo Teros, a film that I saw shortly after VIFF. Torres' film was an interesting blend of video journal, fiction, documentary, improvised dialogue and poetry.

I was looking forward to seeing some Filipino films at VIFF 2007 and I was not disappointed -- I loved Brillante Mendoza's two films Slingshot & Foster Child. But I was still woefully shy of knowing much about Filipino cinema and had not gotten anywhere near a list of some well known films.

Part I features 4 titles:

A good personal starting point for a Filipino spotlight had to be with the earlier films of Brillante Mendoza. And luckily I managed to find his first two features Masahista (The Masseur) and Kaleldo (Summer Heat).

Macho Dancer -- I wanted to pick a film by a Lino Brocka, a film-maker I had read about quite a bit but not seen anything from until last week. Interestingly last week, Mendoza's new film Serbis was selected in the Cannes 2008 competition category. The last time a Filipino film was selected for the Cannes competition was one by Lino Brocka.

Naglalayag (The Silent Passage) directed by Maryo J. De los Reyes

Earning a living in the dark:

It turns out that Mendoza's The Masseur & Brocka's Macho Dancer form an appropriate double bill as both are about men who leave their small town and head to the city where they sell their bodies to earn a living. In The Masseur, the lead character has to leave his home to work in a massage parlour while the main character in Macho Dancer works in a nightclub, pleasuring men and dancing his way to their hearts. Both films show a slice of the harsh reality in the Philippines but differ in their technique and intention -- The Masseur splices scenes from the character's present with his past and draws parallels between sexuality and certain rituals (funeral rites), while Macho Dancer is a linear narrative that is more interested in depicting the story of the main characters.

Relationships:

In Kaleldo (Summer Heat) Mendoza shows the lives of three sisters and their affairs and relationships. The film is divided into three sections (Wind, Earth and Fire) with each element representing the different personalities of the women. Hot, sultry, emotional and an engaging drama.

The core story of Naglalayag is about the relationship between an older woman and a young man but the love story is surrounded by topics of class difference, crime and poverty.

---

Film (Year, Director): Rating out of 10

The Masseur (2005, Brillante Mendoza): 6
Kaleldo (2004, Brillante Mendoza): 8
Macho Dancer (1988, Lino Brocka): 6.5
Naglalayag (2004, Maryo J. De los Reyes): 7