Jack Kirby design for LORD OF LIGHT, which was eventually “greenlighted” by the CIA as ARGO.
I remember years ago when this operation was declassified, it made the rounds of comics news sites due to Kirby’s involvement.
Tomorrow Night! Saabmarine Teleradyo: Ang Nawawala Edition!
Tune your interweb browsers to ustream.tv/channel/saabmarine-teleradyo tomorrow night (Sunday) at 10PM!
RA Rivera & Saab Magalona kindly open their doors and play host to Ang Nawawala writers/music supervisors Marie Jamora & Ramon De Veyra (with, hopefully, other guests in tow), who will bring some vinyl and answer your questions!
We still get a lot of questions on the various social networks so we thought it would be interesting to have an online, public Q+A session. You can ask us anything, and we’ll do our best to answer. Just be warned: it’ll be spoiler-heavy; we’re assuming it’s going to be mostly people who’ve seen the movie in the chatroom. But at least this way even people outside of Metro Manila can participate, and you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home!
(watching is free, but you’ll need a Ustream account if you want to participate in the chat)
This is tonight! 10PM. No holds barred; ask away.
The Screenreader’s Ang Nawawala review
Every once in a while, I find a film so beautiful, moving and relatable that I find it hard to sum up in words. “Ang Nawawala” is such a film. Its subtelty and poignancy has cut my heart out and got me tongue-tied. It is so painfully sweet, so depressingly good that I am writing this review with so much and nothing to say at the same time. The film left me as speechless as its protagonist, and whatever writing I’m doing will probably end up as confused ramblings of an emotional girl.
Ironically, this is going to be a very long review containing NECESSARY SPOILERS. I am attempting to expound on the undertones which I can’t do without giving out some details. And because I’m getting really carried away.
SYNOPSIS
“Ang Nawawala” (What Isn’t There) focuses on 20-year old Gibson Bonifacio (Dominic Roco) who has not spoken in ten years. Because of trauma and guilt, he pulled away from the world, setting up his selective mutism as a wall. He comes home for Christmas to a dysfunctional family. His mother (Dawn Zulueta), a woman distant and broken, welcomes him with a cold heart. And when mother and son first look at each other after a long time, we see the pain and longing in Gibson’s eyes.
The Bonifacios are dysfunctional in a very quiet, somber way. They sit over dinner with awkward formality. Although the father (Boboy Garrovillo) tries to cheer everyone up, the cloud hanging over their heads is too heavy to disperse. We see a family portrait of depression. And when we notice one vacant chair on the other end of the table, we understand that something is really missing in the picture.
Gibson moves around the house like a ghost. He locks himself up in his bedroom, smokes pot, and plays his records. Even when he is spending time with his family, he doesn’t really connect with them completely. He tries, with the help of a video camera. He records moments he finds to be special, no matter how ordinary they are. And then he mashes them up in his computer, adding tracks of music that describe how he feels about these memories. He also reconnects with an old friend, Teddy (Alchris Galura), who introduces him to the local music scene. Here, he meets Enid (Annicka Dolonius). They are into the same things and she doesn’t judge him when she finds out he doesn’t talk. She becomes someone he can finally talk with, albeit not without his iPhone. And as her name implies, she brings “life” back to his existence.
NOW, JUST WHY I LOVE THIS FILM.
I only found this the other day, though it’s about a month old, but it’s now one of my favorite pieces I’ve seen about the film. I appreciate most any review, really, positive or negative; just the fact that they watched and took the time to articulate their thoughts on the film is nice. But there are a handful of pieces (Troy Bernardo’s comes to mind) that surprise and delight me in that the writers seem to have really made the effort to unpack a lot of the things we tried to put in the film, whether it was to provide a richer, fuller dramatic experience, or for world-building, or just to make sure it has good rewatch value.
It’s extremely gratifying to see examples of people who seem to have gotten a lot out of the film, and to see them sharing what they’ve found in turn. It feels good to see the things you wrote a year ago connecting in the way you wanted them to.
So thank you SO MUCH (all caps!), Screenreader (is it Aia?), for taking the time to write about the film. :)
September 22, 2012 at 7:59pm
Ciudad - “There’s a Lonely Road to Sunday Night”
I directed this. It’s my second music video. The first one was Us-2 Evil-0’s “Our Weekends Dissolve.” I’ve always wanted to direct a music video for Ciudad, so there.
It’s for the movie I co-wrote, Ang Nawawala. The cast of characters sing the song. The band get to be the backing vocals.
The concept of the video was different, but when I read the lyrics they fit so well with the characters in the film that I changed it. I thought Ciudad made the song for us but was mistaken; it was always intended for their now-out latest album Follow The Leader.
I think the video works fine without having seen Ang Nawawala, but if you have seen the movie it makes a bit more sense; there’s more to pick up. I got to work with all the cinematographers of the film, which was great. I got to direct the cast, which was awesome. One of the colorists of this video was a PA on my first one. We shot this on the last 3 or 4 days of principal photography.
