Tito Quiling, Jr.
Hearing the soft scratches of the eraser gliding over the chalkboard, wooden chairs scraping against the concrete floor polished by years with a bunót (coconut husk), leather and rubber soles squeaking as people cross the classroom, out the door, and into the hallway. The school bell rings throughout the campus, marking the beginning and end of a school day. With these sounds and images, Cleaners (2019) by Glenn Barit and his team opens a series of recollections that center on distinct stories before easing into a larger, collective narrative detailing moments that have gone by.
The narrative is divided into six chapters, each driven by one of the eight high school students. These members of the Rizal section from the class of 2008 are an assortment of classroom characters. Angeli (Gianne Rivera), the Class President, Youth Council aspirant Jun-jun (Andrei Marquez), Stephanie (Ianna Taguinod), a dance troupe hopeful, Francis (Allan Gannaban), who is preoccupied with pursuing Britney (Charisse Mabbonag), a social outcast, and the peculiar trio of Eman (Leomar Baloran), Lester (Julian Narag), Arnold (Carlo Mejia)—who all navigate their high school lives in different ways. Given the close contact in this setting, their paths cross at some point.
The chapters in the film are outlined by school programs during a typical school year, marked by the first and last day of classes, performances for Nutrition Month and Buwan ng Wika (celebrating the national language), prom season, and the elections for Sangguniang Kabataan (National Youth Commission). From these events, the characters’ personal stories are initially framed within their school requirements, before stumbling into resolutions for their problems.
In line with the students’ narratives, a striking presentation of the film is the post-production choice of distinguishing the characters through color highlighters on an overall gritty, gray backdrop; meticulously done by Xerox copying each of the frames for the film’s sequences. This stylistic element weaves into the personalities of the teenagers and their experiences. Mapping out the characters and their corresponding colors, Stephanie’s story focuses on green to underscore a connection to nature, vegetation, and growing out of being self-conscious. Between the Class President and the emo-slash-skater kids, their comedic interaction shows how starting a dialogue leads to a productive payoff, revealing shared interests. Angeli is in yellow, the color of optimism, and Eman, Lester, and Carlo are rendered in orange, showing endurance. Primary and secondary colors elevate into tertiary given their combination. This reflects how music and openness for adventure became their mutual exchange in preparing for their Buwan ng Wika sketch.
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Britney, with her precarious situation, is pink to typify femininity, but in a darker shade for her strong, defiant personality as she gets entangled with gossip and being barred from attending their prom. Francis is blue, who wants to ‘graduate’ from being a boy to a man as he courts Britney, with his validation being punctuated by a grisly deed. As a member of the local political family who is better-off than his peers, Jun-jun is purple, perhaps in reference to royalty and conceit. Aside from being in the same school with different, yet familiar, experiences, what additionally ties them all is Jun-jun, who is the lone witness to all the stories of the student-characters in the film, seemingly representing the Everyman in the narrative, before emphasizing his own turning point.
This set of intertwined realities revolves spiritedly around how high school students view life from their vantage point, visibly driven by emotions that sway between excitement, fear, amusement, and frustration. As with any form of misbehavior, problems are magnified tenfold once others are involved. While the overall narrative may be perceived as thin in terms of exploring further cracks in society, the storytelling is direct in its portrayal of juvenile emotions, their interactions, and delinquencies. With one’s image being a primary concern at this stage of their lives, there is a trove of personal roadblocks, social issues, and recurring subjects that the students attempt to confront by themselves and with others. Individually, the teens paint several situations related to schoolyard bullying, teenage pregnancy, discriminatory acts such as homophobic slurs, harassment, even one conversation hinting at self-harm stereotypically tied to the “emo” (emotional) subculture.
Despite the main characters conversing in Tagalog throughout the film, time-bound and regional markers are touched upon in production design choices, musical scoring, compositions, and tracks that locate the viewer in a certain time and place. These elements additionally reflect the emotive qualities of a scene and the characters. For instance, there is a heavy desktop and a computer monitor in the background, while students are seen waiting eagerly for their CD to finish burning at a computer shop, and there is a regular display of batil patong—a well-known noodle dish from the province of Cagayan, in which some of the locals are frequently seen eating a bowl.
