Film director tries his hand at comic books, writes about the 'pre-colonial glory of the Philippines'

Filipino film director Jason Laxamana, who is known for films like "100 Tula Para Kay Stella," "The Third Party," and "So Connected" announced on Facebook that he is producing his own comic book series called "ANITU." 

"Last January, I stopped calculating the possible gains and losses and just said, f— it. I’m gonna follow my heart with this one," a portion of his post read.

Pondering on among other things, history lessons and our fragile sense of national pride, Laxamana said turning to comics is his attempt to contributing to the solution.

In an interview with GMA News Online, Laxamana said he actually attempted to write a comic book series more than ten years ago, even before he became a filmmaker. "But it didn’t fly due to financial limitations [and] I abandoned the dream and went on to become, among others, a filmmaker."

ANITU will follow a story on the adventure of "a team of skilled indios who must find and awaken powerful Anitus and harness their abilities."

"This they have to do in order to defeat the conquistadores and friars before they turn La Pampanga into a colony of slaves," he added.

In another Facebook post, Laxamana revealed the cover page of ANITU as well as the main characters of his story.

According to Laxamana, the main characters are based on "an amalgamation of how Kapampangans could have been like in the past centuries based on documented accounts and my own imagination."

He said he also based some of his key characters on Kapampangan mythology namely Sunkwan, Namalyari and Mingan.

Laxamana shared that both the events and the characters in the series' back story are based on real events and people including Bambalito (the nameless hero who was the first Filipino to fight for freedom), Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, Martin de Goiti, Bishop Domingo de Salazar.

Before becoming a filmmaker, Laxamana was a culture worker in Pampanga, a gig that sparked his interest on the modern and pre-colonial culture of the Filipinos.

"The wealth of information I come across often overwhelms me, and makes me question why schools don’t teach us enough about our colorful civilization prior to foreign conquest," he said.

He said since schools don't teach the "colorful civilization" prior to the colonization era, it prompted him to do something as a storyteller and so his comic book series was born.

"I figured, if schools won’t do it, they I’d have to do my part as storyteller," he said.

Laxamana chose to focus on Filipino's belief in Anitu or the ancestral spirits, nature spirits and deities, "as it’s one of the early casualties of Spanish colonization and an indicator of our unique culture."

In this new endeavor, Laxamana is inspired by a lot of things, including his maternal grandmother Apung Ines.

"[She] used to practice some sort of spirit worship in rural Pampanga. Back in the day, in the name of research, I went to the village she grew up in and observed the religious activities of the people there. Although the rites and elements have been Christianized already, I am certain that they were based on Kapanganituan (Anitu worship)."

Laxamana conducted an in-depth research to develop the main characters and the story, with some of the materials the "Boxer Codex" or a Manila manuscript written in the 1590's, "Barangay" which is William Henry Scott's ethnography, old Tagalog and Pampango dictionaries written by friars.

He said he also looked into "written correspondences by colonial masters describing certain situations in early Philippine society, even extensive chronicles by foreign visitors who encountered early Filipinos, and even the ancient culture and history of some of our Asian neighbors."

Laxamana studied every aspect he could to have the "clearest possible picture of how life used to be back then" which resulted into developing his main characters.

He said he is still completing the storyline and he is yet to discuss the design and costumes of his characters and the Anitu world with his artist Ruel Enoya.

"I felt the need to make sure that the story, in spite of tackling a time most Filipinos have already forgotten or ignored, would still resonate to the people living today, especially the youth."

He said he created "a story arc" that will last for several issues which will follow the main characters' search for the "taotao" or wooden figures of Anitu.

"In the far future, I wish for Anitu to become a multimedia franchise—movies, graphic novels, even computer games—and, hence, help in educating the Filipino about our glorious past," Laxamana said.

ANITU is set to be published on the third or fourth quarter of this year and hopefully will also soon be available in major bookstores nationwide. — LA, GMA News

Updates about the release and the comic book can be checked out on Anitu's official Facebook page