Mayo Uno Martin
As of last week, you could download this guy's thoughts and come up with a 60s album cover, complete with fluffy psychedelic fonts, garrish colors and lots of bottles. To wit, here's a sample of a not-so-typical conversation with Khavn De La Cruz: "When you attack the bottle and do all sorts of stuff with it, your bottle would be different. And that will have a different effect. It won't be the same old bottle, bottle, bottle."
Of course, while doesn't mean that Khavn (pronounced with a silent "v" or otherwise, he doesn't really care) is a certified guzzler, he does seem to have an unquenchable thirst for music, poetry, and film. In fact, before I began waving my cassette recorder in his face at the second floor of Big Sky Mind, he had previously been doing just that, interviewing independent filmmaker Jon Red for a book that he's tentatively titling "Pinoy Indie: How To Make Films Without Selling Your Soul". Of course, knowing Khavn, the operative word is "tentative." As in "next please."
Most probably know him as the man behind the now-defunct Oracafe in Quezon City. The multi-media cafe was the place to if you were into tarot cards, poetry, and rock. But just before the watering hole closed down sometime last November, the Reneaissance Man of Kamias had also ventured into music production, launching "Indie Yo!", a compilation of Oracafe's regular performers, and had also released the full-length film "The Twelve". A couple of months back, he launched the unedited version of the long-short film "Greaseman." Addendum: on the side, he creates his movie soundtracks and writes Palanca-viable poetry.
His main preoccupation at the moment is "Digital Sunsets," a multi-media event that features poetry slams, rock and jazz music, and independent films. Held at the back of the infamous Manila Film Center, Digital Sunsets takes place for three consecutive Sundays, starting with last Sunday's melange of performances by jazz gurus Majam, a bunch of disenfranchised poets and bands, and JJ Duque's "Sex, Drugs, & Electronica."
Other artists slated for the following Sundays include poets Vim Nadera, Kris Lacaba and Edge, bands like the Makiling Ensemble, Talula Craft and the Radioactive Sago Project, and the films of Gatla Gunawin and Khavn's own edited version of "Greaseman."
Khavn's romance with film started sometime in '94 as a student of Kidlat Tahimik at the Ateneo. He had just shifted from Computer Science to Interdisciplinary Studies and his parents had just bought him a Sony V8. It was love at first panning.
Sometime in 1995, he decided to submit an entry to a short film contest in CCP, which lost. He later came back with a vengeance, winning a bronze at the Tokyo Video Festival for "Alaala Ng Madaling-Araw" [Memory Of Dawn]. It was Tahimik who had encouraged him to try his luck. During one vacation trip to Baguio, he presented "Alaala..." and another series called "5 Shorts" to the filmmaker. "He played a big part," Khavn says. "Not in the 'Hey do this with your life,' but more of 'giving the fare' in a metaphorical way. You don't have any loose change, but he has, so you're able to take a ride."
To date, Khavn has about 30 plus short films and around eight awards mostly from CCP, the most recent one being a citation for "The Twelve".
His latest, "Greaseman," dissects the parallelisms between a taong grasa in Manila (Lou Veloso) and a yuppie in Pasig (Eric Quizon). Using video techniques more MTV-ish than solid narrative, the film also utilizes spontaenous music jammings by Makiling Ensemble's Diwa De Leon, Eraserhead Raymund Marasigan, etc., and the visual stylings of the Anino Shadow Play Collective. All in all, a multi-media whimsical trip that presents life in all its tedious, hazardous glory.
"May tagline for that is like Eraserheads' 'Fruitcake' --- There's a greaseman in everyone," he laughs. Although he admits the subject matter is nothing new, he's approaching it in a different manner. "It's a bit surreal and absurd. Maybe I'm really off-tangent. I take delight in those things."
Khavn's devotion to the independent films has extended to more than just making them. He has recently formed the outfit Filmless Films together with Gunawin, which he hopes will become an outlet for kindred spirits. Indie films are becoming more fashionable and viable among the younger generation while the recent success of Raymond Red's "Anino" (Shadows) at the Cannes is something the establishment cannot simply ignore. In fact, Khavn shares, he had received around 200 entries for his yet to be concluded contest "Silvershorts."
Undoubtedly, bias against non-commercial films (particularly those using the video format) still exists. Khavn explains it as such: "When it comes to books, for example, the first question isn't where did you print it? Wow, on papyrus paper! It's a book no matter what. Even if you publish it using xerox. Film is like the standard book paper. Video is like xerox. There's a cheap connotation that it's only for home-viewing. Kidlat was the only Filipino talking about democratization of filmmaking through video, way back in the early 90s." He insists however, "The digital video format is enough to draw an audience, especially in other countries."
There have been some who've credited Khavn and his friends of legitimizing MTVs as a visual art form. But he says it's nothing new in other countries. "There's even a music video category in the Oberhausen Film Festival." And it's time, he says, that the establishment look in that direction. "The MTV Awards are celebrity-based. You win because the band or the singer is famous. That the work is any good is secondary," he laughs.
He plans to transform "Digital Sunsets" into a kind of travelling festival. And there are also other plans. There's the book, for one. And an album which he describes as "Triple B --- Beck meets Bjork meets Bowie."
Khavn paraphrases lateral thinker Edward De Bono --- "The creative artists in actuality are not really creative in all aspects. They just have a strong style and effect. That's what I've been promoting with Oracafe. That's what I've been doing since I was in Ateneo."
As of last week, the words "what's next" will probably occupy most of Khavn De La Cruz's thoughts. Next to bottles, that is.
MALAYA
May 24, 2001
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