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Ang Babae sa Septic Tank
English Title: The Woman in the Septic Tank
Additional Language: English
Year of Release: 2011
Director: Marlon N. Rivera
Screenwriter: Chris Martinez
Producers: Cinemalaya, Martinez Rivera Films, Quantum Films, & Straight Shooters Media
Cast: Eugene Domingo, JM de Guzman, Kean Cipriano, Cai Cortez, Jonathan Tadioan, Carlos Dala, K.C. Marcelo, Cherry Pie Picache, Mercedes Cabral, Lani Tapia, Eric Cabahug, Melvin Lee
Film-school graduates Rainier, Bingbong, and Jocelyn are raring to make what they envision as their Oscar-worthy debut movie, Walang Wala (Impoverished). As they discuss the film’s various possible treatments, they succeed in getting acclaimed actress Eugene Domingo to be their leading lady. However, a series of misadventures threatens to sabotage the project even before their cameras start rolling.
One of the first cautionary comedies about the Filipino film industry’s wholesale embrace of the digitalization of the medium was unsparing, prescient, and (true to the nature of the project) guffaw-a-minute funny. The tale of a clueless middle-class team whose members set out to make their mark in foreign film festivals by documenting what they believe are typical Third-World scenes might have failed in halting other local filmmakers’ cynical exploitation of contemporary social miseries. In this instance, however, it served adequate notice that Filipino observers were on to the trend. The current blurring of the boundaries between “mainstream” and “indie” projects may yet be considered Ang Babae sa Septic Tank’s most constructive contribution. On the basis of its international acclaim, we may meanwhile conclude that Euro-American responders have remained prepared to accept the movie’s criticism of their own foreign venues as the primary enablers of what has become known as the “poverty porn” trend. Septic Tank has also proved to be capable of sustaining its own sequel, with Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 2: #ForeverIsNotEnough (also by Marlon Rivera) released during the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival; a trilogy-of-sorts was realized via a seven-episode TV series titled Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 3: The Real Untold Story of Josephine Bracken [the American-adopted Irish woman who became national hero Jose Rizal’s common-law wife] (2019, dir. Chris Martinez), with Eugene Domingo the mainstay in the entire set of presentations.
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