8 posts tagged “film”
He who neglects learning in his youth loses the past and is dead for the future. -- Euripides
Premise: A person realises his future is no different than his past; it grows even darker, as he seeks absolution in the brink of a hopeless, remaining minute of his life.
Brief Synopsis
"Ang Manalagna" (The Fortune Teller) is a drama/thriller chronicling almost-a-decade the life of one Jake Lariosa, through a fortune teller's point of view. The year is 1999, when the world was going gaga over the Y2K hype and yet unperturbed by its consequences and plain oblivious to it: something far more shocking is eating Jake up -- a chagrin that has affected this Cebuano nursing student's normal perception of the world around him and his loved ones. A string of events collides into a sudden twist; while Jake suffers a metastatic, malignant brain tumor, it triggers a painful memory of his dark past -- as his life turns 180-degrees in the brink of death -- he seeks absolution, fraught by a questionable identity and his hopes of surviving the last shred of a shocking truth: his future was the past.
Cast of Characters:
JAKE LARIOSA, a Cebuano nursing student haunted by his dark past.
TONY LARIOSA, his father, a drunkard who is the center of Jake's conflict.
SUZANNE LARIOSA, his dysfunctional mother; she spends most of her time playing mahjong when critical family problems arise.
HANS, an effeminate 12-year old, precocious kid; he's a relative of the Lariosa's, whom Tony loosely calls his other "son."
LEA, Jake's nymphomaniac girlfriend who strongly denies over her sordid extra-curricular affairs.
PATRICK, Jake's next-door roommate; a straight-acting gay/voyeur neighbor who will stop nothing just to fulfill his fantasies with him.
JOSE MARIA DOMINGO, Jake's skeptical clinical instructor who is headstrong to fail him in his class.
__________
Profile:
Clee Albores-Villasor is a graphics designer for 7 years in Cebu City, Philippines. Deep inside him is an aspiring filmmaker wanting to escape from the daily grind and just go crazy with ideas using the powerful and effective storytelling tool that is called, film. He directed his first documentary, Ritmo sa Ritwal (Rhythm of the Ritual), for the recent 2007 Sinulog Video Documentary Competition last January, by the Sinulog Foundation and Cebu Filmmakers Society. Ritmo sa Ritwal became a Finalist for that competition. Ang Manalagna (The Fortune Teller) is his first full-length screenplay. If you are interested for a project collaboration and for other particulars about this, you can reach him through his email at cineclee@gmail.com.
Wow again. Talk about wowness!
Aureaus Solito is trailblazing in worldwide film festivals, at great speed for a fresh filmmaker, having earned the distinction of "an openly gay Palawano islander." This curious label for a Filipino director lands him again in the spotlight.
His second film, "Tuli," a recent groundbreaking work, lands in Sundance's "Spectrum" section this year. It won the The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) festival award in the recently concluded Berlin Film Festival.
Truth is stranger than fiction. The ridiculous and out-and-out idiocy of the Movie & TV Classification Board (MTRCB), in our country, has marked "Tuli" with an X-rating due to its brief lesbian kissing scenes. When will they ever grow up? MTRCB paints a disparaging portrait of how pathetic its "censorship board" (and not a classification board) is. It is a shot to the foot. It calls for a drastic change. Ergo, it must be CENSORED, albeit, indispensable, it must be CUT or even DISSOLVED. Fast!
Read Ruben V. Nepales' ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD: Sundance taps Pinoy filmmaker as speaker in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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.
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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.
I am simply agonizing over my script, "Tinsyon." It has taken on a mind of its own: a screenplay which I intended to end in a matter of just eighteen pages (I started it last February 4), but now it has blown out of proportions -- 81 pages to be exact! (Ha! Coincidence at least, but such cliché!) You say, "Eighty-one?" Don't bother asking. I want to believe that I can make it past the 100th page. Sure, why not? It's my "first full-length screenplay" for a first full-length film project. I am waiting for its delivery. And I feel like shouting and grimacing now. It has an end and a beginning to it. A flair that every "aspiring writer," like me, is mirrored by the first sign of unkempt goatee, rather than the smiles it can bring (without the mirror, now). So I am stuck in three pivotal twists. Will I just shoot the father of the protagonist? Will I spill blood at his mother's face? Will I show a "transmogrifying" scene? Kayata! Na-unsa naman ni tawon? Treatment, treatment. Will someone, please, hand me that bandage?
It's tactless to say scary, but yeah, it's hellva itchy. Burning, smouldering, all-consuming in its path. It wants to be done with. The more you don't want to write something, the more it wants to be written. That said, I just wanna go out and wash myself in the rain, if there will be. I am targeting (and I still keep saying this) to finish it in a week. Routine work mummifies my creative spirit (must be an unrequited poltergeist, who's never tried a blowjob, maybe...) ever since I got hired last week. It's a question of paradox, borne out of need: Would you rather have an 8-hour job (but soon you will be besieged by matters of priority and you simply forgot your passion) or have the whole year "to be creative," say, write a script... on an empty stomach?
This script wants to get suffocated with these words, now, "c'mon final draft!" Something in my mind now: Eat first. Write later. Yeah, right.
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.
At last, after five times with a bete noire from the Oscars, he got his trophy for "The Departed." It won best picture, best adapted screenplay and best film editing at the 79th Annual Academy Awards held on Sunday; total of four Oscars. (see the full list of Oscar Winners).
It's high time for him, after watching the whole weight of such agonizing wait.
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?
