Oh God. I was traumatized by the images I saw last night. I had to watch Missy Piggy Rapping Peaches just so I wouldn’t have nightmares.
Thanks you mods/admins for getting rid of the evol on this site.
Commentary by Ginette Vincendeau
She has such a lovely voice and accent, it’s wonderful to fall asleep to.
And maybe I’m partial to this because it’s the most recent Criterion I’ve seen with commentary:
Commentary by Tony Rayns
Probably the exact opposite of the above because it’s impossible for me to fall asleep to this one, Mr. Rayns’ commentary always says something fascinating at every turn of this fast-paced film, he keeps up with the action remarkably.
Wow Kenji, another comprehensive list, as always. But no love for the Philippines? <‘,))(
This thread did make me realize how very little I’ve seen from my own home country. Of the handful of Filipino films I have seen, I have to say that even though I know this film isn’t the best film from our country, it’s probably one of the best representatives of our culture:
@Kenji—Hahaha, I was just kidding, I didn’t expect you to. Our films rarely get distribution outside of our country, unlike the other countries you’ve mentioned. Silip is probably not the best place to start, either, even though it has to be the Filipino film that’s gotten the biggest distribution.
Actually I want to change my choice, how could I forget about Mike de Leon’s Bayaning 3rd World (Third World Hero)? It’s a postmodern movie-within-a-movie that has a director questioning if a film about Jose Rizal (our national hero) can be made.
The poster’s tag line roughly translates as: Do you believe in Rizal or do you not care at all ?
Which is a reflection of the Filipinos’ neglect of our own history, or even just the tendency to forget too often. The film itself is actually quite light and humorous despite its serious concerns about our National Hero. And it’s shot in beautiful black and white.
I would like to see a Lav Diaz film on here, but I can imagine that the average running time of his films (8-10 hours) may present a problem. Batang West Side might be a little more manageable at 5 hours in length. I have the director’s email address if you want to contact him, just send me a pm. I’ve contacted him before about sending me a copy of his films and he has yet to send them to me, but I think coming from a legit company like The Auteurs, you guys might get a better response.
Granted, it’s a little dated, but there is still inspiration to be drawn from this. Kidlat Tahimik paved the way for Filipino Independent cinema, and his “Cup of Gas Filmmaking” philosophy was huge inspiration not only for filmmakers but other Filipino artists working outside the mainstream. His film Perfumed Nightmare which was a seminal Filipino Independent Film, Francis Ford Coppola saw the film while he was making Apocalypse Now in the Philippines and gave it distribution.
In a nutshell, Mr. Tahimik stresses that there is more freedom in not having money to make a film as there is no pressure of time to finish the film (even truer now with the advent of digital filmmaking), it will in fact leave you as a filmmaker more open to changes over time, new ideas, and possibilities that you probably wouldn’t have time to consider if the pressure of time and money were pushing you forward to finish the film. Time should be your friend in filmmaking, not your enemy. Anyway, Kidlat Tahimik explains it better:
(sorry for the typos, I just copy & pasted it from a PDF file that was scanned from a paper that was typewritten)
September 29, 1986
Kidlat Tahimik:
(Revised Paper)
The Challenge of Third World Culture
Cups-of-Gas Filmmaking vs . Full Tank-cum-Credit Card Fillmaking
Author’s Note : While writing this paper, I made a typographical
error : instead of “filmmaker,” it came out “filmmaker .” A cosmic
message—perhaps the core of this paper . So let the cosmic
typographical error be an objet trouve of the visual artist
trying to express himself in a paper medium .
Making a film is like taking a long trip . The film voyager
can load up with a full tank and bring a credit card along to
insure completion of the voyage in as short a time as posible .
The voyager can also load up with a few cups of gasoline and
drive until he runs out and scrounge around for subsequent cups
of gas to get to his destination, without worrying about how long
it takes to complete the voyage .
Completing the artwork is the voyage all artists set out to
do, whether painter, writer or filmaker . The length of the trip,
TIMEWISE, is a matter of choice depending on the combination of
ingredients—inspiration, resources, tools and working materials
available, personal circumstances like family or emotional
disturbances, etc .
Assuming the filmmaker has the optimal mix of these
ingredients to complete a filmic work of art, he can still choose
the timeframe : Either to follow the dictum : “Time is money”, and
battle with the clock to finish his artwork: in the shortest
period, or to allow time to be his ally and open up to cosmic
inspirations provided by a relatively free timeframe .
The efficient path (i .e . timesaving) is the usual mode of
commercial productions, whether one is doing a Hollywood Cecil B .
de Mille film or a Third World box-office hit . This is dictated
by the laws of the investment world, where films are mainly a
consumer product to be served like McDonald’s hamburgers . The
McDonaldization of films is a reality I accept and do not want to
waste energy . fighting it]
The inefficient road (i .e . time-indulging), full of detours
and explorable nooks, is a choice which can be a luxury of
artistic filmmakers in the richer countries (i .e . the First
World) and can be a matter of necessity in the case of Third
World filmmakers .
As a filmmaker, it takes me usually two or four years to
complete a film, partly a necessity dictated by Third World
realities and partly a choice to avoid the formulas dictated by
bankrollers .` Some can look at it as a lack of discipline, but
discipline is always relative to preconceived “laws” of
fillmak:ing learned in . film schools .
technologically dependent art form, there is a need for some form
of discipline . One has to discipline oneself to save Lip for the
nest cup of gas, to buy a roll of film . One has to have the
discipline to have enough light to enter the filmshutter, or to
focus to register a good image .
But the discipline of time required in Hollywood is not an
essential in the making of a good filmwork:, especially if one
chooses the discipline of allowing time to be one’s co-director .
4f It takes a sort of discipline to resist the emperor’s-new-
clothes perception that time is an adversary always to be
contended with (i .e ., finish as many artworks as you can in your
lifetime) .
