Walking on a Tightrope

The Binisaya Film Festival grew from pop-up screenings in beaches, rooftops, basements and basketball courts. How did founder Keith Deligero go against the tide?

The rst time had to meet lmmaker eith eligero, almost bailed. was in my third year o college, and the Cebuano director writer was in ited by my Philippine Cinema pro essor as a panelist or our makeshi t student lm est. Lined up in her laptop were the short lms we made, ser ing as our nal pro ect or the semester. one o us were lm ma ors the ma ority was re uired to take the sub ect, and took it as an electi e.

As each lm was screened, the pair who made it had to listen to eligero s eedback along with the whole class. espite being an aspiring lmmaker, ound mysel hesitating to submit our lm.

Aside rom a sudden change o script that made us cram the whole mo ie, we had to make do with a ery low budget and less than ideal e uipment. My classmates had SLR cameras, while could only use our old amily Handycam. O course was grate ul to be able to use something, but still elt a little behind my class.

As the credits o our lm started to roll, knew we were acing our doom. eligero would probably talk about how the editing was subpar how the story was cliche as uck how the shots were too grainy how the lighting was non e istent how we didn t know what we were doing. But ust like the redeeming arc o a coming o age story, he didn t say any o those things.

nstead, eligero asked about my in uences in writing the script, saying he saw di erent chunks o world cinema in our lm, which then led us to discuss the local and oreign icks we used as re erences in our student lm. t s not a bad thing, he clari ed.

His eedback ended with him helping me understand the potential had in storytelling starting rom what knew about lm and the resources had. Heck, he e en praised the old Handycam uality was stressing o er. Who knew my rst ace to ace session with a lmmaker wouldn t in ol e my dreams going down the drain?

t was only hours a ter that ace to ace when realized eligero was the one who spearheaded the Binisaya Film Festi al in . ery year, typically during the third uarter o the year, Binisaya heads to di erent schools and institutions to showcase regional lms that go against the commercial tide. According to Bisaya.org, the lm esti al aims to de elop a uni uely

Cebuano sensibility through its showcase o lms ranging rom Bisaya icks to Global Cinema unrestricted by the pressures o commercialism. These constraints may be the walls they re pertaining to in their Facebook page description breaking the walls o Filipino cinema.

One o these lms is To Siomai Lo e, a minute short that looked like it was shot using an old school camera, gi ing o a HS uality. Although steeped in romance, it used un amiliar aces or the main characters and hammered no tropes in the story ust some magical realism rooted in gayuma. t also probably took ust one take.

Films like To Siomai Lo e made me interested in independent cinema. watched the comedy Julie, which tackles a construction worker s coming out story. saw Biyernes Biyernes, Sabado Sabado, and omingo omingo, eature lms that wea e di erent narrati es o Cebuano lmmakers rom political satire to coming o age.

All these lms ha e been screened at the Binisaya Film Festival, a movement that started in 2009. Binisaya is an organization that promotes, e hibits, distributes and archives Cebuano and other Bisaya lms. ts inclusive nature in bringing out regional stories re ects its yearly lineup, so that even i you re not a local or have never even been to the place the lm was shot, the narrative still hits home.

very time nish a lm, always say to mysel that this will be the last one. But here am, says eligero. Peeking into his port olio, you ll see A Short History o a Few Bad Things, Babylon, Lily, and the memorable skalawags.

eligero s stellar lmography might hide the struggles he underwent ust to get his name out there. His 20 9 Cinema short lm A Short History o a Few Bad Things bagged nominations or Gawad rian or best lm, direction, and editing. Another one o his short lms, drama sci Babylon also bagged a Gawad rian nomination or best short lm in 20 . But he reveals, behind all

these awards, that he never had it easy. “In 2007, my friends and I made the short lm wan Init Pista sa Langit. That was our lm school. o workshops, no lm school, only that.

“I have watched T all my life. I mean, everything that is on

T , even those I don t like. And I don t like most of them, eligero uips, recalling what might have sparked his interest in lm.

