MANILA, Philippines ? After a six-year absence, award-winning filmmaker Elwood Perez is poised to stage a comeback with a new digital drama.
Perez told Inquirer Entertainment that he has been holding on to the script of his new work for the past five years.
Photo exhibit
Quite coincidentally, Perez?s new film is evocative of his portrait by Spanish photographer Oscar Orengo which was displayed alongside photos of 43 other Filipino filmmakers at the Cultural Center of the Philippines exhibit ?Eksena: Mga Sineastang Pilipino (Filipino Filmmakers).?
?It was Oscar who set me up sitting in a stall of Christmas lanterns along Ortigas, near the Sampaguita Studios, last year,? Perez recalled.
Perez?s friends have noted that the resulting portrait sums up the filmmaker?s essence, and film career, succinctly: Vibrant, carnivalesque and star-studded.
Perez recounted that he originally wanted the photo shoot in a brightly lit carnival, carousel or honky-tonk strip.
But Orengo and Perez came up with a ?brighter? idea: The lantern stall, which pays homage to the latter?s Kapampangan roots and captures his stellar filmography at the same time.
Orengo shot another Perez portrait which cast the director as a horned singer, like a character in ?Pan?s Labyrinth.?
Indie pioneer
?Good thing, Oscar chose the lantern portrait,? Perez said. ?It embodies my personality. Oscar did research on my films and saw clips on YouTube.?
One of the pioneers of the indie scene in the 1970s, Perez eventually became one of most bankable directors of that same golden era which spawned the biggest hits of acting superstars Nora Aunor (?Mahal Mo, Mahal Ko,? ?Till We Meet Again?) and Vilma Santos (?Pakawalan Mo Ako,? ?Ibulong Mo sa Diyos?).
?Masarap, Masakit ang Umibig? was screened in the Asia-Pacific Film Fest in Taiwan in 1978 and the Asean Film Fest in Australia in 1981.
Perez also directed ?Silip,? which was shown in the Chicago fest in 1985, and ?Ang Totoong Buhay ni Pacita M,? which was screened in the Hawaii and Singapore fests in 1993.
Orengo said that the exhibit ?is a good way to document an exceptionally creative period of Philippine cinema.?
Who knew that the series of photographs would also inspire a filmmaker to return behind the camera?
E-mail: bayanisandiego@hotmail.com
