With the theme “Paglibot sa Kawalan,” the 2024 Sinepiyu, placed on yearly by the FEU Movie Society, dares to scout terrains unknown, unseen, and untenanted by each its viewers and creators, albeit to blended impact.
At turns inflexible then slack, earnest then emotionally playful, the movies within the choice, which streamed lately on JuanFlix: The FDCP Channel, are buoyed however on the identical time restricted by their topicalities, their keenness to trace the mood of our occasions, whether or not by highlighting private histories or wider political conversations.
At one level you start to note a movie’s proclivity for servicing a central theme; at one other, you respect its sheer will to ship.
In “All Tamaraws,” certainly one of two classes within the pageant, a lot of the entries require additional incubation, if largely as a result of the outcomes aren’t as polished as its creators hope to be – lapses that, in some ways, level to funding points or the dearth of satisfactory institutional help. In any case, no movie, particularly in academic settings, is a person mission.
Be that as it could, the potential remains to be there, and what’s essential is that pupil movie fests similar to this live on, whether or not as launching pads for rising voices or in any other case, an area that extends them the grace to make errors and determine issues out, as an alternative of killing their concepts altogether, as an alternative of treating them as dispensable.
Right here, I’ve written about 4 titles included in “All Tamaraws” that I regard as private highlights within the choice.
From Seeds to Blossoms by Aizel Marfil
Simply by its title, From Seeds to Blossoms feels prefer it’s already spilling the beans. Blunt as such imagery could also be, it nonetheless factors to a comparatively contained narrative. Company employee Olivia leads a routine life: she waters her crops, waits for a trip, and busies herself with pressing duties – all of which get disrupted following an abrupt layoff.
The movie mines a lot of its drama from close-ups: the listless gaze into the abyss, labored respiratory, nerves settling in. And though the visuals seem like they had been principally shot in a single or two areas, the rendering nonetheless appears so clear, exact, and plush, as if teeming with extra life in its bareness, mixing effectively with the wealthy soundscape.
Baka Sakaling Umabot sa Ulap by Patricia Anne Callanga
I don’t assume Baka Sakaling Umabot sa Ulap peddles something significantly groundbreaking about how we deal with grief, in regards to the many weights we feature. I don’t assume that’s the level, actually. The story at its coronary heart, observing a beautiful friendship between two boys, isn’t whilst daring as the remainder of the shorts within the lineup. Admittedly, it might additionally use a bit of little bit of shaving, particularly at occasions when the entire thing feels too indulgent.
However the movie, which makes use of large pictures to nice impact, makes up for all that with sheer coronary heart and profound take care of its topic. After all, a lot of the fabric’s enchantment has to do with how Callanga wields the rapport of actors Prince Nathaniel España and Alexander Lucas Martin, whose onscreen presence is so endearing and efficient, even when the dialogue is at occasions stilted. On this method, Baka Sakaling Umabot sa Ulap forges a pocket of house for reflection, for all issues we will’t articulate. Therapeutic, it argues, doesn’t must be so pronounced.
affected person 08: the case of Seraphiel Manolito’s divine potentiality – 12 months 20__ by Vien Simbre
Over half of the entries in “All Tamaraws” undergo from their length, overlooking the truth that pointless stretching could make or break a fabric. Vien Simbre’s affected person 08: the case of Seraphiel Manolito’s divine potentiality – 12 months 20__, prolonged as its title could also be, doesn’t have this downside. Below 9 minutes, I believe, is simply the right size for a in need of this type to get its argument throughout. After all, I don’t imply to say that its premise is one thing I haven’t encountered earlier than, however what I discover fascinating is its steadfast clinging to this mode of cinema that refuses to service logic, to solely be understood in methods clear and singular.
The truth is, even when the logline lays naked all particulars to the viewer, the movie, with its monochromatic, grainy texture, nonetheless excavates one thing past what the apparent would possibly readily recommend. A boy, who supposedly holds god-like energy, is below experiment, if not surveillance, and will get overwhelmed by specters of each the previous and future, whether or not such specters be thought of within the context of evolution, battle, political violence, or the demise of the planet, and the best way the director handles this feels significantly deft, commanding.
At one level this movie is an train in type; at one other, it’s an try to provide you with a dynamic coherence, an enlightenment of kinds, in regards to the world: the state as panopticon, historical past as glue and residue, the long run not as some extent of revelation however a ubiquitous phenomenon.
Bilanggo ng Kinahinatnan by Euxim Valonzo-Garcia
Some would level to this movie’s parallels with the work of Lav Diaz, maybe due largely to its monochromatic strategy. There’s actually a tinge of that affect right here within the some ways it lingers, the way it positions its digital camera at a sure distance from its topics, or that it accommodates a degree of speechifying that has come to outline a few of Diaz’s movies, for higher or worse. Because it seems, not all of it really works, because it feels aimless at specific factors, or the viewer begins to note the mishaps in shade grading.
However the movie finds a saving grace within the work of its actors, Adam Labador and Bembol Roco (a welcome presence, if I’ll add), taking part in two our bodies and two souls making an attempt to make sense of their predicament in a distant, barren model of the afterlife. The movie surfaces its emotional inclination by toying with its characters’ skepticism towards one another, with the historical past they share, and thereby endorsing its broader pronouncements about our nation’s woeful previous and the way it shapes related threads within the current and future, with some crisp photos at that. Which is to say, it’s adequate. – Rappler.com
