Cinekatipunan

THIS WEEK AT CINEKATIPUNAN
April 30 – May 5, 2007

Start the week and end the month of April with three short films from Taiwanese and South Korean filmmakers, courtesy of Cinekatipunan’ s weekly Asia Lunes program. May 1, International Labor Day,will be capped on this side of Katipunan Avenue by a filmic tribute to slain Nestle union President Diosdado “Ka Fort” Fortuna by Southern Tagalog (ST) Exposure and Proletaryado by May Day Productions, a tribute to the centuries-strong struggle of militant unionism in the Philippines. This will be followed up by a literal Pulang Sine program featuring ST Exposure’s Red Saga and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Red on Thursday, May 3. Wednesday, May 2, will feature a back-to-back screening of short films by acclaimed young directors Raya Martin and John Torres, while Elvert Banares holds court over Friday’s program (May 4), with a marathon screening of his short works. The highlight for the Saturday program of short films selected byArmi Cacanindin from the University of the Philippines Film Institute. Held Mondays to Saturdays at Mag:net Café Katipunan, Cinekatipunan screenings start at 5:30 PM. While the film screenings are free, viewers are encouraged to make voluntary contributions for the honoraria of the featured filmmakers. For questions or comments about Cinekatipunan write to sinag_haraya@ yahoo.com. Cinekatipunan programs precede Mag:net Café's nightly holding of Live Performances by well-known and emerging bands and musicians. Mag:net Café is located along Katipunan Avenue (fronting Miriam and Ateneo) in Quezon City. For more inquiries please call 9293191 or visit www.magnet.com.ph.


30 APRIL – 5 MAY PROGRAM

April 30 (Monday)
AsiaLunes Program: Films from TAIWAN and KOREA

Hey Jimmy! (Taiwan)
2004, 16mins
Directed by Ming-Chieh Sung
A Chinese mother in Taiwan loves and supports her extremely tall and very black gay son, the result of an affair with an American soldier. The documentary revolves around Black Jimmy, a black Taiwanese drag queen, entering the socio-cultural complexities of the protagonist' s mixed parentage. A contemporary urban narrative, the documentary incorporates animation to create an affectionately comical insight.

For the Peace of All Mankind (Korea)
1999, 35mm, color, 7 mins
Directed by Lee Seok-hoon
Set in the jungles of Vietnam in 1969, the short film For the Peace of All Mankind was given a Special Jury Citation at the 51st Montecatini International Short Film Festival, held in Italy.

Sara Jeanne (Korea)
2004, 20 mins
Directed by Seong Sook Kim
Sara Jeanne, an aging prostitute in a military base-side town hides her wrinkles with heavy make-up, puts on faded worn-out clothes and earns her living by selling her body to American soldiers. However, she no longer has anywhere to stand and her life grows more vulnerable to the danger of violence. Actress Young-Ran Rhee earned a special mention for her role in Sara Jeanne at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival Panorama Short Film Awards.


May 1 (Tuesday)
May Day Productions: PROLETARYADO / ST Exposure: THERE'S BLOOD IN YOUR COFFEE

Proletaryado
May Day Productions/ 47 mins/ 2006
Militant unionism in the Philppines has persisted for over a century to date, yet the struggles and stories of our nation’s workers remain the same. Times may have changed, but the struggles and problems faced byPhilippines workers have not. The roots of these problems remain, and have in fact worsened. Unionism and the workers’ movement has been forged, shaped, and wrought by the fires of struggle. History has demonstrated that the struggle of our workers cannot be divorced from the struggles of the entire Filipino people for freedom and sovereignty. The legacies of unionism, the formation of the first workers’ federations and the development of the militant workers movement continue to give inspiration to a new generation of Filipino proletariats.

There's Blood In Your Coffee
26 minutes
Southern Tagalog EXPOSURE: People's Center for Progressive Media
Amidst the Supreme Court rule favoring the Union, the Swiss company that owns Nestle would not give into the just and legal demands of its workers. For over two years, workers of Nestle factory in Laguna, Philippines has been on strike. The struggle for their rights have been met with repression not only from the multi-national company, but also from the Philippine government. sometimes subtle, often times violent.The documentary features the three-year Nestle workers strike in Cabuyao, Laguna, Southern Tagalog, where Filipino Nestle Union President and Kilusang Mayo Uno(KMU) Labor Leader Diosdado "Ka Fort" Fortuna was brutally murdered under the undeclared return of Martial Law under Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.


