Gallery of Gays in Indie Films

Report on Panel 2, 6th Cinemalaya Film Congress on Filipino Independent Films (July 13-14 2010, CCP) Rapporteur: Jose Gutierrez III

The first speaker, Prof. Gary Devilles, used the Roman Catholic sacrament of Confession as a framework in analyzing the portrayals of gays in Filipino independent films such as Selda, Sagwan, and Ang Lalaki sa Parola. He asserts that in the act of spectatorship, the audience assumes the role of the Father Confessor. The spectators vicariously gain pleasure as they voyeuristically watch the characters engage in the visualized pleasures of the gay lifestyle. As the gay characters in these films expose their secrets and sins – rendering them naked and defenseless – they perform an act of contrition and essentially appeal for forgiveness and redemption from the audience. Devilles noted that in this setup, the audience is never actually free because it increases the distance between the audience and the gay characters that are supposed to embody a sense of empowerment. Thus, the spectators disavow these gay characters who they find too foreign, abstract, out-of-this-world, and different from themselves.

The second speaker, Prof. Yason Banal, gave a virtual tour of the gallery of gays in Philippine cinema by inviting the audience to look at the stereotypical portrayal of gays as played by Dolphy and Roderick Paulate, a representation that reflects the image of “the sissy” in Hollywood movies. He noted that this portrayal, which often subjects the gay character to laughter and derision, imposes codes about how a gay man is supposed to behave. He then looked at the diversification of the images of gays in the films of the 1990s. These include the gays that do not fit the stereotype of the limp-wristed sissy – the half-male, half-female “binabae” – who is completely helpless in society. He asserted that in the 1990s, “the sissy” did not totally disappear, but was transformed to the predator in the form of the gay man who buys affection from a supposedly straight man. Banal moved on to the images of gays in the new millennium which has seen the rise of the gay auteurs and, more than ever, mixed audiences of independent gay films. In the 2000s, the film narratives have delved into gay loves and rituals and characters who desire other gays without monetary exchange.

Prof. Banal did a queer reading of independent gay films Pantasya by Brillante Mendoza, Next Attraction by Raya Martin, and Daybreak by Adolfo Alix, Jr. Brillante Mendoza’s Pantasya features five episodes about homoerotic encounters of supposedly straight guys with gay men who act straight. He observes that what is common among these gay characters is that their primary motivation is their loneliness. The film portrays their lives as so miserable that they have to fantasize to gain pleasure, only to wake up from the daydream and face reality which is outside the narrative frame of the film. On the other hand, Raya Martin, in his digital film Next Attraction, a “film within a film within a film” which features the behind-the-scenes in filmmaking, experiments with the use off-screen space by highlighting disembodied voices and blocking our view of what the film crew is actually shooting. He asserts that this makes the film world queer by choosing to highlight invisibility, instead of the consumption of images captured by the “all-seeing eye” of the phallic camera. He notes, however, that the ending of Next Attraction eventually falls into the trap of narrative and melodrama when it shows the sexual encounter between the two men, rendering their images consumable by the spectators. For Prof. Banal, this appearance is indeed the most conservative part of the film. Lastly, he invited the audience to look at the film Daybreak by Adolfo Alix, Jr. He upheld it for speaking from within homosexual terms. While homosexuality is central to its plot, it goes beyond the discourse of guilt and sin, and simply shows the complexities of the relationship between two persons who just happen to be gay.

The reactor, Danton Remoto, noted that the images of gays in cinema cluster towards the “ahas,” “pasaway,” “makati pa sa gabi”, and the “kawawa.” He said that there should be more images of the gay who claims his own destiny, just like Maxi in the film Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros. He also asserted that there should be more complex cinematic portrayals of how real gay men live their daily lives, to include, say, the dimensions of family life, not just the stereotypical image of the gay man who inhabits gay bars and pays for sex. In the open forum, Prof. Banal recommended that filmmakers experiment with film language in exploring the formation of gay identity in cinema and Prof. Devilles stated that if Filipino gay cinema is to be truly independent, we need to push for the queer philosophy.