 Ah, no problem. Good afternoon. So, I'll talk about the film that we're going to see in the context of a concept that... Well, I'm working on it, but it's also quite emergent in Philippine cinema. So, the area is Philippine cinema and a quite emergent concept called regional cinema which I'll try to problematize. So, I'll do a little bit of history and a little bit and the context of the political economy of regional cinema as a way to talk about the significance of the film Tupo Gimatui. So, in this paper, I focus on Tupo Gimatui or The Right to Kill, a little film from Mindanao in order to chart the contemporary landscape of Philippine cinema and comment particularly on the challenges and opportunities a filmmaker beyond the mainstream faces in seeking to contribute to the political cinema of our troubled times. Tupo Gimatui, literally, to kill, has inspired reviews analyzing Arnel Mardocchio's screenplay which is informed by the indigenous people's historical ongoing struggle against encroachers and commanding RB Barbarona's feet of shooting in a rugged terrain, working with non-professionals and handling all the technical aspects of the creative process. So, he shot, he edited, he scored, he did everything. The film focuses on the travails of the Lumad caught in the crossfire between the state military and the rebel forces. Particularly, the film follows experiences of a Manobo family whose peaceful lives are disrupted when soldiers abduct, abuse and humiliate the parents, and use them as guides through the forest while their children, Langit and Ilyan are left to fend for themselves. In what follows, I want to contextualize the film's significance in the shifting patterns of national, regional, local and global formations, film formations. I want to reflect on how the itinerary of a small film can outline the contours of Philippine cinema today and highlight how even a marginal film is networked globally. To Pugimatu, we portray the centuries-old way of life of an indigenous community is undoubtedly a 21st century film, animated by global forces as much as it contributes to regional art production. In both contexts, the film occupies a marginal space, but the significance of these distinct marginalities is not the same. As a local film in a global context, the time for such a film has inevitably come, but as a regional film in the national context, its arrival has actually come quite late. Mardocos and Barbarona's previous films, as well as other films beyond Manila, have been spotlighted in Cinema Rahion, the flagship project of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Since its arrival in 2008, Cinema Rahion has grown significantly from programming only a handful of films in its first year to showing now over 100 films in its 11th year. So ganun yung growth niya sa 11 years. NCCA, through its efforts to develop homegrown talent, has helped put the notion of regional, quote-un-quote, filmmaking in public notice by financially supporting the founding or mounting of smaller festivals in the regions throughout the archipelago. So these festivals include from Mindanao Festival, this Sine Paz in Sambuanga City, Sine Animo in Ozamis, Sine Magis Northern Mindanao Film Festival in CDO, Sala Mindanao Film Fest in General Santo City, Lantawan Sock Surgeon Film Fest, Nabi Filmex in Nabunturan Compostela Valley, Sine Bugsay in Karaga, Ngil Ngig and Mindanao Film Fest in Davao City. From Visaya, Sine Negrense, Negros Island Film Festival in Bakolot, Lutas Negros Oriental Film Festival in Dumagete, Sinulog Short Film Festival in Binisaya in Sibu City, and The Traveling, Sine Kasimanua Western Visayas Film Fest that goes around the Panay Islands, from Luzon, the North Luzon Film Festival first held in Tugigarau City, Pasale in Naga, Pelikultura Kalabar Zone Film Fest in Los Baños, and Sine Kabalian Kapampangan Film Fest. So these are the festivals that the NCCA supports. In fact, however, filmmaking outside the NCR began earlier than 2008, and it did not result from the Pratayan period in Manila in the 2000s when the meaning of Indy was being contest and defined against an ailing mainstream cinema. Siguro, I'll say a little bit of background. So in the early 2000s, in the late 90s, Philippine cinema was pronounced as dead. There was a very steep decline in movie-going productions really bad, and in the 2000s, digital technology was introduced. And in Manila, the debate was should we go mainstream or should we go indie? That was what was happening in Manila. And it culminates with the coming of this festival called Cinema-Lie Independent Film Festival in 2005. So what I'm trying to say here is that actually, while that was happening in Manila, something else was happening in the region. We can backtrack to the 1990s in Negro. Short films were being made out of the Negro summer workshop established as early as 1991 by Pekagaliaga. I'm not mentioning anymore the industries in the 60s and 70s in Cebu. So I'm speaking of the more recent history. So it was established by Pekagaliaga and they made several shorts. In 1993, Albert Banyaris from Ilo Ilo made Banal. When he