Call for papers Panel on Notions of Independence in Southeast Asian Cinemas for EUROSEAS 2010

Notions of Independence in Southeast Asian Cinemas

Convenor
Prof. Eloisa May P. Hernandez
Department of Art Studies
University of the Philippines


The panel looks forward to papers that investigate the notions of independence in Southeast Asian cinemas, as well as the historical shifts in the meaning of the term in its different contexts and localities such as in relation to notions of independence in Europe and United States. Interrogations on the various sites of contentions of independent filmmaking vis-à-vis mainstream are also welcome.

The panel emerges out of a lively and growing “independent” cinema scene in Southeast Asia - particularly Indonesia, Philippines , Malaysia , Thailand , Singapore and Vietnam – where the so-called “digital revolution,” has been synonymous with “independence” and hailed as the way to liberate filmmakers from the hegemonic grip of Hollywood and “local hollywoods .”

In such contexts, the term “independent” has become a fraught and problematic nomenclature. Once limited to a small select group of filmmakers working outside of the commercial film industry, several sectors have now appropriated the term. The panel thus proposes to delve into the different and changing notions of independence in the different Southeast Asian countries. Among the questions the panel wishes to address and ponder on: What does it really mean to be independent? Is it in the mode of production? It is in the mode of distribution? Is it in the content of the film? Is it in the intent of the filmmaker? Independent in relation to what? If independent films use mainstream modes of distribution and exhibition, do they lose their independence? If a filmmaker receives production grants from corporate or government support, does it mean his/her film is no longer independent? If an independent film aspires to make a profit, does it diminish its independence? Are there degrees of independence? How are independent films perceived and received by the audience?

Topics of interest also include but are not limited to: studies on particular independent filmmakers; aesthetics of independent films; the surfacing of independent film production companies and film groups; emerging independent modes of production, distribution and exhibition; the appropriation and/or cooptation of the digital technology by mainstream film industries in the guise of independence; the role and effect of international film festivals in independent filmmaking; the impact of the digital technology on independent filmmaking; funding independent filmmaking in Southeast Asia; sustainability of independent filmmaking; censorship; and the role of state and private institutions on independent filmmaking.

Please submit abstract of no more than 500 words and brief biographical data to ephernandez@up.edu.ph and eloindigoart@yahoo.com by January 31, 2010.

Please disseminate.

For information about EUROSEAS 2010 please visit http://www.globalstudies.gu.se/english/newsandevents/conferences/EUROSEAS/

CALL FOR PAPERS 6th Annual Southeast Asian Cinemas

CALL FOR PAPERS
6th Annual Southeast Asian Cinemas
Conference: Circuits of Exchange (with)in Southeast Asian Cinemas
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
JULY 1 – 4, 2010

In recent years, independent filmmakers from Southeast Asia, in particular from The Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have received some support from film festivals by way of monetary awards and grants. Simultaneously there have been co-productions (Singapore's Raintree Productions and MediaCorp for example) with film production companies outside the country, within the region, and with Hong Kong. Diasporic filmmakers also continue to return to make films in Southeast Asia.

At other levels, individual filmmakers work across several countries within southeast Asia or in Asia. While film practitioners have been more active on such circuits of exchange, the same cannot be said for film theoreticians in the region. Film theory in Southeast Asia seems haphazard and is applied on an ad hoc basis since its foundations in other bodies of knowledge (continental philosophy, for example) may sometimes provide inadequate ways of framing and theorizing films from Southeast Asia.

This conference therefore sets out to explore the different ways in which filmmakers and film theorists have worked and can work within and beyond the limits of the region: as a product of colonialism and the Cold War, as nodes on a global network linked to economic, cultural, media and socio-cultural structures and flows, as equal and unequal partners in forging an identity that is both universal and particular.

