When Jack & Girlie no longer just played 05-12-18

	NORDIS WEEKLY December 18, 2005
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When Jack & Girlie no longer just played
*Film Review: Babae (Woman)* By PINK-JEAN FANGON-MELEGRITO Immaculate Conception is celebrated every December 8 yearly. And so is National Lesbian Day. In 1996, lesbian organizations here in the country held the 1st lesbian rights conference. They then declared December 8 as their day (hopefully the government recognizes this too). The University of the Philippines Baguio joined in the ‘lesbian fête’. Lesbians for National Democracy or LesBond (of which I am a member), Innabuyog-GABRIELA, UP Engkwen-trong Babae (UP-Eba), the Center for Culture and the Arts, and the University Student Council sponsored a film showing presenting gender-sensitive films. Mga Pusang Gala (Stray Cats), features Ricky Davao and Irma Adlawan, and Babae (Woman), features real-life partners Gadge Gunn and Raye Baguirin. Sigrid Andrea Bernardo was only 22 years old when she directed Babae, an independently produced 20-minute film shot entirely on MiniDV camera. Babae owns a roster of awards from Cinemalaya’s Best Director-Short Film award (Manila, Philippines-July 2005) to Milano Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Film Festival’s Best Short Film award (Milan, Italy-June 2005); participated in New York International Film and Video Fest (April 2005), Naoussa International Film and Video Fest, Greece (May 2005), and thirteen other international (homosexual, women, open-category) film festivals. Quite an achiever for a film. Wait until I tell its details. The film starts off with the consciousness of poverty, child labor, incest, women, lesbians and gays situation, and romantic as it is, love. The film is in black and white; in between scenes, interviews with real persons living in the squatters’ areas are in full color. It fosters that in real life, it is not really colorful as it seems to offer. The radiant colors are tainted with actual dark difficulties and complexities (as reflected in the black-and-white film). Jacqueline, later to be called Jack, is Girlie’s bestfriend. Jack loves tumbang preso; Girlie adores her barbie dolls. All the kids play, unthinking a train may run through them. They live along the riles (train tracks), somewhere in Sta. Mesa squatters area. Jack and Girlie love and live in the riles. Babae gave away the current situation most Filipinos live through- living in makeshift houses where spaces allow them, i.e. lots beside train tracks. Jack exposes child labor as she works as taga-padyak at an early age; she pushes trolleys to transport passengers from one end of the tracks to the other. She also collects garbage along the riles, and cleans up tables in a carinderia (makeshift small eatery). Jack’s parents fight a lot. With no money in hand, the father throws a fit since they don’t have the least decent lunch. Jack’s father beats the already-battered wife; both scramble for the father’s gun. All in the neighborhood hear gunshots; Jack’s parents are both dead. Girlie invites Jack to live with her. Jack then becomes the unexpected rescuer every time Girlie’s uncle would call her, supposedly for some errand. Disheartening, the uncle molests her night and/or day. Each time afterward, Jack hugs Girlie. Each time, their feelings for each other flourish. They share their dreams- Jack wants her own trolley, Girlie wants to be a star dancer at the local club. Some audience laugh at their trivial silly dreams, but to Jack and Girlie those are their sheer satisfaction. One day, young Jack decides to have a haircut, similar to some men’s short cleancut hair. The camera focuses on her eyes, crossfading to the adult Jack. Initially, I was disappointed because Jack’s haircut (possibly meant she wanted to be a man) would again cultivate the common notion that lesbians engage in a role-playing relationship. One has to be the man (butch), the other the woman (femme); I believe that they don’t free themselves from the prescribed heterosexual relationship. There’d be no real freedom. (Read: I have no bias against butch-femme couples as long as it [the relationship] does not go beyond looks. I mean, when they start to play the culturally-dictated roles of man domineering over a woman, that’s when I can’t hold my horse anymore.) To me, it would only bring the audience to a more hostile acceptance, since they would not see the couple as lesbian but that of a mimicking heterosexual relationship. But the film proved the prejudice wrong. Jack is fully aware she is a woman (as she’d later on confess in a scene); she merely wanted a new look, a new haircut. No politics involved. (I assume) Jack just needed the haircut so it would be easier for her to maintain since she has now her own trolley, which demand more