Imelda/Tamala reviews

5/25…night at the Egyptian. First up, Imelda, Ramona Diaz’s documentary about Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines. Proved to be an interesting story of how this one-time beauty queen ended up first lady and then made the world her stage. As her country fell further into poverty, dissidents were locked up and abused, and the Marcos’ bank accounts grew, she also developed a remarkable capacity to completely disregard that which she did not want to acknowledge. Just what you’d expect of a spoiled rich woman, actually. But this film isn’t an out-and-out attack, as evidenced by the fact that Marcos herself gives extensive interviews and an insight into her bizarre life philosophies that she explains by drawing diagrams — the film’s funniest moment is when she lists “The Seven Portals to Peace” (though there end up being 10) and links computers to the Creator, who she draws in the shape of an apple — Apple Computer, geddit? Wow. This woman truly was a Filipino equivalent of Jackie Kennedy, turning up with an endless array of celebs (George Hamilton!) and world leaders (the Pope!), and she still inspires rock star-like devotion from her fellow citizens. This film was a bit long, but still worth checking out, because if you think you know Imelda, trust me, you don’t.

Next up was Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space. This is a film Tablet is sponsoring, but I have to say, I didn’t care for it. It was preceded by a weird Dutch cartoon (Seventeen). Tamala was also weird. A sort of time-travel piece, as you go back and forwards in time a bit, but that part of the story never really came together (nor did the bit about the giant robot really). There are some funny pop culture references, and more funny moments when a cute kitty speaks words that apparently translate to “fuck,” but there was far, far too much downtime between these moments — as a number of audience members also seemed to feel, judging by the walkouts. There is another screening Weds., June 9. Be sure to clap when they mention Tablet as the sponsor; I did!