Brillante Mendoza’s ‘Taklub’ opens 11th Cinemalaya

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Brillante Mendoza’s award-winning “Taklub” will open the 11^th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition on August 7-15 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Greenbelt 3 in Makati.

Taklub is a story of three major characters—Bebeth, Larry and Erwin, whose lives intertwine after the super typhoon Haiyan ravaged the city of Tacloban— leaving survivors to search for their dead, while keeping their sanity intact, and protecting what little faith there may be.

Superstar and entertainment icon Nora Aunor plays Bebeth who searches for the remains of her three children in the hope that any identified records could match a DNA test from those buried at the mass grave.
Julio Diaz is Larry who has lost his wife and consoles himself by joining a group of devout Catholics carrying a life-size cross around the city. Aaron Rivera is Erwin, who together with his elder brother tries to hide the truth of their parents’ death from their little sister.
Director Brillante Mendoza is one of the most prominent and important Filipino filmmakers today. He is the first Filipino to compete and won in 3 major international film festivals, showing authentic Filipino stories to the world.

In 2005, he founded Center Stage Productions (CSP), an independent film production outfit that aims to rethink and reinvent Filipino cinema by producing meaningful and relevant films.

His film, “Captive,” competed in coveted Berlin International Film Festival in 2012, while “Tirador (Slingshot)” won the Caligari Film Award in 2007 of the same festival.

“Thy Womb,” on the other hand, won the La Navicella Venezia Cinema Award in the equally prestigious Venice Film Festival in 2012, while Lola was nominated for the best film screened in competition for the same festival in 2009, also known as the “Golden Lion”.

But his most notable achievement is when he won the elusive Best Director in the well-renowned Cannes Film Festival for the film, Kinatay in 2009.  The year before, his film, Serbis (Service) was nominated for the acclaimed “Palm d’ Or Award” or the “Golden Palm”, the most prestigious award given to the best film of the said film festival.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Recently, the French government decorated Brillante Ma. Mendoza with the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres or Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.  No Filipino director has been accorded the singular distinction of being ranked with the likes of renowned filmmakers, Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento.

“Taklub” is written by Honeylyn Joy Alipio. Armando Lao was creative consultant for the film.

“Taklub” will be shown at 7 p.m. following the Cinemalaya opening ceremony at 6 p.m. on August 7.  The event is open to the public.

Cinemalaya is a project of the Cinemalaya Foundation, Inc., Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Ayala Malls Cinemas.  Established in 2005, Cinemalaya is an all-digital film festival and competition that aims to discover, encourage and honor cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers.
To date, Cinemalaya has supported and promoted the production of 118 full feature independent films and 96 short films.  Many of these films have won awards in local and international competitions and festivals.  Through the annual festival, Cinemalaya has showcased over 1,000 works by independent filmmakers including full feature films, shorts, documentaries, Filipino film classics, and art films.

For more information visit www.cinemalaya.org, www.culturalcenter.gov.ph and the Cinemalaya facebook page or CCP Media Arts Office at telephone number 832-1125 local 1704-1705 and the CCP Box Office at 832-3704.