Manila’s Dark Room

Lav Diaz is not only a maker of extremely long films. He also makes short ones (such as Purgatorio, this year in the short film competition) and is a passionate rock musician. Together with the film makers Khavn, Roxlee and John Torres, he forms a band known as The Brockas, named after the great Filipino film maker.
In his proposal for a room in the Haunted House, he brings together his musical and visual backgrounds. The room will be as dark as possible and the specially recorded music is by The Brockas.
The maker took the idea of scaring the visitors seriously. No greater fear than the fear that visitors have within themselves and that can be brought out by the darkness in an unknown space. Furthermore, tactile sensations will do their work and the far from comforting music of The Brockas, a Filipino variation on punk rock that tends towards noise, will also not put anyone at ease. The sound will sometimes be loud, sometimes soft, but can also be natural, such as the noise of whales.
To judge by the theme of Diaz’s films and the lyrics of The Brockas, the ghosts in the room will not have had a pleasant life. They probably lived at the time of the state of siege, experienced the cruelties of the dictatorship. The effect depends on the visitors’ own impression of hell, according to the maker. (GjZ)

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