“THE GOSPEL of the Beast” is the opening film of this year’s Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. It features Jansen Magpusao, the festival’s second youngest Best Actor.
“Gospel of the Beast” is a coming-of-age film about a teenage boy, Mateo, who is ceaselessly searching for his missing father.
After accidentally killing his best friend, his life gets turned upside down. He runs away with his father’s friend Berto (Ronnie Lazaro), not knowing that his escape would set him on his ultimate journey towards beasthood as Berto exposes him to the drug-fueled and violent world of a syndicate.
It is a regional film by Sheron Dayoc featuring all-Western Visayan actors that won two awards at the recent 47th Gawad Urian, with Best Supporting Actor for Lazaro and Best Editing.
“In a world that continues to grapple with various forms of violence, including war, domestic abuse, modern-day slavery, and other affronts to human dignity, the story speaks to the broader human experience — the struggle for justice and enduring hope — through the character of Mateo,” Dayoc said in an interview.
Magpusao was then an unknown and neophyte 15-year-old child actor from a far-flung town in Antique when he won as Best Actor in 2019 for “John Denver Trending”.
He portrays a young boy whose life changed after a video of him went viral and he became a victim of cyber-bullying.
Aside from the Best Actor award by Jansen, “John Denver Trending” was the biggest winner in 2019 with Best Film, Best Original Music Score, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and the NETPAC Award for the Full-Length Category.
Lino Brocka’s “Bona” starring Nora Aunor and Phillip Salvador is the Cinemalaya 2024 closing film. It tells the story of a fan becoming infatuated with a bit actor from a movie but the endless infatuation comes with unfortunate results.
Nora Aunor won as Best Actress in Cinemalaya 2014 for Hustisya in the Directors’ showcase.
Documentaries from GMA Public Affairs will also be shown: “Sisid sa Putik” of Mav Gonzales, “Boat to School” of Howie Severino, “Bawat Barya” by Atom Araullo and “Ambulasyang de Paa” by Kara David. “Lost Sabungeros” by Bryan Brazil delves into the unsolved disappearances of sabungeros (cockfighting enthusiasts) in 2022.
“Loob, Lalim, Lakas” is this year’s theme of the 20th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival that runs from August 2 to 11, 2024.
Competing in the Full-Length Category are: “Alipato at Muog” by JL Burgos; “An Errand” by Dominic Bekaert and Sarge Lacuesta; “Tumandok” by Arlie Sumagaysay and Richard Salvadico; “Balota” by Kip Oebanda; “Gulay Lang Manong” (“No More Than Veggies”) by BC Amparado; “Kantil” (Trench) by Joshua Medroso; “Kono Basho” by Jaime Pacena II; “Love Child” by Jonathan Jurilla; “The Hearing” by Lawrence Fajardo and Honee Alipio; and “The Wedding Dance” by Julius Lumiqued.
The entries, often called “indie films”, embody Cinemalaya’s vision: “The creation of new cinematic works by Filipino filmmakers that boldly articulate and freely interpret the Filipino experience with fresh insight and artistic integrity.”
It also aims to invigorate the Philippine filmmaking by developing a new breed of Filipino filmmakers.
I consider myself a Cinemalaya loyalist as I have been watching the festival films since it started in 2005, or 20 years ago.
Eddie Garcia won the Best Actor that year for “ICU Bed#7”, Merylle Soriano was Best Actress for “Room Boy” while “Pepot Artista” was Best Film.
Garcia was the only person to win Best Actor thrice at Cinemalaya for “ICU Bed #7” (2005), “Bwakaw” (2012) and “ML” (2018).
My passion perhaps is an offshoot of my exposure to experimental films during my college years in the late ‘80s and ‘90s at the UP Diliman where I saw several highly sensitive and political films, some of them were even banned from commercial screenings.
The UP Film Center served as venue to screen films free from censorship as a salute to the ideals that independent filmmaking promotes — imagination, creativity, reinvention, and critical thinking. Academic freedom is essential to the mission of the University that showing of films is part and parcel of its academic programs.
Named after a mythical bird, Cine Adarna is an 800-seater theater that has been a favorite venue for international, regional, national, even sectoral film festivals.
Some of the films I saw included Lino Brocka’s “Maynila, Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag” (1975), “Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim” (1985), Ishmael Bernal’s “Himala” (1982), Mike de Leon’s “Sister Stella L.” (1984), and Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s “Karnal” (1984) and whose daring works portrayed revolt, labor unionism, social ostracism, and class division.
While it is the duty of the artist to work for what is true, good, and beautiful, first we have to expose and fight for what is wrong,” Brocka said in an interview.
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“Peyups” is the moniker of the University of the Philippines.
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