of her time. As for Girlie, she is now the star dancer (karaoke singer-entertainer on the side). Both have their dreams fulfilled, but later to be shattered. Jack still has the odd jobs. What seemed to be a mere haircut change would also alter her life. The carinderia she works at becomes a gay pick-up place. When she cleans up and waits on tables, she would have offers to bed, asking how much she’d bargain for an hour or two of fondling and sex. Most of the male customers mistake her for a man, which offends her, stressfully saying, “Manong, hindi po ako lalaki. Babae po ako.” (“Sir, I’m not one of your pick-up gays, I’m a woman.”) She comes home frustrated, pouring her sentiments to Girlie. She complains, “Di ka nila bibigyan ng trabaho ng babae dahil mukha kang lalaki. Pero di ka rin nila bibigyan ng trabaho ng lalake dahil mukha kang babae. Ano ba talaga gusto nila?” (“They won’t give you a woman’s/man’s job because you look like a man/woman. What do they really want?”) True to Jack’s sentiments, despite claims that this is the 21st century guided by more open thinking, our society has grown more and more unreceptive and cruel to people who choose outside the dictates of the patriarchal society. And I’m not saying I want a matriarchal one either, I just want an equitable and just society. And just speaking of our unbearable midst, Jack and Girlie get raped while in their respective jobs. Yes, both of them. It is not a rape by two men, it’s what our society does to homosexuals – repeated rape of their mind, belief and soul. In the film, one of them gets pregnant. Just as society breeds more people to be homophobic, spreading the irrational fear of homosexuals. The child grows up with Jack and Girlie as her parents. They still live along the tracks. The film is still in black and white. One day, Jack asks the child what color she is pointing at, all the kid could answer back was on black and white. They then decide to have the child checked by an eye specialist. The kid’s eyes are operated. The first she sees in color are her parents. Jack and Girlie and their daughter then move out of the riles. New way of seeing things. New colors. New life. The End. Just as I hope the homophobia and all sorts of injustice end right then and there. # For contact details of the film producers, text or call +69198119617, e-mail babaewoman@yahoo.com, or check website babaewoman.tripod.com.
Home \| Back to top	Previous \| Next

	NORDIS WEEKLY December 18, 2005
Home \| To bottom	Previous \| Next
When Jack & Girlie no longer just played
*Film Review: Babae (Woman)* By PINK-JEAN FANGON-MELEGRITO Immaculate Conception is celebrated every December 8 yearly. And so is National Lesbian Day. In 1996, lesbian organizations here in the country held the 1st lesbian rights conference. They then declared December 8 as their day (hopefully the government recognizes this too). The University of the Philippines Baguio joined in the ‘lesbian fête’. Lesbians for National Democracy or LesBond (of which I am a member), Innabuyog-GABRIELA, UP Engkwen-trong Babae (UP-Eba), the Center for Culture and the Arts, and the University Student Council sponsored a film showing presenting gender-sensitive films. Mga Pusang Gala (Stray Cats), features Ricky Davao and Irma Adlawan, and Babae (Woman), features real-life partners Gadge Gunn and Raye Baguirin. Sigrid Andrea Bernardo was only 22 years old when she directed Babae, an independently produced 20-minute film shot entirely on MiniDV camera. Babae owns a roster of awards from Cinemalaya’s Best Director-Short Film award (Manila, Philippines-July 2005) to Milano Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Film Festival’s Best Short Film award (Milan, Italy-June 2005); participated in New York International Film and Video Fest (April 2005), Naoussa International Film and Video Fest, Greece (May 2005), and thirteen other international (homosexual, women, open-category) film festivals. Quite an achiever for a film. Wait until I tell its details. The film starts off with the consciousness of poverty, child labor, incest, women, lesbians and gays situation, and romantic as it is, love. The film is in black and white; in between scenes, interviews with real persons living in the squatters’ areas are in full color. It fosters that in real life, it is not really colorful as it seems to offer. The radiant colors are tainted with actual dark difficulties and complexities (as reflected in the black-and-white film). Jacqueline, later to be called Jack, is Girlie’s bestfriend. Jack loves tumbang preso; Girlie adores her barbie dolls. All the kids play, unthinking a train may run through them. They live along the riles (train tracks), somewhere in Sta. Mesa squatters area. Jack and Girlie love and live in the riles. Babae gave away the current situation most Filipinos