PH films in Romanian and Indian fests

“Tale of the Lost Boys”

Joselito Altarejos’ “Tale of the Lost Boys” competed at the recent Serile Filmului Gay International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Altarejos’ film tells the story of a Filipino mechanic who goes on a road trip with a Taiwanese student—“an encounter that will forever redefine their identities.”

Björn Jensen’s documentary “Forgotten Sex Slaves—Comfort Women in the Philippines” was also part of the Romanian fest. The German director’s 45-minute docu focuses on Filipino women, who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese during the Second World War. Dubbed ianfu (comfort women), these grandmothers, now in their 80s and 90s, are still waiting for “adequate compensation and official acknowledgment of their victimization.”

The Serile Filmului, or Gay Film Nights fest, “aims to impart an accurate message about cultural diversity and accepting individual values.”

Altarejos told the Inquirer: “It feels great that my film is reaching out to a wider audience.”

Indeed, Altarejos’ film is going places. Before Romania, “Tale of the Lost Boys” was shown at the Asterisco Film Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After Romania, it is headed to the International Queer and Migrant Film Festival in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Dec. 6 to 10).

Asterisco seeks to “cross frontiers and thrill the unprepared,” while the Amsterdam fest “looks at sexual diversity in migrant populations around the world.”

Laila Ulao in “Women of the Weeping River”

Meanwhile, another Filipino film is vying for a top prize at the 47th International Film Festival of India, ongoing in Goa until Nov. 28.

Sheron Dayoc’s “Women of the Weeping River” is in the running for the ICFT-Unesco Gandhi Award, with films from Poland, Taiwan, Georgia and India.

“Forgotten Sex Slaves—Comfort Women in the Philippines”

The honor is given by ICFT Paris (or the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication) and the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to the film “that best reflects Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of peace, tolerance, harmony, unity and nonviolence.”

Goa is one of the top 15 A-list festivals in the world, accredited by the FIAPF (or International Federation of Film Producers Association), along with Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, San Sebastian, Karlovy Vary, Tokyo, Moscow, Mar del Plata, Montreal, Shanghai, Cairo, Warsaw and Tallinn.