My film being made now might just be an extension of a
“film” I lived in some previous life, or just a transitional
rush this life’s scenario? And if I don’t finish the film in
this life . . .it’s only a film. So my cups-of-gas drifting can
continue into the next several lifetimes .
The Full Tank-cum-Credit Card (FTC) method of fiIImaking is
not confined to Hollywood, of course . If we consider Hollywood a
process determined by an infrastructure, then one can say the FTC
fillmaling is also done in the Third World . The result of this
FTC fillmakinq is the same formula films (formula : sex, violence,
crashing cars), only with Filipino actors, and a more awkward way
of crashing the cars .
With hindsight, I can say I have taken a detour from cliches
because I have avoided the FTC=using OPM, or Other People’s Money
formula, which makes the real director of the film the
comparative cost of capital in time deposit . Who directs the big
budget films?
The efficiency required by the OPM formula dictates time,
deadlines, schedules like a a taxi meter . Time is money . My
lack of resources can become a blessing because my time frame. escapes this deadline obsession, and allows me to discover
motifs. The film becomes an interaction between me and the
cosmos, because I have escaped the straitjacket of FTC
fillmaking .
Sour grapes? I could conceivably look for some FTC funding
in my own country, with the credentials that Perfumed – Nightmare
has picked up . But looking back, I am beginning to discover ten
years after I started making my first film that the shadow side
of establishment fillmaling is not worth making 20 blockbusters
in a decade .
Of course I could use a little more money to give me elbow
room, but the drug of big budgets can restructure my whole way of
expressing myself . For instance, originally (looking back
not so originally), I had conceived Magellan in my current film
Memories – of – Overdevelogment [the story of Magellan’s voyage from
the viewpoint of his Filipino slave, the first person to
circumnavigate the globe and return to his place of origin], to
buy his slave in a Malacca slave market, examining him like a
horse during the transaction—a traditional, cliched view of the
slave-master encounter .
The cups of gasoline for that scene came months later .
I happened to gather odd furniture from different friends’ houses
to fill a market stall . Instead of the original scene, what now
happens is that Magellan, while buying furniture for his cabin,
discovers the slave hiding in the chest from his angry Chinese
master . In the process, the slave ends up in a buy-one-take-one
deal . Time and the cosmos provided this new sequence . So who is
to say that-time is my adversary?
To take another example, trying to create a castle scene in
Memories, I could have hired top notch production designers to
make a cliche-acceptable,“realistic”-looking chateau . Instead I
used a little chapel in my neighborhood, whose main richness is a
beautifully tiled floor . (I had to avoid framing the chapel wall which looked modern) .
Many spectators would be disturbed by a floor-dominated
chateau visual, but the suggestion is enough . And by permitting
an abset_trouye to determine a scene, I manage to break: out of
cliches of what the royal courtroom should look: like . What may
provoke viewers to feel that Kidlat Tahimik is caricaturing
“reality” is actually a free act of shooting the tile floor that
was beckoning to be filmed .
‘Another example : The American boss in Perfumed_Nightmare in
my original conception was to look like a Madison Avenue executive
going to the Philippines for a Miss Universe beauty pageant . But
in shooting, the only Caucasion available was my clumsy-looking
cameraman . So I forced him to go in front of the camera in a Boy
Scout suit—the Boy Scouts are a very big movement in the
Philippines—since that was what was available . And now film
buffs say, ’What a great caricature .’
In Perfumed Nightmare, little Kidlat, the hero, is
fascinated by Werner von Braun’s world and Cape Kennedy and hi-
tech society . He comes to realize that his strength is in his
own Filipino identity . For the music in Perfumed_Nightmare, I
had a Kidlat theme . It’s a piece from the Koran . I had been
provided with tapes of ethnographic music, including three tapes
of Muslim music from Mindanao . But of so many tunes I
instinctively chose a particular tune without understanding the
Arabic text, and repeated it throughout the film . After my first
screening in Paris, an Egyptian student excitedly asked me how I
had chosen the music and said that the words were so relevant .
Then he explained that in the song, after Abraham was asked by
God to sacrifice his son, he is confused about why God would ask
for blood . In trying to understand God he sees the moon and
asks, “Is that my God?” The moon disappears ; he is disappointed .
Like wise the sun provokes him to ask “Is that my God?
The sun rises and sets . He continues questioning . The stars
come and go, finally he concludes that God is within himself .
Many professionals tell the beginning filmmaker, "You should
not take too long to finish a film, because too many changes
happens within the individual filmmaker .” That is a great rule
for time-efficient FTC fillmaking . But allowing oneself to be capsulized in the cocoon that is Time-is-money means closing out the cosmic offsprings.
Time incorporated as an ally into one’s filmmaking brings a
different dynamic into the film . And therefore the film should
be viewed with non-Hollywood filters and should be appreciated
and criticized with different criteria . Third World films are
perceived as slow by the fast-cutting habits we are used to .
Perhaps we have to learn to use a time frame similar to the
neverending story of ramayanas or odysseys .
But of course in America one doesn’t have the luxury of time
to watch a 48-hour film, like an Indonesian watching shadow-
4 puppet theater for several days . What I mean here is accepting
the time-frame of Third World filmmakers even i f watching a
standard two-hour-long film .
Watching films or reading novels is a matter of habit . The
visual excitement pumped and overstuffed into FTC films, which
today is equated with quality in films, may in fact be crutches
to disguise the lack: of any inner quality, any profundity of
spirit .
Formula films probably get the kinds of audiences they
deserve, and even condition them to accept these as the only
valid style of filmmaking . And I might add that the filmgoing
public also deserves the kind of films they support .
Producers call for a sex scene or a mugging about 45 minutes
into a film, because scientific studies of ass-behavior – show that
Western butts get restless at this point . But when you think
about the Indonesians squatting for days on end, is it possible the
quality of the performance that affects the restlessness? Should
butt-habits determine the quality of the film? Cups-of-gas
audiences have to be developed over time . Those who have learned
to accept the filmmaker’s time framework have probably learned to
depose the butt-dictator .
