Sinag Maynila Film Festival 2017 Official Entries

Full Length Feature

In an indigenous community in Mindanao, the couple Dawin and Ibunay raise their three children amidst the threat of a mining company.

When their youngest child dies from illness and gets buried, the family later encountered soldiers assigned to protect the mining firm from guerrilla rebels. The soldiers instead turned their attention on the couple. Their harvest gets thrown away, and Ibunay gets raped. Both were forced to guide the soldiers in their search of the rebels.

The search leads them to the community school where the soldiers held the teacher and the children. Ibunay manages to help them escaped but this enraged the soldiers and they vent their anger on Dawin.

Ibunay's recourse in this course of events is to fight for her dignity and for the survival of her family and her tribe from the abuses of the military.

“Tu Pug Imatuy” is the indigenous Manobo term for “The Right to Kill”.

The movie is inspired by actual events in Mindanao where indigenous peoples have been subjected to abuse and attacks in the course of the government forces counter-insurgency campaign.


Starring: Jong Monzon, Obunay Sulatan, Jillian Khayle Barbarona, Henyo Ehem

Written By: Arnel Mardoquio


Directed By: Arbi Barbarona

Discriminated by employers for being a gay misfit, odd Kaye struggles to make ends meet selling her bewildering home-grown beauty soap when her half-transexual best friend Bonn appears with her son for help. To raise their child, Kaye and Bonn must overcome a society where basic rights and a fair chance is out of reach.

Starring: Martin Escudero, Brenda Mage, JC Santos, Ruby Ruiz and introducing Brix Julian

Directed By: Jason Orfalas

Spanning five decades and filmed in three continents, this energetic docudrama showcases the rich, vivid history of an understated fixture of Pinoy culture. Beyond the Block chronicles the evolution of Filipino street dance, from its humble 1970s TV roots to the struggles of today’s international competition aspirants.

Directed by: Ricky Carranza

A man suddenly faces an assortment of personal struggles – ironically, in the midst of a family milestone. In this hard-hitting drama, he will fight to protect his livelihood, maintain his honor as a family man, and, eventually, save his own life. Ultimately, Kristo poses the question: In the game of life, who wins and who loses?

Starring: Kristofer King, Angela Cortez, and Julio Diaz

Directed By: Howard Yambao

Two small-time felons with disparate personas cross paths: One’s a principled tough gay; the other is a scheming, street-smart teenager. Together, they get caught up in a string of petty exploits while managing to forge a stronger bond. Can they survive the ordeal?

Starring: RS Francisco, Ronwaldo Martin, Jeric Raval, and Elora Españo

Directed By: Joel Lamangan

Screening Schedule

Documentary Feature

Renato together with his brother Alyo, are two of the few men who call themselves “Krudo Boys”. They scavenge for spilling crude oils coming from ships in Navotas City using only their worn-out boat and a piece of foam then selling it to the costumer. With this kind of grueling labor, they strive to work hard in order for them to provide food and shelter family.

Directed By: Mirielle Frances V. De Lara

This film works as a profile of Roel Cabato, a Baguio-based Ilocano-Ifugao artist-environmentalist who creates artwork from rummaged materials and showcases them in his home and art space, Hanan’chi (Aninito Art Space and Café). Through his creations, he conveys his spiritual connection with his Ifugao background, as well as his campaign for environmentalism and recycling.

Directed By: Noah del Rosario

Hango is a straightforward story of a grandfather and grandchild who work as fishermen in Bacoor, Cavite.

Directed By: Avelino Mark C. Balmes, Jr.

Kupkop, which literally means to “adopt”, follows three abandoned children with cerebral palsy who find love and affection through their foster kin.

Directed By: Jaynus Barbee A. Olaivar

“Pagrara Sang Patipuron” follows a group of indigenous Aeta women weaving artists in Nagpana, a sitio up in the mountains of Barotac Viejo, Iloilo. The film explores their artistic processes and products, reflecting negotiations between tradition and modernity. The Nagpana community is home to weaving artists that traditionally make crafts (purses and bags) that answer to a saturated market of woven crafts. This circle of women weaving artists are going beyond the products the Aeta are known for, by weaving jewelry with designs inspired by their environment and the people they live with. For these women, to weave from the center, to weave a circle, is to weave a life confronting realities of lack and insecurities brought about by poverty. With the help of two young artist entrepreneurs in the community, the women were empowered to explore their artistic imagination and extend the limits of their design process in the hope of transcending their present realities. The Aeta are considered the first inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago, but they are also one of the most marginalized indigenous peoples in the country.


Directed By: Jean Claire Dy & Manuel Domes

Short Film Feature

 

This visually-arresting short film highlights the silence of Manila’s otherwise chaotic red light district.

Directed By: Matthew Victor Pastor

A man finds his place in the universe through very unlikely conduits.

Directed By: Emmanuel J. Escalona, Jr.

 Two brothers deal with sudden loss of their father and an eventual separation from their overseas- Filipino-worker mother. Some things are hard to grasp that`s why they took to the sky for answer. Could it be aliens? 

Directed By: Karl Glenn Barit

In the streets of Manila, the homeless stuggle to live. Some fool other; don’t want to be fooled and some imitate some in order to survive. 

Directed By: Paul Arrenze Dionela

A deaf kid who dreams of going to school faces a series of rejection from his mother because of an unprecedented past. 

Directed By: Josemaria Javier Manoos

Sinag Maynila Film Festival 2017 runs from March 9-14 at SM Megamall, SM North EDSA, Glorietta & Gateway