A student filmmaker from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde bagged the Best Film award in an online film festival organized by an Ilonggo student organization as part of its mental health-related project.
Trixie Verteraâs âGayumaâ bested nine other films in the FilAr Peace Film Festival, one of three âinterventionsâ presented by the Augustinian Communicatorsâ Guild (ACG), an organization of AB Communication students from the University of San Agustin in Iloilo, âto promote and raise awareness in battling the war against mental health issues.â
In âGayuma,â a woman (Pau Carranza), who is suffering from a midlife crisis, falls under the spell of television commercials that claim to be the solution to her problems.
Vertera, who made the film during the pandemic as one of the requirements for her Production Design class, revealed that she was inspired by Suzanne Valadonâs painting âWoman Reclining on A Sofa.â
âPeople were left helpless, either trapped inside their own homes or stuck without a home with death just waiting around the corner,â the young filmmaker explained. âWe are all lost in different ways. Sometimes we look for answers in the wrong places and end up being deceived, broken, and trapped in a constant battle with ourselves. Being inside a labyrinth does not mean that there’s no way out. I want people to know that sometimes, we have to take a step back and breathe,â she added.
ACG organized FilAr, which comes from the words âfilmâ and âartâ and refers to the word âpillar,â in cooperation with the Office of the Vice Presidentâs Angat Buhay Youth program and Teach Peace Build Peace Movement Inc. The student organization held the event from February 18 to March 25 to âchange the way we see mental health and attaining inner peace, through the medium of film and art.â
The organizers aim to use the event, with the theme âInner peace, stepping stone to societal peace,â as a foundation to raise awareness and prevention. âOur inner peace affects how we perceive peace in a larger context. Peace always starts within ourselves, and once this peace is distracted, the society is threatened as well. Discrimination, prejudice, and hatred bloom,â ACG shared in a statement.
The project is composed of three different but related events â the FilAr Peace Film Festival, FilAr Peace Talk, and FilAr Peace Art Exhibition by various Ilonggo artists.
Francis Tavas won the FilAr Juror’s Choice Award for âWaltz of Qualmâ while Guen Yntas took home the Peopleâs Choice Award for âHakos Sang Kalinong.â
The other finalists are Ralf Cuartoâs â+966,â Jay Emanuel Alegarbesâ âBayAni,â Angelica Castroâs âDalawang Turok,â Christian Paul Limâs âHija,â Gian Arreâs âPaano Maging Babae,â Ram Esteban Estaelâs âSigpat sang Paglaom,â and Vahn Pascualâs âSilang Mga Naligaw sa Limot.â Arre and Pascual are also Benildean filmmakers like Vertera.
âGayumaâ previously won the Audience Award in the Manila Student Film Festival, an annual event managed by the International School Manila High School Film Club. It was also part of the official selection of the Sinedisipulo X Film Festival, an interschool film event organized by CINEMATA of the University of San Carlos in Cebu, from March 11 to 19 this year.