May 2 (Wednesday)
Raya Martin and John Torres: SHORT FILMS

SHORT FILMS by Raya Martin
Bakasyon
2004, 16mm, 12 mins
A young girl from the city is left to the care of her grandmother in the province. During her stay, the girl learns about her grandmother’s mysterious identity.

Life Projections
2006, DV, 4 mins
A video wants to be a film, as the world’s second biggest oil spill just happened in the heart of the filmmaker. A large group of Filipino film makers responded with a short film to a disastrous oil spill in their island nation. This talented film maker instinctively avoideda political pamphlet and went straight for the emotional core of the matter. He found that core in his heart, as he writes himself. –Gertjan Zuillhof, International Film Festival Rotterdam

Long Live Philippine Cinema!
2007, 16mm, 6 mins
Mother Lily is a Filipino Chinese producer who monopolizes the local film industry. And the only way to keep Philippine Cinema alive is to kill her. “Yes, a cinema to be proud of, yet the cheer is full of irony. The history of Filipino film isn’t treated with so much respect. A burlesque, harsh satire about the mistress of Philippine film production, the Chinese-Filipino producer Mother Lily. She is hated and feared, but nobody can get round her. Fortunately this young film maker has thought up an adequate solution to keep Philippine cinema alive. Mother Lily is not a metaphorical invention. She really exists -for now.” –Gertjan Zuillhof, International Film Festival Rotterdam

SHORT FILMS BY JOHN TORRES
Tawidgutom
is an experimental love poem/monologue composed of images that recur and repeat themselves. The narrator reminisces on a relationship and anticipates meeting his love again, both with trepidation and excitement. Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Screenwriter John Torres.
Cast: Paul Doble

Salat
is composed of several vignettes that are like snap-shots of urban life, juxtaposed once again with images of love, friendship and everyday life. In The Last Sherbet, street kids savour ice cream. Lunar Play is a short elegy for Portuguese footballer Miklos Feher (1979-2004), while Ellipsis, Kulob and Lunar Punch are a triptych in which the narrator muses on hope and the persistence of the spirit to want to carry on, against the background of a relationship that has quietly ended.
Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Screenwriter John Torres.
Cast: Michal Cruz, Rom Villaseran, Michael Morales, Nelvin Morales, John John Barzon, Kevin Baril

Kung Paano Kita Liligawan Nang Di Kumakapit Sa Iyo?
is an experimental film composed of rapid cuts, digitised images, snippets of urban and rural landscapes that are placed against a running poem, often premised by the film's title – how can I court you without ever holding you? -- but this rhetorical question is addressed as much to a lover unseen as it is to inanimate objects and to the world around the poet/narrator.
Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Screenwriter John Torres.
Cast: Ina Luna, Raphael Gallegos, Mark D'Aigle, Carlos Magno

Gabi Noong Sinabi ng Ama Ko (Night When Father Told Me)
Father writes his confession. Son goes away and buries his hero. He plays the flute for a funeral/dance of beating drums, meets Chance and achieves a rebirth of meaning and purpose. Son: "I cannot put into words how much contempt and love I feel for you right now."
Director, Producer,Cinematographer, Editor, Screenwriter John Torres.
Cast: JP Hernandez, Mark D'Aigle


May 3 (Thursday)
Pulang Sine Program: ST Exposure’s RED SAGA and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s RED

Red Saga
2004, 16 mm, 15 min
A young boy dots golden fields with white flags to stop birds from preying on the season’s harvest of palay grains. Another child creates noise by agitating tin cans filled with small stones. An unexpected transformation takes place. A poetic take on the peasant struggle and the protracted people’s war in Philippine countrysides.
Writer, Director Gabriela Krista Dalena; Cinematographers Gabriela Krista Dalena, Claude Santos; Editors Gabriela Krista Dalena, Qubry Quesada, Jomel Lawas, Virgilio Catoy; Sound Bobby Macabenta; Music Datu Arellano; Producers STExposure, Mowelfund Film Institute. “This shows the power of cinema.” – Laszlo Kovacs, American Society of Cinematographers1st Place, experimental Category, 18th Gawad CCP forAlternative Film and Video1st Place, 2004 Kodak Philippines Film School Competition1st Runner-up, 2004 Asia-Pacific Regional Film School Competition

Krzysztof Kieslowski: RED
Praised by critics nationwide as one of the year’s 10 best films, Red is a seductive story of forbidden love– and the unknowable mystery of coincidence. The final chapter in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s acclaimed “Three Colors” trilogy, Red stars Irene Jacob as a young model whose chance meeting with an unusual stranger leads her down a path of intrigue and secrecy. As her knowledge of the man deepens, she discovers an astonishing link between his past and her destiny.


