Kukay Bautista Zinampan begins with a gesture of care. It is a fragment of their personhood they are not reluctant to extend to people dearest to them, a quality they can access without labor, even amidst the dreadful humdrum of life they grapple with, so unbridled that it overlaps into their cinema, such as in Rampage! (O ang Parada) , their latest short at this year’s QCinema International Film Festival. “At the risk of sounding maudlin, Rampage! articulated a version of care beyond the camera,” says Zinampan.
Serena Magiliw, a longtime friend and frequent collaborator, who also stars in the film, bears witness to this assertion in fostering caring systems, especially among trans/queer folx (a variation of the word “folks,” referring to members of the LGBTQ community). “They create worlds where we’re the ones leading our wonderful lives. Where we’re not side characters or butt of the jokes.
We’re living and breathing beings, not dead and objectified bodies,” she says of the director’s work. Such is the case because Zinampan grew up under the wing of their trans aunt, who ingrained in them what it means to be supported and taken care of by a community, to be adept in the radical act of extending grace, despite many despites. Competing under QCShorts International, the scaled-up QCShorts Program of last year, Rampage! has long been looming large in the director’s thinking, but only when QCinema was nearing its deadline for new scripts did they begin wr.