“There was only one clear channel, and that channel was from Bacolod, not even Cebu. The other two channels were bathing in HF noise. I can probably enumerate old T commercials more than anyone I know. Growing up, I think, I might have wanted to be a director for T commercials. Maybe that was the reason why I took ne arts in advertising. uring a talk at the .GIFF Festival for ew Cinema in 20 9, he revealed that he made his own makeshift video e uipment a way of upgrading his style without going over budget. eligero s unorthodo encounter with lmmaking also re ects the origin of the Binisaya movement, which started out as a “ IY lm festival.

“Back when we started making lms, there were no local Cebuano platforms where we could screen the lms we made. We had to do it ourselves. Little did we know that the pop up screenings we did at the beach, on rooftops, basements and basketball courts would turn into a lm festival, eligero says.

“Since 200 to 2009, I have been forcing my friends to make a lmmaking scene in Cebu. The persistence turned into Binisaya in 2009. My friends Remton uasola, Idden de los Reyes and arcy Aguedo who were also lmmakers also forced their friends. This network of collaborators made it possible to screen different narratives. When they were starting, Hollywood inspired,

telenovela es ue, and mainstream Manila looking lms were being screened. “I think this is because these are what we were e posed to, he says.

But as years went by, Cebuano lmmakers, the audience and the organizers themselves were e posed to the in nite possibilities of cinema.

“Binisaya has always been keen on challenging the way we view cinema by putting together an e perience that champions Bisaya lms along with lms all over the Philippines and Asia, eligero e plains.

In an interview with a Cebu based publication, eligero made it clear that “we re not looking for the best lm. We re looking for strong voices. And it s true Binisaya has always been accepting of lms “no matter how long or short it is, whether it s mainstream or avant garde, crowd pleasing, or mindfuck.

Aside from giving young lmmakers a voice, Binisaya also “gave young lmmakers and the audience a party to e perience new cinematic inventions. When you try to submit a lm to Binisaya today, you ll read that they consider “other forms of cinema you invented a genre.

On Binisaya s Facebook, you can oin their ongoing open call for lms this year, with a deadline unannounced as of writing.

When asked how he was able to gather a community, eligero answers, “I don t know. It ust happened. Maybe it was the right timing.

But that doesn t mean it was a success with a snap of the ngers. Binisaya survived many problems. “If we get some funds, then good. If we don t, we still do it anyway. When a bunch of people do something passionately, that passion becomes infectious. People will come and volunteer to help with no strings attached.

This year will be the 0th edition of the festival, and eligero will be directing for the rst time and it s “still fucking IY.

“I think what makes contemporary Cebuano cinema distinct is that it s ust developing, eligero says, adding that even if it s been strong for decades, it still nestles in the margins of Philippine cinema. “It s a minority. Therefore, it s not yet tainted by commercialism. Cebuanos can make whatever the hell we want to make. We can invent our own cinematic language. We are still unconsciously inventing our own clich s. Binisaya has introduced a new generation of Cebuano lmmakers and inspired a new wave of storytellers from the Philippines.

Streaming sites are popping up faster than ever. But nothing beats the e perience of cinema. Lucky for us, the Binisaya movement has been dodging the bullets of commercialism and continuously serving uality stories and e perimental devices from different voices. Making a mark in the lm industry feels like a trip to the moon, but the festival s origin tells us it s okay to start small even if you re a beginner lmmaker with a diverse mi of in uences.

“It s going to be hard. All the forces will be against you but if you are passionate enough, nothing will stop you. But if you want to save yourself the trouble, ust rela and watch a movie, eligero says as I nally ask him for lmmaking advice. Because the rst time I had to meet him, I almost bailed. This is probably every beginner s dilemma when meeting their heroes of sorts afraid that an encounter might make or break their long kept aspirations.

But this Cebuano lmmaker s coming of age story, in the conte t of cinema, trumps our worries.

My conversation with eligero ends with him promoting the Binisaya Film Festival and all its online platforms. This signifies that ust like many of us beginners or not Binisaya is still a work in progress.