Way before she started shooting her Eraserheads documentary Combo on the Run, writer and director Diane Ventura had already had a close relationship with the iconic OPM band, having shot several music videos for vocalist Ely Buendia in his subsequent bands Pupil and The Mongols. She also shares a son with the Eraserheads frontman.
“I started out making music videos for Ely’s previous bands and also for Ely. I moved to New York and I went to film school. I also went to London to film school and then I started doing short films and then I did my first short film here in the Philippines with Cherie Gil and Marco Morales called ‘The Rapist.’ I also did another film called ‘Awaken’ and I released a first Philippine-produced German film 'Deine Farbe' and then this one. Before this, I was producing concerts. My first video with Ely was called ‘Bulakbol’ and then I did ‘Keeper’ afterwards,” she told PUSH ABS-CBN during the Eraserheads Combo on the Run presscon.
READ: Pinay filmmaker Maria Diane Ventura makes international directorial debut
After admitting that it was a big challenge for her to shoot the documentary, Diane shared the more technical side of the project.
“I think it was very challenging kasi we were shooting the film in both the Philippines during their concert tapos we were following them around during their US tour. So having to shoot in two different countries tapos we did the sound design in Berlin and did the Dolby Atmos in LA. It was the same sound stage where they did Taylor Swift and Beyonce and I think they did the soundtrack of Dune.
"I really felt that the guys' music is meant to be heard in its optimum state. And also combing through hundreds of hours of footages and figuring out, because documentary filmmaking is a wild animal, there’s infinite possibilities of where you could go narrative-wise. And having such brilliant interviewees and subjects, every time they say something so interesting, I’m tempted to follow each and every story and information that they’ve shared, which means I needed to provide context for it. So it became too much. It was just figuring out which story is the most important, that serves the overall narrative that I wanted to be out there,” she explained.
READ: Ely Buendia reiterates Eraserhead song 'Spoliarium' is not about Pepsi Paloma
Combo on the Run also promises to dig deeper into the real reason the group chose to break up, following Ely’s departure from the band in early 2002.
“All this time, I think the things that we’ve heard the band were mostly parang speculations. Nobody really knows what happened in the break up or why it happened. So I think is this is the guys reclaiming their narrative and I was lucky enough to have that chance to get to sit down with them for them to reveal their story. I think as a documentary filmmaker for this project, parang I wanted to honor that truth. And I think in honoring that truth and preserving it, that was my way of being objective,” she admitted.
The talented director also said she was able to see a more vulnerable side to the band (composed of frontman Ely Buendia, guitarist Marcus Adoro, bassist Buddy Zabala, and drummer Raimund Marasigan) during their multiple solo interviews for the documentary.
“We were doing interviews independently and what I witnessed, was that every time they would unload or they would speak their truth, even if it was done independently, the next time that they would meet each other, it was as if something was lifted, even if they did not talk to each other. Parang just the fact of expressing themselves and allowing that honesty to happen was in it itself healing and cathartic. So I guess yun yung takeaway ko na wow, sorry if I’m being cheesy but parang the truth can set you free, that rang true, that resonated in this film,” she explained.
Eraserheads: Combo on the Run will run exclusively in cinemas from March 21 to 23, 2025. The film is directed by Diane Ventura and produced by Dvent Pictures and WEU. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.