These audiences will continue to grow, because the
McDonaldization of films will sooner or later—probably much
later—call for new menus coming from the world of Rochester
(home of Kodak) spaghetti. Hollywood fast foods will succumb to
the Third World lariat (slo-mo banquets) . What would you like to
order, sir? The Purple Couscous of Cairo"’ or “The Yellow Big Mac
of Texas”?
Kenji—Oh yes, thanks for reminding me! Perfumed Nightmare is absolutely essential viewing, I would rank it right up there with the other two films I mentioned. I remembered when Kidlat Tahimik himself brought his own personal print of the film to our high school and afterwards I talked to him and he was really encouraging for filmmakers to start making films on digital. And 5 years later, there was boom of independent films from the Philippines, two of the filmmakers, Khavn de la Cruz and John Torres, being Kidlat Tahimik’s disciples. Kidlat Tahimik really paved the way for Independent Filipino cinema, with his Cup of Gas Filmmaking Philosophy
Island of Flowers really stood out for me on your list, Kenji. I managed to find it on google video here I’ll watch it as soon as I finish typing this.
@ Blue Kim, you should definitely check out Silip if you’re feeling adventurous. It’s pretty brutal, especially the opening. Watch it in its original Tagalog rather than the dubbed version, although you’ll see with the dubbed version of how they really marketed the film as exploitation/erotica, even changing the mood of the pivotal sex scene entirely! I think Mondo Macabro is also planning to release Snake Sisters, but no word yet on when exactly.
You just missed Kim’s …. Anyway, around the corner from the old location of Kim’s on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village there is Norman’s Sound and Vision, which has some DVDs in the basement. All of them used, but there are sometimes rare finds there, like I bought the French Import of In The Mood For Love and Invisible Waves there. The majority of their DVDs are below $10. Then there’s Entertainment Outlet, they have a couple branches around like in Bryant Park and their DVDs are dirt cheap, they even have a World Cinema/Criterion section, but it’s small. J&R on Park Row has a great World Cinema selection, but the prices vary, I was able to get Prime Cut there for $5. There’s also a Japanese place called Book Off, near the Public Library and Grand Central and they have an amazing selection of Japanese DVDs, but unless you can read Japanese, you’re going to have to guess the movie from the cover. Academy Records on 18th street also has a small but excellent selection of DVDs, and good prices too, especially on Criterions. But if you’re really willing to venture out, as in going out to Jersey, The Princeton Record Exchange is phenomenal not only for their selection but also their prices are ridiculously low, I’ve seen Criterion DVDs for as low as $15, used of course.
I love the library because the rentals are free and I can request titles if they don’t carry it. <’,))(
I used to rent a lot from a place called CineFile, which is around the corner from the NuArt Theatre. At CineFile they have unlimited rental memberships similar to netflix. I used to watch a movie at the NuArt, then drop in at CineFile and rent something right after. They had stuff there I couldn’t find anywhere else, like the films of Chantal Akerman, Sabu’s Monday, and I got a full education in contemporary Thai cinema there, so I’m grateful that there is such a rental place.
I fall asleep all the time. I love films that put me to sleep, it means the film was nice enough to leave me alone and catch up on some rest. I’m also thinking even if it’s a rare screening of a film, I’m still going to get another opportunity to see it again, sometime in the future, and it happens all the time.
For me, falling asleep is part of the experience. The first to go are my eyes, but I continue to listen to the film, the sounds travel into my subconscious, and I dream…sometimes it’s a different outcome for the film, sometimes something completely different that only subtly connected to the film. And these are the films I usually come back to, over and over. That feeling of coming back to a film, is like meeting someone again. I may fall asleep on the film on the second or third viewing but that’s the thing, if the film is interesting enough to come back to, I will. And even if I end up not liking the film after watching it completely awake, I can walk away with my own version that I can still replay in my head.
Atom Egoyan and his myriad of ideas and references in The Adjuster are mind-blowing…I had to watch it with Egoyan’s commentary just to make sense of it all.
My favorite title sequence isn’t from a film, but from a TV show, a TV show that’s probably more cinematic than most films.
The Wire is genius, and their opening credits of each season tells a story, purely by using insert shots. The first 2 seasons’ title sequences were edited beautifully by Altman’s regular editor, Geraldine Peroni.
There are some brilliant video essays by Andrew Dignan, Kevin B. Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz on each season’s title sequence here.
Yup, you’re absolutely right Sano.
Speaking personally, I am a very prolific short filmmaker, having made 5 shorts already this year, but there are several reasons why I keep making them. One reason, and probably the primary reason, is that I truly enjoy making films, if I’m not making one I think of making the next one. Another reason is that I’m still learning and each film is part of the learning process, so I need to keep making them in order to learn. What differs filmmakers from other artists is that we’re probably the only ones who can’t practice our art everyday, so I try to make it my goal to make at least one short a month. I usually go on pure inspiration and don’t give it a lot of thought, allow the short to develop organically from the people I’ve cast, the environment, etc. Sometimes I just go out and shoot something that’s about absolutely nothing, as long as I’m shooting, that’s all that matters.
But yeah, what Kidlat Tahimik is referring to is feature-length filmmaking, and in that regard, I don’t think I’d be as prolific. It has taken me a year just to complete a 75 minute feature, and it’s taken a lot out of me. I only made the film to see if I could do it, and from what I learned and experienced, it’s going to be awhile til I make the next one. Time was a factor on the shoot, as the actors did have their own lives to get on with, so we were grateful for any time they could provide us. And that’s the constant factor that I rarely have control over in all my films, since I want to make film about human beings, I need actors, and it’s pretty hard to get them to commit long term if you’re not paying them. But I have slowly been building a group of actors who have faith in me and hopefully will make making a feature a lot easier in the future. I guess that’s why I love making quick shorts, I rehearse one day then shoot the next. Editing is pretty simple since I don’t really need anything fancy, although I do take some time from the shoot before editing just to be able to separate myself from the shoot and approach the footage with a renewed sense of…I don’t know. Anyway, so I will continue to make lots of shorts, and maybe a feature here and there.
