9 posts tagged “cinema”
IndieSugbu proudly presents its maiden offering: "IGSOON" (The Sister). It can now be viewed at this link. A follow up teaser trailer of our next short film, "Kilum" is shown right after the end credits.
ENJOY! (Comments are appreciated)
Daghang Salamat,
Clee Andro
email: cineclee (at) gmail (d0t) com
Say what? WHAT?
WOHOOOOOOOO!
Oh yeah! After chasing almost two decades for the perfect sequel script, Indiana Jones 4 production goes greenlight this June!
Guess who the leading lady is? Cate Blanchett!
Need spoiler preview of the screenplay? Click here.
Jérémy Segay, a member of the selection committee for the Directors’ Fortnight at the festival at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, is in town (Metro Manila) to scout for Filipino movies to be included this May.
I hope there are, or at least, one Cannes-worthy Filipino film out there. Pretty please.
Okay where do I begin? Give it up to this guy!
Little did I know that the son of a famous, award-winning surgeon here in Cebu City, who would usually come to visit his photographer friend on lazy afternoons (where I do graphic designs for this famous photographer), for a quick respite from his 15-blade (HE IS A SURGEON who dabbles into PHOTOGRAPHY for crying out loud!) and would intensely share ideas with me on Photoshop is ...
Paolo Dy, a Cebuano, who is making headlines now:
Filipino cinematographer enters Spielberg show for filmmakers.
ON THE LOT
From Mark Burnett, Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television, ON THE LOT affords aspiring filmmakers the opportunity of a lifetime: a $1-million DreamWorks development deal. Over the season, the 16 filmmakers will produce short films in every genre every week and the viewers will vote on who gets eliminated. The show will premiere with a one-hour auditions episode on Wednesday, May 16.
Watch Mr. Dy's 5-minute, chilling short film, "QWERTY" at http://films.thelot.com/films/19175. The ending is a killer, really! ALL-OUT votes to him, now!
"QWERTY" is well conceptualised. It gives you the utter thrill, what's-with-the-title paradox. Paolo Dy's compact narrative is engaging and one that sends spinal shivers, too, for such a short. The lighting is definitely superb, the acting is flat-out serious and near-perfect. The ending is a real killer, you'll never know it coming. It sure beat the hell out of me.
xxx
SPOILER ALERT! (Do not read below if you haven't seen the film yet)
Paolo reveals his "amazing trick" of the ending (no guys, it isn't CG!):"We shot a photo, cut it up into small pieces, and used a program to convert each piece into an ASCII-art image. Then we printed out each piece and put everything together. 400 pages!" He laughs.
It is a brilliant idea! See for yourself.
_______
Paolo Dy. Photo Credit: http://community.thelot.com/profiles/profile.aspx?un=paolody
From acclaimed director, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, comes Queen Raquela. This is a searing and enigmatic docu-drama about a prostitute ladyboy's endless search on life and the passions it brings. Raquela, a poor, street smart ladyboy dreams of making it to Paris in search for love and acceptance, but fate sends her, instead, in Iceland -- working in a fish factory. Shot in Cebu City, Paris and Iceland. Watch the trailer.
Balay Dakû - The first Ilonggo full-length independent digital movie.
After several years of living in Metro Manila, Julio, the youngest son of the Gonzalez family, returns for vacation in his home of Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. Accompanying him is his Iloilo born and Metro Manila lived wife, Stella.
Upon their arrival in Bacolod, everything seems to be normal and routine. Julio reunites with his widowed mother Inday Carmen, his elder brother Boy, and his old friend Isabela. He introduces Stella to all of them.
As the days and weeks progress, things start to turn sour and frustrating as old and unresolved personal issues, that Julio left behind, start to creep back into their lives. Stella is left to adjust herself to this different environment and people, as they in turn try to adjust to her liberated ways.
Emotional undercurrents swirl. Strains on relationships between the family members slowly start to reveal themselves, and finally come to a boil.
