A tribute to Tribu!

Jim Libiran is an impressive and very funny guy. He nearly gave the - very proper, humourless and German - Berlinale presenter a heart attack last night by arriving late to the after screening talk of Tribu. And then, he easily stole the show! - The movie itself is not the best you will ever see (it is his first full length feature film). But Tribu, filmed with real guns and real 'gangstas' from many rival groups, is more than a good movie. It is a social transformation project and a poetry workshop. Jim says he fell in love with Tondo's gangsta rap while trying to get riot footage for his journalist job. And he is right about the rap. The stuff is great. Really expressive, really creative, really poetic. My favourite line - which of course rhymes in Tagalog - was "I am like osteoporosis - bad to the bone." - That cinema like Jim Libiran's can exist is marvellous. That it has such a hard time as, for example, practically all cinemas in the Philippines are owned by one - shall we say, not very sympathetic - owner is the tragedy of our monopoly capitalist age. So, if Tribu comes your way: Watch it. And if anyone knows how to donate to independent film making collectives in the Philippines or elsewhere - let me know! We need this voice. We need this rap. We need this humour in the search for social change.