"Eros" THE DANGEROUS THREAD OF THINGS

"Eros" THE DANGEROUS THREAD OF THINGS follows a forty-ish married couple that no longer has anything to say to one another. Their relationship is in crisis but still they decided to take a short trip to the sea to revive a little magic in their relationship. They stop at a beautiful canyon, where two young girls are singing as they bathe naked in a waterfall. At a restaurant, Christopher notices a pretty young girl that's the girl that lives in the Tower," They sit silently for a few moments, nothing to say. Their quiet is in stark contrast to the disorderliness of the next table, where a large party dines merrily. The wife drops her glass on the wood floor-it bounces, but doesn't shatter. They walk down a forest path, framed by a long row of short trees bent over, which leads them to an abandoned mooring. They love the place, but they don’t enjoy the company of each other. Soon the couple is fighting bitterly. The guy drives up to the Tower where the Girl he had seen in the restaurant lives. It is an austere, but spectacular stone structure, next to a body of water. He knocks on the front door, but no one answers. The girl walks up the beach and invites Christopher to come in. The girl leads the guy upstairs to the roof terrace, where there are staggering views in all directions. Meanwhile, the girl has gone to her bedroom and taken off her clothes. When Christopher enters, he asks, "What would happen if I lay down too?" "I'd tell you my name," she answers. They make love. At an impasse, the man has a passionate one night stand with a free-spirited young girl but this experience also fails to satisfy him. After a month, his husband called him to her cell phone from Paris, where it's already snowing. "I wish it would snow here too," says the wife. He thinks her words mean that she wants him to be there with her. "My love doesn't end," she says. "It's just your attitude." With the phone and distance separating them, the two are somehow able to talk about their troubles in a more calm and accepting way than before. Later on, the wife and the girl meet… I appreciate this film and I like the cinematic elements used in the film. I love the tower / the setting because it gives the audience some clue of what is the desire of the man towards the girl in the tower. The interior is loaded with modern art and furniture. I like the signs and symbols that are used in this film. The structure of things and the realization in our life that nothing is permanent even you tried hard just to save or to have it.

– Condo – Directed by MARTIN CABRERA Written and Produced by ALOY ADLAWAN

Condo has a good cinematography and effects, which caught my attention. As I watch it, I can’t determine its genre if it is a horror, or a simple mysterious type of film. Its story is all about a young security guard who has to deal with his lost sense of being and his encounters with people in the condominium where he is assigned and requests the building administration to let him stay in the guard's quarters. The building and the job have become the perfect shelter. It is a condominium after all, a small community of neighbors and strangers all under one roof. But to Benjie, everyone's just faces attached to door numbers, doors which are always closed and are rarely open. This is a must seen film because you can even be indecisive of the real meaning that the director wanted us to think. When I went out of the movie house I ask myself “What is the significance of some shots that I’ve observed, the add numbers that is used to represent each floor, the significance of some characters and the real purpose of each individual in the movie?” I analyze it one by one and realize their real meaning. No one really cares about him. And Benjie only cares about his job even if it is the same tired routine. But when a mysterious intruder and a phone call coming from an empty unit begin taunting him, Benjie (Coco Martin) fears for the perfectly lonely world he's built around himself. In the end, he discovers that the answer to the mystery lies from his own shadow. He’s just looking for something that only he would help and answer his problem. I like the way that this movie was done. What a great and out of the box script and idea it was!

Paper Dolls by Tomer Heymann

I really appreciate and like the documentary entitled Paper Dolls by Tomer Heymann. It is part diary and part human-interest story. It examines the lives of a group of transsexual Philippine immigrants who work as home attendants for elderly Israelis and also perform in nightclubs. It also records the filmmaker’s friendship with them, including his efforts to bring them to the attention of an influential club promoter. But the minute they finish work they change completely, put on glamorous dresses and go perform in dusky clubs and bars in front of Israeli and Philippine audiences. Shot on video and mingling interviews with observations of daily life, “Paper Dolls” is a modest film, less interested in advocacy or analysis than in sympathy. A group of Gay Filipino migrant workers meet every weekend (Sally, Cheska, Chiqui, Giorgio and Jan) all perform as a lip-synch act collectively known as "The Paper Dolls." Heymann documents the trans-sexual’s day-to-day chores like bathing, feeding, join them for bible lessons, put them in bed, clean them, and do it all with special care and love for the elderly. He immerses himself in their lives with good intentions and some decidedly naive questions. In spite of the chaotic Israeli reality, where fear of terrorist suicide bombers competes with the fear of the "Immigration Police", the group members succeed in expressing their true selves. They see Israel as an open and free place, where they can enjoy sexual and cultural liberty. Unlike in the Philippines there are not that free because up to now some of our countrymen are conservative when it comes to that matter. I learned a lot from this film; it discusses and serves as the reflection of our country. Poverty, which leads those gays to worked as care givers just to earn money to support the needs of their family. For me, people are trying to appreciate Filipino all over the world by watching this documentary; although there is negative opinion that the taxi driver had said about Filipinos, the dedication that the Paper Dolls have shown in this film is the important. Because of their love in their job, they are able to show what kind of employees we Filipinos are. They continue living their lives even one of their member has been jailed. Cheska, one of the group members is arrested on an immigration police raid and faces deportation. Tomer, the director, visits Cheska at the detention house and shoots a farewell speech from him that touches the “Paper Dolls” deeply and brings them to tears. “Paper Dolls” try to continue with their daily routine; work, shows, spending time together, and facing the various layers of Israeli society. For them, the show must go on. As they did not surrender to nature that made them men, they do not surrender to terrorism and violence. I was so touched in the old man that Sally is taking good care with. The father-daughter relationship between Sally and her employer deepens. He buys her dresses and she supports him in his struggle against cancer. They too know that sooner or later they will have to part ways. I remember my grand father while watching that old man, because they have the same condition, he has also operated because of the cancer of larynx. I feel the pain because I can relate to him. Paper dolls are working with love. I really like this documentary. It was just not about the issue of a gender but how we Filipinos give and share love to everybody. It’s not only the matter of men dressed as women or women in the body of a man, but it’s about how Filipinos work hard just to have a good life and how Paper Dolls handle their problems just to survive in Israel. I’ve appreciate this film a lot!

