Gambling on Life and Death

Committed to exposing the ways in which the personal is always crosshatched with the social and the political, filmmaker Jeffrey Jeturian’s most memorable work traces the relentless conversion of all forms of social experience into economic transactions. In interviews, the Filipino film director has distilled the essence of his feature films: “personal, intimate stories that say a lot about our social and political realities,” ¹ resulting in an oeuvre that offers a sustained consideration of commodification: the commodification of sex (in Pila Balde [Fetch a Pail of Water], 1999), of traumatic life histories (in Tuhog [Larger than Life], 2001), of love (in Bridal Shower, 2004), of news reportage (in Bikini Open, 2005), of death, grief, and hope (in Kubrador [Bet Collector], 2006). Asked to comment on the thematic of commodification in his films, Jeturian has remarked that such transactions reveal of relations of exploitation and oppression. ²