The Fairytale of Third Cinema

The Fairytale of Third Cinema

by Kathryn Narciso

a. Little Brown Americans

We are nothing but them. When the ruling giant came to town, we didn’t break loose, and just sucked up the flavors of the new, almost forgetting the old. The nation’s elite was guilty of kissing the mestizos and language was shared tongue-to-tongue, skin-to-skin, until little brown Americans were born to this nation and grew up becoming second-class citizens of their own homeland.

It was like allowing a thief inside your home: fed him when he’s hungry, gave him drink when he’s thirsty, warmed him up when he’s cold. Flesh and blood for spit. The cycle repeats itself, again and again: you offer your flesh for flesh, blood for blood, but you only get spit and still say Thank You.


b. The Unholy Communion
When Hollywood was preached outside its birthplace, the rest of the world took its chalice and drank from it. Not one has come clean after the communion. It’s a religion without confession. The converts were silenced. When they spoke, they only spoke of the white saint and how iconic it was. It was dressed as Snow White, and a pretty little liar at that.


c. Snow White, Still the Fairest in the Land
When finally the seven dwarves learned of what lies beyond the Woods, only three stepped out and planted their own apples. They got rid of the weeds and let the worms of the earth grow them into sly guns and bombs. One dwarf after another, they came in peddler’s cloak, no traces of a Queen, to Snow White for attempts to pull the trigger—a bite at the shiny red apple. She broke the tender peel, took a bite and spat, I’m still the fairest in the land.

This is a nut case of Snow White and the Dwarves cloaked as peddlers. It’s the Snow White whose lies are as white as snow. It’s the peddler who’s either a dwarf or a queen at heart, but readies either way to attack with their apples that only get redder as day progresses.

And the Magic Mirror, it still never lies. No matter what the Queen does or how many more attempts at questioning she makes, the mirror’s answer stays the same: Snow White is a thousand times fairer than you.


The tale continues into different revolutionary endings. There may be many not-so-happy endings, but one day the little brown Americans will stop acting like guests in their own nipa huts, the chalice will be drained to the dregs, and the Magic Mirror will speak of the Queen in fairer terms. Someone just has to write the other version.

~ END ~

Kathryn continues to write her own version of the fairytale. Read her posts HERE.