29 Nov 2019  |   04:32am IST

A grammy, 3 Tony's and a big fight for transgender justice: Meet Jhett Tolentino

His first film shown at IFFI, is written by a Filipino trans- woman

 

Jhett Tolentino’s produced film, ‘Lingua Franca’ was screened as part of the World Panorama of IFFI and the film received rave reviews. The award winning film highlights the transgender representation with the director Isabel Sandoval’s semi-autobiographical story. A star in Hollywood and Broadway, Jhett explains the conflicts faced by the transgender community. He loves IFFI for another reason, they serve three good meals a day

 

 

 

A very humble human being, it is difficult to associate

Jhett Tolentino with the A-listers of Hollywood. However, he is the same boy who made it to the US from the slums in Philippines. An entertainment producer based in New York City, he is known for being the second Philippine-born awardee of the Tony Award. (The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre known as the Tony Award)

He has won three Tony Awards since his Broadway debut in March 2013 and has received his first Grammy Award ( for his musical theatre album, ‘Colour Purple’) in February 2017. But here’s news. The film, ‘Lingua Franca’, which he brought to this IFFI, has won the Best Film in a film festival in Paris two days back. “

His first produced feature film was at IFFI. He shares his excitement. “The film is ground breaking as it is the first to be written and directed by Isabel Sandoval, a Filipino trans-woman and it is very special to me. The writer, director, editor and actor, she is such a special lady to me because she is very humble.

She graduated in Philippines, wrote two films ‘Señorita’ and ‘Apparition’ prior to Lingua Franca as Vincent Sandoval and then she moved to New York and studied her masters at New York University and then she wrote Lingua Franca. When I got this script, I told her I will produce this film,” reminisces Jhett. Isabel is the first transwoman of colour to direct and headline a film competing at Venice.

“I’m trying to tap into my Hollywood connection and merge the Asian funding. My goal is to push Asian stories to be made. I am so glad with Indian films like ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, you got it there. But us, on the other side of Asia we are still struggling. That’s why we are hoping and rooting for ‘Parasite’ to win the best foreign language film at the Oscar 2020,” he says.

Speaking about the atmosphere towards the LGBTQ community, Jhett explains, “There is some resistance from people who do not support the LGBT especially the trans. It seems that the trans community is a separate community out of the LGBTQ because not only do they have to deal with the fact that they are from the LGBTQ but they are specific, they change body parts. They are very prone to scrutiny. I want to be part of that movement that we need to support each other.”

The film, Lingua Franca has won the Best Film in Paris two days back. “It’s not based on a true story. It’s a feature narrative but the story revolves around an undocumented Filipino care giver in Brooklyn. The character is Olivia and she takes care of a Russian old woman who has an early set of dementia. The Russian old woman has a grandson who is like a prodigal son and homophobic and Olivia and the grandson fall in love and he doesn’t know that she is trans. This is the challenge that he was internalising that ‘I don’t like gay people but I am in love with her so what does that make me’ so he confronted it head on, on himself and his friends. They throw slurs and hurtful words for homosexuals only to know that he is with a trans woman. It is quite groundbreaking and we didn’t have an East Coast premiere but most probably it will be at the Tribeca film festival as they supported our film,” says Jhett.

He further adds, “Another thing that we are highlighting through this films is that we have a law in the Philippines which does not recognise trans people. I have so many trans people friends in the United States who are American citizens and we can actually do dual citizenship but they do not want to do it, because if they want to get a Filipino passport, the Filipino law says you have to go back to your original name.

So even if the US passport says female, they have to go back to male on the Filipino passport. They refuse to be dual citizens. It is a sad and that’s one thing we try to showcase in this film that one government to another, they should have an open dialogue that these are people too and they have rights.”

How was his experience at IFFI? “I am actually thinking of writing an article by the end of the year because I have so far been to 15 countries and 20 film festivals. India is number 1 in providing food, three meals a day, most festivals provide only breakfast,” says Jhett, as he indicates that he is so full all the time.