Raymond Red’s “Kamera Obskura” is one of the 2012 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition’s entry to the Directors Showcase category to be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines with showing at Greenbelt 3 and Trinoma from July 20 to 29, 2012. The 25 film-entries in this year’s were presented to the media during the press conference held at the CCP on June 28.
Kamera Obskura
Stars: Pen Medina, Joel Torre
Writer-Director: Raymond Red
Kamera Obskura can be described as “a fictitious Filipino black-and-white silent expressionist film supposedly found recently by our film archivists and historians.”
In this experimental film-within-a-film, Pen Medina portrays a prisoner locked away in a dark chamber for over two decades. He only sees the reality of the world outside through a small hole in his cell, which projects an image of the city on his wall. He watches people passing by, projected like an inverted movie. As he yearns to rejoin society, he eventually chips away on the hole until it is big enough for him to escape through.
Direk Raymond points out: “Since 1983, I’ve been thinking of giving homage to silent cinema. ‘Yon yung wala tayo sa Philippines since ang sama ng film preservation natin at wala tayong awareness.
“Ever since, meron akong fascination for cinema heritage and film history. In fact, 1990s ko pa pinaplano ito pero ngayon lang natuloy.”
Direk Raymond already worked on a short film with a similar theme that was released in 2006.
“Si Pen Medina na rin ang actor ko noon na nakakulong [in his short film titled Mistulang Kamera Obskura]. Sinali ko yung short film na iyon sa Imahe Nasyon [an omnibus film comprised of 20 short films created by 20 filmmakers].”
The veteran director believes the now is the perfect time for his obra.
“There’s a transition now to digital; mawawala na ang film–yung celluloid cinema. Kaya nagkataon ganun na ang thinking ng mga filmmakers ngayon: paying tribute to cinema heritage and history.”