TYPE: Documentary Short
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Production

LOGLINE

Ruben Enaje, a man locally well-known for his portrayals of Jesus Christ's Crucifixion, reflects on the twilight of his 35-year long ritual, while confronting a shifting spiritual landscaope in the Philippines.

SYNOPSIS

Ruben Enaje, a man locally well-known throughout the Philippines for his portrayals of Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion, performs his 35th and final re-enactment. The film follows Enaje throughout the entirety of Holy Week, documenting his prayer, meditation, preparation, ahead of Good Friday, ultimately culminating in his performance of the Crucifixion. 

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

This film is an investigation of a specific core memory of my relationship to the Philippines. I witnessed these folk-Lenten events first hand in 2005, during a trip home for my grandfather’s funeral. Upon my first sightings of the Holy Week Flagellants, childlike ideas and notions of the world and it’s “normality” were subsequently fractured and deconstructed, almost instantly. Seeing bandana-masked men carrying crosses, and flogging themselves, exposing flesh and blood was the most physical manifestation of what I had been taught about Jesus’ journey in Catholic school, as well as the first memories of what I came to know as Filipino Culture. 

This film is both an examination of that deconstruction, as well as an unorthodox spiritual and faith journey, as I continue to deepen, challenge, question, and understand my own faith and relationship to God, through the process of making this film and telling these stories. This is my first ode to the homeland, to my lineage, to my culture, and to my family, and more importantly, an ode to Ruben Enaje, and his 35-year long vow to God. 

 

 

KEY CREW