Googled and found this award-winning Pinoy indie film, ICU BED #7, from Oliver Oliveros' blog. It is written and directed by Rica Arevalo (won the best direction trophy). The film highlights the critically acclaimed performance of veteran big screen actor Eddie Garcia, who won a best actor award too.
Arevalo’s ‘ICU Bed #7’ is an impressive evidence of the entry of a new generation of gifted moviemakers to the world of Filipino visual entertainment, demonstrating a skillful departure from the traditional linear approach to story and character development while remaining true to its central theme without getting lost in pointlessly impressionistic cinematic devices. Arevalo stands out among the young arrivals who have managed to realize this difficult objective.
Eddie Romero, National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts, points out that “Rica Arevalo’s ‘ICU Bed #7’ is an impressive evidence of the entry of a new generation of gifted moviemakers to the world of Filipino visual entertainment, demonstrating a skillful departure from the traditional linear approach to story and character development while remaining true to its central theme without getting lost in pointlessly impressionistic cinematic devices. Arevalo stands out among the young arrivals who have managed to realize this difficult objective.”
Now, when do we ever get to see this in Cebu City?
TULI
Philippines, 2006, 107 Minutes, color
Director: Auraeus Solito
Screenwriter: Jimmy Flores
A group of young Filipino boys gathers at the creek. Through the lush forest, sun dapples the ground and water. A kind of ritual begins to transpire. The boys, one by one, are circumcised in a requisite rite of passage. A young girl, Daisy, is also there and becomes her father's stoic assistant in the act. Life in the remote Filipino village seems simple and innocent.
But as the children grow up, the plot becomes more complicated. Cut to Daisy, a beautiful young woman. She is dissatisfied with her life, and her father is continually drunk and increasingly abusive. An arranged marriage seems her only way out, but she has her eye on a different life. She is already falling in love with her female childhood friend--a relationship that threatens to tear the village apart.
As he did so well in Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros), Auraeus Solito again offers a glimpse into another culture; this time, it's not the grey city but the lush greens and rich hues of earth and sky. His story transpires in a magical, rustic style, where Old World spiritualism commingles with colorful Christian rituals. In Tuli, Solito transforms Daisy's male-dominated existence into a place where new ideas can thrive and prosper.— John Cooper
Screenwriter : Jimmy Flores
Executive Producer : Vincent del Rosario, Jr.
Cinematographers : Nap Jamir, Matk Gary, Regiben Romana
Editors : JD Domingo, Clang Sisson
Music : Pepe Smith, Shant Verdun
Production Manager : Endi "Hai" Balbuena
Cast : Desiree del Valle, Carlo Aquino, Vanna Garcia, Bembol Rocco, Amable Quiambao, Eugene Domingo
Director(s) Bios
Auraeus Solito
Auraeus Solito's first feature film, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, screened at Sundance in 2006 and went on to win 14 international awards, including 3 awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. It is also nominated for best foreign film at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards and is the Philippine entry for the 2007 Oscars. Tuli is Solito's second feature; it won awards for best picture and best director at the CineManila Film Festival. Solito traces his roots to the indigenous Palaw'an islanders of South Palawan, Philippines.
An interview with Auraeus Solito.
Source: http://festival.sundance.org/filmguide/popup.aspx?film=4688
A short history of the decline of the Visayan movie industry. Will there be hopes of its revival?
1902 - cinema came to Cebu when the Cinematografo Electro-Optico Luminoso Walgrah was set up by one Pedro Alario in a warehouse on Magallanes St.
1910 - Cebu's oldest playhouse (Teatro Junquera established in 1895 on Colon Street) came to be more of a cinemahouse than a playhouse.
1911 - Cine Ideal was built, a structure particularly built for movie viewing.
1922 - Cine Auditorium was built, with a capacity for 10,000 people.
1922 to 1923 - the year Visayan movie making started. A group of Cebuanos collaborated to make, the first Cebuano full-length silent movie.
