Based on a true story: a Filipino hijacks an aircraft and then jumps out with a home-made parachute. What drives someone to something so absurd? Realistic portrait, filmed with the very sharp Red One system, in reaction to the grainy, hand-held style of Filipino independent cinema.
Just before Raymond Red was the first Filipino to be given a Golden Palm in Cannes for his short film Anino (2000), he read a news report about a Filipino who hijacked an aircraft and then jumped out with a home-made parachute. In Manila Skies, Red wonders what drives someone to such an absurd deed and at the same time why his land just doesn't make progress. According to a news item in the film, 80% of the population lives in poverty. So too the protagonist Raul, a country boy who desperately and vainly searches for work in Manila. With his friends, all sharing his fate, he commits a robbery but panics at the high point and flees before finally breaking out of the vicious circle with violence.
A realistic portrait with several magic realistic moments, filmed with the very sharp Red One system, a reaction to the grainy, hand-held style that is now popular in Filipino independent cinema.
PROGRAMMER NOTES
Raymond Red knows more about cameras than the average film maker. It betrays his background as that of experimental film maker. Experimental film makers have to do everything themselves and in addition are expected to innovate and change technology. They are the inventors and re-inventors of the seminar. Raymond Red does not only experiment, but also applies his knowledge to narrative cinema and in commercials. Few people realise that, for film makers like Red, commercials can be a haven because more ample budgets make it possible to try out new techniques and new cameras.
A couple of years ago, he demonstrated his love for original technology by the camera by presenting a Camera Obscura as large as a living room as an installation. It's a nice anecdote that some colleague film makers thought it was a video installation, but Red had not forgotten the origins of the camera and knew that a small hole in a dark room together with the bright Filipino sunlight could provide a projection wonder.
It's not surprising that Red recorded his latest film using the new and already legendary RED camera. He was himself the cameraman and hence soon made himself familiar with this digital phenomenon that leaves 'high definition' way behind it in the number of pixels.
But Red is not only interested in the technology. He uses this to tell his story in a stunning way and to show his country without concealing anything.
GjZ