Sibak: Midnight
Dancers, Burlesk King and Twilight Dancers are films directed by Mel Chionglo, shown in 1988,
1999 and 2006 respectively. In a sense, each film from Chionglo’s trilogy
depicts gay poverty in the Philippines through three different decades.
Sibak: Midnight
Dancers revolves around the lives of three brothers, Sonny,
Joel and Dennis. Joel and Dennis work as call boys. At 23, Joel is ready to
retire and settle down with his wife and gay lover. Dennis, on the other hand,
is part of the gang subculture and is involved in some drug deals. Sonny, the
youngest, is forced to enter the world that his two other brothers exist in,
due to desperation in finding a job. Almost overnight, he transforms from being
an innocent University student to a call boy. At a glimpse, the film appears to
be a mere depiction of the 80’s queer scene in Manila. The audience gets to
taste a slice of the lives of call boys, prostitutes, pimps, junkies, drag
queens and even closet queens. But looking at the big picture, it deals with
more multi-fangled issues faced by the struggling youth. First off is loss of
innocence in exchange for survival. In the film, Sonny could just be like any
good boy next door, but he had to peel off that image and sell himself in order
for his family to survive. We see that Sonny’s motivation in doing this is not
selfish. Sonny’s character is an allegory of the basic Filipino value of giving
importance to family and having close family ties. According to critic Amos
Lassen, “The film shows how poverty and destitution
have led to a gay sexuality intertwined with prostitution, as many gay and
straight men are forced to work as call boys to support their families.” Issues beleaguering the community
are also interplayed in this film. It shows characters struggling with AIDS and
drug addiction. Like other social realist films of this time, Sibak: Midnight Dancers is shot in a
documentary-like style, with minimal make-up and underrated acting. It is
reminiscent of Brocka films, which brashly but remarkably shows how poverty
corrupts people’s perspectives regarding the world and themselves. In the film,
a paradox is evident. The audience get to sympathize with Sonny as he loses
wastes away his youth and innocence while he earns easy money to keep his
family alive. He seems to think that what he does is justifiable because it is
for a good cause, but he seems oblivious of the consequences. Little by little,
he loses grasp of his own identity, both on sexual and personal levels.
Burlesk King revolves
around the life of a young, rebellious lad named Harry. He has an American
father who used to pimp him and his mother. One night, he witnesses his father
killing his mother. With his best friend James, he follows his father to
Manila, vowing to kill him. In the meantime, Harry and James end up working in
as macho dancers in a gay bar. Harry meets a slew of different people: from
star-crossed lesbian lovers to a seemingly straight man who falls for his
straight roommate. He also meets Brenda, a prostitute who captures his fancy. Soon,
he starts pimping her. He slowly follows his father’s footsteps unconsciously.
He then traces where his father lives. He is now skin and bones and dying of
AIDS. Harry finds out that his mother is not dead at all. He reunites with her
and both forgive the dad. Much like Sibak:
Midnight Dancers, the film delves on loss of innocence, but this time it is
not merely catalysed by poverty, but by angst as well. The film shows Harry not
entering the Manila gay subculture as a rite of passage. It simply highlights
the fact that he was trapped in this world to begin with. Whether it’s in
Olongapo or Manila doesn’t matter because his exposure to this exploitative
world is deeply rooted. In a sense, he was born into it, and he struggles to
escape it before it consumes it. The ending of this film is a bit contrived
though, because character development on the part of Harry and his father are
too drastic. Also, the resolution is a bit too convenient. The Deus ex Machina element used did not
work because in real life, such can never happen that easily. It is a bit
anti-climactic, because all throughout the film save for the ending, the social
realist feel was executed well.
Twilight
Dancers, much like Sibak:
Midnight Dancers revolves around the lives of men caught up in the perils
of working as dancers in gay bars. It follows the lives of Dwight, Bert and the
bizarre love triangle they have with Madame Kristela and Dani. Unlike the two
other films, this film shows life after working in gay bars. Dwight ponders on
leaving his spot at the gay club because he thinks he can make it on his own,
given that he has saved quite sufficient money from being a popular dancer.
Bert turns to being a bodyguard of a lust-driven and corrupt businesswoman in
the person of Madame Kristela. He crosses paths with Dwight, who in turn
becomes Kristela’s lover. Like little chess pieces, they are both manipulated
by Kristela, using her power and wealth. The point of this film delves on the
fact that one can never leave the system, once they plunge themselves into it.
This film is more political than the other two. It says that in the world
beyond the underbellies of the Manila gay club scene, there will always be more
powerful and more manipulative people. The previous system just repeats itself.
These
three films by Mel Chionglo could be analyzed within the framework of Third
Cinema. Third Cinema, according to
Solanas and Gettino, is “the cinema that recognizes in the struggle the most
gigantic cultural, scientific and artistic manifestation of our time, the great
possibility of constructing a liberated personality with each people as
starting point-the decolonization of culture.” Third Cinema is
characterized mostly by its being revolutionary and its explicit ways of
fighting the System, which cannot assimilate such films. In Chionglo’s films,
the characters are trying to go against poverty and survive, but end up falling
into the trap of selling themselves to provide for basic needs. Third Cinema
films are constructive, in the sense that they construct living reality which
recaptures the truth, and destructive, in the sense that they crush the fantasy
of the bourgeios, neocolonial universe, as well as their perception that the
masses are lazy, indolent and dangerous. This is clearly evident in each of the
films forming the trilogy. Form-wise, Third Cinema films have documentary
qualities, in the sense that they bear witness to the truth. They also do not
compete or conform with Hollywood styles and conventions, as Third Cinema films
have their own original style borne out of experimentation by the filmmaker/s.
