When the very first Cinematografo International Film Festival (CIFF) launched in November last year, it also introduced select originals and new projects that their committee has carefully selected to fund and support. One of these is Bitter Melon.
Bitter Melon is the third feature film that filmmaker H.P. Mendoza directed (Fruit Fly, I Am a Ghost). It is the story of a Filipino-American family who reunites for a Christmas party, only to find out that Troy, the second oldest child, has been ruling the house with fear-intimidating everyone who lives there-including his mother, and even physically abusing his wife. What starts as a fun holiday reunion turns into a darkly humorous crime scene as Declan, the youngest son, leads the family as they conspire on how to best murder the violent and abusive Troy.
After the movie’s world premiere at the CAAMFest 36 in May, where Mendoza has premiered all his other earlier movies, Bitter Melon will be screened at the Outfest, one of the premier LGBTQ film festivals in the world. Outfest runs from July 12 to 22 in various theaters around the city. Bitter Melon is one of the featured narratives to be shown on July 13 at Harmony Gold.
In an interview with the weekly magazine show, Adobo Nation, Mendoza shared that the film is about domestic abuse and the system of violence that repeats itself every generation. Bitter Melon tackles “what would happen if someone said something, or even better, if someone did something.”
According to Mendoza, Bitter Melon has been in the works for two decades now, starting with a script he wrote in 1997. He admits that he was a different person in 1997. “As I got older, I realized I was being wacky because that made it safe. It was a dark comedy, but it was a wacky, dark comedy. And it really is no laughing matter because it touches all of us in whatever shape or form.”
Why Bitter Melon? Mendoza had said that if he ever made a film about a dysfunctional family, he would name it after the bane of his childhood existence. “Me and my brothers would hate it every time our mother would cook bitter melon. She would say, ‘I know it’s hard to swallow, but it’s good for you.’” That is how he would describe the movie. “The situations in the movie are hard to swallow, but you have to watch it and talk about it.”
Bitter Melon stars Jon Norman Schneider as Declan, Brian Rivera as Moe, Patrick Epino as Troy, Josephine De Jesus as Prisca, L.A. Renigen as Tiya, and Theresa Navarro as Shelly.
Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented film showcase and festival in Los Angeles. For more festival information, go to www.outfest.org. For more information about the Cinematografo Original, go to http://bittermelonfilm.com/.
