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THE FILM DREAM
presents
 

THE CINEMALAYA 16

PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

SPECIAL COVERAGE

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The Film Dream fully supports the emerging storytellers and their unique voices in this new edition of the annual Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival.    With our continued commitment to discovering and collaborating with starting filmmakers during this COVID-19 Pandemic, The Film Dream community will bring you insights, ideas, and inspirations that may help you achieve your film dream in this learning platform.

Special thanks to Cinemalaya & CCP for all photos and communication materials.

SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION

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Directed by Jan Andrei Cobey

The story follows a documentary team who progressively intervenes and trespasses into the lives of a poor family living in the slums as they try to cope with the loss of their TV.

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by Sonny Calvento

 

It tells the story about a department store sales lady who unearths the ultimate secret to regularization.

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Directed Carla Pulido Ocampo

 

A 1950s mestiza star, trapped inside a television that fell from the sky, dreams up a romantic romp with a Bontok Igorot man who does not know how to kiss.

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Directed by Richard Salvadico and Arlie Sweet Sumagaysay

Narrates how a young boy discovers the ocean as he tries to learn how to dive and fish.

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Directed by 

Janina Gacosta and Cheska Marfori


In Ang Gasgas na Plaka ni Lolo Bert, an old vinyl record alters a closeted gay man’s life.

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Directed by Hubert Tibi

Follows a Bicolano family that turns to religion to make both ends meet.

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by Martika Ramirez Escobar

 

It is about a woman who discovers that her decade-long lover has turned into a cardboard standee.

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Directed by Joanna Vasquez Arong

Memories catch up as a girl visits a ravaged port city in Ang Pagpakalma sa Unos.

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Directed by Reeden Fajardo

A transgender sampaguita farmer decides to renovate their neglected kitchen as soon as she hears that her son is going home.

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by James Robin Mayo

 

Fatigued is about an employee who overslept and must wake-up from a nightmare.

EXHIBITION FILMS

ANG MERON SA WALA Poster (1).jpg
ANG NAWALANG HALIGI Poster (1).jpg
JEPOY Poster (1).jpg
PAON Poster.jpg
KUNG SAAN PATAG ANG BUNDOK Poster.jpg
GULIS Poster (1).jpg
SI GLORIA AT SI JUAN.jpg
PINAKANAKAPAGPAPABAGABAG Poster.jpg
DAMA DE NOCHE Poster (1).jpg
IGIB Poster (1).jpg
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OCTOGOD Poster.jpg
MATA POSTER.jpg
HIMAGSIK NG HIWAGA Poster (1).png
DISPLACED POSTER (1).jpg
TAHANAN POSTER.jpg
THE ROOFTOP Poster.jpg
HABAK Poster (1).jpg
TARANG Poster.jpg
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1. ANG MERON SA WALA (BEYOND NOTHING)

Directed by Arby and

Christine Laraño

Running Time: 13:53

 

SYNOPSIS: Back in his younger days, Alfredo fell in love with a young woman and bore a child with her. Because of many issues, the relationship failed. He initially attempted to keep their child, but soon realized that he didn’t have the means to raise him. Resolute, he turned over the child to the young woman and her family and never looked back since. Now in his 50s, Alfredo blissfully lives with his family among his pigs and chickens in a rural town in Laguna. But one day, a filmmaker approaches him to interrogate him about the choices that he made.

 

2. ANG NAWALANG HALIGI (PILLAR)

Directed by Sarah Mya Regacho

Running Time: 15 minutes

Genre: Drama

 

SYNOPSIS: After his son's sudden disappearance, a single father searches day and night to find him. How far can he go?


3. DAMA DE NOCHE

Directed by Lawrence Arvin Sibug

Running Time: 12:50

Genre: Drama

 

SYNOPSIS: With millions of Filipinos who choose to work abroad hoping of a better life, nothing is more heartwarming than going back home. Daisy Resurreccion, an overseas Filipino worker, comes home lifeless after years of working in a foreign land. It is a homecoming that reveals a more complicated narrative.

 

4. DISPLACED

Directed by Aedrian Araojo

 

SYNOPSIS: A beguiling series of psychedelic random footage encapsulates pieces of memories of children survivors during the Marawi siege. They revisit their stories of survival in the onset of the war. These little dreamers still hope that one day, they will return in their normal and playful lives and revive the place they once called home.

5. GRAND GESTURES

Directed by Cody Abad

Running Time: 19:43

Genre: Drama

 

SYNOPSIS: John flies home to attend his father’s funeral. All the pieces of furniture are moved to one corner, with the dining table arranged for guests and their bedrooms removed of its function. With his mom Leia, they learn how to put together what was removed and rearranged.

6. GULIS (LINES)

Directed by Kyle Francisco

Running Time: 9:31

Genre: Drama, Queer

 

SYNOPSIS: A dysfunctional father and son – one still coping from a loss, the other with a highly stigmatized illness – are compelled to talk to one another to make ends meet and heal the wounds of their relationship.

7. HABAK (CHARM)

Directed by Christian Paolo Lat & Mia Salisbury

Running Time: 15:00

 

SYNOPSIS: Dong is an OFW struggling to make means end meet as an illegal kitchen worker at a local Asian restaurant. He stays with his distant aunt Lally and her family that constantly treats him as an outsider. When Dong’s pay gets held up and he discovers his mother's leukemia treatment is taking a harsh toll on her, he is put in a desperate situation and faced with looking for fast cash to send back home.

