The Binisaya Film Festival 2016, running from September 17 to 24, aims to help promote these movies by bringing them to a wider audience. After years of small screenings in coffee shops and under the bridge communities, this year marks the first time the festival will take place in commercial theaters.
Here are some of the independent films worth checking out:
2013
Eluna Cepeda
A romantic misadventure leaves our protagonist struggling with depression. He finds himself in the care of a male nurse, who lives with his gay brother. Together, they dole out equal measures of care and taunts to their patient. But one day, the urge to take revenge is felt. Bodies are dismembered and mutilated. No guilty party is spared. Will history be easily outrun?
ALUNCINA
Grace Marie Lopez
One day in the life of a young woman in a burgeoning city.
AMBIHAS
Jaylou Dari
When Jaylou, a mechanic, discovers the code of conventional courtship, he decides to use that discovery to carve his name in history. What could possibly go wrong?
COBRA
Marco Campos
A bet collector makes the gamble of his life.
ENGKWENTRO
Pepe Diokno
“Engkwentro” follows two teenage brothers attempting to escape an unnamed city controlled by an iron-fisted mayor. They must first break away from the cycle of crime, while trying to run from rival gang leaders and the state’s murderous vigilantes.
FAMILIAR STRANGERS
Eric Peter
There is a social transformation worldwide into a positive attitude that unites us instead of tears us apart. Familiar Strangers: Conversations on the Near Future explores this very shift through a series of performative dialogues from a personal and local viewpoint. As a small-scale gold miner, Henerose Lorono can often be found digging for gold in his tunnel. Whereas, this practice seems to affect nature negatively, people’s lives have improved in financial terms. Heneroso’s daughter is now able to study.
GET CERTIFIED
Isaias Herrera Zantua
Heaven or Hell? These are the paths that the resurrected lost souls have to choose in the afterlife. But for Angelica — it’s hell or nothing! Will her strong conviction to become a full-fledged demon be enough for her to get certified?
GUGMA NI OLIVIA
Christian Linaban
Olivia, who sells knives for a living, develops a romantic obsession with her next door neighbor, Jeffrey.
HAPPY FIESTA
Joe Bacus
A Western man in black pays local hospitals nightly visits carrying an ice bucket. Later revealed as a member of an international organ-trading association, he seduces women into spending nights with him with his ulterior motive. This night, however, he meets a mysterious woman who proves to be his match.
HINAGUNOY SA GURYON
Karl Derick Sia
It was in the humble and peaceful countryside where the clouds spread across the sky and the palm leaves sway to the fresh mountain breeze that a growing fledgling experiences the pain of loss, the loss of time, and the time unspent with the father he never met. We follow the life of this tree sparrow towards the end of his, and the start of another.
INAHAN SA KANUNAYNG PANABANG
Chloe Veloso
Three brothers quarrel over the rights of their ancestral home and the care of their mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
JUNILYN HAS
Carlo Francisco Manatad
A dancer in a nightclub, Junilyn has to learn new moves to attract more customers during the Pope’s visit to the Philippines. But while she rehearses, she is also preparing her bold move to free herself.
LOLA
Roberta Fuentes
This is a portrait of my grandmother. Every day, she would sing her song while threading sorghum seeds that she sells in the market.
LUNCHBOX
Remton Siega Zuasola
A mother works abroad leaving behind her sick husband and young son who couldn’t stand each other. Both boys suffer from intense longing of the same woman they loved and started drifting in a world of their own; Father drowns his sadness with his vices while son escapes through his drawings of imagined adventures, but an accident forces both boys to work together to become better men.
MISS BULALACAO
Ara Chawdhury
BEHIND THE SCENE: Director Ara Chawdhury films one of the movie’s pivotal scenes. (Photo credit: Panumduman Pictures)
A young drag queen, Dodong, joins a barangay gay pageant to gain acceptance in his father’s community. He is instead met with hostility from his father, who chases him to a jungle, where he sobs to a lone bright star. What follows is the strangest night in his entire life, and an even stranger 9 months when he realises he is pregnant. With his only his stepmother, Lisa, as support, Dodong deals with ridicule from a barangay who does not believe him – until the rumours become a headline in a tabloid, “BAKLA, INA NG DIYOS”
ONE DAY, ISANG DIWA
Nickle John Lim
Two people facing the same fate and meeting the same end: sadness, darkness, fulfillment, and enlightenment. Will they find solace until they learn to accept life as it is?
