Carlo Aquino in a scene from Cinemalaya's New Breed Best Picture, 'Diablo'.
Missed some of the better films in the recently concluded Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival? Anything you want to see for a second or nth time?
Then consider yourself lucky as the for the eighth year in a row, the UP Cineastes Studio, a student organization dedicated to film education and the promotion of Philippine independent films, will be screening all but three of 15 full-length feature films that competed in Cinemalaya’s New Breed and Directors Showcase categories in its annual “Cinemalaya Goes UP 8” starting August 1.
The festival, which will take place on non-consecutive days until August 14, will take place at the UP Film Center Cine Adarna at the University of the Philippines Diliman campus.
Opening “Cinemalaya Goes UP 8” will be Vincent Sandoval’s psychological drama, “Aparisyon” and Gino M. Santos’ teen-oriented “The Animals”, which won Cinemalaya awards for Best Sound and Best Editing respectively in the New Breed category.
Aloy Adlawan’s “Ang Katiwala” and Lem Lorca’s “Intoy Syokoy Ng Kalye Marino” which won Best Supporting Actor for Joross Gamboa and Best Production Design will be screened back to back on August 3.
On August 4, New Breed Audience Award and Best Musical Score winner “Ang Nawawala” by Marie Jamora will be shown alongside two films from the Film Development Council of the Philippines’ 1st Sineng Pambansa Film Festival in Davao City namely “In Bangka Ha Ut Sin Duwah Sapah (The Boat Between Two Rivers)” by Fyrsed Alsad Alfad III and Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez and “Ang Mga Kidnaper Ni Ronnie Lazaro,” also by Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez.
Two films about exploiting the dead, namely Special Jury Prize and Best Screenplay winner “REquieme!” and Best Actor (Kristoffer King) honoree “Oros,” will be screened on August 6 while Julius Sotomayor Cena’s “Mga Dayo (Resident Aliens)”, which tackles migration issues, is scheduled on August 7.
Director’s Showcase Best Film, Lawrence Fajardo’s “Posas” and Adolf Alix, Jr.’s “Kalayaan,” winner of Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design, will both be screened on August 11.
Mes De Guzman’s “Diablo,” winner of the New Breed Best Film along with four other awards, will be screened alongside Raymond Red’s “Kamera Obskura”, winner for Best Director and two other honors in the Director’s Showcase field, are scheduled to be shown on August 13.
The last day of the screening of UP Diliman film festival, August 14, is reserved for the best film of the New Breed which happens to be “Diablo”, so unless any changes are made, Mes De Guzman’s film will have two screening dates.
As of this writing, “Cinemalaya Goes UP 8” is still trying to accommodate a screening date for Benito Bautista’s acclaimed documentary, “Harana”, which was also shown in Cinemalaya.
Earlier, the UP Cineastes Studio has issued a statement in Cinemalaya Goes UP 8’s Facebook page explaining why three films, Jose Javier Reyes’ “Mga Mumunting Lihim,” Jun Lana’s “Bwakaw” and “Emmanuel Palo’s “Sta Niña”, are not included in the line-up.
“Director Jose Javier Reyes spoke apologetically saying he’d have to pass on the offer seeing as he’d already made plans for a commercial release of his film. However, he remained enthusiastic of the organization’s event and advocacy, offering any help that may be useful for the organization,” the statement said in reference to “Mga Mumunting Lihim.”
As far as “Bwakaw” is concerned, the statement pointed out that “director Lana made it clear that he was still unsure as his producers had already made plans for a commercial screening, though were not yet set in stone. The organization stayed safe and counted it as a no already to avoid any future conflicts.”
After some misunderstanding over whether or not “Sta. Niña”, which stars Coco Martin, will be screened in the festival or not, the organization stated that “the director of Sta. Niña had asserted that their representative during the meeting clearly disagreed in screening the film in UP.”
The statement likewise reiterated that “the purpose of ‘Cinemalaya Goes UP’ and the goal of the UP Cineastes’ Studio is primarily for film education and for the promotion of Philippine independent films.”
For ticket reservations and other information, visit the official Facebook page of “Cinemalaya Goes UP 8” at www.facebook.com/cinemalayagoesup.
The complete screening schedules are as follows:
August 1: 5PM, “Aparisyon”; 8PM, “The Animals”
August 3: 5PM, “Ang Katiwala”; 8PM, “Intoy Syokoy ng Kalye Marino”
August 4: 4PM, “In Bangka Ha Ut Sin Duwa Sapah”; 7PM, “Ang Mga Kidnapper Ni Ronnie Lazaro”; 9PM, “Ang Nawawala”
August 6: 5PM, “REquieme!”; 8PM, “Oros”
August 7: 5PM, “Mga Dayo”
August 11: 5PM, “Kalayaan”; 8PM, “Posas”
August 13: 5PM, “Diablo”; 8PM, “Kamera Obskura”
August 14: 5PM, Best Picture New Breed (“Diablo”)
