CINEKATIPUNAN : GREEN ROCKING CHAIR

Green Rocking Chair

a film by Roxlee

58 minutes documentary / feature / animation

Synopsis:

The filmmaker's personal search for Baybayin or Alibata, the original Filipino writings before the Spaniards came and colonized the Philippines in 1521. The search will determine of such ancient alphabet still exists and practices all over the archipelago.

Casts and Crew:Actors:

Ronnie Lazaro, Zeroxlee, Quebry, Ramon Bautista, Pusong Bughaw, Carmela Cruz

Cinematography: Jim Lumbera, Albert Banzon, Bulan

Editing: Jim Lumbera, JP Papa, Lot Arboleda

Animations: Roxlee, Lot Arboleda, Enzo Florentino, UPFI Workshop 2007

Music: Kadangyan, Mangyan Hanunuo Tribe, Roxlee

Produced by: Hubert Bals Fund, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Baybayin Productions

Roxlee is a real artist. He paints. Strange comic strip like paintings and that's why he also makes comic strips. Even stranger surrealist comic strip stories. And animation films. Of course even more absurd animation films. And now he is the protagonist in his own documentary and goes looking for a long-lost old language.

Roxlee is a film maker with a special sense of humour. He draws and writes comic strip stories that are absurd and surreal. Just as strange, creative and original are the animation films he makes. And his paintings. And his musical performances. Yes, Roxlee is a versatile guy. Here, he is the protagonist in a fiction film that has the form of a documentary. He undertakes a quest into the use of Baybayin, an old form of writing that was developed before the Spanish colonists set foot in the Philippines in 1521. Does Baybayin still exist as an actively written language? That's what Roxlee wonders at the start of the quest.

But gradually it becomes apparent that the film maker is interested in more than just pre-colonial writing. With his eye for the absurd within everyday events, he makes an unusual portrait of his country and of his compatriots. An unpolished portrait that has been made with modest means, but that is rich in crazy insights and strange humour. In this sense, Roxlee is himself like one of the characters in his surrealist comic-strip stories. And seen through his eyes and his camera, the everyday reality of the Philippines is also a kind of comic strip. The film also comprises real animation about the fable of the monkey and the tortoise. (GjZ)

Source: http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/professionals/film.aspx?ID=370895e5-10d9-420f-aad7-078e35272613