LOS ANGELES – Two Filipino filmmakers and their respective films are featured in the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival that is being held at the University of California (UC) Berkeley.

Ian Gamazon, who was co-director of “Cavite,” is excited about his Vietnamese movie, “Living in Seduced Circumstances,” to be at the said film festival.

Francis Xavier Pasion, who directed “Jay,” is also thrilled about his docu drama, “Sampaguita, National Flower” to be featured.

We asked both filmmakers what inspired them to do their respective films.

Ian said, “My movie is about a very pregnant woman who kidnaps a man she had a past relationship with and begins to torture him to no end. One of the inspirations for this is to show the amazing things a pregnant woman can do in a thriller-like movie. Another inspiration was to turn the tables torture porn genre and have the man take the beating from a woman for a change. Once I had the idea I wrote the script for a year and wanted to include a historical aspect of Vietnam coming from a different perspective.”

“The reason I made a Vietnamese film after ‘Cavite’ is because my wife is Vietnamese and I was inspired by the stories that she told me about their struggles during the ’70s and early ’80s,” Ian explained. “So many heartbreaking stories that I couldn’t get them out of my mind. Although the film is all in Vietnamese the theme that I explore in the film is very close to my heart. In some ways it touches upon the same theme that was brought up in Cavite.”

The sampaguita concept started in 2004, even before I wrote the script of “Jay.” I was thinking of a topic for my first screenplay in a coffee shop in Tomas Morato when a child selling sampaguita flowers came to me and asked if I could buy his last garland so he could go home. I asked him: Where did the flowers come from? And this started this journey with the sampaguita. I was first intrigued by the sampaguita being our national flower. It is a symbol of our nation. If I follow its journey, would I get a glimpse of my country? As I immerse myself more on the topic, I become even more excited to tell its story. I learned that the flowers were harvested in the province, mostly in Pampanga and Laguna. When I went to Floridablanca, Pampanga at early dawn, I was amazed to see people with gas lamps on the vast sampaguita fields. By the roadside, they seem like fireflies. People are harvesting sampaguita in the dark because until now, there is no electricity in their place. I interviewed the children who harvest the flowers. They tell me that they only study in the daytime. They cannot study at night.

Despite this condition, the children in the province are still more optimistic about the future. They want to be teachers and doctors. They still dream of a better future. This is very different from the children who sell the sampaguita flowers in the city. This is the other end of the sampaguita journey – children in the city who think, talk and behave like adults. They live for the moment and seldom dream of a better future. They have accepted their poverty and they believe that there is nothing they can do to change this reality.

I was also intrigued by the fact that the sampaguita as a national symbol, it represents our national identity. If people would only know the stories of people – children most especially – entwined in the sampaguita industry, they might re-consider this position.

Francis, on the other hand, explained his docu drama and his inspiration for doing it. He narrated, “In my research of the journey of the national flower, I was able to see the true condition of our country. Maybe the sampaguita is the best representation of the Philippines. It is not just a symbol but also a mirror of our country. We often hear the motherhood statement: The children are the future of the country. By following the journey of the sampaguita flower, we are able to prove and disprove that.

“The first part of the sampaguita’s journey is the harvesting of the flowers. Once plucked from its source, the flower already undergoes a journey of decay. It takes only a day for it to retain its white color and fragrance. That is why the flower must be transported, and sold within 24 hours. The first stage of the journey involves children. They are the ones that pluck the flowers in the sampaguita farms. In the film, the farm is in Floridablanca, Pampanga. When we went there at dawn, we noticed that people still use lamps to harvest the flowers. They are like fireflies when seen from the roadside.

“I was surprised to know that their area still has no electricity. Children in that area are forced to study only at daytime. The journey of the sampaguita also ends with children peddling the sampaguita garlands to the churches and streets.”

Ian disclosed some of the challenges he encountered in doing his movie. He said, “One of the big challenges I encountered was trying to direct the actors while they speak their lines in Vietnamese. It was a great challenge since I don’t speak or understand the language.”

As for Francis, he noted, “There were many challenges we encountered during the filming. However, for every challenge, there was a corresponding reward. For example, it was challenging to have non-actors and actual sampaguita children. Because they do not know anything about acting, blocking, etc. But that also proved to be a disadvantage because they gave very sincere and raw performances – something we could not have achieved if we got professional children actors.

“Logistically, it is challenging to document the children as they walk at night along the streets of Tomas Morato. Our cinematographer – Neil Daza has to follow them and has to cross the streets with them. It is a long and tedious process that eventually went to the film’s advantage.”

After San Francisco, “Living in Seduced Circumstances” will be playing in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Theatre in April. “Then we will be traveling from city to city after that,” Ian said. “There are three other festival invites that I can’t disclose just yet.”

For “Sampaguita, National Flower,” it will go to Cleveland and then to Stockholm. “There were also numerous film festival inquiries and we shall be announcing these soon,” Francis told us.

“The reception of the film at the Generation section of the Berlin International Film Festival was phenomenal,” he said. “The theatre was packed with children. I was moved by the reaction of the German kids to the film. They sympathized with the children from another side of the globe. It was a good thing I was there to answer all their questions. An 8-year-old kid told me that the film was sad, but beautiful. She asked me how she would be able to help the children.

“I was moved by their compassion. The film provided a venue for them to see the plight of poor children at the far side of the globe. It widened their understanding of the world. A lot of German parents also expressed sympathy for the children and wanted to visit them when they come to the Philippines.”

After “Living in Seduced Circumstances,” Ian is developing a couple of projects. “One is a thriller about a Mexican immigrant’s struggles in Arizona and the other is another thriller I hope to shoot in the Philippines,” he disclosed. “I’d love to work with up and coming Filipino actors in the Philippines and utilize their talent. I hope that I’ll be able to introduce these actors to the younger generation living in the United States. They’re both in very early stages right now.”

As for Francis, he revealed that he has a few projects to choose from. “It might be the sequel to ‘Jay’ or a sequel to ‘Sampaguita.’”

Formerly a Manila journalist, Los Angeles-based Janet Susan R. Nepales is a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

E-mail the writer at jrnepales_624@yahoo.com for your comments or questions.