Baguio’s quirky movie house

NOW SHOWING Baguio Cinematheque starts screening relevant films in a theater that Kidlat Tahimik conceptualized.

BAGUIO CITY—The Baguio Cinematheque has moved to a place that looks like anything but a movie house.

Wooden statues greet film buffs, who get to sit on wooden benches, some of which are carved with heads and faces. The walls are wooden panels of varying sizes nailed together.

The ceiling is held up by a giant straw man, which appeared to be that of Enrique de Malacca, the Malay slave who served as an interpreter for Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, who, according to Baguio-based filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik said, was “erroneously credited” for discovering the Philippines in 1521.

The straw man’s head is anchored to a sky window. Its arms are spread out in a welcoming gesture. The cinema’s floorboards are decorated with a portrait of a rising star or sun, made of colored tiles.

To reach the cinema house, film buffs will need to navigate through caverns, climbing and descending uneven stairs. At the entrance, they will be greeted by two huge wooden carvings—a nude woman representing an Ifugao goddess on the left, and “goddess of Hollywood,” Marilyn Monroe, on the right, posed as if she was holding down her billowing skirt.

Only the giant screen serves as a reminder that this is a movie house.

The new cinema house was unveiled on April 21 in Kidlat’s art community, Ili-likha, on Assumption Road here, to coincide with the anniversary of Malacca’s circumnavigation of the world on the same day in 1521.

Kidlat’s “Balikbayan #1,” an imaginary retelling of Malacca’s exploits, was the first film screened at the new cinematheque, now called “Balanghai ni Ikeng.”

In 2011, the first cinematheque outside Metro Manila opened at Casa Vallejo on Upper Session Road here. Four other cinematheques are in Davao, Iloilo, Zamboanga and the original in Manila.

According to Maui Fernando, the cinematheque marketing manager, the new cinema hopes to capture the attention of millennials. Baguio’s huge student population remains a core market for the cinematheque, which has screened independent movies and restored Philippine movies from a bygone era, he said.

But a recent survey showed that the cinematheque had not been able to draw the interest of students, aged between 15 and 21, who would not shy away from independent cinema for as long as the movies were new productions.

The students did not appreciate films that were at least a decade old, Fernando said, adding that indigenous, and sometimes fantasy-inspired elements in the new cinema may help draw them.

Malacca’s images, both sculpted and painted, surround the theater, suggesting the depth of Kidlat’s fascination with the historic figure. Kidlat has pushed for the study of history from the perspective of the colonized and the indigenous Filipinos.

“No more mindless sex, no more mindless Hollywood violence,” Kidlat said, on films that would be shown in the new
cinematheque.