Cinemalaya director resigns

MANILA, Philippines–Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival director Nes Jardin, who resigned from his post on March 2, has refused to give further comments on his decision.

In an earlier interview with the Inquirer, Jardin said he was “sad and disheartened” with the controversy surrounding the annual indie fete. Current CCP artistic director Chris Millado will take over Jardin’s post.

Jardin, also a former president and artistic director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, resigned in the wake of controversial disqualification of Emerson Reyes’ “MNL 143,” one of the finalists in the festival’s New Breed category.

The disqualification stemmed from Reyes’ insistence on casting Allan Paule and Joy Viado to play the lead roles, despite the fact that the Cinemalaya deemed them “unsuitable to the material.”

An online petition has been launched recently, calling for reform in Cinemalaya’s operations and for its executives, Jardin, competition chair Laurice Guillen-Feleo and monitoring committee head Robbie Tan, to resign.