Also, just to add context to the essay, it was written from a Filipino point of view, especially within regards to time. We as a people didn’t really have concept of Western time, we followed nature’s time-night and day, harvest time, meal time, etc…then the colonizers came and imposed a lot of Western systems, including time by breaking the day down hour by hour, minute by minute. I don’t think it has completely worked, cos I have observed in the provinces and having gone to college in a provincial town, there is hardly any sense of time at all. Even our classes tended to start late. There is a term that’s got a negative connotation called “Filipino Time”, which means we’re always late. But the only reason why we’re always late is because we have different sense of time, and we’re only really late in the point of view of Western time. If you ever read any of Lav Diaz’s interviews with him explaining why he uses really long, real time takes in his films, it’s exactly because of that, we have a different sense of time, and it’s almost nonexistent in Western terms.
Sano—but Germany has also made some slow films, too—Im Lauf Der Zeit immediately comes to mind. Has there been one recently? Maybe you could make that film.
I would love to see Evolution of a Filipino Family, I envy you for having seen it. And it’s apt that you mentioned it cos that a great example of a film made through the cup-of-gas method. Acccording to imdb, the film took 11 years to complete, “With shoestring budget, shooting were only done if there was money, and if the crew and actors were available.” (sic)
and Noel Vera mentions in his overview of Diaz’s films that the film was initially shot on 16mm and was completed by shooting the rest of the film on video. My high school classmate, Arvie Bartolome, who has collaborated on several projects Lav Diaz, told that Lav would even take up work has a waiter just to get funds to continue the film. I think Lav Diaz gotten the hang of it, becoming a very prolific filmmaker by averaging a film a year, with films that average 8-10 hours in running time.
KJ, thanks for posting Jon Jost’s review. Sherad Anthony Sanchez is not as prolific as most of his contemporaries, Imburnal is only his second film after 2006’s Huling Balyan ng Buhi, but his dedication to realizing the work by taking that much time is evident. Jost’s Pedro Costa comparison is fitting, as with Costa’s own No Quarto da Vanda and Juventude Em Marcha, they are both directors who don’t mind taking a couple of years to just live with their subjects (for lack of a better term) before even turning on the camera. Again, this a luxury that digital has given filmmakers.
I don’t know, I guess being a Filipino in Los Angeles I have adjusted to the Western time, although probably too much: I often find myself rushing when driving somewhere even though I don’t need to. It’s this city, it has way of doing that to you. And that’s probably another reason why I keep making shorts, is because I feel that everyday, the more I drive, the more chance I have of getting into an accident, so I have to make the most of my time, there is a real feeling mortality here.
Anyway, back to the topic, this is great, you guys are really making me do my research. So Kidlat Tahimik planted the seeds with his essay some 20-odd years ago, and the possibility of digital filmmaking set Filipino cinema free. Alexis A. Tioseco has great article on the New Philippine Cinema here.
The LA Film Fest starts tonight and if anybody’s attending, please post here on this thread. Post the screening you’re attending and maybe other users are attending the same screening, a good opportunity to meet people from this site and talk about the film you just saw.
I will be at the screenings for:
‘Still Walking (Aruitemo, aru’ on Mon, Jun 22 @7:00pm, Regent Theatre
‘35 Shots of Rum (35 rhums)’ on Tue, Jun 23 @7:00pm, Regent Theatre
‘Los Bastardos’ on Tue, Jun 23 @9:45pm, Regent Theatre
Crude Oil Part 1 on Fri, 26 @ 11:30am, Hammer Museum Gallery 6
Crude Oil Part 2 on Sat @ 11:30am, Hammer Museum Gallery 6
I seem to be stuck in one theater aside from the Crude Oil screening, the Regent is a nice theater, though. Crude Oil, by the way is a 14 hour documentary. They’ve divided it over two days and both screenings are free.
CONVERSATE/COMMUNICATE - USING MOVIE "QUOTES" - I'LL START IT OFF 7 months ago
“I’m not jumping through hoops for some psycho! That’s a white man with white problems. You deal with him. Call me when he crosses 110th Street.”
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Favorite auteurs missing from the profile selection box. 7 months ago
Edit: My mistake. I found him.
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CONVERSATE/COMMUNICATE - USING MOVIE "QUOTES" - I'LL START IT OFF 7 months ago
And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that this is not just “Something That Happened.” This cannot be "One of Those Things… ” This, please, cannot be that. And for what I would like to say, I can’t. This Was Not Just A Matter Of Chance. Ohhhh. These strange things happen all the time.
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The Auteurs Confessions 7 months ago
I no longer believe in star ratings yet I can’t break the habit of giving films star ratings on this site.
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STOP THE LISTS! 7 months ago
I like that the site tabs and the search box is now accessible (again?) on profile pages. That’s all. <’,))(
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STOP THE LISTS! 7 months ago
Oh God. I was traumatized by the images I saw last night. I had to watch Missy Piggy Rapping Peaches just so I wouldn’t have nightmares.
Thanks you mods/admins for getting rid of the evol on this site.
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Which Criterion film has the best commentary ? 7 months ago
Commentary by Ginette Vincendeau
She has such a lovely voice and accent, it’s wonderful to fall asleep to.
And maybe I’m partial to this because it’s the most recent Criterion I’ve seen with commentary:
Commentary by Tony Rayns
Probably the exact opposite of the above because it’s impossible for me to fall asleep to this one, Mr. Rayns’ commentary always says something fascinating at every turn of this fast-paced film, he keeps up with the action remarkably.
