Skip to main content

Film Talks with Nick de Ocampo. Part 3: Documentary

Professor Nick de Ocampo is featured in Ayala Museum's trilogy lecture series on film. I'm not a film buff nor a film-maker but I wanted to spend my Saturday afternoons educating myself culturally. So I ended up taking a seat in his film lecture series.

---
Because I learned a lot during Nick de Ocampo's lecture about the horror genre, I decided that I'd watch the last of the trilogy of his lecture series. This one is about his cinema of choice: the documentary. He defines it as a genre composed of films that represent reality to record (or reenact) history, to educate, or to share narratives about one's experiences.


This lecture really allowed him to showcase his work. He is, after all, commissioned to make movies on how climate change affects communities living near it. He's also been selected to showcase his work in various film festivals. I'm not familiar with his work because I'm more of a tv documentary watcher... I'm a big fan of the PROBE Team, for instance. And I like National Geographic... a lot. 

What I learned this time is about how difficult it is to develop the documentary; it is so technical! I thought that it was just a matter of switching on the camera and letting life passing by get recorded. Apparently, (and the director and the producer of a documentary called Sunday Beauty Queen attested to as well) it is one of the most difficult genres to work in because of many uncontrollable factors. Nevertheless, people looking into this genre must do their homework even before going into the shoot: research on the topic of the documentary, write the script, and visualise scenes via a storyboard.

It sounds so much like creating a Presentation Zen slide deck, if I may say so. 

After everything under the director's control are prepared, God takes control, as Nick says... all the director can do is not get rattled when the story takes an unexpected turn. This was his experience while working on a documentary about Leandro Alejandro, a leading activist during the Martial Law years. He was murdered; thus, Nick lost the subject of his documentary in a snap. This was also what he experienced while working on a documentary called Private Wars, a story chronicling his search for his father. While filming, he went to the place where his father was last seen a day after his father was there. However, he couldn't return for one reason or another. Hence, it's as if God has conjured obstacles to ensure that the the father and the son wouldn't meet at that occasion.

How could a director continue making a film if his subject is out of reach? That is the challenge of the documentary. The director must be quick on his/her toes to make an alternative approach.

What I saw in this lecture is a filmmaker who has shown his vulnerability to move the boundaries of his craft. It was so obvious that he has put his heart and soul into this genre that it is so difficult not to be curious about his films... because he has somehow put a part of him in them (but not in a horcrux kind of way). The sentiment and the personal attachment were apparent here; the energy he exuded in the documentary lecture was not there when he talked about comedy and horror. 

This last lecture was a wow moment for me.

And now, I resolve to find his historical films and watch them... plus the comedy films he featured. I opt not to see the horror films.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
4 comments
Read more

How MALDI-TOF-MS makes mycobacterium diagnosis faster and more accurate

The laboratory I work in has plenty of instruments that help us characterise and identify microorganisms causing diseases in patients. One of my current projects is to validate an instrument called "matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometer" (MALDI-TOF-MS) in identifying members of the Mycobacterium  species. Many of these organisms are opportunistic, meaning they only cause illnesses in people whose immune systems are not strong enough to fight infections. Mycobacterium leprae  is known for causing leprosy, but we cannot grow this bacterium in culture media, so we cannot isolate it. Mycobacterium tuberculosis  complex, on the other hand, is a group of several species of Mycobacterium  that causes tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a disease that killed 1.6 million people in 2021 alone. It is a leading cause of death globally, second only to COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Identifying the Mycobacterium species that has infected a patient is
Post a Comment
Read more

a crash course on traditional Filipino houses

On Dr Jose Rizal's birthday this year, I was back in historic Manila with Ate Bing, Ate Mary , and Manuel . But instead of visiting him, we opted to soak up on Philippine culture. Our first stop: the Cultural Center of the Philippines ' (CCP) Museo ng Kalinangang Pilipino .  Aside from the musical instruments, I noticed the dioramas about Filipino homes. Filipinos living by the sea (the 'sea gypsies', Sama Dilaut or Badjao ) have boathouses; those who live in the mountains, like the Bagobos , have developed interconnected houses in the trees; Filipinos who live along the path of the strongest typhoon winds, such as the Ivatans , have developed houses of thick limestone walls; and people who live in calmer conditions used bamboo and nipa to construct their houses, like the lowlanders and the Agtas . Sama Dilaut 'lepa' and houses on stilts (in the background) Ivatan limestone house nipa hut Ifugao 'fale' Maranao '
Post a Comment
Read more