was 16 years old, an experimental film that won the first best regional entry at Tagawa at CCP. Soon after, the digital features. So the first features in digital were still Lives by John Redd, Kamias Overground by Candela Cruz, which is an anthology and motel, Triptych. And they were made in 99 and 2000. But actually, soon after that, Tang Mangansakan was already making his documentary, which was released in 2001 called House Under the Crescent Moon, which deals with the governments all out war in Mindanao. JP Carpio from Bacolod made Balay Dahu, a feature film in 2002. In 2003, a group in Davao City led by Dax Canyed who helped the guerrilla film making workshop that produced short films and documentaries. It later would become the Mindanao Film Festival. They renamed it because guerrilla apparently attracted the wrong people. So the following year, Ray Gibraltar from Ilo Ilo put up the Bantayan Film Fest. So this was 2004 very early with the help of Galiaga and cinematographer Ogi Sugatan that featured short works by teachers ang gama gawa. So between 2004 and 2006, a group of friends started exploring film in Cebu and gave birth to Binisaya, a movement led by Keith Deliguero and some other filmmakers before it became a film festival. When Cinema Laya held its first edition in 2005, therefore, there had been already a lot of production of so-called regional films beyond Manila. And in the first year of Cinema Laya, Lawrence Fardos film from Bacolod, Kultado received the jury prize. And when Cinema One held its second edition, Sherad Anthony Sanchez film, Huling Balya ng Buhi, received the Best Picture Award. So around this time, Mes de Guzman was making a film in Benguet, Brilliante Mendoza in Pampanga, Alvin Japan in Bicol, and Sharon Dayok in Basilan, among others. And they were released around the same time, 2005 to 2007. At that point onward, Manila-based festivals will fund in screen films beyond NCR. So the enabling factors of digital technology and the virtual networks of cinephilia were not imported from Manila to the provinces. The usual route of film culture in the celluloid century, the 20th century. But rather from the global elsewhere to urban, suburban, even periurban formations in the islands. In other words, we were all watching pirated movies all at the same time, from elsewhere, not from Manila. So the usual celluloid exportation, yung Manila to the provinces yung mga scratched films, hindi yung ruta. The digital film cultures in Bakolo, Diluilo, Sebudawa and their outskirts developed alongside the one in Manila in synchronicity with the development of marginal cinemas, not just in the Philippines, but actually around the world. So this is well documented. In this slide, quote-unquote regional filmmaking could refer just as well to how secondary cities in the Philippines had parallel experiences with independent cinemas across Southeast Asia, ranging from the coming of so-called new waves in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Saigon and Bangkok to the steady growth of alternative cinemas in Jogja, Makasar, Purbalinga, Saba to name a few. In short, what galvanized filmmaking in Philippine regions in the digital period are the same global impulses that energize the indie scene in the larger Southeast Asian region. The momentous establishment of cinema-reheon and the growing consciousness on regional filmmaking recent years in the Philippines actually indicate a lag in the recognition of films beyond Manila as part of national cinema of the long and ongoing struggle for local stories and issues to take their rightful place in the mainstream of the national imaginary. It is remarkable, then, that Tupuk Imatuy with its urgent call about the besetting national problem was only made in 2017 and earned acclaim in 2018, eventually winning major prizes from national award-giving bodies like FAMAS and Gawad Urian. So, global cinemas discursive, cultural, and economic openness to quote-unquote other cinemas has encouraged the productivity of marginal films vying for a space in the center or creating niches in the peripheries. The advent of Cinema Line 2005 in the subsequent proliferation of film festivals in the Philippines. So, siguro kakaiba, what's interesting about the Philippine cinema today is that it has this Philippine film festival model that you find nowhere else. In the world where we have more than 10 film festivals, major festivals that produces about times 10 of these films and then regional festivals that produce X number of films. And this is the main distribution network. So, we don't really get to see these films beyond the festivals. It's usually in a festival scenario. So, it has encouraged productivity, but at the same time, we hardly ever see the films beyond the festival. So, these festivals have been more welcoming of inventive works that would otherwise not be produced by mainstream studios, but at the same time, they compete in the market against each other by the sheer number of their outputs and more explicitly against Hollywood, of course, and commercial films in the local city centers, against which their films