Way to go

VILLAREAL. One good stint at MTRCB deserves another.

WE JOIN the growing number of industry people and viewers who hope that President Duterte will decide to retain attorney Toto Villareal as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB)—for a job well done.

Villareal has effectively defended televiewers’ right to watch films that are classified according to suitability to the age of viewers, and similarly suitable and responsibly produced TV shows.

Even more admirably, he has invited industry people to participate in the vetting process and has taken due note of their inputs—unlike other boards that took a more confrontational and even adversarial stance.

That’s a delicate balancing act that would be difficult for others to pull off in a similarly judicious and enlightened way, so the retention of Villareal as MTRCB head is—the way to go!

Cinemalaya 2016

Also noteworthy and deserving our special attention and patronage is this year’s Cinemalaya’s film fest, with a promising harvest of thematically provocative full-length features:

“Hiblang Abo,” by Ralston Jover, is about an old man’s (Lou Veloso) recollection of his similarly elderly hospice-mates (Jun Urbano, Leo Rialp and Nanding Josef) in the twilight of their years. In “Dagsin” by Atom Magadia, Tommy Abuel plays an atheist who was a judge during martial law—and is belatedly compelled to confront his past.

In “Kusina,” Judy Ann Santos portrays a gifted cook whose kitchen is her “refuge and silent witness.”

In “Tuos” by Derick Cabrido, Nora Aunor plays an old gatekeeper of her Antique tribe’s oral tradition who fights for her granddaughter’s right to her own choices in life.

In Vic Acedillo’s “Lando at Bugoy,” a school dropout (Allen Dizon) is scorned by his son—who agrees to stay in school only if his father finally resumes and completes his own education.

In addition, “Pamilya Ordinaryo” by Eduardo Roy Jr. is about pickpockets; “Mercury Is Mine” is about a possessive woman played by Pokwang, and her relationship with a mysterious American.

Finally, Inna Salazar and Dos Ocampo’s “Ang Bagong Pamilya ni Ponching” is about a text scammer, and “I America” by Ivan Andrew Payawal casts Bela Padilla as a young woman who wants to go to the States to meet her father for the first time.

The 12th Cinemalaya fest unreels at the CCP, Glorietta, Greenbelt 3, Trinoma, UP Town Center and Nuvali early next month, and its films will also be screened at Ayala Center Cebu from Aug. 9 to 14.