Third Cinema films make use of improvisations implemented through guerilla
filmmaking. Third Cinema shows that revolution can also come in the form of a
film, and a unique one at that. Third Cinema also allows the viewers to experience
something out-of-the-box that is neither Hollywood nor formulaic mainstream in
nature. Ultimately, all of these were manifested in Sibak: Midnight Dancers, Burlesk King and Twilight Dancers. The problem with the utilization of 3rd
Cinema by Filipino directors is that they change 3rd Cinema into 3rd
World Cinema. While trying to be alternative and innovative style-wise and
going against the system form-wise, they consciously or unconsciously take
advantage of the poverty situation in the Philippines and overuse such as a
backdrop for films that deal with youth-driven issues like sex and drugs, with
gay people often being the drug pusher, pimp, or sex offender. Represenation
not only of gays, but also of Philippine society becomes totally distorted, because
such situations are not generally applicable.
Chinglo’s three
films could also be analyzed within the framework of Orientalism. According to
the Edward Said, there are 3 different definitions of Orientalism: academic
discourse- in short, anything involving the study of the Orient; a style of
thought based upon the ontological and epistemological distinction made between
the Occident (West) and the Orient (East); and last, as a Western style for
dominating and having authority over the East. In general and simple terms,
Orientalism deals with images of the East. Because the Western point of view
has dominated culture studies in theory and criticism, Western orientation
favors the Westerners and colonizes the view of non-Western cultures. For
instance, with the East always comes the stigma of being barbaric, uncivilized,
backward, lazy, traditional, emotional and politically naive, while the West is
perceived as educated, sophisticated, technologically advanced, progressive,
civilized, liberal minded, objective, intellectual and politically competent.
This is where culture specificity and exoticism comes in. Because of gay
poverty films like the trilogy by Chinglo primarily appeal to the art community
and catch the fancy of film festivals abroad, a certain formula is followed.
Using poverty as a backdrop for gay sexual workers becomes a sort of freakshow
for Westerners who interpret them as such, since the images are intriguing and
unfamiliar. Thus, the exotic becomes erotic. And because poverty and exploitation
become culture specific to Filipino gay films, the Philippines becomes
exoticized as a breeding country for such. Tying this with the 3rd
Cinema perspective, being a 3rd world country and having harsh
realities like drugs, sex, prostitution, especially among gays becomes a
commodity. This patronage of exoticism by Westeners affects the filmmaking
strategies of directors in the Philippines who want to make a name for
themselves abroad. Instead of focusing on more relevant issues, they try to be
pseudo- auteuristic by making gay sexploitation films, in an attempt to get the
attention of film festival jurymen abroad. It is sad to think that the desire
to make films becomes personally-motivated, instead of trying to create
something that could portray Philippine society in a good light, despite the
many social issues surrounding it. Another effect of the exoticising is giving
an ego boost to Westerners while degrading our own culture. Upon viewing gay
poverty films, Western jurymen would think that the Philippines is a miserable
3rd world country, with equally miserable gay people, unlike their
economically stable, 1st world countries. Exoticism in gay poverty
films just reinforces that the West is indeed better than the East.
In a nutshell, Mel Chionglo’s Sibak: Midnight Dancers, Burlesk King and Twilight Dancers reinforce the idea that poverty makes its
sufferers vulnerable, making it almost inevitable for them to be eaten up by
the system. Adding a gay tinge to these films makes them more controversial, but
sadly more exotic and orientalised. While most of the issues therein are
reflective of the harsh realities of every decade starting from the 80’s,
interpretations of them, especially when shown to the Western audience could
take on a culture-specific mould that could smear the image of Philippine
society. While Chionglo is a respected director and could be considered as part
of the social realist wave during the 70’s and 80’s, it does not justify the
fact that his films do exploit. This is the biggest problem faced by
independent and art cinema at present, because young, ambitious directors join
the Brocka-Bernal social realist bandwagon even if these social realist themes
are not relevant anymore to the present issues being faced by the country.
Brocka and Bernal are both dead; they have already gotten their points across
when they were alive, and they did it remarkably. The industry doesn’t need any
more poor Brocka and Bernal imitations. There is more to Philippine society
than poverty-stricken gays.
REFERENCES:
Gettino & Solanas
(1985). Towards a Third Cinema. 121-122.
Lassen, A. (1994).
Retrieved October 5, 2009, from gayinterestfilms.blogspot.com: http://gayinterestfilms.blogspot.com/2009/08/sibak-midnight-dancers-1994-philippines.html
Gay interest films.
(2001). Retrieved October 5, 2009, from gayinterestfilms.blogspot.com: http://gayinterestfilms.blogspot.com/search?q=burlesk+king
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