Fascinating Cinemalaya experience- Sheila U. Medina

                                                     

                                               Cinemalaya

It was my first time to enter cultural center of the Philippines (CCP) and watch Cinemalaya films. So I really felt excited about this event. We are present on the opening of cinemalaya. On the first day; they announced and gave us glimpse or trailer of all Indie film entries, and the creative directors behind each film, many of them comprises as young filmmakers. Young as like they “just graduated from college” and if you’ll judge them through their physical appearance, it looks like that they cannot create this kind of great films. That’s why I really appreciated all films entries, now I know why indie films are really different from mainstream movies. They were all did their job well

I really amazed to those young filmmakers because I can really say now, that age doesn’t matter, it’s not a hindrance to be recognize in such enthusiastic work. We don’t always need deep experience; all just you just need to have is a creative imagination that would put those things in realities and into action. I also admired them even I was not able to watch all film. But the trailer itself speaks that it was really a good choice of story and an overall good production. It was really overwhelming as director to be part of cinemalaya film festival and to present your work behind of your sweat and efforts to make the film standout and the best, a turning point that knock for better days and opportunity

But when do Cinemalaya all started “The Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival is a film festival in the Philippines held annually at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Its aim is the development and promotion of Filipino independent films” 

Indie films contributed a lot in Philippine film history; it was also different from main stream movies, because indie film itself focused on similar true to life stories and realistic action. They also have different content, style and a way of forming artistic vision, contrast in mainstream movies because it focused more on cinematic effect. Mainstream cinema refers to films that have a wide release and play in their first run. They are mainly sold at popular stores or  general stores, and have a higher budget of production. Indie film usually but not always are made in lower film budget. But you can compare now how Cinemalaya film being overpowering in Philippine film industry

                                             Opening of Cinemalaya

The movies that we watched are “BABAGWA”, “AMOR Y MUERTE” and 

“SANA DATI”.

I cannot choose between these three films because they had different scoop of a great, sensible and interesting film. Every film that I watched leaves an impression to me

“Amor y Muerte” it was really new for me, because it’s not the kind of film or movie that I used to watch, so I have a lot of thoughts in mind on how I would react on this kind of film. It was a completely nude, vulgar and daring film; I don’t imagine how the characters portray their role very well professional. You can also see in this film the way back life and tradition of the late era or in Spanish time, and the differences between Indio’s and Spaniards. I admit it was exciting, not just because of the love scenes, but because of the love story that was portray, the manners, experiences and the traditions built in this late era that we didn’t try to experience in our modern days. We can also see how the Catholicism our powerful and pedestalized by people then and now

This story was about the an Indio women (Althea Vega) who married an Spaniard man (Markki Streom) it seems that they had really big differences in their grown up culture and tradition that makes to the Indio women very difficult, she needs to be gentle, slowly, forced to wear Spanish dresses the she’s not comfortable, and to act differently from her grown up life. She needs to adopt the Spaniards manner as well. when her husband leave to fight for the planning revolt, as usual the Indio women should be in their house always, she’s not allowed to go and hang out with her friends, that’s  how her Spaniard husband being so strict to her. 

But Amor ends up cheating on his hubby with her soulmate, an orphan who lives in the forest.

 That soon after that when her husband came back. Her husband known all what happened when he’s not around. The priest speaks to him all about what the orphan confesses. And that’s why her husband started to become rude, violent and out of his mind, that leads to tragedy of death.

 The title was AMOR means

“LOVE” describing the different love that was offered for one another.  MUERTE means Spanish term for “DEATH” a tragic that happens when he killed her husband in the end.

It was very well deliver and portray by the characters. The unique love story with the twist of Spanish adaptation to makes the film very interesting. It also more provoking because of people curiosity about the life during the late time

The film takes 1 and half hour, and we had still an hour to break and watch another film. The second film that we watched was “BABAGWA” “the spider’s laire” the title was weird but the movie was so exciting and amazing. I thought it was just going to be another "let's find out about ourselves" it’s a domestic drama, but it was engrossing from the start. The characters are realistic; each reacting to the other in believable ways. It creates a believable world where fantasy and reality are immediately interchangeable. This was really great style of delivering the stories where the suspense and excitement our built. It was not easily predictable that’s why this story was very innovative. But it ends up with mostly hilarious outcomes.