always appear comparatively small. So, usually mukhang low budget, right? They really look like cheaply made films. On the other hand, these festivals serve as sources for global films that have figured well in the network of international film festivals where different kind of validation is obtained for so-called national cinema. So, hindi naman natin siya, we're not really watching them in the Philippines, right? They're being viewed elsewhere. This double-coded aspiration is typified by Sinag Maynila Film Festival, where Tupuk Imatui first premiered before being screened in cinema rahiyon in Compostela Valley. So, nagmaynila muna before Compostela Valley. Sinag Maynila, literally the race off or from Manila, is funded by solar entertainment which imports and exports commercial content to and from the Philippines. And its films are selected by can prize winner and if I may say so, the riff install of the Philippines. Brilliante, Mendoza. Unlike other festivals, Sinag Maynila does not produce films, but rather scouts for homegrown stories that are potential content for wider distribution in the Philippines and in markets abroad. The festival whose identities anchored on the image of Manila as the center of filmmaking is also branded as enabling Sineng Lokal Pang International. So, local movies for the international market which alerts us to the complexity of the contemporary situation where initiatives by the state and private corporations, so, Sinag Marahiyon and Sinag Maynila, for example, are providing platforms for regional filmmakers. So, it's contaminated, in other words. The Tupuk Imatui, a fearlessly political film in a production on a shoestring is programmed in Sinag Maynila indicates how older paradigms that made clear distinctions between first, second, and third cinemas have become inoperable. First cinema refers to industrial filmmaking and its ultimate model is Hollywood. So, in the Philippines, of course, the biggest cinema is for cinema or industrial filmmaking. And solar entertainment is doubtless a conduit and enabler of the system of filmmaking in this century. Following a parallel path, non-conforming filmmakers without history question formulaic and profit-oriented industry filmmaking and they have constituted this so-called second cinema. Films of this type are realized by independent artists rather than studio-employed craftspeople. The tradition of second cinema films in the Philippines grew enough to become a series of waves from the 70s to the 2000s. Interestingly, Sinag Maynila is part of this cultural and political economy as well because they're driven by festival production and encourages innovation and newness for an expanding market. So, in other words, nanbun din sila sa field na yun. Third cinema is militant, anti-colonial and anti-fascist cinema exemplified by a number of socialist realist films by the likes of Lino Broca and more pointedly by political collective films during and after the Marcos period. Such films did not aspire or do not aspire to be art nor do they endeavor to be distributed commercially but like yung what Jadja was talking what Jani was talking about earlier. These are films that want to speak to a larger public without necessarily being commercialized. Clearly, the desire to shed light on what is obscured in public consciousness and to reach a wide audience is at the heart of the production of Tupuk Imatoy. The plot of Tupuk Imatoy dramatizes Luma's experience of dislocation and its imagery, gestures toward vanishing forest covers, massive mining operations and unnatural site of back-hosts with the green, the forest. Quite startingly, the film closes with documentary footage of the real Obunay. So Tupuk Imatoy is based on a real story. Speaking of the trauma of fleeing her militarized village in Talaingot, Davao del Norte and traveling with a thousand others to Davao City as a bakuit or evacuee only to be kidnapped by soldiers along the way. So this is the real story behind Tupuk Imatoy. Obunay was kidnapped while they were evacuating from the militarized village to the city. So, Arby Barbarona is from Tagum and that's why, so growing up, he had a lot of, he had Luma friends and doing research on Tupuk Imatoy, he was immersed in the evacuation centers in Tagum. In the older paradigm, second especially, third cinema films were expected to steer clear of the first cinema structures. Any form of quote-unquote compromise was anathema to independence. So this was a debate in the 2000s. But the globalization of marginal films is now well documented and the myriad experiences of filmmakers laboring in the peripheries caution us for making sweeping claims and invite us to consider concrete cases like Tupuk Imatoy's case. From being conceived in Davao City, shot on location the border between Davao and Bukitnon, distributed through a Manila Company and exhibited in Tokyo, Berlin, Luxor, Jogjakarta to moving back to Mindanao, Compostela Valley and being screened eventually in Davao City again. The itinerary of Tupuk Imatoy is instructive for it reveals the constraints and options that regional filmmakers as ground