A scene midway through Manang Biring is the film’s most affecting: in a cab, Biring (Erlinda Villalobos) and her friends plan for Christmas. They talk about the menu, the budget, the people who’ll come. It’s an innocuous moment—it should be, it’s three people simply planning for the forthcoming holiday—but knowing that Biring is afflicted with a fatal disease makes a world of difference. “We all know I won’t make it through Christmas,” she says in a tone of matter-of-fact. There’s something deeply melancholic about second disillusionments, in this case that of a cancer patient who already accepted her fate, but recently rediscovers a reason to fight it.
Festival screenings are always a dizzying haze. I wanted some time alone with director Carl Papa to conduct a proper interview. But one of the things that film festivals do to you is turn you to a ninja, so you’ll be able to keep up with the pace. [Insert “everybody knows everybody” monologue of the Berlin Girl in Kapatiran].
In short, we didn’t get to sit down at a coffee shop to talk; if we did there’d be phrases as conventional as “in his unusual cool” littered throughout this post. Ultimately we both extended our gratitude to the Zuckerberg for making this exchange happen.
First off, congratulations. Manang Biring is my personal favorite this fest.
Thank you very much. That means a lot to me, to the whole team behind the film. So again, thanks.
I have my own thoughts about this, but looking at the final print, do you think animation is enabling to your film? How?
For Biring, we were able to play around with colors, or lack thereof, to convey emotion, separation of imagination, dreams and reality; alive from supernatural. Also not to mention, for practical reasons, we were able to shoot in one location, he-he.
The rotoscopic animation is a rather offbeat choice, something that you’d expect Woody Allen and Richard Linklater to make. Do you have any particular reason behind this? Why not stop animation? 3D?
Waking Life really hit me hard, and I was floored with how Richard Linklater came up with it. So my cousin and I tried it ourselves and was surprised that we could do it, only slower I guess. Which brings me to Biring.
When I got the chance to pitch for Cinema One, I knew this was the moment that I could use the technique on a much bigger scale. Fortunately Cinema One Originals chose Biring this year and agreed with it being an animation. With rotoscoping we were able to fully capture the emotion and actions of the actors and build a world of our own from scratch. Stop motion was an option in my head. I did some rather crude clay animation before. I know that if I use the technique it would take me years to finish. 3D on the other hand is something I am yet to learn, but my heart is set on doing really old fashioned way of animating.
I know you’re a big fan of animation so this is probably a hell-on-earth question to ask: who is your favorite animator/animation filmmaker? I will only take one.
Clichéd answer I guess, but I’d pick Isao Takahata.
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Being also a story of losing a loved one to cancer, Manang Biring does feel closely connected to your first film Ang ‘Di Paglimot ng mga Alaala. What, if any, are the main differences between the two films?
The first glaring difference, at least for me, was that my first feature had close to nothing budget as opposed to Biring. Second, The Unforgetting was predominantly autobiographical, it was more of how the protagonist is reacting to her mother’s deteriorating health. Biring focuses on the mother and her journey.
Do you think there should be a detachment between the film and the filmmaker?
If I understand this question correctly, I think there shouldn’t be. A filmmaker should always be attached to his films. Personally I make films about what I know, what I have been through. I don’t see myself doing a film that is outside my own politics.
Do you think filmmakers should make films—make art—first and foremost for themselves?
Yes. The first audience of any film is the filmmaker.
Final question: does Nita ever get to see the real Biring?
Shhhh. Spoiler. Ha-ha-ha!
Manang Biring is still screening today November 11 at Trinoma (12:30 PM), November 12 at Glorietta (12:30 PM), and November 13 at SM Megamall (2:45 PM). Check out the festival’s screening schedules here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBxwGomdOm8
