When I reviewed Lav Diaz's documentary Storm Children Vol#1 for Filmed in Ether not only was I startled by this amazing, passive observation of typhoon Yolanda's (Haiyan) carnage and the unflinching gaze upon the children in among it but questions kept coming up about the techniques used and the approach he used to dissect this disaster. What was the thinking behind this film, cause I found myself speculating endlessly. I've already seen a few of his narrative films like Norte, the End of History, From What is Before and a short I caught at BIFF, so I kinda know a little of his style but this was the first doco I'd seen.
A while ago I'd had the pleasure of interviewing Sigrid Andrea P Bernardo for a review on her fabulous film Anita's Last Cha Cha and I caught it on the big screen, along with her, at the Seoul Women's International Film Festival. It was from these meetings that I learnt that she had a close relationship with Lav Diaz and a lot of admiration for him too. She even cast him in her latest feature, Lorna (more of that latter). So it was with some apprehension that I asked her to pass on my details and a request to ask him some questions. She obliged and a bit later so did he.
Wow, what a great thing to do cause his answers to my questions were fascinating and it just fleshed out the film in a quite perfect way. I just love the generosity of filmmakers in a situation like this. Thank you Lav and Thank You Sigrid.
Here's the review here
No comments:
Post a Comment