Pailaya, Pailawod

PATRICK

Could you talk about your experience making Katapusang Labok? What did it do for you?

AIESS

I’m very proud of that film. Especially since I wasn’t very much exposed to films in my mother tongue, which is Cebuano. And not a lot of people at that time, in university, went home to make films in their own languages. That’s how I felt in that period, around 2018.

At that time I was very sure I would make or direct films that are in my mother tongue. Because, I would say, I don’t know anything else.

With Katapusang Labok, I feel that it very much represents myself. Of course there is a bigger message there, but it is all of me in a film. It’s set on an island, it’s set in my hometown, it’s in my language, it’s set in a place I spent so much time in, growing up. And it’s very reflective of my politics, my understanding of the world. And when it comes to how that translated into my career, I think it’s imprinted who 'Aiess' is. From there, it just gave me this confidence that I knew what I was doing, and I knew what I wanted.

PATRICK

I’d like to contextualise the statement for our friends who are not from the Philippines or familiar with what’s happening. Since the rise of digital filmmaking, a lot of people have been making films outside of the capital, which is Metro Manila. And I guess during the time of the film Katapusang Labok in 2012, this phenomenon of people going back—she had lived there and studied in Manila, and then went back to film—is sort of new. It’s not exactly new [as in never been done before], but the larger phenomenon of people coming back home to film was quite important and notable.

Also, in relation to this notion of language—if you’re not a Filipino, you probably wouldn’t realise that most of us in this room don’t speak the language in the film. Maybe I’m presuming too much (laughs). At least I don’t speak the language in the film, Cebuano. And although more Filipinos now speak Cebuano, the language in the capital is Filipino, or really anchored in Tagalog. So to have a film in Cebuano like Aiess’ is pretty significant. Or to have a student who studied in Manila who came back to film from home.

I think this also connects Aiess to what was happening in Cebu. Before Aiess went back home to film, something was already happening in Cebu, which was the Binisaya movement. A lot of Cebuano filmmakers were making films in Cebu already. So Aiess, this sort of reconnects you to the film movement you weren’t originally a part of, but also a part of because you’re Cebuano. Can you talk about that?

AIESS

Yeah, I think it’s through the film that I became a part of the Binisaya movement. I feel that a lot of movements are really rooted in communities. And because I have not lived in Cebu since 2006, I felt that I wasn’t qualified to be a part of it because I wasn’t living there. But at the same time I think, in a way, I’ve proven myself — not that I needed to — that I’m a Cebuana. This is what I know, these are the stories I can share.