Of Skyflakes and catfood
A neophyte filmmaker cracked a badly-timed joke while being interviewed in television -- and all hell broke loose.
Suddenly the internet was ablaze with expressions of shock and indignation. How could this upstart be so callous, insensitive and brazen in delivering such condescending statements with his coño boy demeanor?
After all, to say that indie filmmakers preferred actors from the legitimate stage because they could be fed crackers and cat food without complaint while crying on cue --- was not only be demeaning but downright insulting.
How he said it
But wait: the problem was not really with what he said --- but how he said it. After reviewing the clip posted on YouTube and replicated on various pages of Facebook, one could see where he was really coming from and what the young man was trying to do.
Yes, it was a left-handed complement. What he really wanted to say was that theater actors do not pose the same quirky diva behavior as some mainstream performers whose pag-iinarte is far superior than their pag-arte. But unfortunately, the success of any joke depends on the delivery of the punch line --- rather than the susceptibility to be the one knocked out with a punch.
Worse, there is no medium more difficult to come across with crispness and sharp humor than television. A cold medium like TV leaves you vulnerable and subject to interpretation and misinterpretation. You present yourself as Smarty-Ass and you get lynched in your attempt to be smart and cute.
Just like posting an entry on your Twitter account: before you know it, an entire community, tribe and nation is after you just because you worded your pakyut message ambiguously. And you have no way of defending or explaining yourself in lavish detail.
Lessons to be learned
But there are more lessons to be learned here not only for the young filmmaker but for the theater artists as well.
Yes, it is true: the best actors you can possibly get in front of the cameras do not come from the stable of celebrities spawned by networks. They are the truly hard-working, dedicated and disciplined men and women who act to fulfill a passion and not to walk down red carpets or have their houses featured in celebrity-centered magazines.
And maybe it is about time media stops shortchanging them --- or give them the due respect that they so deserve. That is because, indeed, they will endure anything but everything to improve and challenge their craft. Independent filmmakers could not have risen the ranks without the likes of Pen Medina, Nonong and Sharmaine Buencamino, Irma Adlawan, Neil Ryan Sese … and, yes, Eugene Domingo as well as so many others who came from the legitimate stage.
Passion
It is the passion of these theater actors that gave back dignity to performing for film. They have succeeded to raise the stature of independent cinema in the country to the extent that mainstream actors have found a way to fulfill their own artistic needs by living on crackers and cat food too … just to be able to save their souls at the end of the day.
In the meantime, the young filmmaker has extended his apologies to both Cinemalaya and the theater community. Cooler heads have prevailed. Case closed. Time to move on. There is no point doing figure 8's on ice cubes. There are far worse problems to solve … but the lessons learned here are loud and clear.
