Reimaginations and Contradictions of Imagined Memories: A Film Program
Reimaginations and Contradictions of Imagined Memories: A Film Program
Feature art by Jasmine Cabriles
The Martial Law was a dark period of human rights and state-sponsored violence across the country that is being challenged by narratives of historical revisionism that led to the Marcos family's return to power in the last elections. A crisis of amnesia is forcing those years of trauma and impunity to be remembered as one of the most prosperous eras in Philippine history. Combatting this narrative of the Marcosian myths has caused filmmakers to create films that challenge these myths, pushing beyond artistic limits to create public consciousness that reflects the understanding and the need to remember these dark times. The biggest part of today’s combatants are the youth who didn’t experience those dark periods themselves, but they believe through the power of film, they can retell lived experiences and narratives of the past into more powerful stories that create this sense of urgency in the mass public to remember the past. This creates imagined memories of martial law that reflect the youth’s ongoing struggle of remembering, as well as a form of resistance to the bigger narrative.
The virtual film program ‘Reimaginations and Contradictions of Imagined Memories’ aims to showcase how short films can serve as forms of imagined memory from the youth. Reimaginations of the past that show the same historical atrocities and even ideals of the Marcosian myths that were perpetuated during those times, to the contradictions of the contemporary present that kept challenging the masses themselves, to the current social realities as an effect of these Marcosian myths. Through the use of staple film canons of political torture, to experimenting with ideas of the Marcosian myths. These narratives of the ongoing struggle made short films an avenue to challenge these perpetuating lies through their own means of understanding and arousing the public perception. Here are just some of the imagined memories of the youth:
Film still from Pagtangis ng mga Aninong Umiindak sa Hangin
Pagtangis ng mga Aninong Umiindak sa Hangin
Dir. Laurence Llamas
Laurence Llamas’ Pagtangis ng mga Aninong Umiindak sa Hangin portrays political torture as a form of theatrical performance. The set design, the lighting, and even the repetitive audition performance itself act too ideal and detailed that creates a performance that satisfies the people beyond the stage. This form of compliance is meticulously crafted, which made the performer create this imprinted trauma for them. How they created this performance reflects Martial Law’s violent system of interrogation. Reimaginations challenge the memory-making of these historical atrocities. This also allegorizes the Marcosian myth as patronage of the arts, on how they use it to instill this mentality as being the supporters of Philippine art, but only use it as political propaganda through their means of fascist aesthetics to promote their lies and to cover the historical atrocities they have committed.
Film still from Strongman Ferdinand
Strongman Ferdinand
Dir. Noli Manaig
Noli Manaig’s Strongman Ferdinand deconstructs the threats from nuclear power as a form of fascist desire. Nuclear power has been used throughout history was only used as a weapon to create or sustain political power. The aftermath of its effects has only left unhealed trauma and damage to those who were forced to be a part of their game. Imagining nuclear power being used in the Philippines could recreate the same atrocities as mentioned in the past historical war crisis in Western countries. The megalomaniac is only concerned with their image and design to the point that they never learn from the atrocities they have committed and would use any means to cover up to continue that image of perfection, just like in Martial Law. Reimaginations challenge ideologies of the fascist machine. This reflects how the fascist desire is self-destructive, just like how the previous dictator was ousted but left a historical legacy of amnesia that he constructed that continues to challenge the present narrative.
Film still from Rod
Rod
Dir. Ulap Chua
Ulap Chua’s Rod offers a subtle approach to retelling the past, especially a story from the regions. The film canons in telling atrocities are through onscreen depictions of violence, but alternative approaches in depicting violence can be as simple as white shirts tied at the chest with alternating flashes of archival photos of the place of memory that still delivers the same emotional weight as violence. The choice to be bloodless shows the many evolving potentials cinema has in portraying this dark period and retelling it that doesn’t have to be violent, but still maximizes the horrors through other elements that still replicate violence onscreen. Reimaginations challenge representations and find alternative means of understanding the past. A regional story, the infamous Negros Escalante Massacre, can be a platform for experimentation to unearth new discussions.
Film still from Lingkis
Lingkis
Dir. Yvonne Elizabeth G. Salazar and Isabel Margarita P. Valenzuela
Yvonne Elizabeth G. Salazar and Isabel Margarita P. Valenzuela’s Lingkis depicts the frustration of student activism throughout history as a cyclic series of darkness. A bakunawa is a shapeshifter, and it will plunge the world again into darkness as each strongman regime is replaced with another. And each bakunawa has its own fascist mechanisms that allow it to maintain power from the martial law to the redtaggings of today. Student activism persisted in history as the same cycle of violence was inflicted upon the masses, which attempts to blur between the myths of the bakunawas to the social realities of the Filipino people. In the darkness, there is always the light. Contradictions challenge the collective struggle. As past bakunawas were ousted, the collective struggle for a better world continues and persists until the last of bakunawas has left the world.
Film still from Still Here, Still Walking
Still Here, Still Walking
Dir. Kat Catalan
Kat Catalan’s Still Here, Still Walking examines the personal, overwhelming experiences of a naive art student from the Edifice Complexes of the Marcos era to becoming a student activist in contemporary times of the current regimes. Conflicting ideals from the conservative family conversations, being called out ungrateful from the Marcosian school that made her, and the unsafe streets of redtagging cloud judgment and cause doubt about the revolutionary principles they believed in. More than just a personal experience, but also the exhausted and feared masses coming from historical cycles of trauma. Contradictions challenge the personal self and the movement. In the end, in a crisis like this, a communal and collective safe space is important to bring back that revolutionary spirit.
Film still from This is How Her Home Was Built
This Is How Her Home Was Built
Dir. Jaime Morados
Jaime Morados’ This is How Her Home Was Built humanizes the confusion brought by the aftermath of every Marcosian myth to the contemporary present. Historical distortion blurs the line between facts and fabrications, and the conflicting and manipulated narratives that come along with it that further changing one’s understanding of the actual truth. Ideas of a perfect society brought by lies and hidden atrocities only belittle and destroy the foundation of what was once democracy, causing a mindless and forgetful mass desired by fascist conditions. Contradictions challenge imagined memories and one’s understanding of history. This also allegorizes how the youth would respond as the most vulnerable to historical distortion.