1938 - the first talking motion picture in Cebuano was produced, called Bertoldo-Balodoy.
1940 - the second movie, Gugmang Talagsaon, was released, co-directed by Fernando Alfon and S. Alvarez Villarino.
WW II - the third movie, Florentino Borromeo's Bulak sa Lunangan was in production when the WW II broke out, and thus, was never finished.
November 1947 - the movie Sa Kabukiran was premiered in Cebu's Liberty Theater. Manuel P. Velez, a well-known Cebuano composer, helped produce the movie. He was the musical director while his daughter, Lilian Velez, was the movie's star.
1949 - Velez linked up with local businessman and organized Star Pictures Production Corporation. The company produced its first film, Buenaventura Rodriguez's Luha Sa Kalipay , which opened in Vision Theater on December 28, 1949. It had a Cebuano cast led by Bert Nombrado and Esterlina (Ester Colina).
1950s - the heyday of the Visayan film industry. Films were made by such outfits as Azucena Pictures, Mutya Productions, Antingan Pictures, VisMin Productions, Vista Films, and Adelpha Pictures. The industry produced such notable screenwriter-directors as Piux Kabahar, Fernando Alfon, Natalio Bacalso, S. Alvarez Villarino, and Leoux Juezan. It was also a time for the rising of such stars as Mat Ranillo Jr., Gloria Sevilla, Esterlina, Bert Nombrado, Mario Palacio, Virgie Solis, Caridad Sanchez, Danilo Nuñez, and comedian Arcadio Roma. There were around 80 Cebuano movies produced between 1947 and 1960, an average of some six new pictures a year.
1950 - Princesa sa Tawi-Tawi, which starred Rudy Robles, was produced with English subtitles with an eye for the foreign market.
1955 - Salingsing sa Kasakit won a Best Picture nomination and a Best Child Actor award for Undo Juezan in the FAMAS competitions. This movie was also dubbed in Tagalog for wider distribution.
1960 - the beginning of the Cebuano movie industry's decline.
1969 - Badlis sa Kinabuhi, a Cebuano film produced by a Tagalog director, Leroy Salvador. It won the Best Actress award for Gloria Sevilla in both the FAMAS and the 16 th Asian Film Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. The film was also chosen as the Best Black and White Film in Jakarta and was entered in the Berlin Film Festival of 1969.
2004 - Panaghoy sa Suba (Call of the River) is produced, directed and starred by Filipino actor Cesar Montano. It features Filipino actors Juliana Palermo, Jackie Woo, Phil Anthony, Caridad Sanchez, Joel Torre, Daria Ramirez, Ronnie Lazaro, Suzette Ranillo, Rommel Montano, Dr. Warfe Engracia, Ramon Villanueva, Chelo Espina, Flora Gasser, Disi Alba and Rebecca Lusterio.
It is an epic story set during the American Occupation (1942) and the Japanese Occupation (1945), shot amidst the virgin splendor of the island province of Bohol, Philippines mostly along and around the Loboc River which plays a significant role in the story. It is a mixture of action, drama, romance, and history.
The film is Cesar Montano's directorial debut with an almost entirely Visayan cast, and perhaps the biggest film ever to be shot in its entirety in the Visayas. The film, intended for both national and international exhibition, boldly used Visayan as the main language.
It was given an "A" rating by the Cinema Evaluation Board or CEB of the Film Development Council of the Philippines and was CM Films' entry to the 2004 Metro Manila Film Festival. The CEB described Cesar Montano's direction as "meticulous but light-handed." It turned "a somewhat rambling and slow screenplay into a poetic, sometimes even magical, current of silent struggle and survival."
The Call of the River is a multiple award-winner. It has bagged Second Best Picture (to Mano Po 3), Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Musical Score, Gatpuno Villegas Cultural Award at the Metro Manila Film Festival, 2004; and Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress at Gawad Suri Awards, Manila, 2005.
Sources: www.ngkhai.com & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
