{"id":7815,"date":"2017-07-19T15:17:50","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T09:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=7815"},"modified":"2017-07-23T14:42:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-23T08:57:40","slug":"finding-a-place-for-the-queer-actor-in-philippine-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/finding-a-place-for-the-queer-actor-in-philippine-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a place for the queer actor in Philippine cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu(Pahichan) July 19<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 When you picture a Filipino leading man or woman, who do you see?<\/div>\n
\n
\n

You probably picture someone conventionally attractive \u2014 a person who\u2019s tall, fit, typically fair-skinned. You probably imagine someone relatable \u2014 an actor who strikes a raw emotional connection with filmgoers. But do you necessarily picture someone straight?<\/p>\n

You\u2019d be hard-pressed to imagine a non-heteronormative actor with the box office pull of a John Lloyd Cruz or an Anne Curtis, with the same breadth of roles and genres. Vice Ganda aside, there seem to be no queer personalities whom the industry trusts in films and audiences are willing to see time and again. Even then, Vice Ganda\u2019s oeuvre has been limited largely to comedies where he plays the almost one-note archetypal\u00a0bakla<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So we ask the question: Is the Philippines ready for queer leads to take the fore, in both gay and straight roles? For its gay actors to come out comfortably? For its non-heteronormative heartthrob to woo the masses?<\/p>\n

\"facificaFacifica Falayfay. Image courtesy of VIDEO 48<\/span><\/p>\n

The roots of LGBTQ narratives in Philippine cinema run deep. We saw Dolphy\u2019s comedic albeit deeply human portrayals of gay characters throughout the \u201850s until the \u201880s in films such as \u201cJack and Jill,\u201d \u201cAng Tatay Kong Nanay<\/em>,\u201d and \u201cFacifica Falayfay.\u201d There was also the unnamed bisexual experimentation of films like \u201cTubog sa Ginto<\/em>,\u201d \u201cNagalit ang Buwan sa Haba ng Gabi,<\/em>\u201d and \u201cT-Bird\u00a0at Ako<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, however, we\u2019ve seen more LGBTQ narratives come to theaters. Last year alone saw the release of Jun Lana\u2019s \u201cBakit Lahat Ng Gwapo May\u00a0<\/em>Boyfriend\u201d and Chris Martinez\u2019s \u201cWorking Beks\u201d (both released through Viva Films) as well as Jason Paul Laxamana\u2019s \u201cThe Third Party\u201d through Star Cinema. The Metro Manila Film Festival had an important transgender moment with\u00a0Paolo Ballesteros<\/a>\u2019 star-making performance in Jun Lana\u2019s \u201cDie Beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notable LGBTQ films in released in the last five years<\/u>
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"test4.jpg\"In the festival circuit, the CineFilipino Film Festival saw \u201cNed\u2019s Project,\u201d Lemuel Lorca\u2019s tale of a lesbian\u2019s attempt to start a family. With its transman played by Chai Fonacier, Victor Villanueva\u2019s road comedy \u201cPatay Na Si\u00a0<\/em>Hesus\u201d played at QCinema. Petersen Vargas\u2019 queer coming-of-age \u201c2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten\u201d and Samantha Lee\u2019s lesbian love story \u201cBaka Bukas<\/em>\u201d were both favorites at the\u00a0Cinema One Originals Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These were films that for the most part didn\u2019t shy around labels, as if to say, \u201cWhat\u2019s the big deal? Let\u2019s treat the queer as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing \u201cThe Third Party,\u201d director Jade Castro says, \u201cIf you ask me, there\u2019s never been a better year for bisexuals in Philippine cinema than [2016]. For the first time, we have a studio film with a big star, Sam Milby, actually saying the words, \u2018I think I\u2019m bisexual.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While seeing more diverse, more out-there narratives is important for LGBTQs in the country, that glaring lack remains, a lack that\u2019s been around since Dolphy first got in drag in 1954. There just aren\u2019t enough openly LGBTQ actors playing these parts. It matters that these stories are out there, but it\u2019s another thing altogether to have LGBTQ actors actually representing the community and telling their stories in the public sphere.<\/p>\n

