Filmmaker’s next: Indie with mainstream star

“CINEMALAYA opened me to the world of filmmaking,” says Ian Loreños.

Independent filmmaker Ian Dean Loreños recounted how he stumbled on the story for his second movie, “Alagwa,” his follow-up to the 2010 Cinemalaya winner “The Leaving.”

While shooting “The Leaving” in Binondo, Loreños decided to take a stroll on the streets of his childhood neighborhood “to destress.”

Instead of calming down, he was agitated all the more, after chancing upon the poster of a missing kid on a wall. “He looked like a Chinoy kid,” Loreños said.

He recalled that in the 1990s, “an urban legend made the rounds in Binondo, scaring the crap out of me and my friends. It was about the disappearance of a Chinoy kid who was believed to be a victim of a human-trafficking syndicate.”

Just like in “The Leaving,” Loreños has chosen to highlight the uniqueness of the Filipino-Chinese experience in “Alagwa.”

He considers “Alagwa,” an advocacy film, his modest contribution to the struggle against human-trafficking and modern-day slavery. “My goal as filmmaker is to communicate. I don’t make films just for the money. I want to tell a story that could affect the lives of viewers, even for a brief moment.”

It took two years before he could return to filmmaking after “The Leaving,” which won three awards at the Cinemalaya fest (best cinematography, production design and supporting actress for LJ Reyes).

“Getting funding in our country is not a walk in the park,” he explained.

When he finally found the right partners for the film, things fell squarely into place. “Sometimes the universe really conspires to fulfill our dreams,” he quipped.

He wrote the script with mainstream actor Jericho Rosales in mind. On a cold call, he sent a copy of the script to Rosales and his management.

After six months of waiting, Loreños got Rosales on board, not just as an actor, but as a coproducer as well. Sharing the screen with Rosales is another popular actor, child star Bugoy Cariño.

“Echo (Rosales’ nickname) is very passionate about his craft,” Loreños remarked. “I appreciate his creative input to the project. Bugoy is a prodigy. On the set, I sometimes forget that he’s only 9 years old.”

He describes the shoot as a “fun ride” so far.

Before he could return to Binondo for “Alagwa,” he had to make a quick detour to Busan, Korea.

Loreños, who was part of the Berlin Talent Campus in 2007, attended the Asian Film Academy (AFA) in Busan last year.

“Incomparable” was he described his trips to Germany and Korea. “It’s so cool how those two cities give importance to the arts and cinema,” he explained. “I’m glad that I attended the AFA right before ‘Alagwa.’”

Busan served as a refresher course of sorts, he confessed. “When I got back from AFA, I felt like an upgraded version of myself … I learned a lot and was inspired by great mentors. Now I’m well-prepared for my next projects.”

Cinemalaya, however, proved to be his crash course in filmmaking.

“It gave me my film degree,” he reminisced. “It opened me to the world of filmmaking and showed me the good and bad sides of the industry. It molded me to be the filmmaker that I am today. I will always be grateful to Cinemalaya.”

“Alagwa” is set for release in the last quarter of the year.

([email protected])