Director Lav Diaz on stage at the Roxie Theater with H.P. Mendoza (see Instagram post HERE)
𝗧𝗢𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘: Lav Diaz’s MAGELLAN is a rigorous dissection of colonialism, myth making and fascism with a spiritual lens that shook me to my Malay core, and you can see it at The Roxie starting this Friday.
𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟: I intended to gush about MAGELLAN to Lav Diaz during our dinner, then repeat my praise to him on stage. But when I told him that I recognized my family’s indigenous language in the film, our conversation took an unexpected turn.
I told Lav that I felt a pain in my chest during his film and the only way to release was by sobbing in the shower, afterward. “Those are your Malay ancestors calling you,” he said. “I want you to tell the audience what you told me. Have you ever shot in the Philippines?”
“In Pangasinan. Just a short.”
Lav smiled and said, “There are no short films.” I smiled too, remembering that the last Lav Diaz film I’d seen was his five-hour BATANG WEST SIDE.
I took notes during dinner so I could make a new Q&A. We talked about actors, non-actors, being your own cinematographer and telling your authentic story within the Filipino diaspora. I leaned in and whispered, “I feel like being a filmmaker means having to pretend I’m not broke.” He smiled and said, “we’re working class, not broke. No one should dictate what your story is. That’s FASCISM. Make your Filipino movie. Call it “Pakbet” (an Ilocano dish we’d been talking about), make people pronounce it the Ilocano way and I’ll shoot it for you.”
I’d spent the last 20+ years working with queer and/or Filipino actors of varying degrees of experience, so my presence in SF often leaves me feeling lesser, othered and bordering on minstrelsy.
But every so often, a moment like this comes along and, in the parlance of the day, “I feel seen.”
And if you’re someone who senses the unease and violence in the earth below your feet while being socialized to conform to an ideological binary, MAGELLAN will make you “feel seen.”
MAGELLAN is currently playing in theaters nationwide and you can buy tickets here:
https://magellan.film/buy-tickets