May 4 (Friday)
WORKS by ELVERT BANARES:
Gemini / Astrangian / Plema / Sundulan ng Pagrahuyo sa Dambana ng Sirenang Walang Ulo

Astrangiam (7min)
Mind over matter. Perception over fact. Life over death. Shot in Casio Exilim EX-53 still camera, 'astrangiam' meditates on the relationships and parallelisms of time, spontaneity, assumptions, dreams and elements of nature.

Gemini (8 min)
A diptych film – visual experimentation of 16mm found footages, scratching, etching and punching holes on the actual film – with each color of the film strips soaked in different concoctions and buried in sand.

Plema [Phlegm] (22 min)
Motivated by emotional turmoils and day-job related exhaustion, the filmmaker creates this video letter to his VIDPREP (Video Experimentation) class with hopes to help exorcise personal demons. Recording on used tapes and utilizing current illness, this semi-autobiographical video metaphorically structures a visual collage of the filmmaker's wants, desires and lamentations, strongly hinting of his retreat (or is it escape?) from urban chaos and his complete submission to creative freedom.

Sukdulan Ng Pagrahuyo sa Dambana ng Sirenang WalangUlo [The Zenith of Seduction at the Altar of the HeadlessMermaid] (12 min)
Poetry on video tackling themes of innocence, vices and self-destruction. Shot in 1993 and re-constructed in 2006.


May 5 (Saturday)
CAMPUS-BASED FILMS: UP Film Institute Thesis Productions selected by Armi Cacanindin.

Sugat
Directed by: David Diuco
On a hot summer day, the air so humid you could almost drown in it, sixteen-year- old Peachy Angeles decides to jump off the high school roof top. Thus begins Sugat, a dark but poignant coming-of-age story that pays homage to the teen movie genre while alternately satirizing its conventions. Sugat is about the relationship that forms between two high school students – Peachy and Wacks. After being dumped by the most popular girl in school, Wacks and his friends bet on Peachy, the school's social outcast, to restore Wacks' bruised ego. But as the relationship between the two grows deeper, Wacks discovers things about Peachy that makes him understand the reasons for her unhappiness and why she wouldn't let other people get close to her. Winning Peachy's trust, the two start dating. Peachy eventually discovers that she is only the object of a bet between Joaquin and his friends. Heartbroken, Peachy ends the relationship. Joaquin realizes that he has truly fallen in love. What started as a bet between a group of friends ended up changing both lives forever.

My Girl
Directed by: Karen May Ocampo and Emelina A. Aguilar
My Girl is a story of love. Johnny is in deep grief after he lost Jenny, the love of his life. As he recounts the days that he spent with her, their lovestory will start to unfold. At first, we will see typical romantic scenes. But everything will change when Johnny saw Jenny with another guy, and this incident will bring him back to the reality that he just couldn't accept. My Girl is indeed a story of love. And just like any other stories, a love story also has two sides.

Saliwa
Directed by: Yam Palma and Sarah Gacer
Shane is a girl who embodies masculine behavior. At her age, she is not yet aware of the “standard norms” that her society dictates. And so, her masculinity naturally comes out of her but not until her parents noticed her behavior. She was forced to change, to learn things women ought to do, which in effect made her so uncomfortable and unhappy. But do we really have to act like a woman to be a woman? Do we have to do things boys normally do in order to be a boy? Do we have to follow what the society dictates even if we sacrifice our own happiness, or worse than that, lost our identity as unique individuals? Shane finds comfort in the arms of her best friend, Benedict, who understands her. Together, they enjoy life in a common place where they can simply be themselves.

Project: Bright Future
Directed by: Armi Rae Cacanindin and Rory Rebustes
The film is about Dax, a fresh graduate artist who finds himself working in an advertising agency, where his principles and ideals are put into test.

Pilas
Directed by: Angela Tañada and Melissa Magalong
Maya, a writer, tries to escape a sad past and pick up the pieces of her life by leaving the city. She meets Nina, an innocent little girl who inspires her to write again.

Lilip
Directed by: Rex Yadao
Lilip is about the unconditional love of a father for his son. Going beyond his masculinity, Daddy Tony accepts his son’s individuality. Though he still fears for his son’s future, he gives him guidance that would prepare his son for the challenges that lies ahead.

Laman-loob
Directed by: Liarnie Ostani
Laman-loob is a narrative film about Obet, a young embalmer who wanted to become a medical student but engages in some necrophilic acts and illegal selling of organs. This film serves as a social commentary in a deprived system that can turn powerless individuals into powerful destructive ones in order to survive.