WHAT STARTED as a joke ended up in Paris.
This was what happened to Alvin Yapan’s Rolyo (Film Roll), an independent short film which became the Philippines’ official entry for the Short Film category in the Paris Cinema International Film Festival (IFF) held July 11 to 20.
The Paris Cinema IFF is an annual event that showcases contemporary films through international competitions and premiers. Directors of the films are invited to present their films in Paris during the festival.
Yapan, who directed Rolyo, is an assistant professor at the Filipino Department.
Small start
Set in Bicol, Rolyo depicts the life of a young girl, Judith, whose family earns a living by farming rice and catching birds. Judith asks her father at one point if she can watch a movie, but he instead gives her a rolled-up trumpet made of used film negatives.
Prior to its entry to the Paris Cinema IFF, Rolyo won Best Short Film in the Philippine Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, July last year.
The idea for the film was born as a joke Yapan shared with faculty members from the Filipino Department. “We always complain with the Filipino movies that we see, medyo pangit (quite ugly)…so why not we do a movie ourselves kahit na (even though it’s a) short film?” he said.
Yapan said that when he first entered Rolyo to the Cinemalaya, his colleagues at the Filipino department had no idea he entered the film, which was “a project within friends.”
“I entered it. I submitted it. Nagbakasakali lang, walang nag-imbita, interest lang talaga (I just took the chance, no one invited us, just pure interest),” he said.
“Technically inferior”
Yapan said he could not believe that his film was able to compete in the Paris Cinema IFF. “I’m so surprised. [Because if you have seen] Rolyo, it is technically inferior.”
“Rolyo was not glossy, it was not technically sound, we did not use a high-tech camera, we did not have lights,” Filipino Department Assistant Professor Richard De Guzman said. De Guzman was the director of photography and cinematography of the film.
Yapan said that the film was so technically inferior that during the short film competition in Paris, the projector had to be reset each time Rolyo was shown.
De Guzman added that the crew was skeletal and their only common ground was their love for films. “We worked for friendship’s sake,” he said.
Filipino Department Instructors Edgar Samar and Jema Pamintuan, and Assistant Instructors Jethro Tenorio and Ariel Diccion, also worked with Yapan in the production of the film.
Tracing back the roots
De Guzman said that Rolyo went back to the roots of independent (indie) filmmaking.
“A lot of indie films at the beginning were produced this way, and at the core of these indie films was a good solid story,” he said.
“This is what Rolyo has, its simplicity and crudeness is its appeal,” he added.
Yapan said he wanted Rolyo to be a commentary on the Philippine film industry. “We do not really value our classic films that much, or our films in general. I really believe that [even the old films] should be archived but we don’t have any national archiving institution.”
In the Paris Cinema IFF, he told the panelists about the country’s lack of value for archiving and creativity for disposing film negatives. “We turn [our film negatives] into trumpets and star lanterns and we sell them at a very low price, for a very cheap price.”
Aside from being a commentary on the state of film archiving in the Philippines, Rolyo also delves into the role of films in the country.
“I also want Rolyo to really ask the value of art in a Third World culture, the value of cinema in a developing country,” he said.
This year, Yapan co-directed a full-length film with Paul Sta. Ana, called Huling Pasada. The film is a finalist in the Cinemalaya.
