MOGWAI Film Clubinvites you to the Special Screening of

 

BAHAG KINGS

 

this August 27, Wednesday. 9pm

 

at the Mogwai Film Club,

Cubao X (aka Cubao Expo, Marikina Shoe Expo),

Romulo Street,
Araneta Center,
Cubao, Quezon City.

 

Free Admission.

 

SYNOPSIS

The Bahag Kings set off on a journey looking for something
that could be nothing. As they search, the film delivers a sample of the
Philippine urban landscape taken with a skewed surreal perception, as visual
text prods philosophical inquisition. All this leads to a final discovery, but
of what, even we cannot be sure. (Carljoe Javier)

 

Running Time: 75 minutes

 

Starring: ELMO REDRICO, ROXLEE, MYKE SARTHOU, KHAVN, RAYG
GENEROSO, TENGAL, NOEL ZAPANTA

Featuring: ROBERTO BELLINI, JIM LIBIRAN, CHITS JIMENEZ

Cinematography: BAHAG KINGS

Music: KHAVN, LC DE LEON, ARVIE BARTOLOME, EAT TAE,
TURBULENCE PRODUCTIONS, RADIOACTIVE SAGO PROJECT

Sound design: TENGAL

Editing: LAWRENCE
ANG

Directed, Written, & Produced by KHAVN DE LA CRUZ

Production Company: FILMLESS FILMS

 

“A rowdy genre-defying feature from the renegade Khavn.”

- Anne Ciecko, AFTERIMAGE

 

“Bringing a little William Castle-like ballyhoo to
Rotterdam, Khavn walked around the festival (and its 30-degree January climate)
wearing only a “bahag” (loincloth) to promote his Bahag Kings, prompting the
sort of shocked stares and discussion that a million-dollar publicity budget
could never buy.”

- Jason Sanders, FILMMAKER Magazine

 

“A group of tribal leaders from the jungle search the city
like a hard rock band. Or is it a rock group looking for the jungle? The
filmmaker was arrested for the film, together with his half naked kings. Funny,
unpolished, musical and (hence) also a little bit political.

It looks like a joke that has got out of hand, a kind of
contest: who dares walk the street wearing only a G-string? G-string Kings is
indeed a cheerful and cheeky film, in the spirit of the other work by this most
cheerful, cheekiest and certainly most productive of Filipino film makers, but
it is not just a silly joke. Seven sturdy mature men dressed in no more than
the bahag, the traditional string with loincloth as worn by the original
inhabitants of the Philippines.
It couldn't be more Filipino, so why should Filipinos get upset about it? Yet
the cheerful procession is regarded as a provocation of good taste and even of
good order. The film is a feature, made in the idiom of the silent film, but
shot spontaneously on the street, like a documentary. The men go out into the
world as kings: King Black, King Red, King Blue, King Yellow, King Green, King
Purple and King Orange - seven rainbow kings (bahag-hari) with their ethnic
G-string (bahag). They travel in a jolting van from the natural forests to the
urban jungle. The Bahag Kings, descendants of noble rulers but also of village
idiots, search all over for wala (nothing). In the end, they, along with the
film maker, are arrested by the police. What was once traditional costume turns
out to have become obscene.”

--- Gertjan Zuilhof, ROTTERDAM
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

 

“The loincloth is the oldest form of clothing. Since time
immemorial and in various civilizations throughout the world it has been used
as attire to cover male genitalia. In the Philippines, this piece of clothing
is called “bahag,” and its appearance represents a kind of cultural symbol. The
bahag worn by the indigenous Philippine population was described at the start
of the 19th century by missionaries. Not surprisingly, the spread of Christian
morality discouraged its use, viewing it as an unacceptable form of attire. A
group of men, the Bahag Kings, leave the countryside behind in their old van
and head for the urban jungle. Seven men in multi-colored cloths wrapped between
the legs and worn as a symbol of ethnicity pretend to be the descendents of
majestic native rulers and village idiots and attired as such experience a
series of bizarre incidents in the big city. But this traditional garment,
which should not be offensive to any Filipino, is deemed to be indecent, and
the director and his group of kings end up spending a night in jail. The
loincloth comes to represent a point where different socio-cultural streams
collide. This wild punk musical thus takes on a somewhat political tone.
Khavn's digital film, shot in a documentary style and with Dadaistically
temperamental performances, undermines the established order, and in its
gleeful impertinence it shows how an authoritarian mentality is instrumental in
the way symbols acquire their meaning.”

--- Marek Hovorka, JIHLAVA INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM
FESTIVAL

 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT BY WAY OF AN ELEGY

In "Bahag Kings", Elmo Redrico, aka Ka Elmo,
continually exclaimed "We are artist!" while we were maliciously
detained in the Cubao Police Station (Gateway) just because we were wearing
indigenous Philippine clothing. "We are artist!" It was both plural
and singular. It was funny and profound at the same time. "We are
artist!" Ka Elmo repeated it aloud. Though I don't know if the security
officers fully heard, if the passers-by really noticed, or if anyone, including
us – his comrades, truly understood what he was trying to say. If he meant
anything at all in the first place. But Ka Elmo still said it. Again and again.
"We are artist!" Something for him to mouth when he still had one.
Something for us to think about while our buddy parties into the Great Beyond.

Ka Elmo “King Red” Redrico (+ August 30, 2006)

 

LINKS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmL6-qJcpCM



http://kamiasroad.com/khavn/bahagkings.htm

http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/eng/search/film.aspx?id=ab489bd4-b5d7-4f0f-\
b2c9-9989726a7b1f

http://www.dokument-festival.cz/news_detail.phtml?news_id=801&_action=setlang&se\
tlang=en&flash=

http://www.turbulenceproductions.net/

http://cubaoexpo.multiply.com/

http://radioactivesagoproject.blogspot.com/

http://projectmanila.com/blog/?p=94








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