ThePSNFIFF in Dumangas

AS THE month-long Masskara Festival progresses in Bacolod, we are preparing the weeklong Haw-as Festival in Dumangas that will start on October 26.

On October 27 and 28, there will be a Dumangas Haw-as Film Festival that will also include The Peter Solis Nery Foundation International Film Festival (ThePSNFIFF) 2022.

The idea is to bring films by Dumangasanon filmmakers to the public for free.

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My programming is modest. 

The idea is to show one full-length feature each night.

Which is fine because we were only given two nights. Haha.

So, one full-length on opening night, one full-length on closing night, with some shorts by other notable and upcoming Dumangasanon filmmakers.

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On Opening Night, we will show Tara Illenberger’s ToFarm Best Picture film “High Tide” (108 mins).

Tara is a Dumangasanon.

I’m not sure if she was born in Dumangas or in Iloilo City, but her mom is a Barrera.

(Yes, it can happen that rich Dumangasanon families deliver their babies in the bigger hospitals of Iloilo City.)

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The Barrera family operated the Riverside Bakery when I was growing up.

My favorites were their pan de ciosa, mamon (I can swear it’s what the American South calls ‘cornbread’), and catalogan.

I was probably closer to Tara’s two older sisters, Bambi and Chiqui, while growing up; but at least now, I sometimes have coffee with Tara.

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On Closing Night, we will show my film “Gugma sa Panahon sang Bakunawa”.

The film was a finalist at the 1st Sineng Pambansa National Film Competition of the FDCP in 2012.

So yeah, it’s a special tenth anniversary screening.

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To “open” for Tara’s “High Tide” (in the sense that some acts open for the main performers in a concert), I have chosen two shorts by Joey Rap Decolongon: “ING” (9 mins), and “Kalawit” (2 mins). 

Joey Rap worked with me in some films early in his career.

He probably is more responsible for my full frontal nudity in “Ikapito nga Adlaw” (7th Day) than I am.

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Now, I do not play the victim card here; or assign the blame to someone else.

After all, I am the director of “Ikapito nga Adlaw”!

But Rap-rap filmed a beautiful nude sequence of me (I was in front of the camera! So how much control can I manage?), and spliced it in in the editing.

I mean, it’s the “creation of Adam”, so it worked for the film.

When my editor showed me the first cut, I said, “Go with it!

Let’s give Iloilo a heart attack!”

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Unfortunately, “Ikapito nga Adlaw” will not be shown at the coming festival.

But maybe you can order it from #ThePSN Premium Channel. Haha.

Joey’s films are short; no need to even explain them to you.

Just go watch and enjoy them.

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Joey is an exciting filmmaker.

He actually gave up working as a seaman (was it as a cruise line crew?) to work as a filmmaker.

In the last ThePSNFIFF prepandemic, we screened his short “Abyan” which has participated in some filmfests abroad.

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We are also showing Leonard Ian Billones’s “Itom nga Bugas, Kanaryo nga Ugat” (15 mins) after Joey Rap’s shorts.   

Leonard’s film won the Best Screenplay at the Gawad CCP para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video.

I am excited to see Leonard’s short because Leonard was actually a participant in the 2019 Peter’s Prize for Film.

That film prize, of course, started the idea of ThePSNFIFF.

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A short opening program will follow Joey’s and Leonard’s shorts, and then, we are off to Tara’s “High Tide.”

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On our second night, which will also serve as our Closing Night, we will screen at 7 pm sharp my “La Sirene” (15 mins), which stars Jannah Poncy.

The film was shot in Nueva Valencia, Guimaras but with mostly Dumangasanon cast and crew.

Jannah Glycel Poncy is a French-Filipina beauty, who, in a few years, could be our next Miss Universe contestant. 

I met her when she was very young.

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“La Sirene” is the first French film directed by an Ilonggo filmmaker.

And I’m so glad to have made the film even when I was just running with my hunches.

The short premiered at the 2019 Haw-as Festival, and was probably the biggest reason why we have the ThePSNFIFF and Haw-as Film Festival today.

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For historical record and documentation, the idea of the Dumangas Haw-as Film Festival came to me in 2019, along with the original ThePSNFIFF.

So yeah, I hold the copyright (although currently unregistered) trademark to that. Haha.

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“La Sirene” will be followed by “The Films of the 2019 and 2021 ThePSNFIFF”, respectively.

Yep, all the official selections of the Peter’s Prize for Film.

All 25 or 26 of them, which will not be very long because the films are only 3-minute long each.

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Then, there’s a closing program, and we end the night with “Gugma sa Panahon sang Bakunawa” (112 minutes), which you shouldn’t miss if only for the haunting theme song “Sa Imo Lang Ako” by Eman Abatayo.

The ballad, to my expert opinion, is still the best contemporary Ilonggo love song of the new millennium./PN