We invite panels on Circuits of Exchange (with)in Southeast
Asian Cinemas particularly questions concerning:

* Film Theory or Film Aesthetics in the Southeast Asian Context: Modified Possibilities, Indigenous Alternatives:
* What theoretical frameworks can we deploy when discussing SEA cinema? Are existing ones, mostly developed from places other than SEA, sufficient for discussing the work produced in SEA? Is there a need to develop new theories? If so, what are the challenges that arise in developing a theory specific to discussing SEA cinema? What is its place in film theory and what place does film theory have in SEA today?
* The Politics of Representation and Naming / Southeast Asian Cinema:
* Despite Southeast Asia as a region being a product of colonialism and the Cold War, the term continues to perpetuate certain colonial and imperial logics and power relations. Would it make more sense to think of individual SEAsian connections to other Asian countries and cultures (such as China, India, Japan or even the Middle East)? Why or why not? When we talk about "indigenous SEA" film theories, will 
that homogenize the field of SEA cinema?
* Theorizing SEAsia Through Transnational Discourses:
* Globalization theory, film festival circuits, actor-network theory, 
co-productions and diasporic filmmaking in Southeast Asia.
* Historical Connections:
* Examples include Filipino and Indian directors working in the studio system in Malaya during the 1950s and 1960s; the role of Indian/Chinese film producers in the early cinema histories of Indonesia, Malaysia/Singapore, Thailand, Burma, etc.; the impact of Indonesian films in Malaysia during the 1970s, etc.
* Religion and Censorship:
* In recent years, films that are deemed to be disrespectful of the religion of specific countries have either been censored or banned: in Thailand, Apichatpong Weeresethakul' s Syndromes and a Century (for portraying monks playing with airplanes), Yasmin Ahmad's Muallaf 
(2008) in Malaysia, and in Indonesia, Muslim clerics had a role to play in the withdrawal of films such as Kiss Me Quick (Buruan Cium Gue 2004). What are the repercussions and effects of such censorship regimes on civil society and filmmaking communities? 
How are films and film production reflective of social and political transformations (for example desecularisation) in these countries?
* Complicating Genres:
* Asian horror, film noir, melodrama, action, the teen flick, 
subgenres, Islamic film, `importance of education' subgenre of children's films, historical/costume drama, cult status films, political documentary, etc.

* New Media and its Impact on SEAsian Film:
* Blogosphere (film bloggers), Youtube, the Internet in general.
* Additional Panel Topics: Intertextuality, Folklore, Gender & Sexuality
We also welcome submissions for the open call.
Abstract Submission Deadline:
October 30th, 2009
Please send an abstract (max. 500 words) to: Gaikcheng.khoo@ anu.edu.au; Sophfeline@earthlin k.net; cvanheeren@hotmail. com
--
Gaik Cheng Khoo
School of Humanities
Faculty of Arts
Building 14, A.D. Hope Building
The Australian National University
Canberra, ACT 0200
Australia
office tel: 61 2 6125 8472
fax: 61 2 6125 4490

THE BEGINNINGS OF DIGITAL CINEMA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA*

Part 2 of DIGITAL CINEMA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Digital cinema in Southeast Asia emerged in the late 1990s and blossomed in 2000-2006. Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand now have a thriving community of filmmakers gaining recognition in their countries and in the international arena.

Several reasons can be cited for the emergence of digital cinema in Southeast Asia. One is the establishment and strengthening of the information and communications technology (ICT) in the region such as through the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CITC) of the Philippines. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared in her State of the Nation Address the establishment of the CyberServices Corridor. The Cyberservices Corridor, which was also part of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s ten-point agenda, is an ICT channel that runs through the archipelago from the north in Baguio City to the south in Zamboanga. The drive towards ICT development in the Philippines stimulated growth in several industries such as the call center, internet gaming, and the recovery of the once robust animation industry in the Philippines. It has also given the young digital filmmakers a venue to circulate and distribute their works on the internet. In the case of Malaysia, part of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s push for information and communication technology is the development of a Multimedia Super Corridor, a geographically designated area in Malaysia specifically from Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and also includes Putrajaya, Cyberjaya and the Klang Valley. Part of the Multimedia Super Corridor is the Multimedia University where a lot of young Malaysian digital filmmakers were educated. The thrust into ICT also spurred the growth of the Malaysian animation industry which according to Hassan Muthalib, “from 1995 to 2005, an unprecedented 30 local animation TV series, 3 feature animation and 4 telemovies were produced for local consumption, surpassing any other ASEAN country. It also resulted in the rise of mostly young digital video filmmakers beginning in 1999 (Muthalib, 2006).” Gaik Cheng Khoo reiterates this, “Indie filmmaking has burgeoned due to the availability of cheap digital video technology, pirated foreign VCDs, DVDs and software, not to mention the government’s push for IT in its establishment of the Multimedia University and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) (Khoo, 2004).”

