Siftings
Eerie, scary folktales, anyone?
On Thursday, July 29, “Bayhon: Bag-o Nga Dagway sang mga Daan nga Sugilanon”, a series of five short films of different genres, from horror to love story, from live action to animation, will be shown at the UP Visayas Auditorium in two showings, from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., and 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Written, directed, and starred in by faculty of the Division of Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences of the UP Visayas, the short films are in DVD format and runs for a total of 1.5 hours. The films deal with the various denizens inhabiting the supernatural world of Western Visayas. There is the aswang, kama-kama, babaylan, mambabarang, and fairy characters who fall in love with mortals and take them away into their enchanted world. The film series includes the following titles and their synopses:
Hunahuna ni Juan (Mary Babbeth F. Vargas)
A little boy tells a friend about an aswang that prowls their
neighborhood. Children tend to mix up fantasy with reality but can
adults surely tell every Juan there is no aswang?
Abo sa Kulon (Emmeline Cabalum & May Belle Guillergan)
Inspired by a true story of a battle between the babaylan and a
mambabarang, this magical tale tells of a love that reaches out from
beyond the grave. Who shall come out victorious?
Bugasan ni Andrea (Vicente Tan)
A kama-kama constantly fills a widow’s rice container in the hope of
winning her love. Will she accept or reject him?
Sinda (Robert Rodriguez)
An enchanted prince lures Celia away from Armando. Will Armando
be able to save her from being held captive forever in the world of tamawos?
Si Magz, si Maki, kag si Moy (Jonathan Jurilla)
A fisherboy discovers a fairy princess. He promptly falls in love with her and
is awed by her powerful wings at the same time. Will he choose power over love?
Check out these films and be entertained or enlightened by phenomena that take place beneath the superficial order of existence and defy all the scientific explanations in the world. For instance, does the aswang really exist, hankering for human blood and flesh, especially human liver, which is supposedly its most desired food, whether that of a human or another animal? Can people really subsist on food produced by simply wishing on a clay pot full of human ashes, as was supposedly the case in a story that took place in a barangay somewhere in Negros and is the subject of one of the stories above?
I have to check out the other stories in the series, mainly because I want to know what is the “new” perspective that these films want to project. Do the films carry the usual, common and accepted “pananaw” or worldview about the supernatural world which has been heavily influenced by Western scientific and technological knowledge and practice, which have generally marginalized and even “demonized” the characters and creatures of this other world, making them the causes of ideas and activities considered un- or non-progressive for modern society?
I think it’s about time we rethink our very western and westernized paradigms and ask ourselves if the aswang or the kama-kama have really been as destructive as they have been portrayed in contemporary literature? Long long ago, these tales not only regaled our ancestors and made life more livable for them, not just as mere existence, but as a life that could be more exciting, more colorful, and could extend the limits of their meager, predictable world.
When we come to think about it more deeply, we realize that these tales and creatures were the poor man’s means of getting out of his humdrum existence and travel to the stars and beyond, sans movies, TVs, computers, etc. But just with the use of his six senses and the greening, wondrous world around him. So, check them out and be enlightened!*
