[Full lineup] Cinema One Originals Film Festival 2015: The 9 films in competition

Editor’s Note: Rappler movie critic Oggs Cruz is part of the selection committee of the 2015 Cinema One Originals film festival. Below are his thoughts on the year’s lineup of films. 

Now on its 11th year, the Cinema One Originals Film Festival can be proud of a great ongoing run as a film festival in the Philippines that consistently funds its own original content.

Moreover, the film festival, which has been known for films that not only challenge traditional storytelling, like Jerrold Tarog’s Confessional (2007), Ray Gibraltar’s Wanted: Border (2009), and Dodo Dayao’s Violator (2014) – but also expand the possibilities of what independent cinema is capable.

It did so with films like Sherad Anthony Sanchez’s Huling Balyan ng Buhi (2006), Jet Leyco’s Bukas na Lang Sapagkat Gabi Na (2013), Antoinette Jadaone’s That Thing Called Tadhana (2014), and has never veered from its vision of discovering new talents and unique visions.

It is therefore but apt to tag the current film festival with “Kakaiba Ka Ba?” – a question that strikes at the very core of what the film festival aims to do, which is to showcase variety in its programming.

This year, the film festival has chosen 9 works from both veteran and debuting filmmakers that are brimming with originality and verve. 

The 9 Cinema One Originals Film Festival Finalists are:

(The film summaries are courtesy of Cinema One.) 

Baka Siguro Yata

Director: Joel Ferrer

Synopsis: “A romantic comedy of intertwined stories of a dysfunctional extended family showing different views of love in each generation.”

 

Joel Ferrer’s debut film Hello World (2013) revealed a filmmaker with a knack for conversational comedy. He has also been credited as co-writer of Miko Livelo’s Blue Bustamante (2013), which also showcased funny dialogues amidst absurd situations.

With Baka Siguro Yata, Ferrer expands his milieu with a tale that can only work if all of its serious and personal undertones are peppered with relatable humor, which is exactly what Ferrer is most capable of doing. 

Bukod Kang Pinagpala

Director: Sheron Dayoc 

Synopsis: “In an old house replete with images of Catholic icons and symbols, a young lady struggles with the demented religious fanaticism of her mother, who it seems cannot differentiate between pious fervour and demonic possession – for both exist simultaneously in her being.

“The daughter seeks help for her mother’s behavior, but as days go by, their relationship turns from harrowing to horrific, as strange phenomena occur inside the house, driving the daughter to evade and overcome her mother’s deranged machinations.” 

It has been 5 years since Sheron Dayoc won Best Film in Cinemalaya for Halaw (2010). Interestingly, instead of venturing into another social realist tale, Dayoc went the other way and tackled a parable that is closer to fiction than it is to fact.

In so doing, Dayoc seems to be exploring themes that are inherent to the Filipino psyche: religious devotion. The film feels like it can be truly frightening, both as a cinematic experience and as a talking point.

Dahling Nick

Director: Sari Dalena 

Synopsis: “Dahling Nick is a docu-drama exploring the life and works of National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin, who only accepted the National Artist Award on the condition that the Marcos administration release a well-known writer who was being unjustly detained during Martial Law.

“Depicting the ‘inner world’ of this canonical writer, who wrote both novels as well as journalistic works, the juxtaposition of documentary interviews, episodes from his life, and evocative imagery from his literary pieces will create a cinematic collage”

  

With Ka Oryang (2011) and The Guerilla is a Poet (2013), films that tackle the lives of important and controversial historical personalities, Sari Dalena has positioned herself as a filmmaker who looks at history from a very personal perspective. Truly, Dahling Nick has the feel of a work from an artist whose fascination and admiration for her subject matter is palpable. 

Dayang Asu

Director: Bor Ocampo

Synopsis: “Amidst legalized corruption, a son proves to his father that he is fit to survive in a dog-eat-dog world.”

Dayang Asu- Trailer

Catch Dayang Asu on the big screen this November during the Cinema One Originals Film Festival!Premiere/Gala Screening will be on NOVEMBER 10, 2015, 7PM, SM MEGAMALLOther screening schedules:NOV 12- 5PM, SM MEGAMALLNOV 12- 9:30PM, GLORIETTANOV 13- 9:50PM, TRINOMANOV 14- 12:30PM, SM MEGAMALLNOV 15- 2:45PM, GLORIETTAWe are still accepting contributions in for our fundraising campaign in support for this production. You can contact us directly thru +639178004409 or ikotproductions@gmail.com if you would have any inquiries. Just answer this form and we’ll contact you for further details & intsructions in contributing: http://goo.gl/forms/1b2KkPIrXe or you could also choose to contribute through http://igg.me/at/dayangasu/x/12026699Thank you very much! <3

Posted by Dayang Asu on Monday, November 2, 2015

 

 

Bor Ocampo is better known as an actor, both in theater and independent films. However, he has also made a name for himself as a director of short films. Dayang Asu, on the other hand, is something else.

