Griffith Film School presents PHILIPPINES NOW! Guerilla Film-Making from the Philippines 31 August – 7 September
Guerilla Film-Making from the Philippines
Dock Street
South Brisbane
SAMPAGUITA (National Flower) ***** Please join the Film-Maker : CHUCK GUTIERREZ
A film that chronicles the journey of the sampaguita flower from the time the buds are plucked in the province to the time they are sold in the city. The story is told by the children who are involved in the different stages of the journey.
The film has been screened in over 28 international film festivals, premiering at the Venice International Film Festival in 2008. It has won six international awards and 12 local awards.
Saturday 31 August – OPENING NIGHT (drinks at 6pm, followed at 7pm by Film)
ANG NAWAWALA (What Isn’t There)
Gibson stopped speaking when he was a child. Now 20 years old, he returns home to Manila from his studies abroad, his first visit after several years. He finds his family trying to keep it together and his mother still hurt from a tragic loss in the past. As his childhood best friend tries to reconnect with him, he unexpectedly finds a chance at a first, real romantic relationship. Set against a backdrop of the vibrant local music scene, the film is a love letter to the youthful indie side of Manila that rarely gets featured on film.
In competition at Slamdance Film Festival, 2013. South-east Asian Film Festival, Singapore 2013.
Sunday 1 September – 4pm
HALAW (Ways of the Sea)
“Halaw” means “driven-away” in Malay-Bahasa. This film tackles the issues of exploitation and human trafficking from Mindanao to Malaysia. Following the journey of different people as they take an arduous trip into uncharted territories, crossing the borders of Bongao, Philippines, to Sabah, Malaysia, this film depicts their hopes of substituting certain poverty with the even more uncertain future that awaits them.
Winner, Best Film and Best Director, in the New Breed section of the Cinemalaya Film Festival 2010. Winner of NETPAC Development Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2011.
Sunday 1 September – 6pm
ABERYA (Stuck)
Welcome to the seamy side of Cebu, as seen through the eyes of its four lost souls: an egomaniac Filipino-American boxer, a prostitute from Luzon on a mission, a drug dealer experimenting with time travel, and a social climber caught up in a scandal.
Monday 2 September – 7pm
THE OBSCURED HISTORIES AND SILENT LONGINGS OF DAGALUAN’S CHILDREN
Shot over three years, this film is a mix of reality, myth, documentary footage and dramatised scenes. It tells the story of villagers of a remote fishing village in southern Philippines: a 12-year-old boy has lost interest in going to school; a domestic helper in Kuwait returns home to a cold, indifferent husband while her three friends are lured by the idea of a better life working overseas; a pregnant woman raises her children while her militiaman husband goes on dangerous assignments. Like the seasonal drying and flooding of the river, their lives are characterised by the constant rhythm of arrival, departure and waiting, amidst the foreboding future of an armed conflict.
Cinema Digital Seoul, 2012. Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival 2012. Winner, Lino Brocka Grand Prize and Best Director Award at 14th Cinemanila Int’l Film Festival 2012. Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival 2013, South-east Asian Film Festival, Singapore 2013.
Tuesday 3 September – 7pm
OIYAMAH (The Reckoning)
One morning, residents of a rural village in Maguindanao are horrified when the sun rises in the West. According to Islamic belief, this phenomenon signals the Apocalypse. As village folk react differently to the situation, a tragedy strikes when one of the residents is raped and her brother brutally murdered as he tries to avenge her. Steeped in superstition, the villagers attribute these to the Devil himself.
Told from the point of view of six-year-old Musali, Qiyamah reflects on our humanity, what we hold hear and what it means to be alive.
Grand Jury Prize and Best Cinematography Awards at 1st Sineng Pambansa National Film Festival, Philippines 2012. Screened at 7th Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Indonesia 2012.
Thursday 5 September – 7pm
JUNGLE LOVE***** Please join the Film-Maker : Sherad Anthony Sanchez
In the jungle in an undisclosed location in the Philippines where military cadets wander leisurely and aimlessly about, we meet a middle-age woman who runs off with a baby, two juvenile explorers lost in sexual games, and a guide with an obscure presence. All are consumed with the game of their own lives…until the jungle comes to play.
