Enjoying an indie at Cubao X

I'm not really a fan of Cubao. I only go there when I have friends from Quezon City who want to meet up at the Gateway mall or when I watch UAAP competitions at the Araneta Coliseum. I spent three months at Cubao when I was finishing my internship at the Resources for the Blind Inc. and it wasn't fun inhaling all the EDSA-generated filthy air.


John Torres and cast explaining

But last week, I went to Cubao to see this indie "Years When I was a Child Outside" by John Torres, a 105-minute meta-film which was an entirely new experience for me as an indie film viewer. It was all about being an outsider, shown in different accounts like being an outsider in a relationship, in a family, or in a strange place. This John Torres guy is famous for making films out of footage that are not really staged. He just brings his camera along and experiments with a bunch of people or shoot in different places then comes up with a film using all these unadulterated scenes. Some parts of the movie were staged but they were kind of obvious - like that tribal dance they shot with all the costumes. I guess I never really noticed which ones were staged and which ones were not.



Mogwai featuring John Torres

Too bad I did not get to shoot Mogwai, an art cafe and a film space at Cubao X, but Rick from Project Manila already covered it here. Anyway, at least Cubao has its redeeming qualities like Cubao X, a little space of wonder and vintage items. I did not leave this place without camwhore photos. I saw this cute neon pink graffiti that says "I love you" and I could not resist posing beside it. Thanks Nan for the photos!



I would like to share this poem by Arkaye Kierulf, which was read by John Torres near the end of the film. It was so beautiful I had to ask the director who wrote it. Read it slowly. :)

Horses

I believe in trees.
I believe in the birds that live in trees.
I believe that behind every one bird is a sky forever expanding.
I believe all windows look out to the same sky.
I believe in keeping secrets.
I believe there is sincerity in lies.
I believe when the lights go off the furniture keep to their places.
I believe in faith.
I believe that if you believe hard enough you will soon enough be saved.
I believe in walls. That we need them.
I believe in open spaces, that we need them more.
I believe once in a while we crave loneliness.
I believe we need sadness.
I believe in the soft cave of the mouth, in what it has to say, savage and comforting.
I believe in roads and streets, that they lead to ruins.
I believe violence is a plea for mercy.
I believe in the heart’s destructive implosions.
I believe behind every painting or picture is a white canvass, complete in itself.
I believe philosophy is difficult and silly; I prefer instead small delicate things like a knife.
I believe Plato’s Forms do not exist.
I believe behind every space is just another space, and behind that just more
space, and so on.
I believe in clouds.
I believe in the divinity of clouds.
I believe mathematics is useless and noble.
I believe in numbers.
I believe that behind all distance is an admission of connectedness, that all space admits of openings.
I believe everything is open.
I believe inside every mind is an open gun waiting to go off.
I believe the mind is a gun.
I believe behind every face is another face is another face.
I believe some of us would like to be saints but cannot.
I believe some women are virgins.
I believe some women would like to be virgins.
I believe in the inviolable and the insane.
I believe in the quiet dignity of horses.
I believe in the benefits of buying a house.
I believe every house should be surrounded by trees.
I believe in this century, that it is not yet over, that we are on the verge of yet another discovery
I believe our many voices thin out into only one voice.
I believe in the end, but only if it fuels the past to continue expanding.
I believe in the layering of clothes, one on top of another, in the Victorian style.
I believe in skirts and lingerie and long black hair and virtue.
I believe in sin.
I believe in the woman under the man and vice versa.
I believe in the invisible hand, in the wind that lifts the bird and elevates the sky.
I believe in love without proof.
I believe in landscapes.
I believe that behind all love is all love itself, pure and soft and intense.
I believe in things so huge we forget what they’re about and why.
I believe in things so small it’s taken us all these years to realize we’ve seen nothing.