MY LIFE AS ART

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BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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Romeo and Julio

THE WORKING title of my latest film Ikapito nga Adlaw (7th Day) was Mga Nawong sang Gugma (Faces of Love).

From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to tell the story of Romeo and Juliet three times. I also knew I wanted to include a Romeo and Julio version, in addition to the conventional hetero Romy and Julie, and the scandalous May-December Manang Julia and Roming. In the end though, I decided on the 7th Day title because I like ordinal numbers.

Twenty thousand pesos is not a small amount of money to spend on a short film that has no clear return of investment; and therefore, if I was going to throw away my money that way, I wanted to have much fun doing it; and it better serve my artistic vision. The outcome film should speak volumes about my art, my advocacy, my many talents, and my capabilities as a filmmaker.

I want my film to be bold, daring, provocative, and, at the very least, controversial like me. I really, really think that I have achieved what I have set out to do. Ikapito nga Adlaw promises to break the ceiling in Ilonggo film history for a variety of reasons. Again, and again, I will say that it is my most ballsy film…so far.

If you think it is difficult to get young Ilonggo actors to kiss for the screen, think about the challenges of pairing an 18-year-old and a 50-something. Then, multiply that 10 or 12 times, and you get the idea of how difficult it is to have two Ilonggo men lip lock in a film with a shoestring budget.

I’m a pretty decent actor, but I don’t like acting in my own films. I rather like to control everything from behind the camera. But as luck would have it, I’m always pushed to do screen time to save the film; or, at the very least, salvage a shooting day.

In 2012’s Gugma sa Panahon sang Bakunawa, the role of Poke-san, the Geisha, was intended for one popular tranny called “Cindy” Arcelon. He was supposed to act alongside my friends Eric de la Vega and Benmar Chan in the film’s titular bakunawa festival sequence. The scene was scheduled to be shot on the first day, after midnight at our town plaza. I gave my first-time actors the script two weeks in advance for them to learn their dialogues because we only had five or six days to shoot the entire full-length feature film. As soon as I arrived in the country, I workshopped them a bit, and ran their lines with them.

I talked to Cindy in the morning of the scheduled shoot, but by evening time, he was gone, and could not be reached by phone. I was told he got cold feet. So guess what, to keep the film shoot on schedule, I wore a kimono and sashayed my way through the scene. I didn’t want to jinx the first day of shoot by leaving some scenes not filmed.

I delivered a pretty good performance (I told you, I’m a great actor!) but it was just a short cameo, and you’d hardly recognize me in drag. But the role in Ikapito nga Adlaw is a little more demanding. In fact, it is something I would consider a lead role, if you can imagine a 15-minute short film with six lead actors.

When I wrote the script, I had in mind my new friends Eduardo Dionio and Jose Joshua “JJ” de la Peña for the roles of Romeo and Julio. I think they’d be perfect for the roles, but when I asked them if they’d kiss in front of the camera, they balked. I didn’t like that response, but I totally understood. I knew I needed real actors to achieve what I wanted for my film.

Or, I needed, at least, one good actor. Where you can’t get two men to kiss, I’d settle for one brave actor willing to kiss me in front of the camera. I mean, if the actor is worth his label as an actor, he surely can act alongside me. And I’m pretty sure I’m okay kissing another man for a movie. It’s just a movie, after all. It’s just a shoot. It’s not like I’m going to enjoy it. It’s not like we are going to have hundreds of takes so that we end up with minutes after minutes of kissing footages. I mean, I’m a professional. I’m sure I can do a kissing scene in one take.

Well, the movie was probably destined to be made after all because I met a Bacoleño, who claimed he is an actor. He’s supposed to be a stage and events director, a theater and film actor, and a dancer. When I asked him what films he has done, he replied, Midnight Sonata, “ Family Portrait, 7 Deadly Sins, and Kontrata.

Now, I didn’t want, and still don’t want, to lie. I confess ignorance about these films, and if Kim Villaluna (that’s his name) lied, I wouldn’t know any better.

I asked Kim what stage works he has done, and he said, Si Rosencrantz kag Guildenstern Patay na, Pagtabuk, Bacchae, Rizal Is My President, Por La Sangre, Café Specials, Café Specials 2, and he even played Jesus Christ in Ang Kalbaryo sang Krus. He showed me some photos from these productions saved on his phone. I said, okay.

But you see, I’m not easily impressed by so-called actors even if they are 2011 Mass Communications graduates from the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City. I mean, what is it to me if you are a member and President of the Jean Baptiste Dance Company? So what if you directed MassComm Society’s horror room Trangka in 2010?  Or, because you are a youth minister of the Bacolod Diocesan Commission on Youth, you also directed the Negros Museum’s Waxworks: Orakulo in 2012, and many other church cultural events and performances?

To me, the real test of an actor is to act alongside me, and pit whatever talent one has with mine. Or better yet, to deal with me as a director, in whatever production it is that I do – stage, film, photography, fashion show, mixed media, et cetera – and allow me to mold to perfection the actor in one’s self.

Well, it looks like Kim Villaluna is a hardcore actor of the genuine variety. My first challenge was for him to read opposite me excerpts from my shameless gay play Welcome to Grindr. We were supposed to perform it in a gathering of West Visayan writers sometime in October, but the organizers never made good on managing to extend me an invitation. So, I said, “Forget it!”
Kim, presently working as a wedding and events photographer at his own company – Beyond Photography, was so hungry to read a meaty part before an audience, so I raised the stakes by asking if he’d be open to a stage kiss with me. His reply, “I’ve done more than that. I’m an actor.”

Now, I thought, that was some ballsy attitude there. So when Dumangas locals Eduardo and JJ could not make the gay love scene in Ikapito nga Adlaw, I didn’t hesitate to ask Kim if he’d play Romeo to my Julio. Well, he is a real actor, and wasn’t at all bothered to pit talents with the great Peter Solis Nery.

As it turned out, he has Dumangueño roots, too (yes, I met him in Dumangas); so choosing him was still in keeping with my vision of having an all-Dumangueño cast and crew.

The scenes with Kim were the fastest to be filmed. I am always amazed at my DOPs Jeremy Arguelles Azucena and Joey Rap Decolongon, but I really admired their speed with Kim’s scenes. When I asked them how come we shot everything in so short a time, all they said was, “It’s different when you are working with real actors.”

Of course! I mean, it’s Kim Villaluna and Peter Solis Nery acting on these scenes, how can you not shoot fast? It’s all one take. Both actors are ever so professional, ever so smart about their choices and characterizations, and have absolutely no qualms about nudities and gay kisses. Both understood that the actor’s instrument in his art and craft is his body, and the body can be sacrificed for the greatest good. And what good can be greater than art?

And so it was that two men kissed, two men simulated Riding the Tiger, two men brought Romeo and Julio to life in an art film that Ilonggos will surely talk about for years. Just how bold and daring were the gay sex scenes? Well, let’s just say that Ikapito nga Adlaw will break the ceiling in Ilonggo filmmaking history. Go watch it. I mean, why would you just believe what I say? What ever happened to the maxim “To see is to believe”?/PN
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