PAKIGBISOG
Steven Atenta
A few days after a super typhoon ravages a small town in the Philippines, a lone survivor scavenges for food in an abandoned compound. He stumbles upon a large can of food which he takes for himself but also discovers another desperate and starving survivor willing to use violence.
PROLOGO SA ANG DAKILANG DESAPARECIDO
Lav Diaz
It had been 325 years that the Philippines was under Spanish rule when the Revolution, led by Andres Bonifacio, exploded on August 21, 1896. But on May 9, 1897, Bonifacio was charged with death sentence by rival revolutionaries led by Emilio Aguinaldo. Bonifacio’s body has never been found. His wife, Gregoria De Jesus, searched for his body in the mountains for thirty days, calling for Andres and even spirits to help her find her husband.
SARANGHAE MY TUTOR
Victor Villanueva
Benjamin teaches English to Koreans in an ESL centre. Despite his mundane and routinary life, he still believes that he will find his soul mate. One day, as if destiny intervened, he meets his new Korean student, Mi-Ok North Park…. it was love at first sight! Is this the soul mate that he’s been longing for? Will there be a happy ending between the shy Cebuano teacher and the beautiful Korean Angel despite their language barriers?
STATIC
Jose Victor Bacsarpa
An inspector tries to get to the bottom of a local drug-related killing.
SUPERPSYCHOCEBU
Christian Linaban
A young man is on a quest to find a mythical strain of cannabis called the SUPERPSYCHOCEBU. Along the way, he meets characters that appear to have lost their minds after trying it, one of them even possessed by the Devil, at which point he starts questioning whether he’s in for some good weed or just one hell of a bad trip.
UWAN INIT PISTA SA LANGIT
Keith Deligero, Remton Siega Zuasola
A story about heaven and hell.
YES
Hanz Florentino
Miguel gives a surprise wedding proposal to his girlfriend Jonah, when in the middle of the proposal Jonah secretly leaves and appears to have been cheating on him over a mysterious guy named Henry. Miguel retreats to a bar where he meets the temptress Melena. He now faces the dilemma of sulking on his fate with Jonah or accept the sweet invitation of Melena?
BINISAYA 2016 SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES:
SATURDAY, September 17
SM Seaside City Cebu
6:30 – 7:00 p.m.
Lunchbox (Remton Siega Zuasola | PG)
7:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Q&A with the cast and crew
8:00 – 10:00 p.m.
ASIAN SHORTS:
Daughters of a Lesser God (Ammar Aziz | Pakistan | PG)
Fat Boy Never Slim (Sorayos Prapapan | Thailand | R13)
Lo Sum Choe Sum (Dechen Roder | Bhutan | R13)
Sepatu Baru (Aditya Ahmad | Indonesia | PG)
There Is No Poetry Here (Kalinga Deshapriya | Sri Lanka | R13)
Three Wheels (Kavich Neang | Cambodia | PG)
MONDAY, September 19
UP Cebu
6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
BINISAYA CLASSICS
Saranghae My Tutor (Victor Villanueva)
Gugma ni Olivia (Christian Linaban)
Uwan Init Pista Sa Langit (Keith Deligero, Remton Siega Zuasola)
7:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Q&A with directors
TUESDAY, September 20
CIT
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
BINISAYA CLASSICS
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Q&A with directors
WEDNESDAY, September 21
CNU
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
BINISAYA CLASSICS
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Q&A with directors
Robinsons Galleria
5:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Engkwentro (Pepe Diokno | R13)
8:00 – 9:30 p.m.
