The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
by Alvin I. Dacanay
If there’s one thing that stands out in the second edition of the CineFilipino Film Festival, which will open this week and has “Kwento pa rin ang hari (Story is still king)” as its theme, it’s the accessibility and diversity of the entries in different categories—nine full-length films, five documentaries, five television series, and 17 short features.
Accessibility, because none of the entries seem to be pushing the limits of film and TV, to be bucking convention. No avant-garde features here, only good and smart stories brought to life onscreen in reasonably conventional ways that moviegoers should have no trouble with. And diversity, because of not only the stories presented, but also the genres they fall under and the interesting characters in them. Every filmgoer should be able to relate to at least one of them.
Consider the characters in the nine films in the feature-length category. There’s Precy (Lotlot de Leon) in Dexter Hemedez and Allan Ibanez’s “romantic comedy” 1st Sem, whose relationship with her son Maru (Darwin Jefferson) starts to deteriorate after his homesickness makes him drop out of the university in Manila he enrolled in and return home to the province.
There’s also ambitious Kayela (Isabella de Leon) and financially struggling taxi driver (Martin Escudero) of Carla Baful’s A Lotto Like Love, who are brought together in luck and love by a single winning lotto ticket; and heartbroken Cielo (Alessandra de Rossi), of Ice Idanan’s Sakaling Hindi Makarating (In Case They Don’t Arrive), who travels across the Philippines using the hand-illustrated postcards anonymously sent to her as guides and becomes captivated by the life—and people—she encounters beyond Manila.
Those intrigued by the supernatural would be fascinated by homemaker Sandy (Iza Calzado), the main character of Paolo Herras’s Buhay Habang buhay (Alive Forever), whose ghost waits for her husband Joel (Jake Macapagal) to die so that they can reunite and enjoy the hereafter; and ambulance driver Bong (Joem Bascon) and nurse Francis (Sandino Martin), who find the road ghost stories they have been telling to each other during their trip home are becoming terrifyingly real in Alvin Yapan’s Ang Tulay ng San Sebastian (The Bridge of Saint Sebastian).
Of course, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are represented by Ned (Angeli Bayani), a tattoo artist who joins a lesbian variety/talent TV show in the hope of winning the P300,000 prize money and use it to get herself pregnant via artificial insemination in Lemuel Lorca’s Ned’s Project, and Eric (Carl Guevara), a hairdresser who wakes up from a coma—which he slipped into after getting injured during a fight with his ex-lover—a straight man, much to the dismay of his gay friends, in Dave Fabros’s Straight to the Heart.
People who are trying to overcome their physical limitations may find inspiration in Olga (Cai Cortez), the protagonist of Jason Paul Laxamana’s Ang Taba Ko Kasi (Because I’m Fat), whose infatuation with handsome swimming instructor Noah (Mark Neumann) motivates her to lose weight; and a boy with Down syndrome (Paolo Pinggol), who dreams of becoming a famous actor—something that his loving mother Nadia (Candy Pangilinan) tries to make into a reality—in Randolph Longjas’s Star Na si Van Damme Stallone (Van Damme Stallone is Now a Star).
And finally, there’s that character we all recognize from newspapers and TV news programs: the whistleblower. In Adolfo Alix Jr.’s political thriller Whistleblower, which will open the festival at Resorts World Manila’s Newport Cinema on Mar. 15, that would be Zeny (Nora Aunor), an accountant who’s caught in a scandal involving a high-profile businesswoman (Cherry Pie Picache) with ties to corrupt politicians, and who turns to a reporter (Angelica Panganiban) to help her expose the truth.
Rich characters and compelling stories of all types—these are what moviegoers can expect and enjoy from CineFilipino this year. Accessible and diverse characters and stories that Madonna Tarrayo, CineFilipino film director and Unitel Productions president and group chief operating officer, said in a statement offer filmgoers a “more enriching experience.”
The 2016 CineFilipino Film Festival is organized and led by Unitel Productions, in partnership with the MVP Group of Companies. It will run from Mar. 16 to 22 at Gateway Cineplex, Festival Cinemas, Eastwood Cinemas, Robinsons Galleria Movieworld, Robinsons Manila Movieworld, Robinsons Metro East Movieworld, Newport Cinemas, Edsa Shangri-La Cineplex and Greenhills Theater Mall Cinema. For schedules and more information, visit www.cinefilipino.com or www.facebook.com/CineFilipino.