New Filipino Cinema fest offers an impressive variety
• From avant-garde to big-budget features
• Short works and documentaries
SAN FRANCISCO, California – Now on its third year, The New Filipino Cinema festival will present a comprehensive line-up of films from the Philippines, from June 11 to June 15 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Curated by Philbert Ortiz and Joel Shepard, this year’s festival is co-sponsored by the Filipino American Arts Exposition and the Filipino Arts & Cinema, International (FACINE).
The New Filipino Cinema covers a vast terrain, from north to south; from documentaries to short works; and from the avant-garde to the big-budget feature.
All films are shown digitally in their original language with English sub-titles.
Tickets per screening are $10 for regular admission and $8 for YBCA members, students, seniors and/or teachers.
Also available: Pick Five package ($45/$35 for YBCA member, student, senior or teacher) or Pick Ten package ($80 / $60 for YBCA member, student, senior or teacher).
To purchase tickets or for more information about featured films and screening schedules, log on to https://www.ybca.org/new-filipino-cinema#overview.
Featured films Opening Night:
“How to Disappear Completely” by Raya Martin (June 11, 7:30 p.m.). A horror movie, experimental art film and political allegory, it’s the story of a girl who is obsessed with disappearing. (2013, 79 min.)
“Jungle Love” by Sherad Anthony Sanchez (June 12, 4 p.m.) In a steamy, oppressive jungle, several mysterious scenarios unfold. Stories and identities swirl around, melting into each other. Contains explicit material. (2012, 86 min)
“Debosyon” by Alvin Yapan (June 12, 6 p.m.). A young man falls off a tree and injures himself. A mysterious woman that lives in the woods nurses him back to health. He falls in love with her, but she tells him that their love is impossible because she is a spirit (2013, 82 min.).
“Sana Dati” by Jerrold Tang (June 12, 8 p.m.) Andrea (Lovi Poe) is getting married, but hasn’t really made up her mind. Complicating matters is the arrival of a mysterious guest who shares a connection with her painful past. (2013, 100 min.)
“Iskalawags” by Keith Deligero (June 13, 4 p.m.) One day in a small peaceful town, seven young punks with a shared love for Filipino action movies go on a quest to find the tree with the biggest papaya in the region. (2013, 77 min). Preceded by: “Happy the Emotional Dog” (Happy Ang Emo Nga Iro) by Aldo Nelbert Banaynal — the happy and not-so-happy life of an adorable little pup. Clay animation. (2013, 15 min.)
“Woman of the Ruins” by Keith Sicat (June 13, 4 p.m.) A woman castaway ends up on an island populated by survivors of an unnamed cataclysm. The woman has no memories and is forced to conform to expected roles as she tries to eke out an existence in this unforgiving place. (2013, 109 min.)
“Metro Manila” by Sean Ellis (June 13, 9:15 p.m.) Oscar Ramirez and his family move from the poverty stricken rice fields to Manila and immediately fall prey to sordid characters that take advantage of them. Life turns very, very dangerous. (2013, 114 min.)
“Oro, Plata, Mata – The Restored Version” (Gold. Silver. Death.) by Peque Gallaga (June 14, 12 p.m.) This 1982 masterpiece traces the lives of two affluent Negrense families as they’re forced to flee their estates with the arrival of the Japanese. (1982, 194 min.)
Basket Case: Short Films Over the Edge (Jun 14, 4 p.m.) “Taya” by Adi Bontuyan (8 min.); “Victor” by Jarell M. Serencio (15 min.); “How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Age Zero to Five” by Khavn De La Cruz (5 min.); “RB” (Rugby Boys) by Manny Montelibano (12 min.); “Curiosity Killed the Cat” (Si El Curiosidad Mata Con El Gato), by Aedrian Araojo (10 min.) “Ramil Might Be Outside” (‘Timora Talli Apuera Si Ramil) by Roberto Oquias, Jr. (9 min.); “Kapawa: Mystery of Light” by Noel de Leon (9 min.) “The End of the Beginning” (Sa Wakas) by Nica Santiago (16 min.)
“Transit” by Hannah Espia (June 14, 7 p.m.) A 2009 the Israeli law seeks to deport the children of migrant workers. The small population of Overseas Filipino Workers in Tel Aviv must now try to hide their children from authorities. (2013, 93 min.)
“Anita’s Last Cha-Cha (Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita” by Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo (June 14, 9:15 p.m.) Twelve-year-old Anita falls in love with Pilar, a much-older new woman in town. The film explores the awkwardness of pre-adolescence, and the incongruous pace at which sexuality develops within the mind and the body. (2013, 111 min.)
“No End in Sight (Walay Tumoy Na Punterya)” by Cierlito E. Tabay. This unsettling documentary provides an intimate view of the world of illegal backyard gun-making in Danao City, Cebu. The makers fashion pistols, rifles, and even submachine guns out of scrap metal, often using only basic hand tools, and then sell them on the black market. (2012, 83 min.)
“Pascalina” by Pam Miras (June 15, 2 p.m.) Life in Metro Manila can be monstrous that one really ought to consider just becoming a real monster. The film takes its titular heroine through a very terrible day in the big city, before she learns of a supernatural inheritance that will change everything. (2012, 96 min.)
“Rigodon” by Erik Matti (June 15, 4:30 p.m.) embraces the darkness of the genre as it plumbs the psychological depths of three very broken characters. (2012, 85 min)
Closing Night: “Thy Womb” by Brillante Mendoza (June 15, 7 p.m.) A story of unconditional love, the film dramatizes the nature of sacrifice through the dilemma of a Bajau midwife coping with the irony of her own infertility. It is a poetic saga of island life, trapped between the devil of passion and the deep blue sea of tradition. The film will also screen June 26-29. (2012, 106 min.)
