‘Project Feb 14’ aims to up awareness, action on mental health issues
MANILA, Philippines — Dreamscape Digital’s new offering “Project Feb. 14” starring McCoy De Leon, Jane Oineza, and JC Santos hopes to raise awareness on mental health issues.
(from left to right) McCoy De Leon, Jane Oineza and Director Jason Paul Laxamana. INQUIRER.net/Krissy Aguilar
The six-part series follows the story of Brix (De Leon) and Annie (Oineza) planning to broadcast via social media taking their own lives on Valentine’s Day. They meet a documentarist named Cody (Santos) who offers to record this attempt.
Despite the heavy theme, Oineza shared the reason behind why she accepted the role.
“Tinanggap ko siya kahit alam kong mabigat ‘yung project and ‘yung message niya kasi gusto kong maging part ng isang project na magiging eye opener on mental health sa mga tao,” Oineza said during the series’ advance screening and media conference on Wednesday.
“Serious issue ‘yun, hindi siya biro, meron ‘non,” she added.
The same goes for Hashtag member De Leon who stressed the project’s purpose is a way to raise awareness on the matter.
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“Sana magkaroon ng awareness sa mga tao. Ito ‘yung purpose ng project na ‘pag napanood niyo na, ‘Ah may ganito palang sakit, may ganito palang mga bagay na dapat aware ako,’” De Leon said.
Oineza chimed in, expressing how she and De Leon also learned a lot about mental health as they filmed the whole series.
“Kami rin ni Mccoy marami ding natutunan sa project na to, habang ginagawa namin ‘yung buong series,” she said.
Meanwhile, it is different for writer and director Jason Paul Laxamana who wanted to shed light on the character of Santos.
“Ang pinaka message na gusto ko iparating through ‘Project Feb 14, it’s more of ‘yung character ni JC Santos. The tendency of self-righteous people to grandstand whenever there are issues of mental health,” he said.
“Ganun kasi ang narrative na sinasakyan ng character ni JC. Opportunism. Na kapag mayroong nag-suicide, saka lang sila nagsasalita about mental health tapos balik na sa kanilang normal life. They’re not really doing anything about it,” he added.
The series will available for streaming on ABS-CBN’s streaming service iWant starting February 9, 2019. /kga
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