Work kept me away for most of Cinemalaya week and I was only able to watch Thursday night and all of Friday. Disappointed to have seen just three competing films, but it was great being back, the atmosphere was wonderful. It was great seeing filmmakers of all sizes, programmers, students, friends.
Thursday
The plan was to watch Ana Agabin’s 24K. We all had Monster buy the tickets and we arrived late, so we pretty much just went in without looking. So we’re sitting there and Dennis Trillo is mumbling something about term papers, and I’m wondering where is Jojit Lorenzo (the reason we’re watching) and all the mining? When we realize with a start, it’s not 24K, it’s Astig by GB Sampedro, or if we were to base it on all the press, by Boy Abunda.
Sampedro is good. Boy (lead in story #2) and Timmy Eigenmann (lead in story #4… go Timmy!) were very, very good. Though, in the middle of the show I found myself drifting to the exhibit of the 13 Artists exhibit just outside, where my friends Christina Dy and Raya Martin had installations. CD’s was badly lit and the mounting was awful though, I was pretty pissed that you can see the other works through her doorways and I wasn’t able to experience the space she created.
Spoke briefly with critic Gibbs Cadiz, who had seen all the films. I asked which films I should watch and he said, “For you? Nerseri, Engkwentro and Panggagahasa ni Fe.” I wonder what he meant.
Friday
Did a Jerrold Tarog mini-festival as I saw Confessional (co-directed with Ruel Dahis Antipuesto) and Mangatyanan back-to-back. Watching the two together was a treat. Confessional was fun and gimmicky (in a good way) and the performances were on point, especially Publio Briones as the mayor and Owee Salva as the girlfriend. I met Publio afterwards and gushed a little bit, hehe. Mangatyanan was a lot more introspective with Che Ramos capably carrying the film on her newbie shoulders. She has such a watchable face, and is quite pretty when she smiles, which unfortunately happens only a couple of times in the film. Although I felt the treatment of abuse, its effects and recovering from it, was a little simplistic, I still thought that the film was excellent and was clearly in a different league.
What to watch for the 9 PM show was between Vic Acedillo’s Nerseri and Pepe Diokno’s Engkwentro. Engkwentro won out because it was playing at the Main Theater, a much better venue. Engkwentro is clocks in at just under an hour, which suits its style best, as it is shot in a series of real-time long takes. Zyrus Desamparado as Tomas, leader of a rival gang, was AMAZING. Very present and spot-on; villainous and menacing without even trying. Daniel Madrana as the young boy was also terrific; Felix Roco as the lead was in and out for me, but he was mostly good as well. Diokno did a fantastic job with them. That said, I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching something I’ve seen before. Also I made the mistake of going to the bathroom and missing the big ending; oops.
Saturday
Had work, unfortunately. Damn.
Really want to see the other movies, especially Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe and Nerseri. People (actually, other filmmakers I’ve spoken to) seem to be falling over themselves with these two, along with Engkwentro and Mangatyanan. The audience favorites seem to be Dinig Sana Kita and Last Supper No. 3. Hopefully I can catch some of them in UP.
Or not. Ang layo e.
