Pinoy indies continue displaying wares abroad

Even as we have already established an enviable reputation worldwide in the various arts like singing and acting, the filmmakers are fast catching up. During the recent 12-day festival of the 42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands, seven Filipino indies from John Torres, Khavn De La Cruz, Mes De Guzman and the most active Adolf Alix Jr. were screened to much success. 

Last month, Metro Manila directed by British Sean Ellis, co-produced by Filipinos and featuring an all-Filipino cast won the Audience Award at Sundance. Filipino animator Joey Agbayani has been consistently winning for his short The Ghostwriter; Chris Martinez is bringing I Do Bidoo Bidoo: Heto nApo Sila to compete at the Osaka Asian Film Festival in March, while the networks figure in 14 categories of The New York Festivals’ World’s Best Television and Films finalists this April.

Getting to this status in world cinema has not been easy. One has had to beg, steal, bluff and borrow to produce an entry possible of attracting attention. Happily, Filipinos are talented multi-taskers, which is why we have amazed Westerners with our ability of coming out with brilliant products at so little cost. Anyone familiar with the story of Manuel Conde and his Genghis Khan movie produced for practically nothing became the rage of Europe.

Nowadays, film enthusiasts start training students in school, the most inspiring of which is the Pagulidanan Filmmakers Guild based in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte. Organized by its founding president Mark Dave Camarao, the guild has been holding an annual school-based film festival for the past five years. It aims to create a hub in Bacarra for beginning filmmakers.

ABS-CBN’s Budoy, starring Gerald Anderson, is competing at the New York Festivals in April

Meanwhile, De La Salle’s College of Saint Benilde has come up with a short film titled Frere: de la Salle Patron Saint of Teachers, produced by Benjamin Marasigan Jr., chair of Benilde’s Animation Program, with the collaboration of students, faculty, alumni animators and industry professionals.

A peek at the just-released list of competitors at the New York Festivals final list showed us an exciting list from over 50 countries. For instance, Budoy from ABS-CBN is competing with Munich 72 of ZDF German Television in the drama category. In the category of Biography/Profiles, Ang Pinakabata from GMA News TV, competes with an entry from People’s Production Hong Kong. Interesting would be the battle in the telenovela category between ABS’ Be Careful with my Heart and Dangerous Affairs of the Telemundo Network, USA. 

We wouldn’t be surprised if every day somewhere on this planet, a Filipino film can be found participating in a film festival. Among these current postings we found, we are most attracted to the story of Joey Agbayani whose animated Ghostwriter was last screened at the Offshoot Film Festival, University of Arkansas, US; then gathered successive wins as Best Animated short at Vieques Island in Puerto Rico, the California Film Awards in San Diego and Best International Short at the Kidz Filmz Festival in New Jersey.

He was still a teenager when his first movie, The Eye In The Sky, shot entirely with a Super 8 camera, won the grand prize at the 1984 short film competition of the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines. Joey’s next film Prayle or Friar came in 1988, with the collaboration of four other filmmakers from Mowelfund; then a short film editorial cartoon Kidlat based on real events that affected his family. Joey describes it as “a satire about a corrupt politician who cheated in an election.”  Kidlat was funded by the Goethe Institute through Mowelfund, a product of the Experimental workshop with German filmmaker Christoph Janetzko. It won a Gawad Urian award, a Film Academy of the Philippines award, and became the official Philippine entry to the 1989 Oscars.

However, at the back of his mind, Joey never forgot a childhood dream of making an animated film and began to work on The Ghostwriter. â€œThe short film was 11 epic years in the making,” he muses.  â€œIt took that long because I worked on it only during semestral breaks when I was still in school and as a professional whenever there are projects.”

It just proves that all one has to do is to stick to his dream, and things will work out eventually, however long it takes.

(E-mail the author at [email protected].)