Rough Groove

Tribu is Best Picture!

What good news! Jim Libiran’s Tribu was judged as the best film in the recently concluded Cinemalaya 2007! Not only that, his actors, real gang members, got the coveted Best Actor award. This is testament to the power and significance of the director’s work. As cited:
“its grand and graphic depiction of contemporary Tondo, Manila, its raw passion and searing violence, its terrible social conditions and conflicting social mores…”

On the other hand, Ina Feleo won as Best Actress for the movie Tukso. For the rest of the winners, check out PEP as the Cinemalaya website is still not updated as of this writing.

Cinemalaya Shorts

These are shorts about death, childhood and about drugs. I was only able to watch 5 out of 10 shorts that were screened in Cinemalaya 2007 and below are the following grouped under Shorts A:

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Gulong - Sockie Fernandez, 2007

Well, for a change, this really is a very heartwarming and funny film set in some province just as classes are ending and summer is starting. It tells of two cousins, adamant of buying an old bike, found ways to raise the money needed to pay for it but coincidentally always find a situation wherein their hard earned money are spent for more important uses. I just love the warm tone which was easy on the eyes and set the tone for the movie.

I’m not really fond of kid-doing-good-things- and-everyone-is-happy kind of stories but since it is Cinemalaya, this is an exception

Parents would surely love this, though.

Endo - Jade Castro, 2007

Endo is short for end of contract, a current concern for many Filipino workers who are employed as casuals usually working in 6 months period after which their contract expires and they are left with no other option but to look for another work. This is so because employers would want to keep costs low and would not be bothered with wage increases, insurance and benefits that are the norm in gainfully employed workers.

This endo mentality permeates also the mindset of the characters (and perhaps ordinary people under contract work?) that life seems to hang in the balance just as loves are lost and gained as work contracts are completed and started again.

What I do like about the movie is that its about love and hope. Losing it and finding it. That there is more to life being contented with just having a salary to meet the most basic of needs or to have someone just to be able to be with. It has life’s lessons that we sometimes need to be reminded of from time to time.

I say this is one of the must see films in the recent Cinemalaya. A love story deftly told by Jade Castro, a good writer now director. With Michiko Yamamoto as one of the producer, you can be assured of a good movie.

Tukso - Dennis Marasigan, 2007

From the director who brought us the entertaining Sa North Diversion Road during the Cinema One Originals here comes again another engaging movie which is part of Cinemalaya 2007. Dennis Marasigan’s Tukso is a story about a village lass who one day wound up dead. Was it an accident? Or was she murdered? A female investigator looks into the case and a set of people close to or those that might have a knowledge of the incident were interviewed thus enabling the viewer to have a peek of their lives, their relationship with other people and of the lass.

There is a seeming parallel with the director’s two movies in the way the style is presented. In the Sa North Diversion Road, the same story is told again and again by the same characters but as different kinds of persons. In Tukso, the story is told by different people with different perspectives. Can this be his storytelling style?

As for the cast? Well, I’m always thrilled to see Irma Adlawan in her top form again. Very talented, very Irma. Of course, there are also commendable performances by Sid Lucero, Ping Medina and Ricky Davao to cite a few.