DIRECTORS SARI DALENA AND KEITH SICAT IN Q & A INTERVIEW

DIRECTORS SARI DALENA AND KEITH SICAT: WIFE AND HUSBAND ARE HAPPY TOGETHER

DIRECTOR KEITH WITH ANIGMATIC ACTRESS ALESSANDRA DE ROSSI: LOOKING THRU THE CAMERA LENS

DIRECTOR SARI IN A FILM EVENT

DIRECTOR SARI WITH HER KIDS AND AN AUNT WHO RECENTLY PASSED-AWAY

ACTRESS INA FELEO WITH DIREK KEITH

ACTRESS MARIBEL LOPEZ AND DIREK KEITH

THE SICAT FAMILY

ALESSANDRA AND KEITH ON THE SET OF "DAHLING NICK"

DIRECTOR SARI BY THE BAY

THEY ARE HUSBAND AND WIFE WHO SHARE THE SAME PASSION TOWARDS FILM MAKING. BOTH HIGHLY RESPECTABLE AND HAVE WORKED TOGETHER IN SOME OF THEIR FILMS, BUT NOT AS CO-DIRECTORS BUT ONLY AS CO-WORKERS. DIRECTORS KEITH SICAT AND SARI DALENA ARE BOTH TOO PRECIOUS FOR US. THEY BOTH FURTHER ENHANCED THE PHILIPPINE CINEMA IN THEIR OWN WAYS, WE, TOO, MUST SAY.

ENJOY AND CHERISH BELOW OUR QUESTION AND ANSWER (Q AND A) INTERVIEW WITH THIS HUSBAND AND WIFE AND DIRECTORS AT THE SAME TIME. LOVE IT!

QUESTION NUMBER ONE: Para sa akin po, sobra ko kayong hinahangaan bilang magagaling na direktor, Mam Sari at direk Keith. Kakaiba ang texture ng mga pelikula ninyo, very Avant Garde. How would you both describe yourselves as film makers and paano din kayo naga-adjust pareho sa isa't-isa bilang mag-asawa sa totoong buhay?

 KEITH SICAT: That’s very flattering of you to say – I never thought of us being Avant Garde.  Siguro galing yun sa exposure namin; pareho kami nagsimula sa experimental film at may deep interest sa fine arts.  Si Sari, yung interest malamang galing sa mga magulang niya (imagine seeing creative people at work every day).  Ako naman, I really thought I was going to become a painter or illustrator all throughout school, ever since I was a boy.  Naligaw lang ako!  Because of these natural inclinations, it was inevitable we would gravitate towards each other, and I was totally smitten when I saw her experimental dance film with animation shot in the desolate lahar landscape, “White Funeral”!

 SARI DALENA: I come from a family of visual artists - my father is a painter, my mother’s a sculptor, my sisters work on mixed media. Our parents  exposed us to the silent films of Charlie Chaplin, the German expressionist works, and Kurosawa’s films - also theater, literature and classical music played a big part of my growing up years. My roots are in experimental and documentary film making, which I started exploring when I was still a film student at the UP Film Department and as film scholar at the 16mm experimental workshops at the Mowelfund Film Institute. Keith and I collaborate in writing, producing and directing. We take turns supporting each other’s film projects, so film making is very much a part of our daily life.  

QUESTION NUMBER TWO: Direk Keith and Mam Sari, how do you support each other as husband and wife, and also as two artistic individuals sharring the same passion in life?

 KEITH SICAT: I think it helps that we’re in this field together; we share each other’s struggles and triumphs.  We’re always working together closely on every film and each time we make a film it’s very intense and you really feel alive.

 SARI DALENA:  It’s very important that you share the same taste in many things: music, books, food, political, religious views - and movies, of course! Well, we don’t always agree on what we like, but we hate the same things and that’s quite important. It’s a give and take relationship - we encourage each other to explore stories and genres that haven’t been explored much and developed in local cinema. It’s a hard route to take, but in the case of Keith’s sci-fi film, “Alimuom” and my 3 hour experimental documentary film, “Dahling Nick”, those were breakthroughs for us.

QUESTION NUMBER THREE: How does your kids cope-up with having great people as parents? Hindi ba sila nagsa-suffer in comparison sa inyo? Paano ninyo sila gina-guide para hindi mawalan ng inferioity complex?

