Evolution in the Philippines

Escapist thrillers trump well-told tales, but, with â??A Night Infiniteâ??, Enrico Santos shows whatâ??s possible

It was a surprise seeing Enrico Santos listed as producer of an independent film â?" heâ??s better known in the Philippines for far more commercial fare.

Santos produced â??A Night Infiniteâ?, which had its global premiere at the recent World Film Festival of Bangkok. He described the dark tale about sin and redemption as a kind of â??evolutionâ? for him.

â??It was the product of a whimsical notion, and in fact, it still is. I didnâ??t intend to release it publicly.â? The movie was conceived on the basis of a dare over coffee with the director, Ato Bautista.

Santos said the film reflects the â??clash of swordsâ? between the producerâ??s spirituality and the directorâ??s atheism, and their joint interpretation of Purgatory.

â??A Night Infiniteâ? is about a crooked cop and a cold-blooded killer, in a story played out on a bizarre path to spiritual salvation.

He and his family own the locations seen in the movie, including the farm and two houses. The crow that symbolises the devilâ??s advocate is Santosâ?? pet Budhi â?" the name means â??conscienceâ?.

â??The film was really done out of love,â? said Santos, who spent two million pesos â?" about Bt1.34 million â?" of his own savings on it. â??I donâ??t think Iâ??ll ever recoup the investment, and Iâ??ve accepted that, but my income is in the psyche.â?

Heâ??s invested more than two decades in the entertainment business, working for ABS-CBN, one of the largest media companies in the Philippines. Its Star Cinema division produces strings of commercial hits every year, and the irony doesnâ??t escape Santos.

â??Iâ??ve always dreamed of doing something out of a need to express rather than produce a product to be consumed by a market,â? he said.

â??I lived almost 24 years at ABS-CBN, working as a writer all the way to producer, and then to the corporate side. Deep inside, thereâ??s always been the question: If I just did something for the sake of saying something or expressing something, could I pull it off?â?

Santosâ?? writing credits include the stage play â??Melditaâ?, based on former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, and â??Kuring, Gluring, Syerrap at Dyuning: Election is Nearingâ?, drawn from political personalities in the May elections.

Heâ??s also helped launch popular talk shows, musicals and variety programmes on television, either as writer or director, and conceptualised some of Star Cinemaâ??s big-screen hits.

Earlier this year he did his first movie directing, one of the five episodes of the horror picture â??Cincoâ?.

Santos said what spurred him to try independent filmmaking was the death at age 48 of his friend, TV and movie director Gilbert Perez, the victim of a heart attack.

â??I decided that life couldnâ??t end just like that â?" a series of projects and escapist entertainment and then it ends. That set the ball rolling on the search for more authentic expression.â?

Heâ??s happy that Star Cinema is shifting from the purely commercial to more adventurous fare in setting up Skylight Films for not-quite-mainstream projects and Cinemapro to work on movies elsewhere in the Philippines. Santos heads both undertakings.

â??Itâ??s like synchronicity â?" destiny has a way of preparing you. â??A Night Infiniteâ?? became the shortcut to convincing Star Cinema that we should be doing more like it. So right now Iâ??m happy that weâ??re able to work on the lofty dream of bridging indie culture and mainstream culture.â?

Santos said Skylight Films will give indie directors a wider audience, and cites Christopher Nolan among directors who crossed over into the mainstream. â??Who knows, one or two of these indie directors will be more fertile than the others.

â??A gold mine wonâ??t be discovered if you donâ??t dig. ABS-CBN is being a good venture capitalist, but itâ??s also matured as a media practitioner, and thereâ??s a yearning, an itch to give something of value.

â??It wonâ??t stop producing the romance or family drama, but something of value means that maybe one of these days, generations from now, the indie division will be a timely portrait specific to this era. I hope that happens.â?

Santos noted that, despite the apparent vibrancy of the independent film industry in the Philippines and its recognition overseas, it is â??almost dyingâ?.

â??Itâ??s active, itâ??s vibrant, but if you look at the numbers, the financials, so far the latest figures indicate that only half of the people who watched independent films last year are watching this year.

â??In short, the artistic flowering is not much appreciated by the general public. So, coming from the most film-going people in the world â?" Filipinos used to be No 1 â?" weâ??ve already gone down, due to many factors, including piracy, TV and the Internet, but also because film is no longer appreciated as an art form.â?

Santos said Filipinos donâ??t appreciate indie films â??because theyâ??re not escapist. They are crude, some of them ugly, downright boring â?" throw in all the negative adjectives you can think of.

â??But at least these films confront reality â?" they donâ??t show escapism. It may be wrong, and I disagree with some indie directors in highlighting â??poverty pornâ??, but nonetheless, at least these directors confront reality.â?

This is what Santos tried to deliver in â??A Night Infiniteâ?, telling the tale of the constant struggle of man between good and bad without glossing it over.

He called it his own â??evolutionâ? and, perhaps, his own path to â??salvationâ? in show business.

â??I hope itâ??s evolution, and not foolishness or folly! If you want to be philosophical about it, itâ??s a signal from the universe that itâ??s doable and therefore, if itâ??s your passion, your mission, go ahead and do it.â?