A close look at MMFF’s New Wave

The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) first screened full-length indie films in 2010 in a non-competitive event; in 2011 with the popularity of indie films on the rise, MMFF chairman Francis Tolentino added a side-bar New Wave category for indie films and student short films to compete. This year’s New Wave has added Cinephone as new category. These films screen at Glorietta Makati Cinema Dec. 18 to 22, not the best playdate but still offering the opportunity to show one’s work in a first class mall, with definite schedules and hours of screening which has never before been possible with experimental  productions.

Last Nov. 23, we reviewed the Short Film and Cinephone entries. We now go through the five Full Length entries.

Grave Bandits is a horror flick about zombies where director Tyrone Acierto blends zombie myth from East and West into a vibrant story of how greed can destroy humanity. Two orphans making a living out of stealing from the dead are forced to flee to an island where an alien virus has animated the dead. A must- see to watch the undead gloriously dismembered and mutilated across a big screen.

Acclaimed independent filmmaker Ronaldo Bertubin’s latest work Gayak celebrates the feast of St. John the Baptist not with the water splashing but through the Taong Putik Festival of Aliaga, Nueva Ecija where locals cake themselves in mud and saunter around town emulating St. John as a pauper. It is against this background that Felix and his young son JC would face the most difficult trial of their lives.

If only for the choreography of Flamenco master Clara Ramona and the vibrant musical score combining Flamenco “compass” with Filipino kundiman by world-class jazz guitarist and musical director Bob Aves one simply shouldn’t miss In Nomine Matris. Based on a true event, the film directed by Will Fredo tells of how a young dancer seeking to land a principal part in a dance company preparing for a tour goes to her mom and her mentor for advice.

Ad Ignorantiam by Armando Lao (from Latin meaning “an appeal to ignorance”) is based on an actual court case where a bank messenger accused of stealing a gold necklace is unable to prove his innocence beyond reasonable doubt, and is sentenced to prison. The film decries the problem of the country’s justice system.

 Michael Angelo Dagñalan’s entry Paglaya sa Tanikala introduces us to young Berto, born into abject poverty and living under street bridges sniffing toxic fumes until he meets a Somascan Brother who gives him refuge he has never before known. But the pressure from the street compels him to follow their code.

It is rare that we get excited to want to watch all the entries of a film festival. This year’s Full Length finalists are all strong and all inspired by real life except for the zombies story unless…yak! This is a testament to the genius storytelling capability of this country’s filmmakers. May their tribe increase.

Next year, chairman Tolentino has announced an animation category. Where will all these activity lead to? In 1978 in the US, Robert Redford, star of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, founded the Utah Film Festival to attract filmmakers and showcase the potential of the independent film movement. In 1991, the renamed Sundance Film Festival had figures as Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh garnering resounding critical acclaim and unprecedented box office sales. In 2005, about 15 percent of the US domestic box-office revenue was from independent studios.

 Locally, big stars Piolo Pascual (Manila, Kimmy Dora, Kimmy Dora & The Temple of Kiyeme) and Dingdong Dantes (TikTik: The Aswang Chronicles) turned film producer. Isn’t this an indication of the way of the future?

Don’t forget, Dec. 18 to 22.