4th Mindanao Film Festival opens on Dec. 14
Mighty)
The Art and Culture movements in the regions are gaining momentum and covering more ground! Just yesterday, I attended a screening of Kalam, the first ever Kapampangan fantaserye, together with a forum on Philippine language problems.
I was amazed with the way Kalalangan Kamaru (the group behind Kalam) promotes Kapampangan culture through movies, rock music and other pop culture elements. Well, this calls for a whole blog post some other time.
Anyway, this kind of movement is also evident in Mindanao. If it is any indication, filmmakers and film lovers will feast with the 4th Mindanao Film Festival on December 14-21. Details below, courtesy of the UP Film Institute Yahoogroups.
Mindanao’s most anticipated movie event the fourth Mindanao Film Festival will open this December 14 until December 21, starting with the screening of full-length digital film Concerto: Davao War Diary on
the opening day of the festival.
This year’s festival promises to be the biggest compared to the past staging of the annual festival which originally started as a short film festival for Dabawenyo filmmakers five years ago.
Kenth Bajo, Festival Director said that aside from theatrical exhibit of short films from Mindanaoan filmmakers at the Gaisano Mall cinema, the festival will have screening of selected full-length films, a film convention and the much-awaited Film Awards night.
Aside from short films coming from the Guerilla Film Workshops, the MFF will feature works of other local filmmakers plus those from the National Commission of the Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the National
Council for Children’s Television (NCCT) and a short film from neighboring Indonesia .
“The film community is growing, we are slowly seeing the birth and growth of Mindanao cinema, this festival will reflect these changes.” Bajo said. Foremost among the positive changes in the festival is the City Government of Davao’s support to the event plus the growing assistance of the private sector to the endeavor.
Bajo said that through the festival he sees the growth of the Hollywood of the south. Our filmmakers are making films here, they are shown abroad and they are winning awards there. Bajo cited Sherad
Sanchez’s Huling Balyan ng Buhi, which recently was shown in Denmark, and his recent work the award-winning Imburnal, which was shot in one of Davao City ‘s barangays.
Other films include Thank You Girls directed by Charliebebs Gohetia which competed in a film festival in Vancouver, another is the peace advocacy movie Hunghong sa Yuta directed by playwright Arnel Mardoquio.
He said that another full-length digital film a Chabacano-Bisaya film will also be shot in Davao and Zamboanga perhaps in early next year. “Slowly we are crafting a Mindanao cinema. This festival will
hopefully help us achieve it.” Bajo added.
A nearly obscure festival four years ago, the Mindanao Film Festival is slowly making the right noises, just recently, actress Dawn Zulueta, wife of Davao del Norte 2nd district Representative Anton
Lagdameo has agreed to support the film. Renowned filmmaker Kidlat is also making an appearance as one of the Convention speakers.
The MFF is brought to you by the Mindanao Film and Television Development Foundation, the NCCA, the City Government of Davao, City Tourism Office and the Museo Dabawenyo.
| 2.6 |
[...] [via] This entry is filed under Mindanao Film Festival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply [...]