Three short films for north Negros Occidental were selected for the exhibition section of Cinemalaya 2020, the Philippines’ biggest independent film festival.
These films were “Ang Tumuluo”, directed by Aldrich Rosano, from Cadiz City; “Paon” by Seb Valdez, and “Buding, Ang Babayi Nga Naglutaw” by Mark Raymund L. Garcia, both from Sagay City.
The films were selected under Cinemalaya’s Indie Nation Shorts Section, along with other 23 films from around the country, from more than 200 entries that submitted in the festival.
“Ang Tumuluo” (The Devotee) tells the story of Thea, an increasingly disillusioned member of the Church and her struggle with her lover and co-devotee Seva, set against the backdrop of the waning years of Marcos’ Martial Law.
Rosano’s film is one of the grantees of Cine Kasimanwa and Department of Tourism-Western Visayas under the Western Visayas Film Grants Program last year.
“Paon” (Bait), the winning film in Sagay City’s film festival last February, is about the series of disappearance occurred in Himogaan River because of an alleged Mermaid living beneath it. The people feared for this except for Andoy, 34, a lonely fisherman who still lives by the riverbanks.
Before reaching Cinemalaya, the film bagged six awards from Sagay City’s Margaha Film Festival, which are Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Director, and Best Picture.
Meanwhile, “Buding, Ang Babayi Nga Naglutaw” (Buding, The Woman Who Floated) is about three people that came to the police station to report a rather unusual incident: a woman is seen floating inside her seaside home.
Garcia’s film is the winner of last year’s Sine Negrense: Negros Island Film Festival and Cine Kasimanwa: Western Visayas Film Festival. It received 17 awards from two film festivals and was part of the 2020 Cinema Rehiyon, the largest gathering of regional filmmakers in the Philippines.
Other films from Western Visayas include “Saliwat” by Jay Palmares, and “Utwas” by Richard Salvadico and Arlie Sweet Sumagaysay, which is part of the 10 films in competition in the festival.
This year, Cinemalaya is screening all the films online through Vimeo on Demand (https://vimeo.com/ondemand/cinemalaya2020standard/443535144?autoplay=1). It will run on August 7 to 16.*
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