A year before Cinemalaya and its breakout “Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros” made indie cinema a byword, there was Cris Pablo. From out of nowhere, with virtually no publicity and no name actors, he pulled off something next to impossible with his debut film, “Duda (Doubt)”: a blockbuster. His gay-themed indie movie was shown at SM Megamall to long lines of people curious about a small film that drew its buzz mainly from the grapevine.

I didn’t see “Duda,” though some friends did, and they didn’t like it. The Inquirer’s Constantino Tejero, however, a hardcore cinephile who wouldn’t suffer any lousy movie, surprisingly had something good to say about it. That was enough motivation for me to catch Pablo’s next feature, “Bathhouse,” which ran in Robinson’s Galleria in January 2005.

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