level agents must negotiate in order to be visible and yet continue to harbor the potential for political resistance. Amindanao in film thus casts in relief the shape of contemporary cinema in a particular way. A small production made out of passion and conviction by Mavericks from the region riding the new wave lending itself for Sinag Manila bending over backward in search for a national audience and extending its reach to an international audience. It is a truism that mainstreaming the arts from the ethno-linguistic cultures throughout the islands can help create a more complete tapestry of Filipino identity. In this sense Tupuk Imatoy vividly purchased what regional films contribute best to Philippine cinema so moviegoers are shown local culture essentially. As the film opens we witness the dynamics of family life we learn about the Manobos views on nature and their belief that the spirits of the departed come back to guard their ancient ancestral land. We are given insight on their folklore and how new tales are created by the community as they struggle against trespassers. In this border land that may seem far away to moviegoers history may be understood not as a line moving forward but a space layered in time. The aesthetics and creative strategies of Tupuk Imatoy term proposed by Maori filmmaker Barry Barclay to identify indigenous films produced in settler colonial nations like New Zealand. So the notion of fourth cinema connotes how the previous categories of first, second and third cinemas have actually functioned as invader cinemas and how the first peoples of the land have been obscured by the narrative of national orthodoxy and rendered static vanished or exotic. Fourth cinema is a distinct modofilmic production and address that is partial to indigenous expression dignified representation of place and identity and political engagement both on screen and off screen. In fact, the term lumad does not refer to a particular group but to the native of the land and as such the idea of fourth cinema is synonymous to lumad cinema and I'm proposing to use that term at least in this case. The process of fourth cinema capture well the experience so this was Barbie playing to the crowd in Tokyo. So the process of fourth cinema capture well captures well the experience of filming the plight of and working with the lumad who have been subjected to oppression by colonizer, settlers, land grabbers in the state. So Barbaronas process of working with the locals to make the film that speaks of native tragic experiences, instantiates community, collaboration and reciprocity in the spirit of fourth cinema. So what he did was he immersed, he did this research and he also asked the help of the lumad to make the film. So parang he and a sound person and then the community they helped each other create the film. So it's resonance highlights peripheral networks translocal affinities and international connections beyond adjacent geographical spaces and regions across the globe where dispossess peoples can forge new solidarities. Tupok imatu reminds us that the lumad are the original inhabitants of the land who nevertheless stand to lose the most in the face of a never-ending war waged in the name of development. Framed in this way the political project of art making is seen from a longer historical perspective and the manobos in this context stand side by side with different indigenous people who are also making the same kinds of films. For example, Apaches in Oklahoma Yupik Eskimos in Alaska Martus in Australia Vedas in Sri Lanka The Was in Myanmar and others so on so forth. Natives of all of the paradoxical and aggregated future past of the land the subject of fourth cinema. Regional films enrich Philippine cinemas, yes. But more significantly, some of them like Tupok imatu some of them reactivate the radical potential of the margins that the proliferation of indie films have tamed. So this is, I guess, what we feel now in Manila that there are so many indie films that there's really in a way nothing new, right? And this was the energy that was important in the early 2000s that is now happening in regional cinema. Something new is happening. We're hearing new stories we've never heard before we're seeing modes of filmmaking we've never seen before and so they're offering something different but as, I mean, just to summarize what I've been saying the apparatus of the international film festival the national film festival in Manila and all these things that they must negotiate. Right? So the only way we're able to see Tupok imatu is if it is part of Sinag Maynila. So this is in a way the contamination that I've been discussing. Here again, Tupok imatu as a particular case is instructive because it aimed at revealing how global forces have been relentless in their drive to erase societies in the proliferation of the state. For this reason the production of such a film from the margins is necessary meaning a film from there about that place. To amend the dominant narrative that sees indigenous peoples merely as enriching Filipino identity and to address a wider public about the actual