The “Cagayan Hymn” is sung at the flag ceremony sequence and the song “Pulis Ibanag (Ju Ngana Pulis)” accompanies the chase scene. Selected songs from the last decade express the temper of the times through Filipino rock bands such as Typecast (with “Boston Drama” and “Will You Ever Learn” representing the period), Mayonnaise, including artists from Tuguegarao like Emily’s Band (Every Moment I Love You So) and Edru Abraham, before ending with a Unique Salonga track, whose lyrics highlight the closing scene reminding the students to “serve” the people. The first two bands are remembered as one of the many Filipino musical artists who wrote angst-filled theme songs for teenagers from the 2000s and 2010s. The overall curation of these tracks in the film contributes in crafting relatable and stirring materials to anchor one’s memories on.
The outdoor sequences around the City of Tuguegarao are sensibly compelling, given the physical rendering and its personal significance for the teenagers. Set in a vibrant environment, the collection of visual elements that represent the province could have been augmented to strengthen the representation of the province, perhaps even the region. While the more defined colors are limited to the main characters, the black, white, and gray undertones of the frames create a more textured rendering of the backdrop, as the visuals range from showing close-ups of street corners to full shots of meandering roads and modest structures. Aside from the nooks around the school, some of the students’ usual haunts include the graffiti-ridden and abandoned gas station, the ubiquitous batil patong, the boulevard along the bay, including the unfinished bridge. These often overlooked and unassuming places hold some importance as spaces that in part, formed their youth. These sites also echo the emotional conditions of the teenagers, where being located in the margins assist in finding some form of clarity, as they find consolation in occupying them at times.
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In this environment, bursts of youthful exuberance align with self-identity being formed. While visual cues anchor on colors to outline key differences in their personalities, some moments frame the students’ lives through rose-tinted glasses. Although slices of their home lives are not extensively shown, their problems are mostly concentrated on personal and social development. Defining socioeconomic inequality among students is consigned to the background of the narrative, except for the last section, where one of the families with political dynastic leanings is touched upon. Moreover, evaluating the nuances within the Philippine educational system may be reinforced in between the chapters—perhaps questioning if there have been significant progress within the last decade. In the basic education level, the general mode of instruction continues to endorse constant submissiveness, as opposed to cultivating a progressive, more independent atmosphere. Still, rebellious acts are committed and issues such as unwanted pregnancies, decline in mental health, and multiple acts of violence remain. At times, the film projects a sense of partiality towards a specific decade. With this, nostalgia has a tendency to limit an objective approach on social realities when highlighting the less complex parts of life. Correspondingly, romanticizing the past becomes precarious when voices, perspectives, and stories have been relegated to the sidelines.
Following all of their stories, an outburst ensues. The group starts throwing armchairs and erasers, overturning the trash can, tearing down wall decorations, screaming for an extended period, before ending with a sudden stillness. Their usual labels as student-leaders, floating in between, and the strange ones created a mixture of hues. The students proceed to clean their classroom for the last time as the assigned cleaners for the day, before they graduate and part ways. The scene stands as an allegory to the many types of mess in their teenage years. Here, ‘cleaning’ becomes an act of preparation as they shift away from their high school years. Coming full circle, the act of putting things in order within their classroom designates a sense of development following their streaks of rebellion and bouts of confusion about life, as mentioned by one of the characters.
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Cleaners presents how revisiting experiences allows a re-structuring and re-evaluation of current views as well, as adulthood further pushes for significant realizations linked to re-shaping political, social, and personal standpoints. Some experiences raise memories attached to pain, misperception, and grief which have influenced one’s worldview. In hindsight, the adolescent years are frequently regarded as being much simpler as complicated issues arise over time, and people continue to jump over hurdles and face roadblocks. At times, by returning to the places that have shaped individuals, one recalls the cacophony of familiar noises, images, and emotions.
From the classroom to the hallways, the quadrangle, the school gates, representative snippets from one’s formative years remind a person how fundamental skills are forged alongside important life scripts. In reference to plans that are either accomplished or left unfulfilled because of detours, stories are affected by various relationships, and people also recall frantic or trivial episodes in their lives, including textured conversations from one’s youth—occasionally forgettable and indistinct, sometimes vibrant and clear, but often rendered in different shades.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the 30th Annual Circle Citations for Distinguished Achievement in Film for 2019 is now scheduled on the first quarter of 2021 as a virtual event. The list of nominated and winning films can be found here. Reviews for these films, as well as other long-listed films, will be posted this week.