Many years before December 23, 2003, Crisaldo Pablo decided to embark on an adventure. Its main motivation: "cinema and the Filipino LGBT+ community and, why not, also that of the other side of the border," the recipients responded in chorus at the time. Even today, more than 20 years later, they repeat it.
To do this, he gathered a group of friends and some professional actors who said "Yes" in unison. He raised some funds, very few, in truth, from his own pockets, or from donations from people who supported the idea.
Due to the low budget he could afford, he wrote a script without great needs and expenses. Knowing that he would use an unconventional production method, which would only have scarce production resources, he decided to film in a few locations, only in those real places known to all those involved, and discarded the ideas of large stages or sets built from papier-mâché and other unnecessary artifices.
He planned to film wherever necessary, without asking for the relevant permission. He borrowed a Sony VX from a friend. In a moment of breakdown, he had to rent another digital camera, one of those that you can find today in museums or in the yellowed pages of magazines of the time.
He went out to the streets, to the theaters, to the workshops where actors and actresses are trained. He accidentally stumbled across Amanda Virrey, a young woman who would later appear in the films 'Compound' (2006) and 'Sa kamay ng Diyos' (2005), with Larry Burns, a young man who would never again be in front of a camera, with Bell Clerigo, the actress who in 2009 would appear in the film 'Boylets', with Arnold Reyes, who would later star in the two seasons of 'Papa, What Is Love?' and the film The Commitment (2014), with a homosexual theme.
Likewise, it added experienced actors and actresses, such as Jojo Nones, known for his role in 'Dear Uge' (2016), 'Mga lihim ni Urduja' (2023) and 'Agimat ng agila' (2021); John Lapus, who had already participated in 'Mahal Kita: Final Answer' in 2002, and in 1997 in 'Ang Pulubi At Ang Prinsesa'; Rey Pumaloy, known for his role in 'Buko pandan' (2002), 'Sa iyong mga haplos' (2001) and 'Muling umawit angtuvo' (1995).
As protagonists it would have Andoy Ranay, a professional actor who was already known for his films 'Markova: Comfort Gay' (2000), and 'Soft Hearts', with which he debuted in 1998, and Paolo Gabriel, an unknown who would never return be under the direction of a filmmaker.
With 'Doubt' (Doubt, in Tagalog), his debut film, filmed in 2003, Crisaldo Pablo was not only making films. I was making history. He was filming the first feature film shot digitally in the Philippines. With a raw and independent approach, he was making guerrilla cinema. I was making the LGBT+ community visible in a homophobic and conservative society.
In this brave film from an independent team, the pioneering filmmaker of Philippine guerrilla cinema addresses for the first time in his extensive filmography themes such as homosexuality, promiscuity and infidelity in a homosexual relationship, while telling a story about a driven film director for an idea to film a film, against all odds, and create a significant statement that resonates deeply within a heteronormative and patriarchal society.
'Doubt' is recognized as the first full-length digital film ever filmed in the Philippines. The comments of Cris Pablo and some of the actors who appear in the "making of" of the DVD demonstrate how much dedication to a vision represented in this small and essential film.
With an autobiographical approach, for the first time in one of his films, his main character was called Cris. Then would come Jet Alcantara's Cris from 'Bathhouse' and Cris Vicente from 'Moreno', played by the director himself. Curiously, in the 2009 film 'Showboyz', the main character is named Krys, and is played by Filipino actor Kristoffer King.
It was also the first time that Crisaldo Pablo had to fight battles against censorship, challenging, confronting and defeating the Philippine government's Film Board, when the film was originally given an X rating, which would have prohibited it from being shown in theaters. Finally, it was able to receive the desired R-18 rating. He had to do similar actions before the release of his later films 'Bathhouse' (2005) and 'Moreno' (2007).
In this faux-autobiographical docu-drama with healthy doses of interpersonal kitsch, a group of friends and acquaintances discuss the relationship of the film's central couple, in response to the frequently repeated and absorbing question: "What do you think of Cris and Eric?
Everyone is worried and reflects on the fate of the relationship while watching the existing romance between the two young protagonists collapse.
Cris (Andoy Ranay) is a documentary filmmaker with a recognized body of work and a large community of friends and admirers. A gay man in his thirties with a voracious sexual appetite, he has never had a serious relationship and, throughout his fifteen-year sexual career, he claims to have had sexual relations with more than 4,000 men. But after falling in love with Eric (Paolo Gabriel), a twenty-something tabloid television news reporter, Cris has given up meaningless sex for the pleasures of monogamy, much to the surprise of his wide circle of gay friends.
For his part, Eric sees a space for a more open relationship (of course, they don't talk about this) and is baffled by Cris's jealousy.
Much of the story unfolds by showing simultaneous television talk shows, one about Cris's life and the other about Erick's adventures.
The friends automatically go from joy at the change in Cris's life to distrust of Erick's fidelity. Doubt arises and Cris confronts Erick for staying away from home too long, a factor that makes the experienced Erick feel outraged by Cris' constant jealousy.
Complicating matters is the appearance of Ben (Warren de Leon), a former lover of Cris, who makes one last attempt to rekindle the fires of past passion before marrying a girlfriend, but young Cris rejects his advances.
All of the above gives rise to his friends observing from a distance, while they speculate about what is happening between Cris and Eric.
Although the film moves away from the open emotionalism of the couple involved, what 'Doubt' lacks in intensity seen in other films that explore homosexual relationships, such as 'Cheun gwong tsa sit (Happy Together', 1997), by Wong Kar-Wai, Pablo's film almost makes up for it with its free look at the vital gay community of Manila, the Philippine capital.
'Doubt' goes for the intimacy of a home movie rather than the sleaze of porn, with cleverly manipulated beachfront nudity thrown in for good measure.
In fact, when Cris, driven by jealousy, frustration and despair at seeing the relationship crumble, attempts to commit suicide, the viewer suffers an apparent hallucination in the form of a media mockery of egocentrism: an elegant talk show in garish candy-colored colors where a group of magical guests in sequined outfits are interviewed as they try to answer the question on everyone's lips: "What do you think of Eric and Cris?"
The astute viewer will be able to find in the DVD extras the director expressing that his script was based on his own relationship experiences and those of his friends. Likewise, he declares that if he had stuck more closely to them, he could have made a better film. Instead, it adopts a soap opera style of storytelling from the start, with increasingly tense emotional crises, overacted by its largely inexperienced and unprofessional cast; rapid changes in emotional direction; a tangle of plot threads, not all of which go anywhere, and some very strange directorial decisions about how to try to make sense of it all in the end, and each successive emotional crescendo is followed by a cut to black.
Towards the ends, Pablo's response is to establish a television talk show format in which the hosts and Cris and Eric's friends discuss the couple's relationship.
Despite these failures, 'Doubt' has many positive qualities. The flashback sequences are filmed in black and white in a grainy, semi-focused manner that allows the theme of sensuality to be presented in a surprisingly subtle way. Taking into account that the film is shot with a digital camera, the flow is fluid and the feeling is one of immediacy and spontaneity.
Andoy Ranay draws a compelling three-dimensional character we can identify with: a man approaching the age of being "undesirable" in the gay world of the Philippines.
The rest of the cast, although not very skilled in their performances, offers a committed work, achieving as a whole a somewhat rough but ultimately honest and creative film about the public and private pain of homosexual relationships.