The Brockas band, composed of filmmakers Khavn dela Cruz, Roxlee and Lav Diaz, had a “jam-packed” concert at the Burning Tent in Jihlava, Czech Republic recently. The band did a “live scoring” of Dela Cruz’s silent film “Pink Bomba Manifesto.”

“The jampacked audience went wild while dancing, screaming, and doing all sorts of devilish revelry,” Dela Cruz recounted in a recent virtual chat. “Rene Kubasek (former diplomat and currently in charge of international communication for the festival) even said this particular gig of The Brockas was ‘the greatest rock ‘n’ roll swindle’ he has witnessed in all his years in Jihlava.”

Live-scoring ‘Nosferatu’

Locally, The Brockas will be playing “nonstop for 100 minutes” on Nov. 25, 6 p.m. at Shangri-La Plaza Cineplex in Mandaluyong City, Dela Cruz reported. “We’ve been invited by the Goethe Institut to live-score the 100th anniversary of Murnau’s ‘Nosferatu,’ the first vampire movie, for the International Silent Film Festival Manila,” he shared.

Dela Cruz had been busy these past few months. “Overdosed Nightmare,” his 14-year-old short film starring Marvin Agustin, was exhibited at the recent Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in Czech Republic, where the director was also head tutor on filmmaking during a special session held at the Jihlava Academy, Inquirer Entertainment learned.

“‘Overdosed Nightmare’ is one of those films that got lost in the shuffle. After screening at Cinemalaya in 2008, it hasn’t been shown elsewhere in the world, even if it stars Marvin Agustin and even if it was one of the five films in my French-released Bluray box set,” Dela Cruz said. “It’s great that Jihlava programmers Andrea Slovakova, Adriana Belesova and Petr Kubica ‘rediscovered’ it and included it in the festival’s Philippine Retrospective.”

Head juror

Dela Cruz also reported that he has been teaching at the Jihlava Academy for five years now. “It’s always within the duration of the festival,” he said, adding that his students are from different parts of the globe and different artistic persuasions. “The previous two sessions were during the pandemic so we had to go online. The lessons have always been about going out there and making a film every day, how to overcome your personal blocks and demons and just doing it now and expressing your heart and soul.”

Meanwhile, his film “Love Is A Dog From Hell,” which was the closing film in Berlin Critics Week earlier this year, was exhibited at the 2022 Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, Canada, last month.

He was also head juror at the 2022 SeaShorts Film Festival in Selangor, Malaysia held last September. “As head juror, it’s not about dictating or dominating the conversation. You ensure that the opinion of the other jury members is respected and represented; as well as how to judge without being judgmental; how to judge using your gut, which is more intelligent than your brain; and how to compare apples and oranges, rambutan and durian,” Dela Cruz pointed out.

“I remember one of our high school teachers who [decides our] grades using a dartboard. Judging is highly subjective. [It] depends on the composition of the jury and the biases of each judge, plus other viewing factors: time of day, caffeine level, etc. One thing is clear: that Southeast Asian short filmmaking is alive and kicking. The future of cinema is blinding,” said the filmmaker when asked what he has learned from his most recent jury duty.
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