Cheer Factor: ‘Waking Journey’ wins in NY

Filipino filmmaker Ferdinand John Balanag’s documentary, “Walking the Waking Journey,” won the Mount Hope Project Award (for Social Activism) at the International Film Festival Manhattan in New York City recently. According to organizers, turnout for the docu’s screening was “very good and the audience stayed for the Q&A.” The film follows a Tibetan monk who, fulfilling a promise, guides schoolchildren on a hike along perilous trails back to their mountain villages in Nepal. Bayani San Diego Jr.