The apparent dissatisfaction of young independent filmmakers with the current state of the film industries in their respective countries is driving them to find alternative ways to make films. In Malaysia, Hassan Muthalib elucidates, “Malaysian mainstream cinema is notable for its emphasis on pure entertainment and nothing but…Dishing out clichéd, stereotypical and uninnovative narratives and characters, many of these films somehow, attain to box-office success… (Muthalib, 2007)” While Villaluna gives voice to this dissatisfaction, “the expensive 35mm format lends itself into a vicious cycle: to be able to make one, producers need to recoup their investments, resorting to producing crass slapstick comedies, soft-porn moneymakers, formulaic horror films, big-star romances and intrepid melodramas therefore resulting in a creative bankruptcy if not the decline of box-office grosses. (Villaluna, 2007)” The decline is not only in terms of quality, but also in terms quantity of films produced in the local film industries. The Philippine film industry is a prime example of a declining film industry having been repeatedly hailed as dead or dying since the 1990s. From a robust industry that consistently produced around 120 films a year for wide theater release, Philippine cinema has experienced a steady decline in film production since 2001. Records from U.P. Film Institute show that the Philippine film industry only produced 103 films in 2001, 94 in 2002, 80 in 2003, 55 in 2004, 50 in 2005, and 49 in 2006. Several factors are blamed for the decline in film production such as rising cost of raw film stock, exorbitant taxes, and the constant influx of Hollywood movies. It is not surprising then that young Filipino filmmakers choose to make films outside of the mainstream film industry.

The increasing cost of making movies and its concomitant taxes is also one reason for independent filmmakers to find alternative and cheaper ways to make films. The cost of producing a full-length 35mm film could reach up to thousands of dollars making it unaffordable for a lot of filmmakers working outside of a film studio. The film industry is also saddled with taxes. For example, in the Philippines, the local film industry remains one of the most heavily taxed industries with 30% amusement tax, 5% withholding tax on the producers’ film share, 32% corporate income tax, 10% VAT on producers’ film share. As independent filmmakers use the digital technology, the cost of production is drastically lowered and they are not subject to most of these taxes.

The year 1999 was a landmark year when pioneering Filipino filmmaker Jon Red shot the first digital full-length film Still Lives (Jon Red, 1999) which was commercially released in the Philippines. The year 2000 was a historic year in Malaysian cinema with the public screening of Amir Muhammad’s Lips to Lips (2000), Malaysia’s first full-length digital film. According to s.i.am contemp issue, a publication of the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture (OCAC), Ministry of Culture in Thailand, Punlop Horharin’s Everything will Flow (2000), shown at the Bangkok Film Festival 2000, is the first digital film in Thailand. (s.i.am contemp, 2006). In Singapore, a group of undergraduate students from the National University of Singapore made a digital film entitled called Stamford (1999) and the first full-length digital film was Stories about Love (2000) directed by three emerging filmmakers Cheek, James Toh and Abdul Nizam and produced by internationally acclaimed Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo (Millet, 2006).


Part 3 MAKING DIGITAL CINEMA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA will follow.


*Research for this article was funded by the SEASREP Foundation. Research conducted in 2005 to 2007.


WORKS CITED
Khoo, Gaik Cheng. “Just-do-it-yourself: Malaysian independent filmmaking.” Aliran Monthly Vol 24 (2004): Issue 9. Aliran Monthly. Accessed July 18, 2007. http://www.aliran.com/oldsite/monthly/2004b/9k.html
Millet, Raphael. Singapore Cinema. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2006.
Muthalib, Hassan Abd. “Malaysian Cinema 2003 through 2005: Beginning of the Crossover.” E-mail to the author. May 23, 2006.
Thailand. Ministry of Culture. Office of Contemporary Art and Culture. S.i.am Contemp. Bangkok: OCAC, 2006.
Villaluna, Paolo. “Bagong Agos: New Currents. New Visions. Emerging Cinema.” Bagong Agos: The Current Wave of Philippine Digital Cinema. Manila: Independent Filmmakers Cooperative, 2007.

