Saturday, August 17, 2013
So we did it again. Last August 12, we showed ten short films of varied appreciative levels—but nonetheless, together, they spoke volumes about how much we are trying to do to create a grassroots community of filmmakers in Dumaguete. Regardless of the challenges, of the risks, of the continuous possibility of being branded by others as “hopeless dreamers” without anywhere to go.
The roster that constituted
Dumaguete Shorts 2: A Festival of Short Films By New Dumaguete Filmmakers included
Ramon del Prado’s
I Am the Superhero from Tuldok Animation,
Melfred Casquite’s
Kalooy Man and
Francis James Kho and Carl Ivan Caballero’s
Asa from Foundation University,
Antonio Dago-oc’s
Josephine from Negros Oriental State University,
Mel Bermas Pal’s
Jeepney,
Jo Simone Vale’s
Ugma na Lang, and
Stephen Abanto’s
Have You Got Time for a Story? from Silliman University,
Razceljan Salvarita’s
Confession from Indie*Go ArtHub Films, and
Theodore Boborol’s
Ang Asawa Kong si Nikulet from Star Cinema ABS-CBN.
We began
Dumaguete Shorts two years ago to answer a challenge posed to us by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, when Teddy Co—the spirit behind
Cinema Rehiyon, the annual festival of films made from the regions—asked me during the Cinemalaya Congress in 2008: “Are there any films being produced in Dumaguete?” And my answer was a sad “No. Not really.” Of course, there were the rare efforts of Jonah Lim, but that was it: there was no such thing as a grassroots effort. Which is why we were in Audio-Visual Theater 1 in Silliman University last Monday night, to answer that question once with a a final and a resounding “Yes.”
Let me be clear, however. A few months ago,
some turk of a critic decried in a Mindanao website that what we are producing in Dumaguete are “failures” of cinema—which just shows how shortsighted he was about the efforts we are trying to do here. I’ve always understood something fundamental about the making of art: to get to the brilliance of the diamond, you have to contend with the cuts you have to make to tease out its luster, its brilliance.
And that’s what we have been doing in
Dumaguete Shorts 2—encouraging local efforts of filmmaking, just to make a start. It is always better to start with something than with nothing. And soon enough, we will have filmmakers who are more daring in their themes, and brilliant in their uses of their language of cinema. Many of the films we have seen are the efforts of students from the universities of Dumaguete—from NORSU, Silliman, and Foundation, each of which has its own short film contests, and last Monday we saw many of the products of those competitions held during the past year, augmented by titles by independent filmmakers. All of these truly make this short film festival a melting pot of our local cinematic efforts.
Labels: dumaguete, film, foundation, indiehub, negros, norsu, silliman, star cinema, tuldok
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Friday, February 03, 2012
9:51 PM |
Screen Caps for Dumaguete Shorts
In 2008, representing Dumaguete for the Cinemalaya Film Congress, I was asked during my panel in the Cultural Center of the Philippines if there was a community of filmmaking in Dumaguete. "Sadly, no," was my reply, but vowed to get things going. So here we are, we just had
Dumaguete Shorts: A Festival of Short Films By New Dumaguete Filmmakers last Friday. It was fun, the kids loved it. it's a start.
Ramon del Prado's
Libingan [2007]
Eliora Eunice Bernedo's
The Bird, The Bees and All the In-Betweens [2009]
Stephen Abanto's
Suga [2011]
Karen Grace Yasi's
Anniversary [2009]
Brian Rimer, Kim Cuevas, and Mary Aimee Leduna's
Amor y Sangre [2011]
Razceljan Salvarita's
I Am Patience [2012]
Hersley-Ven Casero's
Paper [2010]
Labels: dumaguete, film, foundation, norsu, silliman
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
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