On Raymond Red’s Kamera Obskura

By Ma. Alaine Pernecita Allanigue

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Raymond Red’s Kamera Obskura is an entry in cinemalaya under the new breed category. An old film was discovered in a warehouse by film archivists Teddy Co, Cesar Hernando and Ricky Orellana which later on announced to the media. This disturbed the film people in present time. It has a film within a film style. From the time it was made and the intention of the maker was a mystery to the people who discovered it. The film was too old that the only evidence is that it is a silent film.

Kamera Obskura is a latin word meaning dark room usually connected to the camera. But this film has a lot of symbols deriving from its title where the dark and light meets pertaining to the clash of good and evil. Specifically, the movie used politics in the old times and showed the characters, politicians and the masses, with different intentions to achieve power which is also similar to the present day people. However, the film has no ending for the final reel was lost.

The discussion and debate of the discoverers in a darkened room after watching the film was notable. The wanting of something that cannot be found, an unanswered question, also made the film unique. Educated guesses and opinions were delivered by these three men, these added spice to the film as a whole for it showed the state of the Philippine cinema where a lot of films were lost and destroyed after World War 2 and facing the fact that film preservation in the Philippines is not extensive in the past that film people just continuously discuss and re-discuss issues without the materials.

Looking at the background of the director, Raymond Red’s first short movie was a silent film back in 1982 entitled “Ang Magpakailanman.” And he continued to pursue the concept of a silent film until today.

For me, he is successful in sending an entry of a different style such as silent film in the midst of sound film era. This brought me to Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Artist” (2011) wherein he showed the transition of film era from silent into sound and how people reacted and managed to accept this transition.

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The intention of presenting this “Kamera Obskura” film to the audience who were used to sound films was truly challenging for there were a lot of considerations needed to recognize. However, I believe that this generation is capable of adopting old styles (silent films) as new styles through the emergence of independent films or alternative films. To see the old lost films only in posters are in fact painful. I also do hope that the viewers will also understand the director’s tribute to celluloid format.