We discovered the surprising folklore narrated in the first episode of the Reimagined series at Venice Immersive 2022. Tribeca 2023 marked the beginning of the journey of the second volume, Mahal, which is now heading to the Asian American Internation Film Festival, where it will be presented in the Interactive Media Gallery from 26 July to 6 August.
Reimagined Vol. II: Mahal is an immersion in Tagalog / Filipino mythology that, if on the one hand has the possibility of opening the way to new representations that are still not very widespread in the virtual world, on the other hand – with the choice of a difficult but universal theme such as that of mourning – can really create a connection between the different people and cultures that will come into contact with this piece.
We caught up with Mahal’s director and writer Michaela Ternasky-Holland, with co-writer Eleanor Thibeaux and with co-creator of the Reimagined series Julie Cavaliere, to talk about how the work came about and how representation and immersion are presented in its distinctive art style and character design.
“Inspired by Philippine mythology, the story focuses on Apolaki, Mayari, Tala, and Hanan, the four immortal children of the recently passed creator god, Bathala. As each of these deities wrestle with the grief of losing Bathala, their all-powerful actions create ripples throughout the universe. Can the siblings come together to defeat their own pain and learn how to accept the devastating loss before the world their father entrusted to them suffers from a celestial catastrophe? Vol II: Mahal from the Reimagined Series is a poignant tale about the price of love, and a touching tribute to the director’s late father”
REIMAGINED VOL. II: MAHAL
Reimagined Vol. II: Mahal. On the importance of representation and community
AGNESE – Mahal premiered at Tribeca a couple of weeks ago. How did this first stop on your new festival run go?
MICHAELA TERNASKY-HOLLAND – Tribeca was a great way to finally see how people would react to the experience, and we saw so many different reactions! From people crying to others who really wanted to share with us how connected they felt to the characters, to people talking about how beautiful the art world we created was and how impactful the style was. Some were very impressed with the camera movement.
In general, I think we got a lot of positive responses, which was great. But I have to say that for me, as a filmmaker, the most special part was seeing the Filipino-American community of New York and the East Coast in general come to Tribeca and bring their support to the project… and of course meeting the cast and some of the crew members to celebrate the conclusion of this great project for which they all gave so much of themselves… We really missed the people who couldn’t come and had them in our hearts the whole time!
JULIE CAVALIERE – We are based partly in New York City, so Tribeca is our backyard. That made it even more exciting. And I’ve always loved the fact that Tribeca is such a creator-oriented festival, and to have the opportunity to meet so many of the people we collaborated with on this second Volume was really special.
ELEANOR THIBEAUX – I couldn’t make it, so I was one of the people in Michaela’s heart (laughs). However, I’m in charge of social media, so I was able to see the audience’s reactions to this piece and how they connected to it. As part of the writing team, who hadn’t seen the final product yet, getting that kind of feedback was just amazing.
“Reimagined Volume II: Mahal wants to celebrate communities that have been repressed and put them at the center of everything, reminding everyone that no matter what you look like, what your belief system is, what your culture is, there are things that bind us all together. There are big questions that we all ask ourselves. There are great experiences that we all go through”
Eleanor Thibeaux
A. – Mahal is the second episode of a three-part series, the first of which, Reimagined Volume I: Nyssa, was presented at the Venice Film Festival last year. What prompted you to shift your focus to the Filipino community?
M. T. H. – When Julie and I started working on Reimagined, we thought there would only be one episode. But someone advised us to divide the work into a series, and it seemed natural that Julie would direct Volume I: Nyssa, that I would direct Volume II, and then we would involve a guest artist for Volume III. I am Filipino-American and when it came time to decide what to do for my volume, I knew I wanted to talk about Filipino mythology.
I grew up in a very conservative Christian family, and although Filipino folklore and mythology tend to be very open about different sexualities, my family was very much against me dating a woman. It was at that point that I decided to start a journey into my ancestral knowledge. My mother suffered a lot of racism growing up as a young Filipino immigrant in the United States and was very Americanized. So, my only connection to Filipino culture was through my grandparents and I wanted to know more.
