PH docus win in Japan

“WAR IS a Tender Thing”

Two Filipino filmmakers won at the recent Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Japan. Jewel Maranan’s “Tondo, Beloved: To What Are the Poor Born?” won special mention in the Directors’ Guild of Japan Award section. Adjani Arumpac’s “War is a Tender Thing” also won special mention in the New Asian Currents competition. According to its site, the week-long Yamagata event is Asia’s first international docu fest.

Another rave for ‘Norte’

Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz’s “Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” earned yet another glowing write-up from Film Comment recently. Critic Larry Gross described Diaz’s “visual style—unique in its diversity and strangeness.” He called Diaz “an über—traditional realist on the 19th-century model … minimalism, austerity, and (a) taste for allegory mark him as a stylized modernist … heir to Mizoguchi, Bresson, Fassbinder, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Edward Yang.”

“TONDO, Beloved: To What Are the Poor Born”

He hailed Diaz’s aesthetics as “uncanny … (he’s) the first great filmmaker to be equally and decisively marked by the West and the East.” Film Comment gave “Norte” a positive review when it debuted at the Cannes fest in May. Dennis Lim pointed out: “In a Diaz film, the wounds and defeats of Filipino history always loom large.”

MMFF New Wave finalists

The five finalists in the New Wave section of the 2013 Metro Manila Film Festival, as announced by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Wednesday, were: Alvin Yapan’s “Mga Anino ng Kahapon,” Aloy Adlawan and Gino Santos’ “Island Dreams,” Armando Lao’s “Dukit,” Joven Tan’s “Maestra” and Toto Natividad’s “Saka Saka.” The MMDA spearheads the annual film fest. Bayani San Diego Jr.