The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros

To be shown: 15 October 2007

Philippines 2005.
Director: Auraeus Solito.
Starring: Nathan Lopez, JR Valentin.
Certificate 15. 100 minutes.

Synopsis

Nathan Lopez plays a 12 year-old Filipino gay boy (Maxi) experiencing his first crush.
Set in the slums of Manila, Maxi lives with two older brothers and his father, all of whom are petty criminals, for whom Maxi cleans, cooks, washes and repairs their clothes, and when required he provides them with the odd alibi. Traffic noise and chatter permeate every scene; the back streets holding a Dickensian array of thieves, whores and shop owners all bartering loudly. The only place of peace is the local Catholic Church, where Maxi goes to spy on his crush - a handsome young policeman.
The family accept Maxi's homosexuality and love and protect him. However, all changes when he meets Victor (JR Valentin), a respected and principled policeman, who awakens Maxi's dreams of a better life free of corruption. This is disastrous, as far as the family is concerned, and it doesn't take long before the situation incurs the wrath of his family.
Nathan Lopez and JR Valentin exuberantly inhabit their roles, ably supported by an impressive ensemble cast. The tender friendship between their characters is played so well by them that you forget they are making their feature debuts and one is a 12 year-old.
Auraeus Solito's feature directorial debut has vibrant cinematography, simple scoring, and the script and performances get the joyful surges and crashing lows of first love just right.
A touching tale that tackles the taboo topic of adolescent sexuality with admirable restraint, this film has deservedly won 11 international awards including wins at Montreal World Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.

Notes

Solito grew up in the Sampaloc district of Manila, the setting for this story. He chose to film in the neighbourhood in which he grew up in order to make it more personal. The film was shot on mini-dv and Solito is convinced that the attention this film attracts will encourage digital film making in the Philippines -"The digital revolution has the potential to erase the difference between Third and First Worlds. Just because we're poor doesn't mean we don't have any imagination.".

Both Nathan Lopez and his identical twin, Gammy, auditioned for the title role of Maximo Oliveros.

The film was selected as the official Philippine entry for Best Foreign Language Film award at the 79th Academy Awards.

Joey Pepe Smith who plays the piano man being teased by the kids, scored the film.

The budget for the whole film was one million pesos, roughly US$19,000.

Shot in the director's neighbourhood, all his neighbours were the supporting cast - he did pay them a little bit!

The production company, ufo Pictures, was formed in 2004 by 5 young screenwriters based in Manila. Individually they have written some of the most commercially and critically successful Filipino films of the last decade.

In November 2005 ufo Pictures made history when they released the film themselves in selected cities in the Philippines, earning critical praise and commercial success.

Pre-production and casting took six weeks, the actual shoot took 13 days; editing (on and off due to budget constraints) took nearly six months.

Before this film, director Auraeus Solito made a documentary "The Sacred Ritual of Truth" about his indigenous roots in South Palawan in the Philippines, for which he won the Best Feature Documentary at Montreal First People's Festival.