Jay

Jay Mercado, a promising young schoolteacher, has been brutally murdered. The grotesque image of his blood-stained body flashes on a television screen as an offscreen narrator coolly shares his story. According to the report, Jay, a known homosexual, leaves behind his impoverished family-mother Nanay Luz, sister, and brother-who are devastated when they learn of Jay's fate, a supposed sex crime. His estranged ex-boyfriend, the prime suspect, remains at-large. This sensational exposé is a segment on “Dearly Departed Ones,” a popular Filipino reality show that “documents” the grieving process. Through a pseudo-documentary style, Francis X. Pasion's JAY exposes the perverse ways “reality” television constructs the “truth” in this fictional tale. Returning to the segment's inception, we watch as the manipulative producer, also named Jay, exploits the mourners. He coerces the victim's family to reenact emotional moments, poetically explains confusing elements of the story, and overdramatizes minor conflicts. Grief quickly gives way to greed and vanity in this small community. Pasion's astute social satire is a disturbing depiction of modern media that questions our own viewing habits. (In Filipino with English subtitles) – E.J.B.