What's your last UP Filmcenter movie?

I had the UP FilmCenter by myself. ALMOST.

As I watched Piolo Pascual’s Manila a couple of months ago in UP Diliman, I began to wonder: are Filipinos really ready for the so-called Indie Films? We were less than ten people inside the UP Film Center, now called Cine Adarna. I earlier heard that when it was shown in the regular cinemas after its premier in Cinemalaya, it was pulled out after its first day of showing.

In “Manila” a two-part indie film led by Piolo Pascual where he played a drug addict (William) social mover who wants to recuperate from his feat trying to cling to people around him. In the second part, Piolol plays the role of Philip, a bodyguard who’s duty is to secure a Mayor’s son. Then in the wake of his duty where he later suffered a lot of misfortune and desperation in life awakened that he is already being led to know more about the underworld and how it works for somepeople in Manila.

The film is said to be inspired” by Ishmael Bernal’s 1980 movie Manila By Night and Lino Brocka’s 1979 masterpiece Jaguar (slang for guwardiya or security guard). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuhb8elgA4w

Watching the “Manila” film in black-and-white tone led me to reminisce my childhood days, when I used to stay in front of our barriotic National television watching shows and films in black and white. And I guess that caused negative effects to my eyesight as I positioned myself VERY NEAR the boob tube, along with my elder brother who has a poorer eyesight than me. I should have preserved that TV.

The last time i watched a filmat the filmcenter here i think was more than fifteen years ago.

As I sit alone in the mid row of the UP Filmcenter, memories of my college days flashed back. I miss the BIG electric fan that seemed to blow you away, as the place is now fully airconditioned. This is a haven most cherished by many UP pipol, I guess. It became the venue of many controversial, and perhaps memorable, films, which I have watched to name a few:

1. Jacklyn Jose films - Itanong mo sa Buwan – A married bank teller gets caught up in a bungled bank robbery and gets taken as a hostage. The sex scene wherein the lights were emanating from the bamboo floors and as if reaching the moon.
- Private Show, My Big American Dream, etc. She has withstood various eras, from being one of the “Working Girls” to the present “mother hen” roles. She really can act even nowadays she has the power to deliver the lines.
2. Scorpio Nights - the death scene of wherein Orestes Ojeda was masturbating over the dead body of his wife (Ana Marie Gutierrez) and her peeping tom (Daniel Fernando). The latter was mistaken by the wife as his own husband and she willingly had sex with him.
3. Oro Plata Mata- A tale set in World War II Philippines about how a rich family copes with the war and how the people change amidst violence and death. The burning fields scene while locals were evacuating, and the sex scene of Mitch Valdez by the river.
4. Ora Pro Nobis - A military invasion on a faraway province after the takeover of President Corazon Aquino in 1986. I recall the cannibalizing of the priest’s brain..
5. Sister Stella L.- a nun (Vilma Santos) who becomes involved in an on-going labor strike. Her ex-boyfriend turned reporter gets tortured by masked goons and the union leader gets murdered.

6. Himala
7. Kisapmata
8. Hinugot Sa Langit
9.Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang
10. Minsan May Isang Gamu-gamo
11.Maynila Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag
12. Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kami Ngayon

You can add your favorite UP Film Center movies and be with me as we reminisce our marvelous UP days….