Everyday gayness<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I ask people whether the Philippines is ready for a queer box office star, the immediate response has been, \u201cWell, what about Vice Ganda?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question of two things: the range of roles the actor is given and the range of LGBTQ people they\u2019re allowed to represent onscreen. While he has stood up for LGBTQ rights offscreen, Vice Ganda\u2019s performance isn\u2019t always to the benefit of the community, in that he\u2019s more likely to reinforce stereotypes rather than dispel them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere [Vice Ganda] is, [he\u2019s] making fun of the image of the\u00a0bakla<\/em>, so in that sense it is reinforced. So that when you take out that image of the\u00a0bakla\u00a0<\/em>beyond the stage, it still has that stigma,\u201d says Dr. Jozon Lorenzana, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Communication Department of Ateneo de Manila University.<\/p>\n

An anthropologist whose research has also covered media theory and gender studies, Dr. Lorenzana adds, \u201cThat\u2019s why the image of the\u00a0bakla\u00a0<\/em>has never migrated into the respectable domain, because even in its performance, it is still rendered as a kind of amusement, a kind of spectacle. [Queerness] has not crossed into the everyday life, because that\u2019s the ultimate test: When being\u00a0bakla<\/em>\u00a0is everydayness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, other examples remain scarce. Openly lesbian actors in the Philippines are even harder to find examples of. There is no lesbian box office equivalent to Vice Ganda, nor any out lesbian actors with recent big-studio roles. There are more prominent transgender men and women, such as Aiza Seguerra,\u00a0Jake Zyrus<\/a>, and BB Gandanghari, but none have had any recent acting work.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFeeling ko yung danger, kaya nagkakaroon ng typecast kasi pag sinabing gay role, nag-re-resort lahat sila to the same mannerisms, to the same manner of speaking,\u201d says Juan Miguel Severo<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Elsewhere in the world, we\u2019ve seen LGBTQ performers navigate with marginally more ease. Luke Evans, who is openly gay, marked 2017 with roles in \u201cBeauty and Beast\u201d\u00a0<\/em>and \u201cThe Fate of the Furious.\u201d Other out actors such as Laverne Cox, Jonathan Groff, Russell Tovey, Wanda Sykes, Jane Lynch, and Kate McKinnon have managed fairly successful T.V. and film careers. Beloved Canto-pop star and actor Leslie Cheung came out as bisexual late in his career, and despite some pushback from Hong Kong\u2019s conservative critics, remained largely successful until his suicide in 2003. Most of them have also played LGBTQ characters on T.V. (Groff and Tovey in \u201cLooking,\u201d Cox in \u201cOrange is the New Black\u201d) or critically acclaimed films (Cheung in \u201cHappy Together,\u201d and McKinnon in \u201cGhostbusters\u201d).<\/p>\n

What makes it so difficult for LGBTQ actors to come out? Director Jose Javier Reyes says a big part of it is how public perception always equates LGBTQ people to sexual deviance. \u201cWhen the LGBT lifestyle is discussed, it is always diminished to sexuality, sexual needs and aberrant behavior,\u201d he says. \u201cSomehow Filipinos still shudder at the thought that there are real and genuine feelings of love shared by two people of the same sex that go beyond the baseline of carnality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alemberg Ang, who produced \u201c2 Cool 2 Be 4Gotten,\u201d also points to an innate culture of avoidance. \u201cPinoys have this penchant \u2014 they know they\u2019re sick but they don\u2019t want to see the doctor? They know already there\u2019s an issue, but as long as they don\u2019t face it,\u00a0hindi siya totoo<\/em>.\u201d Likewise, he says, there\u2019s a fear of LGBTQ labels, because labeling comes with having to face the truth of that identity and all the consequences that follow.<\/p>\n

From where the actor stands<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the promotional cycle for his film \u201cWorking Beks\u201d in 2016, where he played a gay call center agent who goes through an HIV scare, actor Prince Stefan did something unusual: He came out of the closet.<\/p>\n

\u201cDumating sa\u00a0<\/em>point\u00a0na parang ayoko nang mag-<\/em>showbiz.\u00a0Parang napagod na rin ako kakapapanggap, kaka-<\/em>acting,\u201d he said in\u00a0an interview with CNN Philippines\u2019\u00a0Real Talk<\/em><\/a>\u00a0back in November.<\/p>\n