Khavn Dela Cruz curates 20-film Lino Brocka retrospective in Portugal

One of the favorite songs of the late National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Lino Brocka (1939-1991) was “What I Did For Love” from the 1970s musical, “A Chorus Line.”

This we learned from auteur-novelist-poet-musician Khavn dela Cruz, who did a series of interviews with people who worked with one of the greatest and influential Filipino directors that ushered in the Second Golden Age of Philippines Cinema. 

Dela Cruz is curating a retrospective titled “Lino Brocka: Kill the National Artist,” running from October 15 to 25 in Lisbon, Portugal.

“It was Butch Dalisay who told me that. When I interviewed him, he said Lino would often sing ‘What I Did For Love’ in karaoke bars. As we all know, they were friends and he wrote scripts for Brocka,” Dela Cruz told ABS-CBN News. 

Dalisay is credited as scriptwriter for the Gina Alajar-Edu Manzano-Michael de Mesa-starrer “Ano ang Kulay ng Mukha ng Diyos?” (1985) and the Lorna Tolentino- Christopher de Leon-starrer “Maging Akin Ka Lamang” (1987), with additional dialogues by Rene Villanueva.

Aside from documented interviews, Dela Cruz also dug valuable information from the National Archives of the Philippines, the National Library of the Philippines, Video 48 and Sari-Saring Sineng Pinoy.

The retrospective, which is supported by the Philippine Embassy in Portugal and the Film Development Council of the Philippines, is the central program of Doclisboa International Film Festival, one of Europe’s most respected festivals for auteur cinema, now on its 24th edition. DocLisboa is co-presenting it with Portugal’s national film archive Cinemateca Portuguesa, one of the leading archives in Europe.

The program is composed of 20 films by Brocka and one by Dela Cruz, the experimental documentary titled “National Anarchist: Lino Brocka.” 

Among the 20 Brocka titles are “Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang” (1974), “Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag” (1975), “Insiang” (1976), “Jaguar” (1979), “Bona” (1980), “Bayan Ko: Kapit Sa Patalim” (1984), “Macho Dancer” (1988), “Orapronobis” (1989) and the Dalisay-penned “Ano Ang Kulay ng Mukha ng Diyos”. 

For every film, there will be English and Portuguese subtitles. Among the 20 Brocka films, 11 are restored versions while “Jaguar” will be shown on 35mm.

DocLisboa will showcase 198 films from 51 countries, including new works by Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke (“Still Life,” “The Hometown Trilogy”) and Argentinian master Mariano Llinás, known for his epic films like the four-hour long “Extraordinary Stories,” the 14-and-a-half-hour “La Flor” and the five-and-a-half-hour documentary, “Life of Jorge Luis Borges.”

For the retrospective, Dela Cruz worked with Doclisboa’s head programmers Cecilia Barrionuevo, Boris Nelepo, program coordinator Rodrigo Pedro and Luís Mendonça of the Cinemateca Portuguesa. 

It is not the first time for Dela Cruz to curate a retrospective dedicated to Brocka. In 2009, he presented 10 films at the Viennale in Austria. 

The recent retrospective happens 35 years after Brocka’s death. He was only 52 when he died on May 21, 1991.

In two decades, Brocka has directed 64 features. 

Though his being a filmmaker overshadowed his other creative works, only few may know that he started in theater. He was stage hand, designer, actor, director and at some point, publicity and marketing officer, of the Philippine Educational Theater Association in the late 1960s to early 1970s. 

His early training in using a camera and other skills related to cinema and television came from his years with “Balintataw TV,” which was the sister organization of PETA. Both were founded by Cecile Guidote-Alvarez in 1967. 

Dela Cruz tackles this lesser-known side of Brocka, the theater artist, after interviewing Guidote-Alvarez early this year. 

“He was the only paid staff of PETA in its early years because he told me he needed the job. He was fresh from college in UP,” she was quoted as saying. Guidote-Alvarez handed the leadership of PETA to Brocka when she and her husband, Heherson Alvarez, went to the US as political exiles upon the declaration of Martial Law. 

Brocka remained with PETA until his death. 

He also directed TV shows and commercials. Unlike his well-off contemporaries Ishmael Bernal and Mike de Leon, scion of the LVN clan, Brocka directed films that catered to the masses in order to fund his auteur output. But even if he was doing mainstream movies, he never failed to insert his visions and beliefs for a better and just society. 

Dela Cruz said, “Moving between popular melodrama and auteur cinema, his work portrays urban poverty, inequality and political repression under the Marcos dictatorship. Several films in the program will be shown outside the Philippines for the first time.”

Dela Cruz originally proposed 30 films but it was reduced to 20 because some are still in fragile state or with missing parts. Many are in dire need of restoration.

“Brocka’s cinema is far larger than the handful of films through which he is usually known. We hope this program opens a wider conversation, one that takes in not only the social-realist landmarks but also his film noir, horror, comedies and adaptations of popular komiks serials,” he said.

All of these will be tackled on October 20 at 2 p.m. in a forum titled “Legacy of Lino Brocka (O Legado de Lino Brocka.” 

 “It will detail his enduring legacy and how his work continues to resonate across generations,” said Dela Cruz. 

The Cinemateca Portuguesa will also publish a new Caderno da Cinemateca, the official book that accompanies the retrospective, dedicated to Brocka. It will include essays on “Maynila,” “Insiang,” “Jaguar,” “Bayan Ko” and other new articles written by Dela Cruz.

Being a musician, Dela Cruz also formed two decades ago an avant pop rock band called The Brockas, with auteur Lav Diaz as lead guitarist and filmmaker-visual artist Rox Lee using the electric kudyapi (two-stringed lute from Mindanao) called kudyapunk. The Brockas has since released several albums on vinyl.

As a filmmaker, Dela Cruz’s works have made the rounds of film festivals around the world. He has done 52 features and more than a hundred short films. In the Philippines, his most famous work and much-awarded (Gawad Urian, Famas, QCinema) was “Balanginga: Howling Wilderness,” which was once accessible on Netflix. 

Film scholars and historians also regard Dela Cruz as the father of Philippine digital filmmaking. About two decades ago, he started an international film festival in Manila for digital filmmakers called .MOV (pronounced as “dot mov”), which paved the way for the guerrilla-type of filmmaking and gave more creative freedom to filmmakers who, at the time, were at the mercy of big, mainstream studios.

The .MOV festival also encouraged aspiring and veteran directors to veer away from the expensive film cameras and avail of the more affordable digital videocam. At the time, people often used digicams for birthdays, weddings, baptismal events, graduation ceremonies and the like. 

As part of the Brocka retrospective, Dela Cruz told ABS-CBN News he will present “National Anarchist” as a film-concert on October 17 at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian. 

“The film runs silent. I play solo piano for 70 minutes, unbroken, improvised in real time, while riffing on Brocka’s favorite karaoke song, ‘What I Did for Love’ and ‘Bayan Ko,’ which he took as the title of his 1984 Cannes competition film, and which was sung at his funeral.

“Brocka was named National Artist for Film in 1997, six years after his death. The title of the retrospective plays on that honor. It invites us to look past the official portrait and rediscover a master of popular cinema who made that genre carry the truth about his country,” Dela Cruz said.