A Century of Care

Lemuel Lorca is an award-winning filmmaker raised in Mauban, Quezon. His worlds range from small-town tranquility to spending his college years in the heart of Manila and even covering Georgia on his mind with his stay in the USA. His first film is an independently produced Bola, directed the award-winning and critically acclaimed films like Cinemalaya’s Intoy Syokoy ng Kalye Marino, QCinema International Film Festival’s Mauban: Ang Resiko and Water Lemon, and horror comedy, Echorsis: Sabunutan Between Good and Evil to add in his rich and diverse filmography. His latest film is CineFilipino Film Festival’s Best Film, Ned’s Project. Being a true blue Quezonian, expect him to be able to cook a mean “habhab,” their native noodles, and have the gut to down you with Mauban’s native wine from palm, the NipaNog and “Water Lemon” is a continuation of his odes to his hometown.

Lemuel Lorca knew he wanted to become a filmmaker as early as a middle schooler. After graduating from college in 2001, Lorca somehow drifted to finding his path, following the voice that would make his dream a reality. He was resigned to the fact that having no industry connections, it was impossible even to get in. After four more years of pining away and launching failed attempts at securing at least of a real occupation that his parents would be proud of, Lorca was ready to give up and move on, and that cinematic dream was about to be forgotten completely. When finally, that one chance came knocking at his door, he regained his composure and defied the odds.

Looking back, Lorca started by writing in a magazine show, which he himself eventually directed. When he was finally given the opportunity to direct a feature film, Lorca thought it was going to be his first and last. The film was BOLA, a gay-themed film that, like others at the time, took advantage of the boom in the niche industry of local LGBT films. Surprisingly, it was well-received and perhaps the last hit of the subgenre to date. Lorca said doing Bola was just testing the waters, but even on his first attempt, he already knew that telling honest stories is king. For this pride of Mauban, Quezon, LGBT stories are human stories just like others that are worth telling. Lorca expressed his sincerity in not putting a label on films he made, “I just have to be conscious and sensitive with every story I tell.” Like his main character, the one that dreams of becoming a professional basketball player but can’t even make himself to college, Lorca said all dreams should be respected – may it be good or bad, joyful or sad – that’s the only way he can make films out of these stories with honesty and integrity.

True to form, Lorca’s films from Bola and the next four that followed are story films bridled by the simplicity yet with unmitigated social consciousness. In MAUBAN: RESIKO, Lorca takes a hit on traditional feasts that are subtly targeted by abuse and corruption. Even as hushing persists that he immensely benefitted from only directing films written by literary scholars, Lorca’s adeptness in translating good scripts to film is unquestionably visible. Having been trained at the Mowelfund Film Institute, Lorca’s cinematic skills are honed further by his lack of pretense to create beyond what is real and logical in excuse of artistic excesses. Lorca attested that his humble upbringing in a small, unassuming southern town made his goals and visions unalloyed – simple stories are more beautifully told when executed as purely. He is very much existentially aware of the complexities of human emotions, and as relating to the Filipino experience, we just have to be sentient enough to recognize that in every sadness or happiness – there is always an “in-between” that makes us more accepting of silly but nuanced things that are often presented as mixed variations of everything. Such postulation brings about his unifying vision as a filmmaker to a potent core. This is why NED’S PROJECT and WATER LEMON, both situated in his provincial home, are amazingly bittersweet, yet there’s hope in every earned laughter. This is the main reason we believe these two films, albeit very intimate to a fault, are cinematic gems that Lorca contributed to the treasures of world cinema.