Ugat Sa Lupa finalist in 2009 Cinemalaya

MANILA, Philippines - Ugat Sa Lupa, a non-dialog short film directed by Ariel Reyes is one of the finalists in this year’s Cinemalaya Competition. A National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) film grant, Ugat Sa Lupa, was shot on location in Batangas. It stars Gerald Madrid, Angelie Urquico, Don Isaac Puri, John Ryll Dimayuga and Arnold Reyes. It also utilized students of the filmmaking workshop conducted by director Reyes under PlusiMinus Film Camp and Aquarian Artistic Production, as production staff and crew.

Casting workshop students as production staff and crew, Reyes says he wanted his students to experience actual filming situation. Then, he concocted a short story about the hardships of a farming family who lived in an island. But it was not only a story about a family’s struggle for a living, it was also a story of family relationships between father and children and among siblings.

Reyes dictated the story and the script to one of his filmmaking students, Resti Dimayuga who encoded it on his laptop. While in the process of writing, they discussed the locations, sets and props that will be used in the film. Resti also acted as assistant director. With the story and script finished, Reyes and his team submitted it to the NCCA and got an initial funding for the film.

Reyes studied filmmaking at the All Union State Film Institute of Cinematography in Russia. He is an Urian nominee for Best Cinematography and Gawad CCP awardee for his experimental film Pisces which he shot while still a student in Russia. He used to work as assistant director of photography to Manolo Abaya. On the other hand, Resti is taking up his master’s degree at the La Salle University in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

For several weeks, Reyes and his team of students prepared the production. Beth Rementilla and her sister Caridad Arevalo, who also attended the digital filmmaking workshop handled continuity and coordination with NCCA, respectively. Beth also became the production manager together with Rex Cabandon, another workshop student. Reyes and his team also made ocular inspection for locations in Batangas.

Cinematography was ably handled by Ivan Togonon who took a vacation from Big Foot Entertainment in Cebu, where he is a producer, for a few days to be involved in this project. He once enrolled in the photography workshop by director Reyes while still a student at the Philippine Science High School.

Production design was handled by Hector Fernandez of Aquarian Artistic Production. A certified public accountant by profession, he took up Interior Design at the Philippine School of Interior Design and taught furniture styles for a while in the same school. He won a national Katha Award in 1986 for excellence in furniture design. Ted Somar and Dixon Solitana assisted Hector in the production design.

Costumes were handled by Anthony Viagedor, a native of Calaca, Batangas where one of the scenes was shot. He was dedicated to the task that he was dyeing and laundering the actors’ clothes even in the wee hours of the morning just to provide fresh costumes for the actors to wear. Leo Puri, road manager of the actors, served as one of the two assistant directors.

Almed Garcia of PlusiMinus Film Camp and Backroom Inc. is executive producer.