We can also see in this film how social media become very influential and powerful in our lives’ today. I think this film would also help and guide us about proper way of using social networking sites or social media. It was very useful and efficient way in communication, but we should always put in our mind about the possible disadvantages and harmful effects that we can get from it. It’s an entertainment but not a play, Social media has become more open publicly so we cannot assure on our protection and privacy,  we should be very careful in interacting with people we don’t really know, to avoid and protect ourselves from stalkers, hackers and scammers. This was the flow of the story being portray in BABAGWA

This film was about the story of a social media scammer 

 who fronts himself online as other person as “Bam Bonifacio”

a handsome model whose sexual orientation depends on the gender of the target victim or prospect. The ruse is the brainchild of Marney who gets a sizable portion of the money earned from the swindle. Like all of his previous victims, Daisy, a wealthy and philanthropic middle-aged woman, easily falls for Greg's dashing alter-ego. Greg as the main character has a shallow and stunted romance with his girlfriend, he has a girlfriend who repeatedly asks him for a vacation that he cannot afford to give and the reams of unsatisfying paychecks gain from his dirty job with his co swindler. Suddenly he finds himself falling for Daisy

One of his prospect, he was guilty being credulous because daisy become very good to him. He needs to do it sadly for his own needs. But because his love for daisy prevails he decided to tell daisy everything about the truth behind its fantasy. At first of course daisy get mad, but afterwards she still forgive Greg. Greg decided to live his family and go to daisy, a woman he known as a wealthy and beautiful

The most interesting part was when he thought that the credulous was already done and he can leave from it. And start a normal life far from petty crime. But the women that he believe that is beautiful and wealthy was also a fake, its contrast from what he believe and expecting to. He was also scam by this old women that try to hide herself and front as a mid age beautiful women

Because of the poverty that people experiencing today, they used all the possible things to make money even if it from a dirty job. They end up the scene of the story, be very satisfying and unpredictable

In the other hand, the first movie that we watched was entitled

“SANA DATI”

For me it’s a typical love story, but what was win to it, is the realistic drama and a way of handling the sequence of time and story by which it happened into one moment. Or a mix of scenes drawn in the past present and future that looks like it occur and put together in the a same place and time, so no doubt that it takes award from cinemalaya, the intimate story built under confusion and grief that portray effectively every single moment and how does it change to build another lives, 

events and characters.

The director made good decision in choosing the characters that would portray in the story, lovi Poe is one of my favorite actress, because she can act normally and can handle to take her emotions into a character, simple yet realistic. I also admired Paolo Avellino in his natural way of portraying the role, and you can really feel how he makes it more realistic to himself

This story was about a woman (lovi poe) who cannot leave the memories of her relationship in the past. Who was hesitated to marry her partner. Her wedding thrown disarray when the mysterious videographer arrives

(Paolo Avellino) that reminds to her past relationship and to man he really loves, not knowingly that this man was the brother of her previous love. This mysterious person was also curious about her life that’s why he ask some questions about the bride’s personal life, when he is making an interview for the wedding presentation and to matter because he know how his brother love this women, actually she’s the reason why Benjamin alvez his brother that was already passed way, decided to leave his family.

They have similarities with his brother that’s why when the bride saw him, she felt the mutual feelings when the first time she met the man she loved. They took a long time to talk, shared their past experiences about their life with the same person, a brother and as a lover to both of them, which make so much delay in her wedding. The events become messy; all of them try to find where the bride is. After the long time of searching the groom (Tj Trinidad) finally find the bride at the roof top.

She’s not going to escape from it. She just wants somehow to know the videographer well. They still continue the wedding. And the girl learned to love the new man of her life, forget and moving forward in all bitter moments that happened in his life. The movie ends up

The film played emotionally and painfully but I love how its end up and made me think about the character motivation and decisions in settling the things down.

I also loved the way the scenes and shots were done. I find it how every shots makes up so much to the movie’s whole value and story. 

                     Our group decided to watched the film entitled “RECORDER”

This film was about a former camera (Ronnie Quezon) man who currently work for a movie pirate operating, he goes to cinema’s  to have his illegal recording of movie and films

One night when he was on his way home he incidentally records a crime that was happened. The video footage became viral.

For me this film was quite good, but I felt a little bored, maybe because of the sequence of scene’s or time, the story being done slowly in motion and easily predictable, there’s not much excitement that I felt. But the story itself was good. We can see how the CCTV’s, camera and other thing has big help to solve the crime.

                                    my group mate's- opening of cinemalaya

                            we made so much fun watching Cinemalaya films