CINEMA OF COLORS FROM ILOILO
Cinemakulay showcased the that tell the narratives of been invisible works of queer independent filmmakers those who would have
Film has been a popular medium to tell LGBTQ+ stories and is one of the most effective ways to deepen awareness on their lives and issues. Thus, film showings have been an integral part of LGBTQ+ events, in which queer artists can showcase their artistry and tell their stories.
For this year’s Iloilo Pride, the Cinemakulay watch party opened the Western Visayan LGBTQ+ celebration and protest event, which happened online for the first time because of the coronavirus on the third week of October. “Cinemakulay showcased the works of queer independent filmmakers that tell the narratives of those who would have been invisible,” said legal researcher and human rights activist Marie Irish Inoceto, who is the chairperson of Iloilo Pride Team and secretary-general of Gabriela Panay-Guimaras. “This year, we chose to feature Slay, Yakap, 2015 and Julie. They tell the stories of love, acceptance, denial, loss and ultimately surviving a pandemic in keeping with this year’s theme of ‘PaglaumXGugma’ which means ‘hope and love.’”
These films show the diverse experiences of the LGBTQ+ community, which were rarely, if at all, tackled by and depicted in Philippine films before.
One of the side activities of the fifth Iloilo Pride March in partnership with with Youth Voices Count and Bahaghari, the Cinemakulay watch party was held on Facebook on 19 October, from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Included in the selection of short films and documentaries that focus on gender, rights, human struggle, peace, and the hardships of the LGBTQ+ community were two films by writer, filmmaker and LGBTQ+ advocate Cha Roque — Slay (2017, 52:26 minutes) and What I Would Have Told My Daughter If I Knew What to Say Back Then (2017, 12:31 minutes).
The documentary Slay is about Floyd Scott Tiogangco, described as a “homosexual trans-androgynous gender-queer Filipino performance artist,” who is “often judged and denied entry to public vehicles and establishments just because of his unique sense of style. The filmmaker explains that it “explores how gender expression is also grounds for discrimination in the Philippines, and how the idea of sexual orientation often comes with a boxed expectation of how a person’s gender expression should be.” On the other hand, What I Would Have Told My Daughter If I Knew What To Say Back is an experimental biographical work using over 13 years of home videos and showing “an imagined conversation with her daughter’s younger years.”
Julie by Gio Potes with Jasper Villasis and Andre Miguel Bongato is set in the current coronavirus pandemic. A young male s e x worker works a house sitter as well as a cybersex performer. He reminisces about life before the pandemic, particularly about a short warm moment with a trans woman named Julie.
In 2015 (2018, 14 minutes), filmmaker Eluna Cepeda tells the story of a lesbian couple making the most of their last day together before one of them leaves. Yakap (2017, 14 minutes), written and directed by Margo Manalo, tells about a young woman navigating the complications of coming out as a lesbian to her conservative mother.
These films show the diverse experiences of the LGBTQ+ community, which were rarely, if at all, tackled by and depicted in Philippine films before.