‘Halaw’ best pic in Hell’s Kitchen

Actors John Arcilla (center), Maria Isabel Lopez (second from right) and other cast members in the scene where they take a boat ride in perilous seas off Zamboanga. Inset, director Sheron Dayoc. facebook photos

Sheron Dayoc’s “Halaw (Ways of the Sea),” a Filipino independent film from Mindanao, won the top prize in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen Film Festival.

“Halaw” tied with British Craig Viveiros’ “Lost in Italy” for best picture in the World Cinema Narrative section of the festival.

The Filipino film chronicles the struggles of Filipinos who cross the Sulu seas in a makeshift boat to work illegally in Malaysia.

Producer Lilit Reyes, who’s based in Singapore, relayed the news to Inquirer Entertainment: “We were surprised when we got the e-mail. Wow! To win best picture in New York… we should’ve been there.” Neither Reyes nor Dayoc was able to attend the festival.

Dayoc had just moved to Singapore, where he works in Xtreme Productions as program director for TV content and documentaries for the Asian region.

It was a wonderful way to begin his Singapore journey, Dayoc said. “Halaw” and Dayoc’s second film “Satra,” currently in pre-production, have been well-received in the independent film circuit in the United States, Reyes said.

“Satra” was Dayoc’s entry in the Sundance Script Lab earlier this year. The filmmaker said he’s pleased that his projects are appreciated in the United States.

According to its web site, New York’s Hell’s Kitchen Film Festival aims to provide a venue for indie filmmakers “whose voices may still be new, undiscovered or unheralded . . . and to create invaluable exposure for works that may have fallen through the cracks, are waiting to break through or demand further attention.”

Inaugural event

Also shown at the inaugural fest were Lyca Benitez-Brown’s “Dance of My Life,” the bio-docu on Filipina Carnival Queen Bessie Badilla in the US Non-Fiction Competition and Zig Dulay’s Baguio gay romance, “Huling Halik,” in the Independent Voices: US and World Narrative, Non-Competition division.

Reyes related that the festival triumph “entitles ‘Halaw’ to more screenings in that part of New York.”

According to the fest site, “Halaw” will get a week-long theatrical release at the Producers’ Club, a $10,000-venue. The deal includes “marketing and publicity, including a New York Times review.”

Only a year after its premiere at the Cinemalaya, “Halaw” continues to travel to different festivals abroad. Reyes said that “Halaw” has been exhibited in “at least 20 film festivals so far.”

Dayoc recounted that, after its international premiere at the Busan fest last year, “Halaw” was shown in Milan, Hong Kong, Wroclaw (Poland), Tokyo, Croatia, Shanghai, Jakarta, Singapore, among other events.

Early this year, “Halaw” brought home the Special Mention prize from the Netpac jury of the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. (Netpac stands for the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema.)

“We’ve also received an invitation from South America,” Dayoc said.

Next stop for the film is the Adana Golden Boll International Film Festival, to be held in Turkey from September 17 to 25.

There are two other festivals in the works for “Halaw,” said Reyes.

Dayoc said he’s happy that “regional cinema” has gone global.

“There are many untold stories outside Manila. It’s about time that the richness of the culture of our provinces, whether from the northernmost part of Luzon or the southernmost point of Mindanao, was shown to the world,” added Dayoc.

Regional movies will allow different perspectives to be highlighted, he noted. “Social issues will be pushed to the forefront . . . people will see the bigger picture.”

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