Is Neorealism style similar to the films of Brillante Mendoza and Adolf Alix?

Before tackling the question about the similarity there is one thing we have to know on what is Neo-realism? According to my research on the web it says that neo-realism started after the 2^nd world war. It says that neo-realism shot in places without sets to lower the cost of the filmmaking it also gives the impact of reality instead of fantasy. Another is that the directors of the Italian neo-realism don’t get a professional actors and actresses instead they shoot with real non-professional acting people for their movies which show also reality. And last they shoot anywhere no primary location in mind. This happened because after the world war people got poor.( ref: http://suite101.com/article/what-is-italian-neo-realism-cinema-of-the-1940s-and-1950s-a264084 and http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Neorealism-HISTORICAL-ORIGINS-OF-ITALIAN-NEOREALISM.html)

Going back to the topic, I was supposed to comment that the movies of Brillante Mendoza and Adolf Alix were both not similar to Neo-realism for the fact that they both use some professional actors and actresses. Watching some of Brillante’s movies like Lola, Masahista and Kinatay I saw familiar faces who are known by the people. And same as Adolf Alix’s Kadin, Tambolista and Nars they also have famous professional actors. But then I read in an article about neo-realism that when the directors take a professional actors in the movie the actors as part of the real people instead the people being the professsional’s extras only.

As I watched both director’s movies most of it was created by Brillante Mendoza that I saw which shows a close similarity  to neo-realism is the Serbis  because the location didn’t have a set and no specific locations only one place, and the professional actors were merged together with real non-professional actors.

They both are closely similar to the neo-realism and not as a whole. 

The Birth of a Nation from my point of view

The Birth of a nation is a movie that was based from the novel “The Clansman”. It was set during the civil war in the U.S.A... The story is about the relationship of two families one from the north which are the Stonemans and the other from the south which are the Camerons. Their relationship was strong but because of the rift of the north and the south being pro-Unions and pro-Confederacy that they had to fight each other and in the end killing each other. It also showed the time where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated after the war. The movie placed also the reason of the rise of the “Ku Klux Klan” who saved the people from the south from the attack of the African-Americans during their time. And so are the others parts of the movie which made it a famous film in the year 1915.

For me this movie may be a boring at first because it is a silent film unlike today’s movies which have good sound effect and talking. As I watched the film at times I can’t understand what is happening because it all just happens so fast and also they sometimes show fewer emotions. Another reason that this film was boring because it was in black and white, but I can’t blame them since it was made during the 1915^th year. Transitions from one scene to another in this movie are so bad and so are the special effects. And top it all of it was a very long movie because its run time is 190 minutes. So after I watched the movie I made a research about the movie and this is what caught my eyes first and that is this movie during the 1915 being a hit or so called a “Box office” movie only cost $110,000 for its budget, but when it got the “box office” title it earned $50,000,000. And now returning to the topic this movie in that time was a good film since it captures good scenes and so are the realistic lightings. After so much research I now realised that this movie was made during the year 1915 where the film industry is still growing and changing. I can’t say that this is a bad movie because of the reason that looking back from the future and watch the movies of today would be the same as the movie during the 1915 because maybe the film industry has changed a lot during that time. On the director’s side D.W. Griffith was a good director during his time because he experimented on capturing good scenes. I was inspired on how he portrayed everything in the film form the two families to the president to the Ku Klux Klan and the others. I liked the way he shot the night scene where the two clans were fighting and the effects he made for the night time scene. And these are my point of view for the movie The Birth of the Nations.