Three Filipino films were chosen to be part of the 15th New York Asian Film Festival, from June 22 to July 9 at the Lincoln Center and SVA Theater. Included in the 15-film lineup, which was called “cutting edge” by organizers, are Erik Matti’s “Honor Thy Father,” Ralston Jover’s “Hamog” and Mario Cornejo’s “Apocalypse Child.”
The Filipino films were summed up by organizers as “genre-defying”—exploring the meaning of “fatherhood and becoming an adult.”
“Honor Thy Father” is a heist flick that deftly critiques get-rich-quick schemes and religious hypocrisy. “Hamog” zooms in on the wasted lives of street urchins. “Apocalypse Child” focuses on a surfer who could well be the illegitimate son of Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
Billed by the Film Society of the Lincoln Center as a “two-week orgy of popular Asian cinema,” the festival was hailed by the New York Times as “one of the city’s most valuable events.” Bayani San Diego Jr.