The reality, however, is that the Philippines is named after King Philip and is an archipelago of over 700 islands that was never supposed to be a single country. There are over 100 different dialects, 100 different tribes, 100 different cultures. But because it is a territory so tried by imperialism, colonialism, and trauma, many Filipinos now identify themselves as Catholic, and the Filipino language is now very much inspired by Spanish-English words that have made it more of a pidgin language.
The Philippines is also a third world country overrun by a dictatorship, with a huge stigma associated with the drug trade and lack of press freedom. With all this in mind, I knew that what I wanted to do was to show Filipinos as the empowered and incredibly beautiful people that they are, and to remind them of their cultural ancestry. And last but not least, it’s important to see people like these in industries like VR, and I think we need to set a precedent for the kinds of stories we allow art to tell and the way we allow VR to tell those stories.
A. – What characterizes Filipino folklore and have you noticed a way of storytelling specific to those areas?
M. T. H. – Depending on the region you live in and the cultures you have come in contact with, tribes in the Philippines have different folklore. Some tribes have more ties to Hinduism because they were constantly trading with India. Others were more in contact with China and therefore have closer ties to the mythology of that country. Others were completely isolated and had no ties to other cultures, so they are somewhat autonomous and have their own spiritualism. There is no national flag or ideology.
We decided to opt for a mythology closer to Tagalog mythology. This very specific group, the Tagalog people, believed in anthropomorphic deities, that is, deities who looked and had feelings like humans. For me, it was the most accessible mythology because it was more similar to the Roman, Greek and Egyptian one, which I am familiar with, having a Westernized educational background: the creator god Bathala is very similar to Zeus, and his children are all reminiscent of Greek gods like Apollo or Artemis.
However, in the script we were very careful to make sure that these gods and goddesses didn’t just seem like a remake of Greco-Roman mythology. We didn’t want them to be perceived as redundant, because we wanted to maintain the authenticity of Filipinoness, but also the authenticity of the pain that these children are experiencing, which I think makes them more like human beings than god-like in a very specific way.
J. C. – The other thing to keep in mind in terms of narrative structure is that Michaela worked on a story that was quite personal to her, dealing with the theme of grief, which touched her closely with the loss of her father. We made sure that there was a balance between honoring Michaela’s personal story and Philippine mythology.
E. T. – When I joined the project, Michaela already had an outline of the story she wanted to tell. One of the things that struck me deeply right away was that even though I’m not Filipino and that’s not my background, I was still connecting to the message. As a storyteller, I read a lot of different mythologies from all over the world, and what I like is that we all actually encounter the same problems. We’re all asking the same questions. There is this deep thread of humanity in mythology because no matter where you are and what your experiences are, there is something very shareable about it.
The theme of mourning was another element that made me immediately connect with the work. I was actually lucky enough to dig deep into the topic with Michaela and really understand the cultural aspects of it, and I am glad to be involved in a project that pays tribute to people whose culture has been attacked in many ways and changed far beyond what is authentic to them.
Reimagined Volume II: Mahal wants to celebrate communities that have been repressed and put them at the center of everything, reminding everyone that no matter what you look like, what your belief system is, what your culture is, there are things that bind us all together. There are big questions that we all ask ourselves. There are great experiences that we all go through. The inclusion of this aspect in the story resonates deeply with people who relate to it on a cultural level, but I also think it has the ability to cross cultural lines between us and create a bridge between people, and I’m happy to have contributed to that.
“Today we see that indigenous culture is rising all over the world, and our piece does not explicitly talk about that, but all the subtle choices we made are because we hope that Reimagined can help expand representation on a global scale. And to me that’s the beauty of Reimagined: we offer entertainment, but with a touch of education”
Michaela Ternasky-Holland
M. T. H. – Some of the microscopic things we chose to do in the project could have a macroscopic impact. For example, we used Tagalog words in the story, and I think this could have a huge impact for the VR community: we don’t have to wait 80 years to implement Spanish words, but we can set a precedent that says, “Let’s start incorporating different languages to be more authentic in the projects we create!” Another example is the problem of colorism and hair texture that is present in Filipino culture. I have been very fortunate to avoid some of these things in my life, but many of my friends who grew up in the Philippines are under pressure to bleach their skin or to stay out of the sun or to make sure their hair is always straight and beautiful. So we made very specific choices in this project and created deities of every skin tone, from the lightest brown to the darkest brown. We made sure that the texture of the hair was also inclusive.
