Roxlee

Roque Federizon Lee, a.k.a. ROXLEE is a Filipino animator, filmmaker, cartoonist, painter, rock star, and many considered as the God Father of the Filipino young filmmakers. The man who created “Cesar Asar” together with his brother Mon Lee. Apart from this Lee brothers is their nephew Topel Lee, a film, TV and music director of GMA Networks. He started out as a cartoonist—first contributing cartoons to Jingle Magazine, and then doing the comic strip Cesar Asar for Manila Bulletin (one of the most popular broadsheet in the Philippines) in collaboration with his brother Monlee from 1980 to 2000. Roxlee is one of the founding members of Animagination now evolved into Animahenasyon and Sinekalye, a group of filmmakers taking the films and music into the street. He is a pioneer of independent film animation in the Philippines. Working outside the "factory" system, usually with only one or two collaborators, he’s a magician who can instantly conjure up an original piece working only with the barest of materials, usually with just pen and paper and ink. Spontaneity and irreverent situational ideas are paramount for him over fanciful techniques and linear storytelling. His edgy approach is surreal sense of humor . What is incalculable is his originality as an animator and filmmaker, which can be considered as an attempt to create a modern Filipino style and philosophy of filmmaking. His early works were done in super-8 film—divided between hand-drawn scratchy works like "The Great Smoke", and pixilated live action pieces like "Juan Gapang". Both are now considered classics of the independent film movement of the 1980s. In the 2000s, he reinvented himself as a digital filmmaker. His "12 commandments of filmmaking" has turned him into some kind of guru, an inspiration to filmmakers young and old. Although he never worked in the animation industry, Roxlee’s independent approach to filmmaking has influenced a whole generation of younger animators, many of whom first took up courses at the Mowelfund Film Institute in the 80s and 90s. Some of these animators are now stalwarts in the industry. Roxlee also has a modest but keen international following, mostly in Western Europe, Japan and Singapore. Maybe computers and 3D animation software may have made Roxlee’s animation antiquated and old school, but he has proven that anyone can be an animator, as long as he has pen, paper, ink, interesting ideas, and the will to get it done. Roxlee is also onto oil painting and currently finished book entitled “Cesar Asar in the Planet of the Noses,” a collection of his cartoons and short stories.