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Films for a time capsule 7 months ago
Wow Kenji, another comprehensive list, as always. But no love for the Philippines? <‘,))(
This thread did make me realize how very little I’ve seen from my own home country. Of the handful of Filipino films I have seen, I have to say that even though I know this film isn’t the best film from our country, it’s probably one of the best representatives of our culture:
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Films for a time capsule 7 months ago
@Kenji—Hahaha, I was just kidding, I didn’t expect you to. Our films rarely get distribution outside of our country, unlike the other countries you’ve mentioned. Silip is probably not the best place to start, either, even though it has to be the Filipino film that’s gotten the biggest distribution.
Actually I want to change my choice, how could I forget about Mike de Leon’s Bayaning 3rd World (Third World Hero)? It’s a postmodern movie-within-a-movie that has a director questioning if a film about Jose Rizal (our national hero) can be made.
The poster’s tag line roughly translates as: Do you believe in Rizal or do you not care at all ?
Which is a reflection of the Filipinos’ neglect of our own history, or even just the tendency to forget too often. The film itself is actually quite light and humorous despite its serious concerns about our National Hero. And it’s shot in beautiful black and white.
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Favorite auteurs missing from the profile selection box. 7 months ago
Mike De Leon, he made Batch ’81, Kisapmata, and Bayaning 3rd World.
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Which movies would you like to see on The Auteurs? 7 months ago
I would like to see a Lav Diaz film on here, but I can imagine that the average running time of his films (8-10 hours) may present a problem. Batang West Side might be a little more manageable at 5 hours in length. I have the director’s email address if you want to contact him, just send me a pm. I’ve contacted him before about sending me a copy of his films and he has yet to send them to me, but I think coming from a legit company like The Auteurs, you guys might get a better response.
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The Challenge of the Third World Culture: Cups-of-Gas Filmmakinq vs. Full Tank-Cum-Credit Card Fillmaking by Kidlat Tahimik 7 months ago
Granted, it’s a little dated, but there is still inspiration to be drawn from this. Kidlat Tahimik paved the way for Filipino Independent cinema, and his “Cup of Gas Filmmaking” philosophy was huge inspiration not only for filmmakers but other Filipino artists working outside the mainstream. His film Perfumed Nightmare which was a seminal Filipino Independent Film, Francis Ford Coppola saw the film while he was making Apocalypse Now in the Philippines and gave it distribution.
In a nutshell, Mr. Tahimik stresses that there is more freedom in not having money to make a film as there is no pressure of time to finish the film (even truer now with the advent of digital filmmaking), it will in fact leave you as a filmmaker more open to changes over time, new ideas, and possibilities that you probably wouldn’t have time to consider if the pressure of time and money were pushing you forward to finish the film. Time should be your friend in filmmaking, not your enemy. Anyway, Kidlat Tahimik explains it better:
(sorry for the typos, I just copy & pasted it from a PDF file that was scanned from a paper that was typewritten)
September 29, 1986
Kidlat Tahimik:
(Revised Paper)
The Challenge of Third World Culture
Cups-of-Gas Filmmaking vs . Full Tank-cum-Credit Card Fillmaking
Author’s Note : While writing this paper, I made a typographical
error : instead of “filmmaker,” it came out “filmmaker .” A cosmic
message—perhaps the core of this paper . So let the cosmic
typographical error be an objet trouve of the visual artist
trying to express himself in a paper medium .
Making a film is like taking a long trip . The film voyager
can load up with a full tank and bring a credit card along to
insure completion of the voyage in as short a time as posible .
The voyager can also load up with a few cups of gasoline and
drive until he runs out and scrounge around for subsequent cups
of gas to get to his destination, without worrying about how long
it takes to complete the voyage .
Completing the artwork is the voyage all artists set out to
do, whether painter, writer or filmaker . The length of the trip,
TIMEWISE, is a matter of choice depending on the combination of
ingredients—inspiration, resources, tools and working materials
available, personal circumstances like family or emotional
disturbances, etc .
Assuming the filmmaker has the optimal mix of these
ingredients to complete a filmic work of art, he can still choose
the timeframe : Either to follow the dictum : “Time is money”, and
battle with the clock to finish his artwork: in the shortest
period, or to allow time to be his ally and open up to cosmic
inspirations provided by a relatively free timeframe .
The efficient path (i .e . timesaving) is the usual mode of
commercial productions, whether one is doing a Hollywood Cecil B .
de Mille film or a Third World box-office hit . This is dictated
by the laws of the investment world, where films are mainly a
consumer product to be served like McDonald’s hamburgers . The
McDonaldization of films is a reality I accept and do not want to
waste energy . fighting it]
The inefficient road (i .e . time-indulging), full of detours
and explorable nooks, is a choice which can be a luxury of
artistic filmmakers in the richer countries (i .e . the First
World) and can be a matter of necessity in the case of Third
World filmmakers .
As a filmmaker, it takes me usually two or four years to
complete a film, partly a necessity dictated by Third World
realities and partly a choice to avoid the formulas dictated by
bankrollers .` Some can look at it as a lack of discipline, but
discipline is always relative to preconceived “laws” of
fillmak:ing learned in . film schools .
technologically dependent art form, there is a need for some form
of discipline . One has to discipline oneself to save Lip for the
nest cup of gas, to buy a roll of film . One has to have the
discipline to have enough light to enter the filmshutter, or to
focus to register a good image .
But the discipline of time required in Hollywood is not an
essential in the making of a good filmwork:, especially if one
chooses the discipline of allowing time to be one’s co-director .
4f It takes a sort of discipline to resist the emperor’s-new-
clothes perception that time is an adversary always to be
contended with (i .e ., finish as many artworks as you can in your
lifetime) .
My film being made now might just be an extension of a
“film” I lived in some previous life, or just a transitional
rush this life’s scenario? And if I don’t finish the film in
this life . . .it’s only a film. So my cups-of-gas drifting can
continue into the next several lifetimes .
The Full Tank-cum-Credit Card (FTC) method of fiIImaking is
not confined to Hollywood, of course . If we consider Hollywood a
process determined by an infrastructure, then one can say the FTC
fillmaling is also done in the Third World . The result of this
FTC fillmakinq is the same formula films (formula : sex, violence,
crashing cars), only with Filipino actors, and a more awkward way
of crashing the cars .
