JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

You can still watch the movie and discussion online, and please donate what you can to the film workers—electricians, carpenters, PAs, utility men and others—who cannot work during quarantine.

* * *

With so many people vying for the top prize in the Ultimate Douchebag Reality Show, how can we keep track of all the aspirants? Today I was reminded that in our current reality one need not be a politician, businessman, or famous person to be a purulent hemorrhoid: within your own small circle, you, too, can be a blight on humanity!

Last week the tenants of a residential building received eviction notices from their landlord. Yes, in the middle of lockdown. Some tenants received an explanation as to this decision; my friend was just told to clear out before enhanced community quarantine ends. Before. Leaving aside the illegality of evictions during quarantine, and the near-impossibility of finding and moving to another place within 20 days when you can’t leave the house, the callousness is staggering. My friend has reacted to this turn of events with equanimity and borderline narcolepsy. What is the point of asking for a reason? What is the point of fighting it? Why would you want to go on living there? Just get out. There are few certainties left to us, but of that, he is certain.

Raya asked me to host an online film showing and talk with Kidlat Tahimik, the National Artist for Film, for Lockdown Cinema Club. The objective is to raise funds for the daily wage workers in the film industry, who are unable to earn a living at this time. The screening takes place on the 499th anniversary of the Battle of Mactan, a historical event that is usually remembered for its most prominent casualty, Ferdinand Magellan. As Filipinos, shouldn’t we be commemorating its victor, our compatriot, Lapu-Lapu? Kidlat Tahimik’s Memories of Overdevelopment is a reimagining of that fateful voyage from the point of view of Magellan’s slave, Enrique, the first person to complete the feat of circumnavigating the globe. Historians differ on the background of Enrique—some say he was from here, others that he was Malaccan, still others that he didn’t exist. That is immaterial: the film, or rather the sketch for the film that Kidlat Tahimik has been working on since 1980, is a reimagined history. Like good fiction, it is made up and yet true.

Memories of Overdevelopment (the title a play on that of a famous Cuban film from 1968) has a cheerful DIY feel, takes huge liberties with history (Enrique is believed to have been from Cebu or Malacca, and here he is Ifugao), and is full of happy accidents (a giant turtle swam into a shot). The cast is made up of family, friends, and non-professionals: Kidlat as Enrique, Katrin as the Princess Isabelita of Spain, Laida Lim as Enrique’s master who sold him to Magellan, Wig Tysmans as Pigafetta, and a German/Estonian gardener as Magellan. The original actor who played Magellan died, but in the decades that followed Kawayan de Guia grew a beard and took over the role. Enrique is not just the first person to circumnavigate the globe, but also the first OFW. Kidlat doesn’t let things like lack of funds or Covid-19 get him down. Just do everything you can, and things fall into place. The cosmos speaks.