live through- living in makeshift houses where spaces allow them, i.e. lots beside train tracks. Jack exposes child labor as she works as taga-padyak at an early age; she pushes trolleys to transport passengers from one end of the tracks to the other. She also collects garbage along the riles, and cleans up tables in a carinderia (makeshift small eatery). Jack’s parents fight a lot. With no money in hand, the father throws a fit since they don’t have the least decent lunch. Jack’s father beats the already-battered wife; both scramble for the father’s gun. All in the neighborhood hear gunshots; Jack’s parents are both dead. Girlie invites Jack to live with her. Jack then becomes the unexpected rescuer every time Girlie’s uncle would call her, supposedly for some errand. Disheartening, the uncle molests her night and/or day. Each time afterward, Jack hugs Girlie. Each time, their feelings for each other flourish. They share their dreams- Jack wants her own trolley, Girlie wants to be a star dancer at the local club. Some audience laugh at their trivial silly dreams, but to Jack and Girlie those are their sheer satisfaction. One day, young Jack decides to have a haircut, similar to some men’s short cleancut hair. The camera focuses on her eyes, crossfading to the adult Jack. Initially, I was disappointed because Jack’s haircut (possibly meant she wanted to be a man) would again cultivate the common notion that lesbians engage in a role-playing relationship. One has to be the man (butch), the other the woman (femme); I believe that they don’t free themselves from the prescribed heterosexual relationship. There’d be no real freedom. (Read: I have no bias against butch-femme couples as long as it [the relationship] does not go beyond looks. I mean, when they start to play the culturally-dictated roles of man domineering over a woman, that’s when I can’t hold my horse anymore.) To me, it would only bring the audience to a more hostile acceptance, since they would not see the couple as lesbian but that of a mimicking heterosexual relationship. But the film proved the prejudice wrong. Jack is fully aware she is a woman (as she’d later on confess in a scene); she merely wanted a new look, a new haircut. No politics involved. (I assume) Jack just needed the haircut so it would be easier for her to maintain since she has now her own trolley, which demand more of her time. As for Girlie, she is now the star dancer (karaoke singer-entertainer on the side). Both have their dreams fulfilled, but later to be shattered. Jack still has the odd jobs. What seemed to be a mere haircut change would also alter her life. The carinderia she works at becomes a gay pick-up place. When she cleans up and waits on tables, she would have offers to bed, asking how much she’d bargain for an hour or two of fondling and sex. Most of the male customers mistake her for a man, which offends her, stressfully saying, “Manong, hindi po ako lalaki. Babae po ako.” (“Sir, I’m not one of your pick-up gays, I’m a woman.”) She comes home frustrated, pouring her sentiments to Girlie. She complains, “Di ka nila bibigyan ng trabaho ng babae dahil mukha kang lalaki. Pero di ka rin nila bibigyan ng trabaho ng lalake dahil mukha kang babae. Ano ba talaga gusto nila?” (“They won’t give you a woman’s/man’s job because you look like a man/woman. What do they really want?”) True to Jack’s sentiments, despite claims that this is the 21st century guided by more open thinking, our society has grown more and more unreceptive and cruel to people who choose outside the dictates of the patriarchal society. And I’m not saying I want a matriarchal one either, I just want an equitable and just society. And just speaking of our unbearable midst, Jack and Girlie get raped while in their respective jobs. Yes, both of them. It is not a rape by two men, it’s what our society does to homosexuals – repeated rape of their mind, belief and soul. In the film, one of them gets pregnant. Just as society breeds more people to be homophobic, spreading the irrational fear of homosexuals. The child grows up with Jack and Girlie as her parents. They still live along the tracks. The film is still in black and white. One day, Jack asks the child what color she is pointing at, all the kid could answer back was on black and white. They then decide to have the child checked by an eye specialist. The kid’s eyes are operated. The first she sees in color are her parents. Jack and Girlie and their daughter then move out of the riles. New way of seeing things. New colors. New life. The End. Just as I hope the homophobia and all sorts of injustice end right then and there. # For contact details of the film producers, text or call +69198119617, e-mail babaewoman@yahoo.com, or check website babaewoman.tripod.com.
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