SYNOPSIS

Miss Bulalacao is about a young drag queen, Dodong, who joins a barangay gay pageant to gain acceptance in his father’s community. He is instead met with hostility from his father, who chases him to a jungle, where he sobs to a lone bright star. What follows is the strangest night in his entire life, and an even stranger 9 months when he realizes he is pregnant. With only his stepmother, Lisa, as support, Dodong deals with ridicule from a barangay who does not believe him – until the rumors becomes a headline in a tabloid, “BAKLA, INA NG DIOS!” (FAG: MOTHER OF JESUS!).

Program Note

A teenage boy who is gay, Dodong, is crowned ‘Miss Bulalacao’ in his community’s costume play contest, where he at first hung back when asked to answer the typical beauty pageant question - what is the essence of being a woman? His answer is the ‘mother thing’, and he learns what it really means by becoming one. The day when he wins the crown, he gets pregnant while he is still a virgin. Dodong is gay, girlie, and immaculately conceived a child. And he’s also the son of Lisa whose life is torn apart by her cheating husband. Dodong must confront conventional notions of femininity. And Catholicism, the major religion in the Philippines, gives him a hard time. Backed by this narrow minded religion, the priest wants to cover it up when the truth is revealed and there’s not a bit of sanctity in it. Unlike their religion, the native people in the neighborhood are open-minded. The stories that dwell in trees and superstitious behavior show typical attitudes as people react towards things beyond man’s understanding. And it adds a touch of staged fuss to the whole movie. The story takes an unexpected twisted turn. Yes, God and religion own holiness. And the secret has been swept under religion’s rug. And ///Miss Bulalacao// transforms the concealed truth into a matter of national security within a political framework. What we really need to understand through this movie is the insight that runs naturally through this small Filipino town. The conversation between Lisa and Dodong, their solidarity, and Dodong’s last lines in the movie all rejects social conventions that restrict life and relationships. And it all leads us to the essence of motherhood and womanhood in a delightful and yet provocative way. [CHAI Hee-sook]