Brillante Mendoza

Philippine film director Brillante Mendoza is currently being talked about in France thanks to his interesting documentary called ‘John John’. In the same vein the film we saw today, showed as part of the Singapore Film Festival and entitled Tirador (Slingshot), deals with the hard reality of the daily lives of a Manila slum. It is more like a documentary than a fiction movie including in the way the whole thing is filmed in DV. Actually there is no better way to describe it than in his own words. He calls it ‘real-time.’ It is in the pace of real life. He shoots where is, as is. The border between documentary and fiction in this style is very thin. The only thing that divides the audience from real life is the screen, because we are watching life already. A very bleak but amazing movie.