Retaso

“Retaso” is the story of two women who think that together they can be strong enough to escape everything. But only when the two become one, can they truly be free…-Dianne Marie Combalicer Retaso literally means remnants of cloth but in this film, it symbolizes and explains the true significance of the characters and how retaso represent their life. I enjoyed watching this Independent film because I’ve realized something about Lesbians. Delsa is a sewer in a clothes factory where even the visits to the comfort room is regulated. Her child passed away and only a piece of shoes was left for her to remember her child. She lives alone in a small room in a squatter’s area and always opens her door to her neighbor Lena who runs to her every time she had a trouble with her husband Ryan. Lena, is a former artist who does laundry to earn a living for her husband and herself. Her husband Ryan has been trying to find a job but he seems to be running out of luck. This misfortune hits Lena too as she becomes an outlet for Ryan’s frustrations. Lena is abused as a wife, both sexually and physically and still he stays with his husband because she thinks that he really loves her until, finally, one night when she went to Delsa’s house to hide, she discovered that her husband is willing to have sex with Delsa. Delsa do that to Ryan just to protect Lena and serves as Lena’s eye opener to realize everything about her husband. They are both the retaso of this film, Retaso is used to cover the hole of a cloth and if you analyze well the story it has something to do with the character’s life. The hole of the clothes symbolizes their problem, and the retaso is the redeemer to help save and cover the cloth. Delsa’s work symbolizes that she is the Retaso who fix and help Lena to cover the problem that she have. Lena is a retaso because her husband Ryan abused her whenever and wherever he wants to. He treated her as a leftover, useless piece of cloth and uses her only when he needs her. Retaso of cloth is also used to kill Ryan, since both of them are Retaso, they now realized when to become one they can be strong enough to escape everything. For me, by watching this film people are trying to understand how and why lesbianism exists.

Theoretical Understanding of deviance

: A reaction to the movie John Q. Deviance defines for the society or groups what behaviors are acceptable or not. We define deviance as “any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs. In this essay I will discuss Theoretical Understanding of deviance by using the movie John Q. The first social foundation of deviance is that they only exist in relation to cultural norms. Nothing you say, do, or think is actually deviant. As society and culture changes around us so does what is considered deviance. For example: tattoos and piercing are normal now but couple of years ago that was considered deviant behavior. A theoretical explanation for deviant behaviors that mirrors the one in this film is Merton’s structural Strain theory which explains why people accept or reject the goals of society. According to this theory, all structures in the society provide goals for people to achieve and acceptable means to attain them. John Quincy Archibald's son Michael collapses while playing baseball as a result of heart failure. John rushes Michael to a hospital emergency room where he is informed that Michael's only hope is a transplant. Unfortunately, John's insurance won't cover his son's transplant. Out of options, John Q. takes the emergency room staff and patients hostage until hospital doctors agree to do the transplant. Structural strain theory: stems from Durkheim’s Anomie. Deviance occurs in societies where anomie is great. It is the outcome of social strains which put pressure on people to deviate. There is a discrepancy between socially approved goals and availability of socially approved means of achieving goals. Deviants lack approved means, fall into state of anomie, use deviant means Merton’s conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion. John violated social norms or the standards of conduct or expectation of a group or a society because he holds the doctor hostage along with innocent bystanders just to save the life of his son. Because of John’s desperation to save the life of his son he violated the law to achieve his goal/ objective. People who watched this film try to sympathy with John Q. They understand John Q’s decision to snaps and hold the staff and patients of the hospital's emergency room hostage at gunpoint. This is the reason why deviance allows the society to set the boundary of acceptable acts and behaviors.

Rational Choice theory is also applicable in this movie. According to Max Weber all actions are rational actions. An individual who wishes will more or less weigh the consequences of one’s actions. The cops surround the hospital and try to negotiate with the father to let the hostages go and they'll help get the boy a heart. The father didn't want to believe them so he comes up with the idea that he would donate his own heart to his son. If hostage is the only solution to ensure the life of his son, he decides to do it than to take his son home to die. The hostages couldn't believe what he wanted to do especially the doctor. The doctor didn't want to do the surgery, but the father held the gun to the doctor's head and convinced him to do it. In the process of weighing them, John tried to figure out the risks and benefits. The benefits of saving the life of his son outweigh the risk of imprisonment that’s why the action of hostage has taken.