Today we see that indigenous culture is rising all over the world, and our piece does not explicitly talk about that, but all the subtle choices we made are because we hope that Reimagined can help expand representation on a global scale. And to me that’s the beauty of Reimagined: we offer entertainment, but with a touch of education.
The social impact of fictional works and good stories
A. – In fact, I recently read an interview in which you said that social impact can also be found in works of fiction, not just non-fiction. That’s something I agree with a lot. Can you elaborate on that point?
J. C. – Look at The Wizard of Oz! It’s very political- not just about a little girl in Kansas…. I believe deeply in storytelling as a means of addressing certain issues. I love documentaries and think they can be so effective in mobilizing a call to action. But sometimes we forget the value of narrative and how art has often been at the beginning of cultural or political revolutions. Poems, songs, paintings, different artistic mediums can lead the charge and ask questions. Good narrative always asks questions. What would the world be like if we did this or what could the world be like if we did that? That is also part of what we are doing with Reimagined.
E. T. – The immersive element and VR add to this the removal of the fourth wall and the ability to enter that space. And when you are really immersed, you create an empathy that helps you reflect on these experiences at a deeper level. We, as human beings, are storytellers: mythology, folklore-it’s about passing on stories. It’s about morality and trying to share and impart wisdom or asking big questions, and so the incredible aspect of VR and this shift to immersive storytelling is that it brings you closer to that experience of folklore and storytelling and making connections at a deep level. So I think the medium we used was also very important in that sense.
“Sometimes we forget the value of narrative and how art has often been at the beginning of cultural or political revolutions. There are poems, songs, paintings, different types of art can lead the charge and ask questions. Good narrative always asks questions”
Julie Cavaliere
Using the story to dictate the medium
A. – Where do you perceive this media is going today? What’s your relationship with it?
M. T. H. – I have been working in VR since 2016. My experience started with my own 360 documentaries and 360 dance music videos. I have worked on Room-scale volumetric VR experiences with TIME Magazine and also participated in some of the earliest moments of photogrammetry, such as with Buzz Aldrin in 2016-17. I have been a native to this field and so I think it is part of me to crave immersion.
Maybe it’s also because of my background in dance: I worked on the Disney Cruise Line for nine months when I was 19 years old, and I fell in love with the idea of people interacting with the story. I saw it played out at the highest possible level, in a palace in the middle of the ocean, right on Disney’s level. As people, we live in a three-dimensional physical reality, so there’s no reason why when we go into a three-dimensional digital reality we shouldn’t feel the same level of connection and immersion that we feel here.
What I tried to do, particularly with Mahal, was to push the envelope to make the story engaging, but also cinematic, as Julie likes to say. But of course breaking some rules! If we want the VR medium to be legitimate, we have to give the audience exactly what VR can give, which is scale, immersion, the feeling of flying, the feeling of zooming into the world. This is also why I wanted a mythological story: I wanted to do a story where we were constantly playing with a world within a world, where we were constantly playing with scale, where the camera felt like it could be its own character and could fly and move and zoom in.
Actually, one of the things people told me after trying Reimagined Volume II was that it would not have been the same experience if I had made it as a 2D film. I have never wanted a greater compliment as a filmmaker and as a creator of VR experiences! I think that is precisely the ingredient that many of us in this industry are missing: Why VR? We are constantly trying to answer that question, but until we have consistent answers I don’t think we will have the mass adoption we are looking for.