DIGITAL CINEMA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: An Introduction*

Part 1 of DIGITAL CINEMA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Digital cinema has grown leaps and bounds in Southeast Asia, specifically Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, since the start of the new millennium. Due to the unprecedented growth of digital cinema in these Southeast Asian countries, it has created emerging modes of production and circulation, distinct from the mainstream film industry’s Hollywood patterned modes of production and circulation.

This essay explores the political economy of digital cinema in Southeast Asia, and as Douglas M. Keller and Meenakshi Gigi Durham in Adventures in Media and Cultural Studies succinctly explains, “A political economy approach to media and culture centers more on the production and distribution of culture than on interpreting texts or studying audiences. The references to the terms “political” and “economy” call attention to the fact that the production and distribution of culture takes place within a specific economic and political system, constituted by relations between the state, the economy, social institutions and practices, culture, and organizations like media (Kellner and Durham, 2006) .” Thus, the essay aims to address several questions such as: How are digital films produced and distributed in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand? What institutions support the production and circulation of digital cinema in the Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand? What are the venues for the dissemination and circulation of digital cinema in the Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand?

Hollywood has remained the dominant force in the production and distribution of cinema worldwide. Local film industries such as those in Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand follow Hollywood modes of production and distribution, practically fashioning themselves as “local hollywoods.” Digital cinema, part of the so-called “digital revolution,” has been hailed as the way to liberate filmmakers from the hegemonic grip of Hollywood and similar film industries. According to Jeffrey Shaw in Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film, “the hegemony of Hollywood’s movie-making modalities is increasingly being challenged by the radical new potentialities of the digital media technologies (Shaw, 2003).”

The term “independent” remains a highly debatable and fluid nomenclature in Southeast Asian films. As Malaysian scholar Gaik Cheng Khoo writes, “Outside of Amir Muhammad’s definition of ‘indie’ as ‘a film that is not accepted by the Malaysian Film Festival’, there is much debate still around the term (Khoo, 2004).” Customarily, the term refers to films produced and distributed outside of the major film studios. The implication is that the creative decisions rest on the filmmaker who is free from the pressures of the studios and its commercial interests to realize his/her artistic vision. Though the focus of the term is tilted towards production and distribution, it is not limited to it. There is the aspect of representation – is the film trying to say something different? Nowadays, there is also an expectation for independent films to have alternative representations, novel narratives, innovative storytelling, thereby veering away from Hollywood formulaic narratives and conventions. Thaiindie, a group of Thai independent filmmakers, articulates this on its website, "We're getting tired with the word 'indie', people want to make indie movies because they think they can escape from the rules, but when we all do that, we're following another set of rules anyway. For us, we want to make movies that we really feel strongly about, and in the style that we think is unique - not better or worse, but unique (www.thaiindie.com)."

Nowadays, the term “independent” is often equated with digital cinema since the digital technology has been embraced by independent filmmakers in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand as their new weapon of choice. Independent filmmakers turn to the most affordable filmmaking technology of our day – the digital video. Though some major film studios have also used the digital technology in the hope of lowering their production costs, the independent filmmakers are the more active and adventurous champions of the digital technology.

Paolo Villaluna of the Philippine Independent Filmmakers’ Multi-Purpose Cooperative (for short, Independent Filmmakers Cooperative or IFC for short), a group of Filipino independent digital filmmakers, elucidates, “The new technology undoubtedly took away the monopoly of filmmaking from only those who can afford them. Filmmakers saw this as an affordable opportunity to make films the way they want to (italics and bold by original writer), minus producers breathing down their backs, minus the cliché of casting big stars and minus the pressure of recouping a large return of investment (Villaluna, 2007).”

Independent filmmakers have used and still use various film formats such as the Super 8 and the 16 mm but the introduction of the digital technology gives independent filmmakers a cheaper alternative. As Brian McKernan boasts, “today’s digital technology has democratized this most powerful form of storytelling, making it affordable enough for practically anyone to use (McKernan, 2005).” Steven Ascher and Edward Pincus writes “Within a few years if their introduction in the 1990s, mini-DV revolutionized independent and multimedia production… (Ascher and Pincus, 1999).” Villaluna connects the digital technology to its predecessors, “More importantly, this technology mirrors the independence that the previous generation saw in classic tools like the Super 8 and 16 mm (Villaluna, 2007).” Fully cognizant of the importance of other filmmaking medium such as Super 8 and 16 mm to independent filmmakers, it is the contemporary nature of the digital technology that merits the focus of this essay.


