Saturday, June 24, 2006
Living up to his name
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Brilliant are the visuals of the inside film Masahista, winner of best picture (video competition) at the Locarno Film Festival.
After touring three more foreign film festivals (Toronto, Vancouver and Chicago), Masahista will finally have it commercial run in Metro Manila theaters starting tomorrow, Oct. 19. It was given an R rating (without cuts) by the Movie & Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).
Masahista is the first directorial job of Brilliant Mendoza. He was named Brilliante because his family hoped he would be a lucky child (the youngest of eight kids).
He did have some luck in life. After his finishing his Fine Arts course (major in Advertising the University of Santo Tomas), he worked as a graphic artist in and firm for six month before enrolling in a film workshop at the Mowelfund. (Edgar Martin Littaua and the late Tatus Aldana were in his batch.).
He didn't finish the film course anymore because halfway through the workshop, he impress his teachers so much (among them Peque Gallaga and Mel Chionglo) he got swamped with his offers to do movies.
One offer he was unable to resist was to serve as art director in the 1985 Peque Gallaga period film Virgin Forest.
From there, his status was immediately elevated to that of a production designer this time to Chito Rono in the 1986 sex drama Private Show, which eventually won for him a trophy in that year’s Star Awards for Movies.
His lucky streak in the awards division continued because in the same year, he won two more trophies for production design at the Metro Manila Film Festival (for Salamangkero) and the Gawad Urian (for Takaw-Tukso). In the Film credits of these films, he used his nickname Dante – instead of Brilliante.
As he did more films, his luck continued more on the financial aspect. For many years, he did a string forgettable sex and action movies of Seiko Films that paid him well, but did nothing to satisfy his thirst to do more quality pictures (and hopefully give him more awards).
Around that period, he already had his chance to direct his first film, except that it was going to be either run-of-the-mill or law-grade action which were the trend in the movies during that time.
He choose to get away from the movies instead and returned to advertising where he stayed for 10 years.
The opportunity to return to cinema and finally direct his first film came when he was offered by this friend, actor-talent manager Jhman Esturko, to do Masahista, the concept of which came from Ferdinand Lapuz, a familiar name to The Philippine STAR readers because he serves as Funfare's international correspondent.
Produced by Gee Films (investors are based in the US), Masahista was originally just for video release. But the project became bigger and bigger – and so did the budget, which eventually became P4 million, a huge amount when you compare it to other digital films that were completed at the cost of half a million pesos.
Brilliante and his team also had to do a tour of funeral parlors because this film is rich with images and parallelism – and so we see the lead character (Coco Martin) undressing his client (Allan Paule), while his thoughts are about helping dress up the dead body of his father inside the morgue.
In their research they also discovered that it was in Pampanga where white coffins were first used – an idea introduced by Pampangos.
Going around massage parlors in Metro Manila, they also found out that more than 50 percent of masseurs come from Pampanga.
Brilliante Mendoza, a native of Pampanga himself, believes most Pampangueno's were spoiled materially by having an American base (and its PX goods) within the province and another one nearby and so some – not all, the stresses – are lured into prostitution because it is an easy way to earn a living to be able to afford products with familiar American bar code.
A lot of dialogues in Masahista, incidentally, are in Kapampangan. But non – Pampango speakers need not worry. There are English subtitles to guide them by.
After its Metro Manila run (also to be shown simultaneously in some provinces), Masahista is schedule to be screened in 10 more film Festival abroad – one of which is Berlin. Yes, Brilliante Mendoza will have a full schedule ahead of him – doing foreign trips mostly.
His success in the movies undeniably is making the Mendoza family proud of their precious Brilliante. And they were right. He truly is the lucky one.
October 18, 2005, Butch Francisco, The Philippine Star
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After touring three more foreign film festivals (Toronto, Vancouver and Chicago), Masahista will finally have it commercial run in Metro Manila theaters starting tomorrow, Oct. 19. It was given an R rating (without cuts) by the Movie & Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).
Masahista is the first directorial job of Brilliant Mendoza. He was named Brilliante because his family hoped he would be a lucky child (the youngest of eight kids).
He did have some luck in life. After his finishing his Fine Arts course (major in Advertising the University of Santo Tomas), he worked as a graphic artist in and firm for six month before enrolling in a film workshop at the Mowelfund. (Edgar Martin Littaua and the late Tatus Aldana were in his batch.).
He didn't finish the film course anymore because halfway through the workshop, he impress his teachers so much (among them Peque Gallaga and Mel Chionglo) he got swamped with his offers to do movies.
One offer he was unable to resist was to serve as art director in the 1985 Peque Gallaga period film Virgin Forest.
From there, his status was immediately elevated to that of a production designer this time to Chito Rono in the 1986 sex drama Private Show, which eventually won for him a trophy in that year’s Star Awards for Movies.
His lucky streak in the awards division continued because in the same year, he won two more trophies for production design at the Metro Manila Film Festival (for Salamangkero) and the Gawad Urian (for Takaw-Tukso). In the Film credits of these films, he used his nickname Dante – instead of Brilliante.
As he did more films, his luck continued more on the financial aspect. For many years, he did a string forgettable sex and action movies of Seiko Films that paid him well, but did nothing to satisfy his thirst to do more quality pictures (and hopefully give him more awards).
Around that period, he already had his chance to direct his first film, except that it was going to be either run-of-the-mill or law-grade action which were the trend in the movies during that time.
He choose to get away from the movies instead and returned to advertising where he stayed for 10 years.
The opportunity to return to cinema and finally direct his first film came when he was offered by this friend, actor-talent manager Jhman Esturko, to do Masahista, the concept of which came from Ferdinand Lapuz, a familiar name to The Philippine STAR readers because he serves as Funfare's international correspondent.
Produced by Gee Films (investors are based in the US), Masahista was originally just for video release. But the project became bigger and bigger – and so did the budget, which eventually became P4 million, a huge amount when you compare it to other digital films that were completed at the cost of half a million pesos.
Brilliante and his team also had to do a tour of funeral parlors because this film is rich with images and parallelism – and so we see the lead character (Coco Martin) undressing his client (Allan Paule), while his thoughts are about helping dress up the dead body of his father inside the morgue.
In their research they also discovered that it was in Pampanga where white coffins were first used – an idea introduced by Pampangos.
Going around massage parlors in Metro Manila, they also found out that more than 50 percent of masseurs come from Pampanga.
Brilliante Mendoza, a native of Pampanga himself, believes most Pampangueno's were spoiled materially by having an American base (and its PX goods) within the province and another one nearby and so some – not all, the stresses – are lured into prostitution because it is an easy way to earn a living to be able to afford products with familiar American bar code.
A lot of dialogues in Masahista, incidentally, are in Kapampangan. But non – Pampango speakers need not worry. There are English subtitles to guide them by.
After its Metro Manila run (also to be shown simultaneously in some provinces), Masahista is schedule to be screened in 10 more film Festival abroad – one of which is Berlin. Yes, Brilliante Mendoza will have a full schedule ahead of him – doing foreign trips mostly.
His success in the movies undeniably is making the Mendoza family proud of their precious Brilliante. And they were right. He truly is the lucky one.
October 18, 2005, Butch Francisco, The Philippine Star
Proceed to Best of Pinoys News List
Global Filipinos to organize and harness economic, social, and political power of Filipinos through networking. Click to Pinoy
ituloy angsulong
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