(scene from Ang Lihim ni Antonio/ Antonio's Secret)My lecture at the De La Salle University has forced me to confront myself on what the hell is so important on what I do and what I write about.
After some reflection and meditation, i have figured out why I have and will continue to write stories of the Filipino gay man:
Representing the gay man through stories and moving images is not just about fighting for one’s sexual freedom.
It is an affirmation, that we could never underestimate the complexity of human behaviour.
After all, the human being is far more surprising than we’d like to think who we are.
(This is the text of the final slide of my lecture)
3 comments:
please keep writing.
It is like writing stories about jews who were victims of tyrant oppression and societal discrimination. They have stories to tell about their struggles just like us who in turn are still type casted by the church, government, and the society themselves. We are complex human beings with rich life experience. We laugh, we cry, we take whatever life gives us. If you don't write stories about us, who will?
i don't see your movies to be similar to movies "about jews who were victims of tyrant oppression and societal discrimination." quite to the contrary, you (re)present your characterize as human beings that experience the same complexities of life as the next person.
American's slaughtering 1 million Filipinos during the Philippine-American War, or German's gassing 12 million "undesireables" (Jews, communists, gay, trade unionists, gypsies), or Lenin's liquidation of 20 million during the early Soviety period, is hard to compare with varying levels of discrimination gay men experience in urban Manila.
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