Pinoy-run SoHo filmfest enters its 3rd year

When the Filipino brainchild SoHo International Film Festival opened its gates in 2009, not a few raised their eyebrows. It was an ambitious venture especially from an inexperienced group powered simply by love for the arts, a passionate outlook and a genuine belief in their own capabilities to back them up. Today, the small festival based in the neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York has attracted more and more artist participation for which the district is known worldwide. This year’s SoHo fest will be held on April 13 to 20 at the Sunshine Cinema complex, 143 East Houston, New York.

At the forefront of this effort has been Jorge “Jojo” Ballos whom we had met through long-time New York resident and educator Lorli Villanueva, when Ballos was a commercial model turned modeling agency entrepreneur. With luck and significant support from New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the idea of a SoHo festival sprouted wings and took off, attracting supporters from the industry. Naturally, success spawned iniquity, but that didn’t alarm its founder and president Ballos, who had since acquired a most conscientious executive director and marketing head in Sibyl Santiago.

The SoHo festival had over a thousand people attending its inaugural year, then 4,000 last year, and this 2012, it is expecting more audiences. Films this year are from US and Canada, UK, Europe, Asia and Eurasia (Turkey).

Jean Garcia and Paulo Avelino in Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa

Without forgetting its roots, SoHo had also searched for outstanding Filipino filmmakers to participate in the festival. Year 2011 included Mountain Thief, Tarima, Multo and Ganap na Babae in competition. Directed by Rica Arevalo, Ellen Ramos, Sarah Roxas, Ganap na Babae won Excellence in Cinematography. This year’s competition includes Senior Year and Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa (Dancing with Two Left Feet).

Senior Year, which runs for 96 minutes and is directed by Jerrold Tarog, gives a glimpse into the apprehensive final year in the lives of 10 students before high school graduation. Citations are Best Screenplay and Musical Score, 2011 Star Awards; a high recommendation from the country’s Department of Education; and an “A” rating from the Philippine Cinema Evaluation Board, which noted that “it is the non-acting of the young non-actors that is the crowning glory of the film.”

Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa (The Dance of Two Left Feet), a full-length feature directed by Alvin Yapan, explores the divergence between feminist and gay concerns, poetry and dance in a Third World context. Six feminist poems are set to music about a dance teacher (Jean Garcia), with Paulo Avelino and Rocco Nacino, alternating between friendship and homosexual tendencies, as her dance students. At the Cinemalaya 2011, Sayaw won Best Cinematography and Best Original Music. For details on the SoHo Film Festival, contact [email protected].

GMA 7 & Indonesian company behind psycho thriller

Gwen Zamora in the psycho-thriller The Witness

When it was announced that GMA 7 and StroWorld in Indonesia had gotten together to produce The Witness, now spreading through word-of-mouth, we quickly joined the crowds at the movie houses to find what the fuss was all about.

Major interest was that Gwen Zamora, one of GMA’s regular talents, was purposely picked by the Indonesians for the title role. Gwen has been seen on TV in Biritera, My Beloved, Bubble Gang, Party Pilipinas and movies My Kontrabida Girl and Enteng ng Ina Mo. The film reminded us of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho with Anthony Perkins. In The Witness, Gwen is left for dead after witnessing the carnage of her entire family. She suffers trauma and is unable to remember anything. The film follows her as she pieces together what could bring her to the assailant.

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