The Unconfined Cinema #3: Revolutions, Refrains, Songs

In 1987, filmmaker and scholar Nick DeOcampo released Revolutions Happen Like Refrains in a Song, a documentary and film essay that studied the life of Oliver, a drag performer, against the backdrop of the last days of the Marcos dictatorship. In 2010, John Torres released Refrains Happen Like Revolutions in a Song, an experimental feature wherein he shot footage of actors without a script, all speaking in Hiligaynon, a language the director does not speak — Torres then wrote English subtitles, interpreting tone and crafting a new story disconnected from the actual words being spoken. Martika Escobar was then commissioned to create Songs Happen Like Refrains in a Revolution, a film shot during lockdown wherein she asked creative people for snippets of work, weaving them into the story of a young woman trying to write a song. All three films were screened simultaneously in adjacent rooms inside the gallery, with the sound of each movie leaking into the other rooms, simulating a conversation between generations of filmmakers working with constraints that would push their personal creativity to new heights.