 

8. HIMAGSIK NG HIWAGA (REVOLT OF THE MYSTIC)

Directed by Geoffrey Solidum

Running Time 13:26

Genre: Fantasy, Action

 

SYNOPSIS: Set in 1896, at the start of the Philippine revolution, Liwa the Mambabarang, Ula the Tiktik, Ughaw the Manananggal, and the rest of Aswangs are facing extinction due to Spanish colonizers who are poisoning the minds of the Filipinos to maintain the Spanish culture, where oppression and deceit could be hidden in plain sight. The three powerful entities argue on the necessity to join arms with the Katipunan as faction leaders to help defeat the race that is killing them and bring back what was once a peaceful and harmonious relationship. The trio along with the rest of Katipuneros act out their planned siege to defeat the Espanyols while realizing along the way that the fight is about something much bigger than peace and harmony - it is also about the humane living of the Filipinos.

9. IGIB (FETCH)

Directed by Joey Paras

Genre: Drama

 

SYNOPSIS: In the midst of the Taal Volcano eruption in the Philippines, an old woman named Josa struggles to fetch and deliver some pails of water to respective houses in the shanty alleys of Manila. She does this just to earn some transportation money, which she needs to send right away for the immediate retrieval of her second husband and son who are both trapped in an island in Batangas, which is totally devastated by the eruption.

 

10. JEPOY

Directed by Avid Liongoren

Running Time: 7 minutes

Genre: Dark comedy

SYNOPSIS: Jepoy is a little bullied boy who likes super heroes. At the wake of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, he realizes that the answer to his problems is the incoming radiation.

 

11. KUNG SAAN PATAG ANG BUNDOK (WHERE THE HORIZON MEETS THE MOUNTAIN)

Directed by Dolliete Cristi Mari Echon

Running Time: 17:02

Genre: Experimental, Cinedance

 

SYNOPSIS: Maya, a farmer living in the rural area, finds herself stuck in a repetitive cycle. As she struggles to break free from it, she meets Alon, a fellow farmer dancing proudly and freely with his bolo.

 

12. MATA

Directed by Bryan Kenette Padilla

 

SYNOPSIS: Kurt sells burgers to earn a living. When he tried to catch the perpetrator of a crime committed in front of his burger stand, he made a decision that he will regret for the rest of his life.

 

13. OCTOGOD

Directed by Shievar Olegario

Running Time: 19:57

Genre: Experimental, Techno-horror

 

SYNOPSIS: An elusive graphic designer maintains a website where he dumps his artworks and stolen retouched photos. After several days of hiatus, he tries to update it by finishing an artwork. Disappointed, he manipulates a photo instead and uses it as the website’s new content. He waits for the flood of notifications, and then he ends his night. The morning after, he cluelessly arrives in another dimension.

 

14. PAON (BAIT)

Directed by Seb Valdez

Running Time: 15:58

Genre: Thriller

 

SYNOPSIS: A series of disappearances occurred in Himogaan River because of an alleged Mermaid living beneath it. The people feared for this except for Andoy, 34, a lonely fisherman who still lives by the riverbanks. He continues to fish, and gets “kayog” every day in the river.

 

15. PINAKANAKAPAGPAPABAGABAG-DAMDAMIN (MOST DISTURBING FEELING)

Directed by Jermaine Tulbo

Running Time: 13:30

Genre: Drama, Narrative

 

SYNOPSIS: Stunned by the death of his parents, 15-year-old Cesar Leopardo is forced to look after his siblings Harvey and Amelia. One day, his friend Miguel visits their town after a long time. While battling against nature which he took for granted, he costs the life of his long-lost best friend.

 

16. SI GLORIA AT SI JUAN

Directed by Gilliano Salvador

Running Time 11:09

Genre: Animation

 

SYNOPSIS: Sometime in the early 70s, Gloria David-Cruz went through several sleepless nights because of the frequent pestering of a duwende. She even tried spending a night at her sister’s house in the neighbouring barangay thinking that the duwende could not follow her there. But the duwende was already there as she entered the room she was supposed to sleep in. Gloria and Adelaida were referred to a folk healer from Malolos who advised them to do a paghahain. On the night of the ritual, they learned the duwende’s name is Juan. The duwende was angry was because Gloria unknowingly showered the creature with urine when she relieved herself. After Gloria asked forgiveness from the duwende, Juan never came back to bother her again. This is based on a true story.

 

17. SUMASAIYO, (YOURS TRULY,) 

Directed by Jermaine Tulbo

Running Time: 11:50

Genre: Family, Drama, Narrative

 

SYNOPSIS: Isabel talks about how her Ate Mindalyn took everything on her shoulders. Mindalyn buried her parents all on her own beneath the farmland they used to call home, with Isabel making a cross out of a piece of a wood 30 years later. Mindalyn and Isabel are now living in a proper house. Through time, while Isabel finally reaches her dream to be a teacher, Mindalyn is not that strong as she used to be. She suffers from ALS (Amyotriphic lateral sclerosis) that is about to take over her life.

 

18. TAHANAN

Directed by Mick Quito

 

SYNOPSIS: Fernando is released from prison and joins his family. At first, it seems his new life would be an opportunity to start over again, only for him to realize that things are not the same.

 

19. TARANG (LIFE'S PEDAL)

Directed by Arvin Belarmino

Running Time: 16:51

 

SYNOPSIS: Roel, a pedicab driver, works alongside his wife, Aya, a prostitute, in a place where they can wishfully earn just enough to survive. An expected incident in what was supposed to be a normal day will test their faith and forever change their lives.

 

20. THE ROOFTOP

Avirup Biswas (Indian Film under Foreign films)

Running Time 18:57 Genre - Drama, Romance

 

SYNOPSIS: Abhishek, a psychiatrist and medical officer of the Gandhi Mental Hospital, has rented an apartment near his workplace. Living opposite his apartment, there is a girl who suffers from a mental illness as a result of the rape incident that happened to her a few months ago. Abhishek slowly heals her by love.

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