It is a monumental risk, one that has a debuting filmmaker juggle grandiose themes about country and family with an immense production that even a veteran filmmaker would have trouble with. Of course, risks, fueled by dedicated passion, always pay off.

Hamog

Director: Ralston Jover

Synopsis: “About the notorious batang hamog loitering in main thoroughfares such as EDSA.”

In 2013, Ralston Jover convincingly turned former beauty queen Vivian Velez into a morally conflicted abortionist in Bendor. With Hamog, Jover has child star Zaijan Jaranilla to work with, making sure that the popular kid mixes in with the smog and cement of Manila’s dirty highways.

Jover has always been interested in social realism and Hamog promises to take that interest further by covering familiar themes with the delicate innocence those children have been deprived of. 

Manang Biring

Director: Carl Joseph Papa

Synopsis: “Manang Biring is a story of a terminally ill but feisty old lady who has learned to accept that she will soon pass away. One day, she receives a letter from her long estranged daughter saying that she will be home for Christmas. Knowing that she will not make it, Biring will go to great lengths to prolong her life and to give her daughter a Happy Christmas.”

  

Why you should get excited: An I.T. specialist by profession, Carl Joseph Papa has a considerable following with his short animated works. Ang ‘di Paglimot ng mga Alaala (2014), Papa’s transition to feature length filmmaking, is as personal as his shorts, garnering him a prestigious NETPAC award at the QCinema International Film Festival.

Manang Biring has Papa tackling a very personal subject with a methodology that is also close to his heart. Manang Biring has the distinction of being the first fully animated feature length film to have come out of any fund-giving film festival, which is a testament to the creativity, resourcefulness and audacity of the Filipino filmmaker.

Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso

Director: Raymond Red

Synopsis: “Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso is about the aftermath of the so-called People Power Revolution of 1986, spawning a group of young dreamers bewildered, wonder, and wandering, discovering the fire of youth, the loss of innocence, the journey into the core of one’s being, immersing themselves in a brewing new alternative culture and a little known and lowly regarded revolution of sorts – the emergence of a new underground, independent and alternative cinema.”

 

Long before Cinemalaya and Cinema One, there was the ragtag team of Raymond Red and his colleagues who were quietly doing wonderful things for Philippine cinema while the rest of the country was busy favoring cheap comedies and melodramas.

Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso takes a look at what brought about that movement, which can be seen as a pioneer of sorts to what the Cinema One Originals Film Festival is celebrating every year. This is a must for anybody who is interested in Philippine cinema. 

Miss Bulalacao

Director: Ara Chawdhury 

Synopsis: “Miss Bulalacao is about a young drag queen, Dodong, who joins a barangay gay pageant to gain acceptance in his father’s community. He is instead met with hostility from his father, who chases him into a jungle, where he sobs to a lone bright star.

“What follows is the strangest night in his entire life, and an even stranger nine months when he realises he is pregnant. Dodong deals with ridicule from a barangay who does not believe him.”

 

 

The overt absurdity of the tale is enough to convince anybody that Miss Bulalacao is at least worth taking a look at. Dwelling deeper, the film also features beautiul Biliran as a setting for its tale about gender and religion, which gives the film a milieu that renders it even more intriguing.

Ara Chawdhury is the writer of Christian Linaban’s Aberya (2012), which is a perverted ride within the dark corners of Cebu City. It seems that Chawdhury has a knack for discovering the little things that make a setting deeply ominous.

The Comeback

Director: Ivan Andrew Payawal

Synopsis: “The Comeback is about a thirty two faded actress who loses everything in her life and decides to commit suicide. However, on the day she decides to kill herself, she receives a package containing four letters and ashes in a vase: a dead man’s ashes in search of a home.”

 

 

Ivan Andrew Payawal’s debut film is brimming with intrigue. First, it is about a has-been who is given an opportunity to outgrow her failures. Second, it follows a tale that is promising with possibilities. Third, Payawal studied filmmaking in the late Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s school, and was then mentored by Jun Lana.

The Comeback promises to be a crazy exploration of a mind of a desperate showbiz insider, and it is bound to be a riot.

What will you be seeing at Cinema One this year? Let us know in the comments below. – Rappler.com 

Francis Joseph Cruz litigates for a living and writes about cinema for fun. Thefirst Filipino movie he saw in the theaters was Carlo J. Caparas’ ‘Tirad Pass.’ Since then, he’s been on a mission to find better memories with Philippine cinema. Profile photo by Fatcat Studios