Part 2 THE BEGINNINGS OF DIGITAL CINEMA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA will follow.


*Research for this article was funded by the SEASREP Foundation. Research conducted in 2005 to 2007.
**There are also nascent digital filmmaking communities in Indonesia, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian countries, but financial and time constraints limit this study to Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.


WORKS CITED
Ascher, Steven and Edward Pincus. The Filmmaker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age. New York: Plume, 1999.
Keller, Douglas M. and Meenakshi Gigi Durham. Adventures in Media and Cultural Studies. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Khoo, Gaik Cheng. “Just-do-it-yourself: Malaysian independent filmmaking.” Aliran Monthly Vol 24 (2004): Issue 9. Aliran Monthly. Accessed July 18, 2007. http://www.aliran.com/oldsite/monthly/2004b/9k.html
McKernan, Brian. Digital Cinema: The Revolution in Cinematography, Postproduction, and Distribution. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
Millet, Raphael. Singapore Cinema. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2006.
Shaw, Jeffrey and Peter Weibel. Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2003.
Thaiindie website
Villaluna, Paolo. “Bagong Agos: New Currents. New Visions. Emerging Cinema.” Bagong Agos: The Current Wave of Philippine Digital Cinema. Manila: Independent Filmmakers Cooperative, 2007.

A Short Film about Love* (John Torres’ Short Films)

John Torres went through a personal crisis when he was 27 years old – he had to deal with the end of a 13 year relationship with his first girlfriend. He was 14 years old when they started and he was quick to point out that he practically spent half of his life with his now ex-girlfriend. The break-up was devastating for John; he decided to give everything up. He quit his job and embarked to start a new life. He decided to make films to deal with his loss, his pain, his angst. He needed to make films to heal himself.

His healing came in the form of three short yet very personal films now called the Love Trilogy or Otros Trilogy. John Torres’ first film is Tawidgutom (2005), barely 3 minutes long yet full of anticipation, desire, longing, waiting, searching, expectation, frustration, surrender, and resignation. Ultimately, it leads to temporary yet unfulfilling satisfaction. John uses his own voice for the voice-over which is not necessarily a narration of what is shown visually. His voice-over is more of a poetic accompaniment to the visuals. His emotions resonate in his voice. Soothing music permeates the aural elements of the film. The poetic images are coupled with poetic subtitles. There are several layers of texts here: the film text, the voice-over, and the subtitles. The intertextuality of these texts enriches the film.

Salat , John’s second short film is his most personal. Composed of several vignettes like Ang Huling Serbetes, Laro sa Buwan, Miklos Fehrer (Portuguese footballer, told using words on a black screen) and Kulob, John’s intensely personal moment with his ex-girlfriend caught on film. John Torres reveals to us his pain and trusts us to share it with him. He says in the voice-over, “If you are watching this, I trust you.” Torres draws us into his world. John himself appears in Kulob, he is “Kulob.” He films his very personal moment with his ex-girlfriend who visited him after two years of being apart. In a dimly lit room with just the light of the camera’s LCD illuminating them and the sound from the other room filtering in, John coaxes her to cry. Nervous and self-conscious at first, she prods him not to film it. It is a game they play, said John, he plays the director, and she plays the actress. After a few seconds, tears roll down her cheeks slowly as John slows down the scene. The sound is muted, there is no need for that now; her silent tears are as powerful as Edward Munch’s The Scream. We have been witness to one of the most poignant scenes filmed in recent memory.

As John whispers over and over throughout the film, “Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts,” we are sure he is convincing himself to think happy thoughts, willing himself to get over the loss, coaxing himself to be happy, as if saying goodbye to pain.

When John finished Salat, she watched the film. John left her alone in the room so she can watch it alone. He came back after a few minutes to find her crying. He asked her if she understood what he wanted to say. He again went out to give her time to compose herself. John admits that Salat helped him in having closure, though they did have an off-camera closure, and we are privy to the John’s farewell to pain. Having explored his pain through Salat, John was able to survive his personal crisis and remained philosophical about his fate, “surrender sa kung ano nangyari (I surrender myself to what can happen).”