With hindsight, I can say I have taken a detour from cliches
because I have avoided the FTC=using OPM, or Other People’s Money
formula, which makes the real director of the film the
comparative cost of capital in time deposit . Who directs the big
budget films?
The efficiency required by the OPM formula dictates time,
deadlines, schedules like a a taxi meter . Time is money . My
lack of resources can become a blessing because my time frame. escapes this deadline obsession, and allows me to discover
motifs. The film becomes an interaction between me and the
cosmos, because I have escaped the straitjacket of FTC
fillmaking .
Sour grapes? I could conceivably look for some FTC funding
in my own country, with the credentials that Perfumed – Nightmare
has picked up . But looking back, I am beginning to discover ten
years after I started making my first film that the shadow side
of establishment fillmaling is not worth making 20 blockbusters
in a decade .
Of course I could use a little more money to give me elbow
room, but the drug of big budgets can restructure my whole way of
expressing myself . For instance, originally (looking back
not so originally), I had conceived Magellan in my current film
Memories – of – Overdevelogment [the story of Magellan’s voyage from
the viewpoint of his Filipino slave, the first person to
circumnavigate the globe and return to his place of origin], to
buy his slave in a Malacca slave market, examining him like a
horse during the transaction—a traditional, cliched view of the
slave-master encounter .
The cups of gasoline for that scene came months later .
I happened to gather odd furniture from different friends’ houses
to fill a market stall . Instead of the original scene, what now
happens is that Magellan, while buying furniture for his cabin,
discovers the slave hiding in the chest from his angry Chinese
master . In the process, the slave ends up in a buy-one-take-one
deal . Time and the cosmos provided this new sequence . So who is
to say that-time is my adversary?
To take another example, trying to create a castle scene in
Memories, I could have hired top notch production designers to
make a cliche-acceptable,“realistic”-looking chateau . Instead I
used a little chapel in my neighborhood, whose main richness is a
beautifully tiled floor . (I had to avoid framing the chapel wall which looked modern) .
Many spectators would be disturbed by a floor-dominated
chateau visual, but the suggestion is enough . And by permitting
an abset_trouye to determine a scene, I manage to break: out of
cliches of what the royal courtroom should look: like . What may
provoke viewers to feel that Kidlat Tahimik is caricaturing
“reality” is actually a free act of shooting the tile floor that
was beckoning to be filmed .
‘Another example : The American boss in Perfumed_Nightmare in
my original conception was to look like a Madison Avenue executive
going to the Philippines for a Miss Universe beauty pageant . But
in shooting, the only Caucasion available was my clumsy-looking
cameraman . So I forced him to go in front of the camera in a Boy
Scout suit—the Boy Scouts are a very big movement in the
Philippines—since that was what was available . And now film
buffs say, ’What a great caricature .’
In Perfumed Nightmare, little Kidlat, the hero, is
fascinated by Werner von Braun’s world and Cape Kennedy and hi-
tech society . He comes to realize that his strength is in his
own Filipino identity . For the music in Perfumed_Nightmare, I
had a Kidlat theme . It’s a piece from the Koran . I had been
provided with tapes of ethnographic music, including three tapes
of Muslim music from Mindanao . But of so many tunes I
instinctively chose a particular tune without understanding the
Arabic text, and repeated it throughout the film . After my first
screening in Paris, an Egyptian student excitedly asked me how I
had chosen the music and said that the words were so relevant .
Then he explained that in the song, after Abraham was asked by
God to sacrifice his son, he is confused about why God would ask
for blood . In trying to understand God he sees the moon and
asks, “Is that my God?” The moon disappears ; he is disappointed .
Like wise the sun provokes him to ask “Is that my God?
The sun rises and sets . He continues questioning . The stars
come and go, finally he concludes that God is within himself .
Many professionals tell the beginning filmmaker, "You should
not take too long to finish a film, because too many changes
happens within the individual filmmaker .” That is a great rule
for time-efficient FTC fillmaking . But allowing oneself to be capsulized in the cocoon that is Time-is-money means closing out the cosmic offsprings.
Time incorporated as an ally into one’s filmmaking brings a
different dynamic into the film . And therefore the film should
be viewed with non-Hollywood filters and should be appreciated
and criticized with different criteria . Third World films are
perceived as slow by the fast-cutting habits we are used to .
Perhaps we have to learn to use a time frame similar to the
neverending story of ramayanas or odysseys .
But of course in America one doesn’t have the luxury of time
to watch a 48-hour film, like an Indonesian watching shadow-
4 puppet theater for several days . What I mean here is accepting
the time-frame of Third World filmmakers even i f watching a
standard two-hour-long film .
Watching films or reading novels is a matter of habit . The
visual excitement pumped and overstuffed into FTC films, which
today is equated with quality in films, may in fact be crutches
to disguise the lack: of any inner quality, any profundity of
spirit .
Formula films probably get the kinds of audiences they
deserve, and even condition them to accept these as the only
valid style of filmmaking . And I might add that the filmgoing
public also deserves the kind of films they support .
Producers call for a sex scene or a mugging about 45 minutes
into a film, because scientific studies of ass-behavior – show that
Western butts get restless at this point . But when you think
about the Indonesians squatting for days on end, is it possible the
quality of the performance that affects the restlessness? Should
butt-habits determine the quality of the film? Cups-of-gas
audiences have to be developed over time . Those who have learned
to accept the filmmaker’s time framework have probably learned to
depose the butt-dictator .
These audiences will continue to grow, because the
McDonaldization of films will sooner or later—probably much
later—call for new menus coming from the world of Rochester
(home of Kodak) spaghetti. Hollywood fast foods will succumb to
the Third World lariat (slo-mo banquets) . What would you like to
order, sir? The Purple Couscous of Cairo"’ or “The Yellow Big Mac
of Texas”?