“I think that is precisely the ingredient that many of us in this industry are missing: Why VR? We are constantly trying to answer that question, but until we have consistent answers I don’t think we will have the mass adoption we are looking for”
Michaela Ternasky-Holland
J. C. – For me, Reimagined was my first experience in VR. I come from a traditional background of film, TV and theater. I encountered VR for the first time at Tribeca in 2019. I was completely amazed and intimidated by the technology! Someone had to put the headset on my head because I was sure I would break it (laughs) but I quickly realized what a tool it could be for storytelling. But I realized something else, too. I’m a bit of a film history and old movie nerd myself: one of the reasons I love old movies is that they rely on storytelling techniques, before anything else, and because of that they can bring you much closer to a feeling of immersion, which seems counterintuitive, I know! Just look at Hitchcock and how many times the fourth wall was broken, or how many times he used contrivances such as match cuts to draw you in. It’s such a simple but effective way of bringing you into the story verse. We have all of this amazing technology available today and when combined with good storytelling, it has tremendous potential. Especially in the medium of VR. Of course, it’s not about replacing film, theater or television … but rather using the story to dictate the medium. Incorporating these techniques to create a fluidity between mediums could be very impactful.
As Michaela said, Mahal would not have been the same in 2D, it would not have done the story justice. It’s like when you’re young and someone tells you a story and that story comes to life around you. It envelops you and you believe in something in a way that is so hard to recreate as an adult. I think VR allows you to recapture that feeling.
E. T. – It’s an incredible time to be creating in VR, because we’re all discovering how it works. I have an audio background, and when I joined the sound design team at Meta I was a little confused about this technology. In the time I’ve been working in VR, about six years, I’ve seen very rapid growth! Many new technologies have opened up new possibilities, especially spatial audio. What a different experience it is to have the sound placed in the world you are experiencing, instead of having a left and center and a right channel coming at us, so many possibilities!
I am obsessed with the way creative people use these tools to create deep, meaningful and incredible stories. We just need more: we need more people to bring their passions, their ideas and their creativity to this space. I think that’s when we’ll get the real adoption of this technology, and as Julie said, there’s really room for all kinds of media. It’s just a matter of figuring out what the story needs. Having these extra media is just one more opportunity to connect and tell amazing stories.
“It’s like when you’re young and someone tells you a story and that story comes to life around you. […] I think VR allows you to recapture that feeling, without necessarily abandoning film and theater techniques, but using them and incorporating them to create a fluidity between mediums that could be very impactful”
Julie Cavaliere
On the art style of Reimagined Vol. II: Mahal
A. – The different volumes of Reimagined feature different art styles that each story inspired. What can you tell us about the Mahal one?
M. T. H. – We had a very clear idea of the art style of Volume I that differs from Volume II, where we chose an art style that we called “Island Clean”-Mahal has a very clean and pleasant look. It’s a warm and welcoming experience, in a Disney and Pixar style, but the choices within this art style, in the environment and character design, are specifically based on Filipino culture and the different tribes in the Philippines. It is a style inspired more by indigenous culture than modern culture.
Each of the deities has little details that refer to the clothing of the indigenous culture, such as what people in the royal family would wear or what people would wear at ceremonial dances.
The way we represented the character of the Catalonan is very much based on the history of Tagalog people, where they were considered a woman or a trans woman-that’s why we made the very clear decision to put our Catalonan shirtless. It’s very hard to notice, but we did it to pay homage to that open expression of sexuality and to indigenous cultures where some people find it completely acceptable to go around shirtless, whether you’re a man or a woman.
These small gestures within the art styles were dictated by the indigenous Filipino culture that we are constantly inspired by. Even the village environment itself is inspired by real Filipino geography and very specific islands in the Philippines such as Cebu. Every time you hear a sound, it is one that is in that word. The eagle you hear in the introduction is actually the Philippine eagle, the national bird.
We kept working on these little details, and I think the biggest one we always struggled with was our celestial realm, which was a sort of divine heaven. Most indigenous Filipino cultures believe that heaven is underground and hell above you, and I knew that this would not work for our project. But one thing that is very prevalent in indigenous cultures in the Philippines is their connection to the ocean and water. So even though our celestial realm is above the mortal realm, it’s actually inspired by an underwater world. We have all these waterfalls that are constantly moving upward. We have these spaces that constantly reflect light in the way that light reflects off the ocean. The way we move the clouds is more like the movement of a coral reef or a bubble than a real cloud. So there is a very clear art style that we made within a creative project that was constantly trying to pay homage to that indigenous belief system and culture.
