Indie Bravo! ‘Nick & Chai’ competes in Turkey, ‘Kasal’ in Torino

Wena Sanchez and Cha Escala’s documentary “Nick & Chai” will compete in the TRT Documentary Awards in Turkey on May 11. The docu, which tells the heartbreaking story of a couple who lost four children during Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” made it to the finals with films from Iran, South Korea, Poland and other countries. The contest was established by the Turkish Radio and Television Corp. in 2009.

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Joselito “Jay” Altarejos’ “Kasal” will be competing at the 30th Torino (Italy) Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on April 29 to May 4. The fest’s website described the Cinemalaya winner as “almost an anthropological study about couples, marriage and family ties.” Altarejos’ previous films “Ang Lihim ni Antonio” (2009) and “Ang Laro sa Buhay ni Juan” (2010) were featured in the Torino fest’s panorama section.

Kapampangan shorts in the US, Cayman Islands

Two Kapampangan short films by Jason Paul Laxamana will be shown in festivals abroad. Laxamana’s “Walu Pang Bulan (Eight More Months)” will be screened at the first CayFilm Cayman Islands International Film Festival on June 18 to 21. Laxamana said his film, which was shot in Macabebe, Pampanga after a typhoon in 2012, is part of the CayFilm fest’s environmental section. Meanwhile, Laxamana’s other short film “U.S.F.A.,” which won at the Gawad CCP, will be featured at the Sanford International Film Festival in Maine, United States, from May 27 to 31. Laxamana is one of the honorees in last year’s Inquirer Indie Bravo! Awards. Bayani San Diego Jr.