Miss Bulalacao (Ara Chawdhury | R13)
THURSDAY, September 22
USJR MassComm Studio
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
BINISAYA CLASSICS
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Q&A with directors
FRIDAY, September 23
USC SAFAD Theater
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Filmmaker’s Forum with FDCP chair Liza Diño-Seguerra
4:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Prologo sa Ang Dakilang Desaprecido (Lav Diaz)
SATURDAY, September 24
USC SAFAD Theater
9:00 – 12:00 p.m.
The Film Business and Production with Cebuana producer Bianca Balbuena
SM Seaside City Cebu
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
REGIONAL SHORTS IN EXHIBITION
Happy Fiesta (Joe Bacus | Cagayan de Oro)
2013 (Eluna Cepeda | Manila)
Cobra (Marco Campos | La Union)
Aluncina (Grace Marie Lopez | Cebu)
Familiar Strangers (Eric Peter | Compostela Valley/Surigao del Sur)
Pakigbisog (Steven Atenta | Cebu)
Junilyn Has (Carlo Francisco Manatad | Tacloban)
Lunchbox (Remton Siega Zuasola | Cebu)
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
SHORTS IN COMPETITION
Lola (Roberta Fuentes | Bantayan | PG)
Hinagunoy Sa Goryon (Karl Derick Sia | Cebu | PG)
Inahan Sa Kanunayng Panabang (Chloe Veloso | Cebu | PG)
One Day, Isang Diwa (Nickle John Lim | Davao | R13)
Static (Jose Victor Bacsarpa | Cagayan de Oro | R13)
Get Certified (Isaias Herrera Zantua | Cebu | PG)
Ambihas (Jaylou Dari | Cebu | PG)
Yes (Hanz Florentino | Cebu | R13)
5:10 – 5:30
Q&A with Directors
6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
SUPERPSYCHOCEBU (Christian Linaban)
7:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Q&A with the cast and crew
Like Binisaya on Facebook for more updates.
All plot synopses courtesy of Binisaya.
]]>Recognizing this, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in cooperation with Dakila – Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism, holds the Active Vista Presents: A Dutch – Filipino Film Festival as part of the celebration of the 65 years of diplomatic relations and 150 years of consular ties between the Netherlands and the Philippines. Themed “Inspire Innovation: Leading Sustainable Innovations toward a Progressive World”, the three-month film fest reflects the two nations’ commitment to promote human rights and aims to inspire sustainable innovations to address the global challenges ahead.
Here are five reasons why you should check this film fest out:
1. It will open your eyes to a world sometimes unseen, oftentimes ignored
Films can move people to tears or more importantly, to action. The Dutch-Filipino Film Festival features full-length films that showcase the different injustices that are prevalent in our world today. Serious issues like rape, racism, murder, immigration, gender inequality, and women rights violations, are tackled to open the audience’s eyes to the many atrocities committed in today’s modern world.
Morgan Knibbe’s Those Who Feel the Fire Burning
These issues are best represented by Dutch feature films Those Who Feel the Fire Burning by Morgan Knibbe, 12 Months in a Day by Margot Schaap, Forget Me Not by Jan Jaap Kulper, A Haunting History by Ilse van Velzen and Fernke van Velzen, A Family Affair by Tom Fassaert, Kicks by Albert Ter Heerdt, Boys by Mischa Kamp, Accused by Paula van der Oest, and Borgman by Alex van Warmerdam.
The curated list of featured Filipino include Kano: An American and His Harem by Monster Jimenez, Edna by Ronnie Lazaro, Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo, Purok 7 by Carlo Obispo, Imbisibol by Lawrence Fajardo, Himpapawid by Raymond Red, Crescent Rising by Sheron Dayoc, Mondo Manila by Khavn Dela Cruz, Swap by Remton Siega Zuasola, Shift by Siege Ledesma, Bunso by Ditsi Carolino, Iisa by Chuck Gutierrez, Balikbayan #1: Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III by Kidlat Tahimik, Miss Bulalacao by Ara Chawdhury, Honor Thy Father by Erik Matti, Barber’s Tales by Jun Lana, Taklob by Brillante Mendoza, Engkwentro by Pepe Diokno, and Norte by Lav Diaz.
