The Production

Ang Ibang Mga Pamilya is writer/director Joel Ruiz’s second adaptation of acclaimed writer Jose Y. Dalisay’s short story “Some Families, Very Large.” Ruiz was so intrigued with the character of Connie, who appears at the end of the story, that he wrote an entire film around her character. The result is two short films that share one pivotal moment, yet are independent of each other.

Ang Ibang Mga Pamilya has a darker view of the Dalisay story, and plays as if it were in the woman’s mind. To achieve the feel of emptiness the film is full of shadows, even in the middle of the day no sunlight enters the frame. The film is edited with a syncopated beat, and almost no music is heard; the lone piece of music attacks the woman’s senses.

Playing the tragic character of Connie is theater and screen veteran Lui Manansala, who enfuses a lingering fear to the hardened character. Shooting was done in two days, each day lasting 24 hours, using only paper lanterns as lights. Connie’s house is a basement with a lowered ceiling, adding to the claustrophobia of the piece. The rest of the story occurs in a funeral chapel in Pasay City, where the production staff contended with the wailing, gambling relatives of the deceased in the chapels next door.