plight of the Lumad. And I guess this is where the Tupok imatu is a little different from what Ajani was talking about because it's a feature film a feature narrative film whereas most of the films being made about the Lumad are in documentary form. And this is also I guess the reason why the documentary remains a kind of margin another margin because a feature film will break through in a film festival like Sina Gmaynila. That's right. So actually Arby Barbarono is a documentary filmmaker. So this is a kind of also a crossover for Arby. So on the level of the national we have, I'm nearly done. So on the level of the national frequently heard about the situation of the Lumad framed in media as a question of political instrumentalization. Tupok imatu. So for example the fallout is as Rosa was pointing out to me yesterday is that after Tupok imatu gained acclaim so he won best director in Gawadurian and in FAMAS then the film traveled around then he was red baited. So suddenly on Facebook you have these claims by anonymous people say be careful of Tupok imatu Tupok imatu because which would not have happened if Tupok imatu remained a film in Mindanao. So something is in a way it threatened something which received a kind of backlash which in a way is a good thing as far as Tupok imatu is concerned. Tupok imatu indeed shows the Lumad caught in the middle their places of refuge militarized utilized by the government military in their counter insurgency efforts but the logic of the appalling threats made recently by the president who hails from Mindanao no less of bombing Lumad's spaces sabi niya because they have been politicized and they have taken sides misses the bottom line which for me at least is and for I guess indigenous filmmaking anywhere in the world the bottom line is whose birthright is the land and why are Lumad places being militarized? Ultimately this question cannot be addressed without reference so an international situation the valiant Lumad of the world have for centuries fought and today continue to resist encroachers be they Kankanais in Benguet Mayans in Guatemala et cetera which is why the richest natural reserves that trans national businesses are greedy to extract can still be found in indigenous lands. The strategy of progress by this possession militarizing indigenous territories so that extractive industries could rapatiously pillage is a global threat which have resulted to environmental degradation human rights abuses and R.B. was talking to me about this when he showed this film to in Egypt for example and in different places the resonance was not this is a regional film in the Philippines but rather we have the same situation here wherever he was presenting the film. So global threat which have resulted to environmental degradation human rights abuses such as those that you will see in the film like displacement, persecution, humiliation, coercion, torture, rape and extrojudicial killings. In this light Tupuk Imatui a little film from an outpost of national cinema is calling the world's powers to account. Salamat po. So what happens now? Sure. In SRB was also in Berlin in the film she won also awards and she cannot as Patrick said they are all non-actors except for one and the woman is a Manobo woman and it was a very interesting story because he went to the communities and he wasn't looking for an actress and then there was this one woman and he saw her and he was like are you willing to be an actress for this movie and she had no training whatsoever and then she went on to win awards and R.P. also is a stepfather's Manobo. Yeah, that's right. So it was also very much embedded into the community. So that's right. His stepfather was Manobo and he has a best friend na Lumad and then of course living in Tagum city where the evacuation centers were. So he's I mean, siguro the next step that would be great to see would be when the Lumad really are making the films but I mean as far as we're concerned now this is the next best thing where R.P. immerses in the community and makes the film from there I mean this is what we see in Tupogimatu. I think Ajani should also be here so they can also ask questions. So we're colleagues in the same film institute New Pino. Yeah, so as I mentioned it's very difficult to get to watch them even in the Philippines so like with Tupogimatu I ask R.P. directly they're usually quite generous so it's a typical way you ask them directly the producer the director although a new development is that since many of these filmmakers are always looking for funders elsewhere of late they have not been allowed to share their film so freely because well the producers have given some money and therefore you have to ask the producers for permission so this is again another sad part of the negotiation they need the funds to make the films but at the same time at what price but in this case because this was funded almost purely by friends NGOs KILAB the network of R.P. then we're able to access it freely so yeah if it's any docu from the Philippines you can contact docu it's a very small community and that's why I built docu yeah