2. Don’t have the luxury of time? Indulge in immersive short films
If you’re pressed for time and can only watch short films, the Dutch-Filipino film fest also features a collection of short documentaries to warm your heart, get you thinking, or thrill you to the bone.
Donna Verheijden’s Land of Desire – Happy is the New Black
Dutch short films include 10 x 1: A Collection of One Minute Films by Gertjan Zuilhof, Land of Desire – Happy is the New Black by Donna Verheijden, I Am a Girl! by Susan Koenen, Arigato by Anielle Webster, Sniper of Kobani by Reber Dosky, The Double by Roy Villevoye and Jan Dietvorst, Under the Apple Tree by Erik van Schaaik, and Sprinkles 4-Ever! by Willem Baptist.
Katapusan Labok by Aiess Alonso, Wag kang Titingin by Pam Miras, Mga Alingawngaw sa Panahon ng Pagpapasya by Hector Barretto Calma, Missing by Zig Dulay, Sa Wakas by Ma. Veronica Santiago, Bakaw by Ron Segismundo, Ang Telenovela ni Juan at Luzviminda by Emerson Reyes, Hindi Ako Makatulog Nang Wala Ka sa Tabi Ko by Jade Castro, Da More Da Meniyer by Erik Matti, and Faculty by Jerrold Tarog are among the Filipino short films featured in the film fest.
3. Witness two different cultures merge through the language of film
Despite the geographical distance and their cultural differences, the Netherlands’ relationship with the Philippines is defined by mutual understanding and cooperation. Nothing is more fascinating than to see these two countries work together toward a common goal using creative means like movies.
Behind the scenes of Ara Chawdhury’s Miss Bulalacao
The Dutch-Filipino film fest will showcase the best of Dutch and Filipino films which tell stories in extraordinary ways. If you’re a movie-goer who likes watching documentaries that make you think of today’s society or a film student who likes to learn about different cultures, this film fest is definitely for you.
4. Be fascinated by the magic of award-winning films
If you want to watch Dutch and Filipino films that have been recognized by the world’s most prestigious award-giving bodies, then this film festival is the perfect venue for you.
Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman
Those Who Feel the Fire Burning
Golden Calf for Best Documentary Long Documentary & Best Sound Design,
Nederlands Film Festival
Borgman
Golden Calf for Best Feature Film, Best Actress, & Best Script,
Nederlands Film Festival
Balikbayan #1: Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III
Caligari Film Award,
Berlin International Film Festival
Brillante Mendoza’s Taklub
Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan
Filipino entry for Best Foreign Language Film, 87th Academy Awards
Nominated for Prix Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival
Best Picture and Best Actress, Gawad Urian Awards
Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Award
Taklub
Ecumenical Jury Prize- Special Mention, Cannes Film Festival
Best Picture, Gawad Urian Awards
5. No need to spend a single peso to satisfy your craving for films… and learning!
You don’t have to spend a lot to learn new things, culture, or even language and immerse yourself in a world of ideologies and insights. Watching films featured in the Dutch-Filipino film fest will let you do all those things for no cost at all.
All you have to do is to sit back, relax, and enjoy the variety of films the film festival is offering. You can also invite a friend or two!
Erik Matti’s Honor Thy Father
The Active Vista International Human Rights Film Festival is co-presented by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, Film Development Council of the Philippines, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, University of the Philippines Film Institute, Movies that Matter, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, Ateneo Human Rights Center, Alternative Law Groups, Metro Manila Pride, Filipino Freethinkers, ABS-CBN News Channel, BusinessWorld, WhenInManila.com, and CinemaBravo.
Films will also be screened in Davao (July 30-August 5), Iloilo (August 9-13), Cebu (August 20-26), Baguio (September 6-10), and Manila (September 27-October 1). Closing screenings will be held on October 8-9 at Shang Cineplex, Shangri-La Mall, Mandaluyong.
For more information on the Dutch-Filipino Film Festival, visit the website and Facebook or follow on Twitter.
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