Made in Manila, Cinemanila Int’l Film Festival 2012, Official Selection, CINEMAXXI, Rome Film Festival 2012, Hongkong Int’l Film Festival 2013
Friday 6 September – 3pm
LESSONS IN FILM
JUNGLE LOVE***** Please join the Film-Maker : Sherad Anthony Sanchez
Sherad Anthony Sanchez is a graduate of Ateneo De Manila University. When he was in sophomore year he made his first short film, Apple (2005), about a professional mourner in a town beside the Bangkerohan River in Davao City, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2006 . In his junior year, while on a leave‐of‐absence from school, he made his first feature, Huling Balyan Ng Buhi: O Ang Sinalirap Nga Asoy Nila (Huling Balyan Ng Buhi: Or The Woven Stories Of The Other) after winning a grant from Cinema One Originals 2006. After taking a series of narrative education from various professors and schools, his second feature surprised audiences not only because of a controversial prohibition of exhibition by the censorship board but also with its aggressive film language. Imburnal (Sewer) was completed in 2009 and went on to win numerous international awards. His Film Imburnal was named one of the top ten Films by various critics of the world reknowned Film publication and Journal, Sight And Sound.
Sanchez also produced, through his production company Salida Productions, the feature film Kolorete (2008, directed by Ruelo Lozendo), which he also wrote. It won the Special Jury Prize at Cinema One Originals. His latest project is the Swedish‐Danish‐Filipino feature co‐production Balangay (2010), which is made with agitprop Sweden and Dox:Lab Copenhagen.
Now that he has graduated and after winning more than a dozen of awards in various countries including France, Germany, South Korea, Argentina, India and many more; and selected in over 50 international Film festivals—he is working as a selection committee member, supervising producer and as a consultant for Cinema One Originals ABS‐CBN with more than twenty of their feature Films and does lecture in various institutions all over the world.
Friday 6 September – 4.30pm
LESSONS IN FILM
ULIAN (Senility)***** Please join the Film-Maker : CHUCK GUTIERREZ
Chuck Gutierrez is a multi-awarded film editor and producer. His works have championed Filipino cinema in major film festivals around the globe including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Pusan, London, Tokyo and New York.
He is also a foreign correspondent for international news agencies such as CNN and Bloomberg. He is the co-founder of Voyage Studios which produce new breed of Philippine independent cinema with respected directors, writers and cinematographers in the Philippines today.
Saturday 7 September – 2pm
CARTAS de la SOLEDAD (Letters of Solitude)
Rashid Ali returns to his Maguindanao hometown after studying and working for more than 25 years in Barcelona, Spain. Idealistic, he dreams of using what he learned in Europe to improve the lives of his people. But nothing has changed since he left. Politicians remain corrupt, poverty is widespread and his people are desperate. Frustrated, Rashid retreats to a decrepit family villa far away from town, with Racma, the housemaid, as his only companion. Their only connection to the world is Andal, the family servant, who delivers their weekly rations and Anuk, the postman. In seclusion, Rashid writes to himself detailing the affairs of his day, combining his own experience and his opinion of the radio news everyday. These letters, written in Spanish, serve as Rashid’s memories, and his remaining connection to his adopted home. The act of writing becomes a refuge until an imminent war threatens the serenity.
NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the 7th Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Indonesia 2012.
Saturday 7 September – 4pm (Followed by Closing Drinks)
IMBURNAL (Sewer) ***** Please join the Film-Maker : Sherad Anthony Sanchez
This is a tale of manhood of two pubescent males about to journey into their furthest extremes. While always hanging out in the crevasses of Punta Dumalog to escape poverty, Rabat (Brian Monterola) and Allen (Allen Lumanod) also find solace, test their friendship and shape their orientations in life.
Lino Brocka Grand Prize Award at the 10th Cinemanila International Film Festival 2008, and the Best Picture Award in the 2008 Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival.
