‘Tribu’ is best film in Cinemalaya

Raw passion and tribal loyalties, searing violence amid terrible social conditions.

These were the ingredients of Jim Libiran’s raw and gritty film about gang life in the unforgiving squalor of Tondo, and won for Tribu the Best Film award (full length feature category) in the all-digital 2007 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition, which concluded last Sunday night at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Tribu also won for its cast of first-time actors, real-life gang members, the Best Actor award, as well as the Best Sound award for Mark Laccay.

Jade Castro’s Endo won the Special Jury Prize “for its revealing take on the lives of ‘end-of-contract’ casual workers in the retail and services sectors,” as well as the Best Actress (Ina Feleo) and Best Editing (JD Domingo) awards.

Best Director was Aureus Solito for Pisay, a look at the Philippine Science High School through changing political climes in the country from martial law to EDSA 1986. The film also won Best Production Design and topped the popular voting as the Audience’s Choice for the ten-day festival.

Other awards in the Full Length Feature category were: Best Screenplay-Dennis Marasigan, Nikki Torres and Mara Paulina Marasigan for Tukso; Best Cinematography-Rodolfo Aves Jr. for Kadin; and Best Original Music Score-Jerrold Tarog for Kadin, an idyllic story of a boy searching for his goat in the picturesque landscape of Batanes.

Tribu was cited “for its grand and graphic depiction of contemporary Tondo, Manila, its raw passion and searing violence, its terrible social conditions and conflicting social mores, and its people’s coruscating embrace of both the sacred and the profane, the filial and the tribal, the tender and the vicious.”

In the Short Feature category, the Best Film award went to Rolyo by Alvin B. Yapan, a lyrical depiction of the simple life of a young girl in the province.

Special Jury Prize went to Nineball by Enrico Aragon, cited for “its hilarious and satiric take on the national pastime, billiards.” In his one-sentence acceptance speech, Aragon acknowledged the “greatest shotmaker of all time,” Efren Bata Reyes.

Other awards in the Short Feature category were Best Direction-Emmanuel dela Cruz for Gabon and Best Screenplay-Vic Acedillo Jr. for To Ni.

This year’s Cinemalaya drew a record number of entries and moviegoers. From 240 entries in the full length feature category, ten finalists were chosen to receive P500,000 grants to produce their films. Only eight films though made it to the competition. Attendance topped 23,000 in six venues at the Cultural Center that screened 120 films in competition and exhibition.

The first Cinemalaya in 2005 included such hits as Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, which has won awards in several international film festivals. The film, directed by this year’s winner Aureus Solito, took the Special Jury prize.

The 2007 Cinemalaya jury was composed of National Artist Salvador F. Bernal; Jeremy Segay, Asian specialist of the Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight; Lito B. Zulueta, writer of the Arts and Culture section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; Max Tessier, film critic and expert in Japanese and Asian films; and Ma-an Hontiveros, member of the Cinemalaya Foundation.

Other films that competed in the Full Length Feature category include Gulong by Jeanne Lim and Socorro Fernandez; Ligaw Liham by Emilio Abello VI and Manny Montelibano; Still Life by Katrina Flores.

Other films in the Short Feature category were Doble Vista by Nisha Alicer, Nix Lañas and Caren Crisologo; Durog by Tara Illenberger; Liwanag sa Dilim by Lawrence Fajardo; Maikling Kwento by Hubert Tibi; Misteryo ng Hapis by Mark dela Cruz; Tagapagligtas by Solita Garcia.

The Cinemalaya Festival and Competition, now on its third year, is a competitive film festival that aims to discover, encourage and honor the cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers and seeks to invigorate the Philippine film industry by developing a new breed of Filipino filmmakers. It features all original works in digital format.

Cinemalaya 2007 will move over to the UP Cine Adarna in UP Diliman on July 31 to Aug. 4.