The Reimagined immersive universe
A. – What elements connect this work with Reimagined Vol. I: Nyssa?
J. C. – Reimagined is an anthology series. Each work exists in its own world and universe. We are taking lesser-known folktales and mythology from around the world and reinventing them through a gender inclusive lens, making sure that all the characters have agency, which exists in all three volumes, including the last one, which is based on a fable from Southern Nigeria.
Each work has a specific art style that relates to its theme and the place depicted. For Volume I, I had a very clear idea of how I wanted the story to feel in the beginning, middle and end. I wanted the characters to feel unstructured, with facial features that were not quite aligned. The style serves to emphasize the storyworld and the theme we are trying to portray within the story. That said, it’s always interesting to go back and see if there are any overlaps. I would be interested to hear from our audience as well, especially when all three volumes are released.
A. – What differs most in the two pieces currently released?
M. T. H. – For me the biggest difference is that in the first volume there is a very specific hero that we focus on, whereas the second volume is more of an ensemble piece. Eleanor played a key role in making sure that each of these characters worked and that no one was overshadowed or lost. Ensemble work is really hard to do, especially in VR.
E. T. – We knew that each character needed their own conflict and their own grieving process, but it’s not an easy task to accomplish in a 20-minute time limit. But it’s a challenge that I love, and I think for an ensemble to work, throughout the writing process all characters need agency, because it’s something that characterizes us as individuals. One of the things that it’s very easy to fall into when writing narratives is to pick one or two people who have to make choices and everyone else around them is sort of along for the ride or is used as foils to put the main characters in a position to make a decision. What was really important for Michaela and therefore for all of us was that everybody had motivations and that this was clear at all times so that we could always empathize or understand somebody.
It was a long process that we worked hard on for a few months, but in the end we all felt like we had created a family and dynamics that we could place ourselves in. For every other version of the script, I had a new favorite character! (laughs)
I have to say that it was almost a cathartic process on a personal level too, because when I joined the team and met Julie and Michaela for the first time, we immediately had a deep conversation about the theme of the story, grief. You can’t go through something like that without communicating your vulnerability and sharing some of the most painful things that we human beings go through. You need to connect and show your authentic self and that allows for a deep connection with people, which manifests in the work that you then get to create. In the end, what the audience reacts to when they say this piece was very moving for them and relatable is the characters, their space, their process and their range of emotions and the fact that no one is a foil. No one is in the room just to upset someone and then you never hear from them again. Each character was written in a very intentional way, which took a lot of work, but in the end it was worth it and I think that’s what will really elevate the story.
“I think for an ensemble to work, throughout the writing process all characters need agency, because it’s something that characterizes us as individuals […] everybody had motivations and that this was clear at all times so that we could always empathize or understand somebody”
Eleanor Thibeaux
How to create an effective ensemble story
J. C. – Another aspect that made the ensemble work is that although the characters are antagonistic to each other, there are no villains. They are deeply and firmly attached to their motivations and so, as a result, they are antagonistic to each other and in that way they carry the story forward, but they also show completely relatable desires and needs and motivations. They are just four deeply grieving characters who are trying to figure out what to do next.
A. – I think this element is very important for audience members because we are all different, and when you experience a piece like this you can find yourself being called out more by one of the characters than another. So if just one reaction is emphasized, one feels excluded.
E. T. – There is no wrong way to grieve and all ways deserve respect. This message of inclusion was very important to all of us. And so was the fact that in the end everyone understood it. “I was in my own space … but that didn’t mean there was no space for you.”
M. T. H. – Moreover, we do not shy away from the fact that grief affects the people around us. The beauty of our characters is that, being a family, their grief affects each other. But being gods and goddesses, their grief also affects the mortal realm. Everyone should have their own space and time to grieve, but the reality is also that you impact others and the consequences you cause are real. But that’s okay too! This is the human experience, the cause and effect of your choices, which we could push a little further with a story inspired by mythology.
Reimagined Vol. II: Mahal will be on a festival run for the next few months, starting next week with the Asian American Internation Film Festival (July 26 – August 6) and will then be released on the Oculus Store before the winter holidays. Stay tuned for more news and get ready for Volume III, scheduled for 2024.
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“A project as culturally and historically accurate as possible” – Eloise Singer (THE PIRATE QUEEN)
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