Kung Paano Kita Liligawan Nang Di Kumakapit sa Iyo? (How Can I Court You Without Ever Holding You?) is the 13 minute third installment to the Love/Otros Trilogy. It provides a closure to the series of themes of desire, longing, and loss in the trilogy. We are privy to a taped phone call by John’s ex-girlfriend where she thanks him and sings a couple of love songs herself noting that some lyrics are apt for the situation. One senses a feeling of letting go on the part of John Torres as he trains his camera now on his friends and how they cope through their struggles.

Moving to another equally personal topic, John Torres fourth short film Gabi Noong Sinabi ng Ama Kong May Anak Siya sa Labas (Night When Father Told Me That He Has A Child Outside). Here John tries to explore the painful topic of his father’s infidelity and its effect on their family. The film has an angrier tone with harsher music compared to the soothing music in the Love/Otros trilogy. It is as if John is lashing out at his father for his infidelity. John writes a letter to his father on film:

Father
Because you left me without a wall to punch
a cloud to dry, the wind to shout to, and plants
to drown. I will play the flute for the wake of my
first tragedy. Let’s see what happens.


The anger is evident; the need for release is palpable. A jamming scene in a side street ensues, as if John in exorcises his father’s demons through drums, percussions and dancing.

John received a Hubert Bals Fund grant to develop Gabi Noong Sinabi ng Ama Kong May Anak Siya sa Labas into a full length film. It has evolved into his 2nd full-length film Years when I was a child outside.

John Torres’ four short films are more than personal films; they are confessions from the heart of John Torres. They are filled with desire, loss, infidelity, longing, and redemption. Ultimately, they are short films about love.

Written in March 2007.

*A Short Film about Love, 1988, Krzysztof Kieslowski

My personal encounter with John Torres

I first heard about him from my Ateneo students. To be exact, I heard about Los Otros, a place in Katipunan where Ateneans hang out and work on their multimedia AV presentations. They told me that a filmmaker owns the place and asked me if I know the filmmaker, I said no, thinking he must be one of those student filmmakers who would come and go quietly just like the countless others before him.

Again, I heard about him but this time from a U.P. student who wanted to make a finals project about a young filmmaker who has been creating a buzz in the international scene with his films. The student spoke highly of the filmmaker and was obviously passionate to make a project about him. I though I should not get in the way of my student’s passion. At the end of the semester, I was reading a paper about Love/Otros Trilogy, John’s compilation of short films Tawidgutom, Salat, Kung Paano Kita Liligawan ng Hindi Kumakapit sa Iyo, and Gabi Noong Sinabi ni Ama Kong May Anak Siya sa Labas. With titles like these for films, I got intrigue. So I watched the Love/Otros Trilogy, and I was stunned at how personal and honest the films were. I felt I already know a lot of personal things about this guy I have not met and I felt uncomfortable about it.

I heard about him again when I was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia doing research on digital cinema in Southeast Asia. My KL friends were gushing over a film, Todo Todo Teros, by a Filipino digital filmmaker. They asked me if I knew him, I felt ashamed that I did not. It was blessing that I was staying with friends, film scholar Benjamin Mckay and Malaysian filmmaker Chris Chan Fui. Benjamin had a copy of this film that everyone was talking about. I watched it on one of my sleepless nights in KL, and it kept me up all night. I have finally met John Torres through Todo Todo Teros.

When you watch a John Torres film, you just don’t watch the film; you get to know the man. He takes you into his world, treats you like a confidant, tells you his deepest secrets, exposes his devastating pain, soothes you with his calming voice, and reels you into his life and pains until you are hooked. You feel like a voyeur. You may feel uncomfortable knowing too much about someone you don’t know. It is like having a close encounter with someone you do not know personally. Whether you like it not, you are affected. Knowing so many personal things about him by watching his films, you might even end up being his friend.

I have finally met the man I’ve known through his films. I have finally heard the soothing voice first hand. He has a humble demeanor and a disarming air around him. He does not have the “I am a filmmaker” swagger. He is just a man who wants to share his life through his films. I have had my first close encounter with John Torres.

Written in March 2007.

For Alexis Tioseco

Thank you.