Italian Film Fest toasts Brillante Mendoza

Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza

Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza is one of three directors to be honored at the Italian Film Festival, set at Greenbelt 3 in Makati, from Nov. 9 to 13.

Cannes best director Mendoza joins Italian filmmakers, Oscar winner Bernardo Bertolucci and horror master Dario Argento in the tribute section of the decade-old fest, now known as the Moviemov: Italian Cinema Now.

Organizers, led by Italian senator Gofreddo Bettini, related that the Moviemov is a “traveling festival supported by the Italian Ministry of Heritage and Culture.”

Moviemov has chosen three Asian cities to hold the touring fest: Bangkok, Thailand; New Delhi, India; and Manila, Philippines.

Bettini, who is also part of the Asiaticafilmmediale and Rome fests, personally handpicked Mendoza as honoree. “I love Brillante’s films,” Bettini said. “We showed one of his films in Rome.”

“My film ‘Kaleldo’ had its world premiere at the first Rome International Film Festival in 2006,” Mendoza recalled.

Three works

Three of Mendoza’s works will be featured at the Italian fest—2008’s “Serbis” (which competed at Cannes), 2009’s “Kinatay” (for which he won best director at Cannes) and “Lola” (which was screened at the Venice fest).

Mendoza said he is pleased with this latest honor: “I’m happy especially because this fest was organized by the Italian embassy in Manila and the Italian government, with the support of the Film Development Council of the Philippines.”

He looks forward to the screenings of his films in the country’s mall cineplexes.

He has an ongoing film retrospective at SM malls all over the country, aside the Italian fest at Greenbelt.

For an indie film to have a theatrical run in a first-run theater in Makati would’ve been unthinkable six years ago, he said. “With this tribute, I will get the chance to reach more viewers.”

Interactive

He also looks forward to interacting with viewers.

“It has always been my intention to reach out to the audience. It can be challenging to sustain viewers’ interest in indie films, but events like the Italian fest create more awareness for our kind of cinema, particularly among students and the youth.”

At the fest, Mendoza hopes to meet Argento and his daughter, actress Asia Argento, and the other visiting Italian dignitaries. (Bertolucci, however, cannot attend the event.)

Mendoza is set to travel to Paris to put the finishing touches on his latest film, “Prey,” later in the month.

Upon his return, he plans to make docus on the antimining campaign and the plight of indigenous people in Palawan.