Man, I missed blogging what’s happening with life lately! Being stacked with schoolwork in addition to the thoughts of possible topics for thesis have occupied most of my time the past month. When I woke up this morning, I finally had the guts to get up and blog on my experience on the tenth installment of the Cinemalaya Film Festival or widely dubbed as Cinemalaya X.
They say time flies when you’re having fun, and this is the perfect tagline for the past week’s Cinemalaya experience when I watched five movies and a documentary in seven days. Prior to this year, I watched the following offerings of the film festival: Posas (my first one), Debosyon, Quick Change, and The Animals. Glad to say, Cinemalaya X did not disappoint me one bit although some of my expectations went a little over the roof because of hearsays from people who have watched the film before I did.
The picture answers the question “What movies did you watch in Cinemalaya?"
My friends and I headed to CCP to catch Documented, the opening documentary of the film festival, after the annual Student Media Office (SMO) orientation last Friday. That day was also notable because it was our first time to attend Cinemalaya’s opening ceremony. We were able to see the directors in the flesh as they were introduced onstage aside from watching all the trailers from this year’s entries. Hearing about the Cinemalaya Foundation’s chairman talking about the film festival’s humble beginnings in 2005 lifted my spirit because it is great to see how far they have reached since its inception.
All smiles beside the memorabilia from this year’s entries!
Another great thing about the Cinemalaya experience is attending the gala premiere of one of its films, something we were able to do so with Ida Anita Del Mundo’s K'na The Dreamweaver. Ida’s speech where she discussed the making of the film and introduced the cast was so moving I got a little teary-eyed. The moment she thanked all those who supported her in the process, I whispered to myself, "One day, this will be me."
After the film, we exited the Main Theater and went down to the lobby to be greeted by a populous crowd filled with students, actors, film enthusiasts, and people from the entertainment industry. Although the commotion was a bit irritating because there was a little space to walk through, it was a great feeling to know what is it like to be part of a gala premiere like the ones I’ve seen on television when I was a kid.
What’s a gala premiere without the celebrity encounters?
Look, it’s Nora Aunor waving at us!!!
Hysteria ensued when Nora Aunor appeared on the second floor. Everyone started chanting "Hustisya!” and “I love you, Nora!” as soon as she turned to wave at the crowd. When I got home that evening, my grandma couldn’t believe it since she is a huge fan of the superstar.
We were able to have a photo op with K'na The Dreamweaver’s Nonie Buencamino and Sir Doy Del Mundo, a celebrated screenwriter who is also my professor for last year’s INTFILM (Introduction to Film) and next term’s MSMEDIA (Mass Media and Society).
With the legendary Sir Doy (credits to Tricia’s sister for taking the photo)
With Nonie Buencamino (credits to the girl who took this for us)
Seeing memorabilia from the films was a lovely sight.
I would have loved to watch more films but because of my schedule I was down to five: K'na The Dreamweaver, Hari ng Tondo, Hustisya, Ronda, and #Y. As for Hustisya which Direk Joey recommended during our WRIFILM class, it would have been better if the plot didn’t have much loopholes in it. K'na gave me a glimpse of the T'boli culture, Ronda had several references to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Hari ng Tondo reminded me of the everyday life I’m used to seeing since birth, and #Y made me think more about living life to the fullest. Each of these films offered a lot of things many mainstream films fail to incorporate nowadays such as issues affecting our society as the main theme and minimal audience spoonfeeding.
Being part of yet another year of this film festival made me appreciate the local independent film industry even more. Until next year, Cinemalaya!
