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A seedy bar. A bus motoring from Manila to Bicol. The set of a porn flick. Vigan during World War II. The varied terrain of Pangasinan, pre-Pepeng. The precipice between youth and adulthood in Pampanga.

These are but some of the territories explored in the six entries in Cinemanila’s Digital Lokal competition.

Jon Red’s “Ang Beerhouse,” produced by actors Joel Torre and Ronnie Lazaro, is described as “a love story and social commentary” by the director.

“We can see the entire society inside a beerhouse,” he noted. “Everyone is there: from the corrupt and powerful to the wannabes and underdogs.”

Red attempted to capture the actual experience of bar-hopping in his film. “The goal is to have a relaxing and intoxicating experience.”

Red praises his actors Epy Quizon, Ryan Eigenmann and Gwen Garci as “great. They all pitched in their ideas and improvised. We shot in a rented garage and turned it into a girly bar which has since been converted into a chapel.”

Quite serendipitously, Christopher Gozum’s “Anacbanua” managed to immortalize Pangasinan before it was devastated by the floods brought by Typhoon “Pepeng.”

“It’s shot like a documentary,” explained Gozum who’s based in Saudi Arabia. “The film has no lines of dialogue. All the spoken lines in the film are from Pangasinan language poems or anlong.”

Gozum’s “interest in Pangasinan’s culture, history and literature” inspired him to make the film with the P80,000 cash prize he won in last year’s Cinemanila.

He worked with both professional actors (Lowell Conales and Che Ramos) and amateurs in “Anacbanua.” “Tristan Aguirre is my mother’s pupil in my hometown of Bayambang. He has no previous experience, but he looks confident and natural onscreen.”

In “Biyaheng Lupa,” Armando “Bing” Lao sought to recreate an 8-hour bus trip from Manila to Bicol.

“We shot inside a hot, cramped bus,” Lao recalled. “We had to use a tripod for the camera, so it took a while to set up.”

He tapped friends like Jaclyn Jose, Julio Diaz, Coco Martin, Angel Aquino, Eugene Domingo, among others, as his passengers.

Biggest challenge

Bona Fajardo’s “Iliw” is a historical romance that chronicles how “Vigan was spared from destruction during World War II largely because of the love of a Japanese officer for an Ilocano maiden.”

Vigan was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1999, he said. “Vigan is a source of identity and pride for all Filipinos.”

Fajardo admitted that the biggest challenge was “to make an independently produced period film with limited time and budget in a picturesque place.”

Also, he had a Japanese lead actor (Hiroyuki Takashima) who didn’t understand Filipino. “We had two scripts: Filipino for the locals (led by Kaye Abad) and Niponggo for the Japanese. Plus, we also had Ilocano on the side.”

It was a virtual tower of Babel. “That’s the magic of filmmaking. In spite of the language barrier, we pulled it off.”

Ted Manotoc calls his film, “69 1/2,” as “the most artistic Filipino porn film.” Still, he pointed out that his entry features no nudity or sex scenes.

When the going gets tough, Pinoys rely on humor, he said. “I wanted to make a film about the stuff I’m proud of about Filipinos: our love of movies, for song and dance, and our ability to laugh in the face of anything life throws at us.”

Lito Casaje’s “Dolores” features a cast of newcomers. He describes it as a “coming-of-age film” as seen through the eyes of the titular heroine.

“Biggest challenge was to retell an old-hat story and make it look cutting-edge, different, more insightful and original,” Casaje said.

He explained that his goal was “to reinvent a story based on my own vision and world view. People have turned a blind eye on the issues presented in the film.”