<’,))(
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Films for a time capsule 7 months ago
Kenji—Oh yes, thanks for reminding me! Perfumed Nightmare is absolutely essential viewing, I would rank it right up there with the other two films I mentioned. I remembered when Kidlat Tahimik himself brought his own personal print of the film to our high school and afterwards I talked to him and he was really encouraging for filmmakers to start making films on digital. And 5 years later, there was boom of independent films from the Philippines, two of the filmmakers, Khavn de la Cruz and John Torres, being Kidlat Tahimik’s disciples. Kidlat Tahimik really paved the way for Independent Filipino cinema, with his Cup of Gas Filmmaking Philosophy
Island of Flowers really stood out for me on your list, Kenji. I managed to find it on google video here I’ll watch it as soon as I finish typing this.
@ Blue Kim, you should definitely check out Silip if you’re feeling adventurous. It’s pretty brutal, especially the opening. Watch it in its original Tagalog rather than the dubbed version, although you’ll see with the dubbed version of how they really marketed the film as exploitation/erotica, even changing the mood of the pivotal sex scene entirely! I think Mondo Macabro is also planning to release Snake Sisters, but no word yet on when exactly.
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Worst film Criterion Has put out 7 months ago
Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
here
here
here
here
here
and here
Oh. and welcome to the site, Robert. Christopher said it best. Peace out.
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CONVERSATE/COMMUNICATE - USING MOVIE "QUOTES" - I'LL START IT OFF 7 months ago
“Be a man, don’t be a fucking pimp.”
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New York's best DVD store? help! 7 months ago
You just missed Kim’s …. Anyway, around the corner from the old location of Kim’s on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village there is Norman’s Sound and Vision, which has some DVDs in the basement. All of them used, but there are sometimes rare finds there, like I bought the French Import of In The Mood For Love and Invisible Waves there. The majority of their DVDs are below $10. Then there’s Entertainment Outlet, they have a couple branches around like in Bryant Park and their DVDs are dirt cheap, they even have a World Cinema/Criterion section, but it’s small. J&R on Park Row has a great World Cinema selection, but the prices vary, I was able to get Prime Cut there for $5. There’s also a Japanese place called Book Off, near the Public Library and Grand Central and they have an amazing selection of Japanese DVDs, but unless you can read Japanese, you’re going to have to guess the movie from the cover. Academy Records on 18th street also has a small but excellent selection of DVDs, and good prices too, especially on Criterions. But if you’re really willing to venture out, as in going out to Jersey, The Princeton Record Exchange is phenomenal not only for their selection but also their prices are ridiculously low, I’ve seen Criterion DVDs for as low as $15, used of course.
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CONVERSATE/COMMUNICATE - USING MOVIE "QUOTES" - I'LL START IT OFF 7 months ago
“Yo. Science. Wat iz it ol about? Techmology. Wat iz dat ol about? Iz it gud? Or iz it wak?”
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New York's best DVD store? help! 7 months ago
Good to know, Cinesnag. Obviously I’m not a New York local, I only visit there once a year.
I did go on a similar search last December, so I’d be more than happy to pass on what I discovered to you, Musycks. Happy hunting!
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Which directors have the worst fanboys? 7 months ago
Does this guy fit the definition of a fanboy?
“Oh, loneliness and cheeseburgers are a dangerous mix.”
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Movie Rental Stores 7 months ago
I love the library because the rentals are free and I can request titles if they don’t carry it. <’,))(
I used to rent a lot from a place called CineFile, which is around the corner from the NuArt Theatre. At CineFile they have unlimited rental memberships similar to netflix. I used to watch a movie at the NuArt, then drop in at CineFile and rent something right after. They had stuff there I couldn’t find anywhere else, like the films of Chantal Akerman, Sabu’s Monday, and I got a full education in contemporary Thai cinema there, so I’m grateful that there is such a rental place.
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CONVERSATE/COMMUNICATE - USING MOVIE "QUOTES" - I'LL START IT OFF 7 months ago
“Excuse me while I fold my pants.”
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MOMENT OF TRUTH: HAVE YOU EVER GONE TO THE MOVIES AND FALLEN ASLEEP DURING THE FILM? 7 months ago
I fall asleep all the time. I love films that put me to sleep, it means the film was nice enough to leave me alone and catch up on some rest. I’m also thinking even if it’s a rare screening of a film, I’m still going to get another opportunity to see it again, sometime in the future, and it happens all the time.
For me, falling asleep is part of the experience. The first to go are my eyes, but I continue to listen to the film, the sounds travel into my subconscious, and I dream…sometimes it’s a different outcome for the film, sometimes something completely different that only subtly connected to the film. And these are the films I usually come back to, over and over. That feeling of coming back to a film, is like meeting someone again. I may fall asleep on the film on the second or third viewing but that’s the thing, if the film is interesting enough to come back to, I will. And even if I end up not liking the film after watching it completely awake, I can walk away with my own version that I can still replay in my head.
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Directors and book smarts 7 months ago
Atom Egoyan and his myriad of ideas and references in The Adjuster are mind-blowing…I had to watch it with Egoyan’s commentary just to make sense of it all.
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Something Weird Video 7 months ago
Hahaha, great start to my morning. Thanks, Josh. <’,))(
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Your favorite title sequence 7 months ago
My favorite title sequence isn’t from a film, but from a TV show, a TV show that’s probably more cinematic than most films.
The Wire is genius, and their opening credits of each season tells a story, purely by using insert shots. The first 2 seasons’ title sequences were edited beautifully by Altman’s regular editor, Geraldine Peroni.
There are some brilliant video essays by Andrew Dignan, Kevin B. Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz on each season’s title sequence here.
Contains (S)
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The Challenge of the Third World Culture: Cups-of-Gas Filmmakinq vs. Full Tank-Cum-Credit Card Fillmaking by Kidlat Tahimik 7 months ago
Yup, you’re absolutely right Sano.