 KEITH SICAT: The two boys are their own persons, and I don’t think they see us in any special light.  We are just their parents who happen to love being creative.  We do our best to have them present during shoots – to observe or even cameo – just so what we do isn’t some foreign, abstract idea to them.  And because they have their own interests, I hope they don’t feel any pressure to do the same thing we do.

 SARI DALENA: We’re not perfect parents, but we make sure we spend as much quality time as we can with our boys. We bring them to our film set, especially on out-of-town location shoots, where they can explore the locations and see interesting things. The boys have unique personalities and we want them to grow in a loving, nurturing and creative environment. They also see the downside of doing production - it’s stressful, demands a lot of hard work, and can take so much time away from family.

QUESTION NUMBER FOUR: Mam Sari, kailan ka uli gagawa ng isa pang DAHLING NICK na tema ng pelikula? Can you tell us more about your future plans as a director and upcoming activities?

SARI DALENA: “Dahling Nick” came into fruition after several years of pitching this project to various grant-giving bodies. The project finally got green-lit just in time for the birth centenary of National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin. I am grateful for Cinema One Originals for giving me the freedom of explore the documentary genre and did not flinch at the final running time of the film. I would like to continue working on more Nick Joaquin stories for my next projects - focusing on his children’s stories and historical essays.

QUESTION NUMBER FIVE: Direk Keith, ang mga pellikula mo ay futuristic and enigmatic ang mga dating. Hindi pang-masa at hindi komersyal dahil malalalim ang dating. Kailan ka naman gagawa ng pelikulang medyo pang-masa o bakya ang dating? Hehehe.

 KEITH SICAT: You may find this shocking, but I spent almost a decade working on reality shows and documentaries sa U.S.; pang masa yung mga iyon.  One was “Dog: The Bounty Hunter” – yung mukhang WWE wrestler na totoong bounty hunter!  Nag MTV din ako, doing funny specials like “Revenge of the Rejects”.  Dito naman, nag script consult ako sa CG animated film na nag MMFF, yung “RPG: Metanoia” – can’t get more commercial than MMFF!  Ginawa ko rin yung dokyu “Komikero Chronicles” tungkol sa Pinoy komiks –  masang masa yung subject.   Not to mention, I directed a Masculados video produced by the late, great Direk Maryo J.! Most recently, kasama ako sa development team ng first Pinoy-Japanese animé series “Barangay 143” na nag-air sa GMA at nasa Netflix ngayon.  I’m so thankful the writers and animators were nice enough to jokingly ‘name’ one of the characters after me, yung matabang pandak na bano sa basketball!

QUESTION NUMBER SIX: Direk Keith and Mam Sari, sa palagay n'yo ba, makaka-recover pa in ang movie industry especially the indie scene pagkatapos ng Covid-19 Pandemic?

KEITH SICAT: Makakabangon talaga ang mga tao.  The Spanish Flu never stopped film, or art-making in general.   In fact, some of the world’s most famous artworks were made during that pandemic – Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” is one.  Our neighboring countries have already overcome Covid-19 and are getting back to a semblance of normality – productions are re-starting and people feel relatively safe going to cinemas.  I only wish we could have better, smarter policies to get us back on track sooner than later, because the last months have been brutal for everyone in the film industry.  That said, I don’t think it will ever go back to what it was before – viewing habits were already shifting to more remote models, the pandemic just expedited the change.

 SARI DALENA: The film industry, all over the world, has ground to a halt, but some productions have slowly, resumed shooting again, this time on a much smaller scale. It may take several years for us to fully get back on our feet, but film makers continue to find ways to tell their stories, and adapt to the challenges of our time.

QUESTION NUMBER SEVEN: Wala ba kayong plano na mag-co-direct sa isang higanteng pelikula someday?

 KEITH SICAT: Of course!  Why not?  There’s a few we’ve already developed – we’re just waiting for the right partners.

 SARI DALENA:  We’re always cooking something new, so let’s just wait and see!

LAST QUESTION: Sa inyong dalawa po na parehong matataas ang standards sa pagpili ng mga aktor at aktres na lalabas sa mga pelikula nila, sino-sino ang mga artistang pinapangarap ninyong maidirek someday sa pelikula?

 KEITH SICAT: Ang daming magagaling!  I don’t even think of it as a chance to direct them as much as a chance to collaborate and learn from them – there’s just too many to name!

SARI DALENA:  There’s so many! But I’d love to work with Nora Aunor and Jaclyn Jose.

------ end of interview------

Questions/Blogged by: ROBERT SILVERIO

Answers by: Sari Dalena and Keith Sicat