A Third Way to Film the Story: A Filipino Film Adaptation of a Work of Literary Journalism

Abstract

Filipino film adaptations have always been historically and culturally linked to theatre and comic art. However, the relationship between printed literature and film adaptations remains underexamined. In addition, works of literary journalism are not generally sourced for film translation. For this reason, Mike de Leon's Kisapmata (Split-Second, 1981), an adaptation of Quijano de Manila's 1961 work of reportage, ‘The House on Zapote Street’, published in the Philippines Free Press and republished in the anthology Reportage on Crime: Thirteen Horror Happenings that Hit the Headlines (1977, 2009) is a celebrated rarity in Philippine film history. This paper analyses the translation of ‘The House on Zapote Street’ from English-language reportage into a film that combines family drama, crime thriller and political allegory. It tackles how the difference in language used in the film version has reshaped the visuality of the translation. It also interprets the appropriation of the techniques of literary journalism, such as the treatment of time and space, dramatic reconstruction and status details, to the screen. The intention is to show how a piece of literary journalism can be transposed visually and to understand the cultural significance that can be derived from this process of visual transformation.