A number of Cinemalaya filmmakers also do movies for Vivamax, the streaming platform mainly for sex-loaded (overloaded?) movies. And when these versatile, resilient filmmakers turn up again at a Cinemalaya event with an entry, the crowd expresses their untarnished high-esteem for them just the same.
We saw it happen in the case of Lawrence Fajardo recently. The man has crafted a string of movies for Vivamax since 2021. He has an entry, Hearing, in this year’s Cinemalaya independent film fest, and, thus, he showed up at the launch of the 20th edition of the festival.
The crowd at the ballroom of Metropolitan Theater applauded him warmly when he was called on stage to talk briefly about his latest entry and to introduce his cast.
This film is top-billed by Mylene Dizon and Ruby Ruiz, who have won Best Actress awards at the Cinemalaya in 2008 and 2019, respectively. It’s about a deaf boy in some unwholesome encounter with a priest. Dizon portrays the boy’s mother.
Fajardo, who looks good enough to be a lead actor himself, should he decide to become one, was behind the Cinemalaya 2012 Best Film Posas. Much earlier, in 2005, his short film Kultado earned the Special Jury Prize in Cinemalaya and it is said that it is that award that set his career as a filmmaker to greater heights.
His other Cinemalaya entries are Amok (2011) and Kintsugi (2020).
At Vivamax, Fajardo’s first output was Nerisa in August 2021. Former Miss Philippines Tourism Cindy Miranda, AJ Raval, and Aljur Abrenica headlined the film about a mysterious woman who simply turned up in a seaside village and became the village’s femme fatale.
In November of the same year, Vivamax released Fajardo’s Mahjong Nights, starring Jay Manalo, Sean de Guzman, and Angeli Khang.
In April 2022, the company streamed the filmmaker’s X Deal 2, a story of lover-swapping that includes a lesbian partner. It featured Robb Guinto (she’s female, despite the mannish name), Angela Morena, and Josef Elizalde (son of quite good-looking band guitarist in the late 70s, Butch Elizalde).
In 2023, the former student in Bacolod City of award-winning director Peque Gallaga re-made his mentor’s acclaimed Scorpio Nights. Fajardo also helmed Sugapa, Re-route, and Nightbird for Vivamax in the same year.
His 2024 Vivamax product is Kabit, which was released in February. Angela Morena, Josef Elizalde, Dyessa Garcia and Victor Relosa starred in the narrative about an aspiring actress who wants a quick ascent to stardom. As she reaches her dream, she crosses the line between art and exploitation, which ruins her dignity, self-respect, and reputation. Angela Morena plays Laura, the lead actress in a stage play.
Fajardo must have completed his latest Cinemalaya entry last year yet or early this year-before he started co-directing Pamilya Sagrado, ABS-CBN’s new series, with Andoy Ranay, and bannered by Piolo Pascual, John Arcilla, and young (male) actor Grae Fernandez. The cast includes Mylene Dizon who top-bills Fajardo’s Cinemalaya entry, which is actually co-directed by Honey Alipio (who used to write scripts for Brillante Mendoza’s Vivamax movies and other non-Vivamax films).
It’s most likely that Iar Arondaing (take note that his first name ends with “r,” not with “n”) will get the same warm reception if and when he joins Cinemalaya again. Last year and this year, he seems to be one of Vivamax’s favorite filmmakers.
His latest creative output is Kaulayaw, which started streaming yesterday, 16 July. The old-fashioned Tagalog word “kaulayaw” refers to a person one converses or hangs out with intimately and pleasantly.
The film is about two female friends (played by Micaella Raz and Robb Guinto) who would discover that acting in a female-to-female pornography is a fun way to earn a living and that there are men and women who prefer watching same-gender intimacies over those of the opposites.
However, the two porno stars would eventually discover that they are latent lesbians who have begun to fall for each other and soon became quite possessive of each other. What would they do if their viewers demand that every now and then, they should appear with individual male partners? The covert lesbian lovers have substantially improved their finances individually through their pornographic career.
Arondaing’s first Vivamax full-length feature was actually Panibugho in January 2023. It was the streaming company’s opening salvo last year. It also had the distinction of having three real-life sisters portraying the same characters, though feuding over a man and their inherited land from their father. Those three have the screen names Stephanie Raz, Mikaela Raz and Angela Morena.
The film’s creative producer was Roman Perez, Jr. who himself has had one Cinemalaya entry and a number of Vivamax movies.
Arondaing had the fine luck of making it to Cinemalaya twice and in a row at that: Sa Gabing Nanahimik ang mga Kuliglig in 2017 and Musmos na Sumibol sa Gubat ng Digma the succeeding year. Both films have nothing to do with sex.
The title of the first film can be translated “The Night the Cicadas Kept Quiet.” It deals with an unforgivable murder that had no witness and with an examination of forgiveness, faith, and repentance. It stars Angel Aquino, Mercedes Cabral and Jake Macapagal.
Arondaing’s other Cinemalaya fare was about children of warring families in Mindanao who flee to the forest and harmoniously hang out together to survive while waiting for their parents or elders to look for them there.
There’s a long gap between the years that Arondaing made it to Cinemalaya and his helming movies for Vivamax. That’s because the man, who is only in his mid-30s now, has other profitable professional involvements as writer, production designer, graphic and computer artist and videographer. In some jobs, he worked with Chad Vidanes, who has been directing and co-directing movies and series at ABS-CBN, the most recent one being What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? top-billed by the on-screen only loveteam of Kim Chiu and Paulo Avelino.
Meanwhile, Vivamax’s Roman Perez had an entry in Cinemalaya 2022, Kaluskos, a surreal story about a mother’s quest for sole custody of her daughter named Amaya who is kept by her estranged husband. One night, however, she hears noise and senses movements under her bed. She kneels to see what’s under, lo and behold, she finds a girl under the bed who claims to be Amaya who is mysteriously transported and trapped there due to a curse.
The mother somehow believes the girl for sometime, though she eventually decides to seek the truth, and to murder the girl she will find out was the impostor.
Kaluskos stars Coleen Garcia, Queenzy Calma, Karl Medina, Cara Gonzales and Elora Españo.
So, there. Hail to our versatile and resilient filmmakers!
