I caught Mountain Thief (2009), a low-budget film about garbage scavengers in the Philippines, on the same day I saw Inception, a $200 million film about blurring the lines between dreams and reality. My cinematic cognitive dissonance was peaking, and I welcomed the return to concrete. (more…)

The 2010 Asian American International Film Festival kicks off tonight in New York, and there are three Philippine feature films among the huge nine-day schedule. The opening night presentation is a screening of Himpapawid/Manila Skies with director Raymond Red in attendance. I’ve been a big fan of dude since watching Sakay (1993) and I’ve been waiting for a chance to catch his latest feature. Sucks that I’m gonna miss it even though I’m in NYC for the next week. (more…)

Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos (Mario O' Hara, 1976)

I had a blast last weekend in New York (as you can tell from these awesome photos). But I wish I was there again this weekend for the New York Filipino Film Festival (June 11-20) at the Producers Club Theaters (358 W 44th between 8th & 9th). Nine days of hyperdramatic brown people speaking Tagalog on big screens in the Big Apple. That’s a rare win. Good shit all over the screening schedule, with classic Lino Brocka (Bona, Ang Tatay Kong Nanay) and 2009 Cannes Best Director Brillante Mendoza’s earlier work (Kaleldo, Manoro). Movies you can take your moms to (Ploning). Anticolonial revolutionary action epics (Sakay). Most of all, I’d be there to catch Mario O’Hara’s Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos, which esteemed Filipino film critic Noel Vera swears is the best Filipino film ever, and which I still haven’t found a decent, complete copy of. Since I can’t make it, I want to hear from those of you who can and do. And if you need help narrowing down, I got you: (more…)

A million movies can be made from the following plot: a child, lost or looking for something. That whole innocent soul in an unforgiving world schtick. However, making us care enough to sit through their ordeal is harder than it looks and sounds. We must be made to forget that an adult is actually following them around telling them what to do in between takes. The child must appear in their natural element, not so much acting as allowing a glimpse into what we believe is their actual life when the camera is off. Rarely is this magic achieved the way it manifests in recent films like Treeless Mountain (So Yong Kim, 2009) and The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi, 2002). Ralston G. Jover’s Bakal Boys (2009) is worthy of all the attention those two films have received, if not more for its precarious settings and subject matter. (more…)

If I weren’t going to be in Austin for SXSW this week, I probably would’ve found some way to get to San Francisco for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAF). There’s an incredible representation of current features and shorts from stateside and Philippine filmmakers, including Raya Martin’s Independencia and Curtis Choy’s documentary Manilatown is in the Heart. What got me most geeked and disappointed about missing the festivities, however, is the Lino Brocka retrospective. As much as I’ve come to be a big fan of his work through old VHS tapes and low-quality DVDs, I’ve never seen any of Brocka’s work on a big screen. If you have the chance to do so, I’d highly recommend you check it out. Insiang (1976) and Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang (You Were Weighed and Found Wanting, 1974) screened last week, but two more films are upcoming on the festival schedule:

Bayan Ko: Kapit Sa Patalim (1984)
THU 3/18 9pm
Pacific Film Archive

Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag (1975)
SAT 3/20 6pm
Pacific Film Archive

Links:
Film review: Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag (Prometheus Brown, Oct 2008)
Video: Signed Lino Brocka (clip)

After a couple years of scouring the internet and Filipino video stores in many cities, I finally, randomly, chanced on a rare VHS copy of Kisapmata (1981) in Daly City last month. Lino Brocka might have been the Philippines’ most prolific and politically committed filmmaker but Mike De Leon is the most consistent and, possibly, most subversive. His films vary in mood and style but are all filmed with clarity (De Leon started as a cinematographer) and feature characters that are treated with more depth than most Philippine films. Most of all, he employs something that is rare in the exaggerated, melodramatic world of Philippine cinema: subtext. (more…)

Philippine filmmaker Raymond Red is back in a major way with Himpapawid (Manila Skies) (2009), his first feature since his short film Anino (Shadows), which won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2000. The world premiere goes down at the Tokyo International Film Festival Main Competition (Oct. 17-25), and it will be the closing film of the Cinemanila International Film Festival on Oct. 25. The synopsis of the film, from Red’s website:

Inspired by a true event, Himpapawid (Manila Skies) tackles the astounding story of a lone deranged hijacker who is pushed to the edge as he struggles with the oppression of surviving in modern Philippine society. The film dwells on the common story of a desperate simple man from the countryside searching for a decent means of living in the big city, Manila. He keeps stumbling as he moves from one “station of the cross” to another. In dire straits, he later joins an amateur gang plotting a heist to get even with a corrupt employer. This ultimately goes wayward and ends in devastation. Further hounded by guilt that his father is helplessly ill in the province, he draws his last straw and plots the insane hijacking of a plane to finally take him to his ultimate destination – home or hell.