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Opinion
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by Yvonne Teh
Get Reel
by Yvonne Teh

Art house: Anita's Last Cha-Cha is a rare Filipinio lesbian-themed movie

Yvonne Teh

13-year-old star of Sigrid Andrea Bernardo's , caused a stir at the 2013 Cinefilipino Film Festival by beating popular actress-singer-producer Nora Aunor () to the best actress award.

Bernardo's sweet film about a pubescent girl experiencing first love and, in the process, learning more about herself and her sexual orientation, shared best film honours with Aunor's morality tale.

The Philippines has a reputation for being gay-friendly, and its national cinema has produced a number of critically acclaimed and commercially successful gay-themed films. They include Auraeus Solito's award-winning (2005), about a 12-year-old boy who falls for a young policeman, and the country's all-time box office champion, (2013), a comedy starring openly gay actor Vice Ganda.

Filipino films that focus on lesbian love, however, are still rare and more exceptional may be the way that the protagonist, Anita, is treated by those around her. Her tomboy tendencies and choice of first love come across as natural rather than deviant or downright wrong.

The 2013 film opens with scenes of Anita as an adult (played by Jay Brown) but it is largely set in the past, when she was 12. The only child of Lolita (Lui Manansala) and her deceased soldier husband, Anita's boyish ways are in stark contrast to the more conventional proclivities of her chubby friend Carmen (Len-Len Frial). The lanky girl appears more macho than Goying (Solomon Mark de Guzman), who prefers to hang out with Anita and Carmen rather than the boys in their village.

Considering how fond of gossiping Lolita and her friends are (even when they're conducting choir practice in the local church), it's surprising how little the young trio's preferences are remarked upon by the talkative women. In contrast, those tongues wag ferociously whenever their owners catch sight of Pilar (actress-model Angel Aquino, pictured, left, with Malvar), who's returned from abroad to occupy the family home after her father's death.

But even while the village women look askance at her, not least because she became pregnant despite being unmarried prior to her departure 10 years ago, Pilar continues to turn men's heads, and captures Anita's heart.

was partially funded by Cinefilipino, as well as winning awards at the festival.

Its makers had also turned to crowd-funding website Indiegogo for support, and shared there: "All of us may not be gay, but we certainly all have experienced desire. All of us may not be Filipino, but we've all been children once. Only when we can hold difference and similarities at the same time do we move away from stereotyping and tokenising, and towards respect, inclusion and having eyes open enough to see ourselves in everything and everyone."

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