Speaking personally, I am a very prolific short filmmaker, having made 5 shorts already this year, but there are several reasons why I keep making them. One reason, and probably the primary reason, is that I truly enjoy making films, if I’m not making one I think of making the next one. Another reason is that I’m still learning and each film is part of the learning process, so I need to keep making them in order to learn. What differs filmmakers from other artists is that we’re probably the only ones who can’t practice our art everyday, so I try to make it my goal to make at least one short a month. I usually go on pure inspiration and don’t give it a lot of thought, allow the short to develop organically from the people I’ve cast, the environment, etc. Sometimes I just go out and shoot something that’s about absolutely nothing, as long as I’m shooting, that’s all that matters.
But yeah, what Kidlat Tahimik is referring to is feature-length filmmaking, and in that regard, I don’t think I’d be as prolific. It has taken me a year just to complete a 75 minute feature, and it’s taken a lot out of me. I only made the film to see if I could do it, and from what I learned and experienced, it’s going to be awhile til I make the next one. Time was a factor on the shoot, as the actors did have their own lives to get on with, so we were grateful for any time they could provide us. And that’s the constant factor that I rarely have control over in all my films, since I want to make film about human beings, I need actors, and it’s pretty hard to get them to commit long term if you’re not paying them. But I have slowly been building a group of actors who have faith in me and hopefully will make making a feature a lot easier in the future. I guess that’s why I love making quick shorts, I rehearse one day then shoot the next. Editing is pretty simple since I don’t really need anything fancy, although I do take some time from the shoot before editing just to be able to separate myself from the shoot and approach the footage with a renewed sense of…I don’t know. Anyway, so I will continue to make lots of shorts, and maybe a feature here and there.
Also, just to add context to the essay, it was written from a Filipino point of view, especially within regards to time. We as a people didn’t really have concept of Western time, we followed nature’s time-night and day, harvest time, meal time, etc…then the colonizers came and imposed a lot of Western systems, including time by breaking the day down hour by hour, minute by minute. I don’t think it has completely worked, cos I have observed in the provinces and having gone to college in a provincial town, there is hardly any sense of time at all. Even our classes tended to start late. There is a term that’s got a negative connotation called “Filipino Time”, which means we’re always late. But the only reason why we’re always late is because we have different sense of time, and we’re only really late in the point of view of Western time. If you ever read any of Lav Diaz’s interviews with him explaining why he uses really long, real time takes in his films, it’s exactly because of that, we have a different sense of time, and it’s almost nonexistent in Western terms.
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The Challenge of the Third World Culture: Cups-of-Gas Filmmakinq vs. Full Tank-Cum-Credit Card Fillmaking by Kidlat Tahimik 7 months ago
Sano—but Germany has also made some slow films, too—Im Lauf Der Zeit immediately comes to mind. Has there been one recently? Maybe you could make that film.
I would love to see Evolution of a Filipino Family, I envy you for having seen it. And it’s apt that you mentioned it cos that a great example of a film made through the cup-of-gas method. Acccording to imdb, the film took 11 years to complete, “With shoestring budget, shooting were only done if there was money, and if the crew and actors were available.” (sic)
and Noel Vera mentions in his overview of Diaz’s films that the film was initially shot on 16mm and was completed by shooting the rest of the film on video. My high school classmate, Arvie Bartolome, who has collaborated on several projects Lav Diaz, told that Lav would even take up work has a waiter just to get funds to continue the film. I think Lav Diaz gotten the hang of it, becoming a very prolific filmmaker by averaging a film a year, with films that average 8-10 hours in running time.
KJ, thanks for posting Jon Jost’s review. Sherad Anthony Sanchez is not as prolific as most of his contemporaries, Imburnal is only his second film after 2006’s Huling Balyan ng Buhi, but his dedication to realizing the work by taking that much time is evident. Jost’s Pedro Costa comparison is fitting, as with Costa’s own No Quarto da Vanda and Juventude Em Marcha, they are both directors who don’t mind taking a couple of years to just live with their subjects (for lack of a better term) before even turning on the camera. Again, this a luxury that digital has given filmmakers.
I don’t know, I guess being a Filipino in Los Angeles I have adjusted to the Western time, although probably too much: I often find myself rushing when driving somewhere even though I don’t need to. It’s this city, it has way of doing that to you. And that’s probably another reason why I keep making shorts, is because I feel that everyday, the more I drive, the more chance I have of getting into an accident, so I have to make the most of my time, there is a real feeling mortality here.
Anyway, back to the topic, this is great, you guys are really making me do my research. So Kidlat Tahimik planted the seeds with his essay some 20-odd years ago, and the possibility of digital filmmaking set Filipino cinema free. Alexis A. Tioseco has great article on the New Philippine Cinema here.
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Any Auteurs Users Attending The Los Angeles Film Festival? 7 months ago
Hi Everyone!
The LA Film Fest starts tonight and if anybody’s attending, please post here on this thread. Post the screening you’re attending and maybe other users are attending the same screening, a good opportunity to meet people from this site and talk about the film you just saw.
I will be at the screenings for:
‘Still Walking (Aruitemo, aru’ on Mon, Jun 22 @7:00pm, Regent Theatre
‘35 Shots of Rum (35 rhums)’ on Tue, Jun 23 @7:00pm, Regent Theatre
‘Los Bastardos’ on Tue, Jun 23 @9:45pm, Regent Theatre
Crude Oil Part 1 on Fri, 26 @ 11:30am, Hammer Museum Gallery 6
Crude Oil Part 2 on Sat @ 11:30am, Hammer Museum Gallery 6
I seem to be stuck in one theater aside from the Crude Oil screening, the Regent is a nice theater, though. Crude Oil, by the way is a 14 hour documentary. They’ve divided it over two days and both screenings are free.
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STOP THE LISTS! 7 months ago
Fuck yeah, cuss all you want.
I’m watching Flowers of Shanghai tonight. <’,))(
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STOP THE LISTS! 7 months ago
dp
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