11th Cinemanila International Film Festival
ClickTheCity At Cinemanila: Day Five
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Wednesday October 21, 2009 in Movies
MANILA MEETS PAUL SCHRADER
ClickTheCity at Cinemanila 11: Day Four
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Tuesday October 20, 2009 in Festivals, Movies
THINGS TO DO AT MARKET MARKET WHILE WAITING FOR YOUR MOVIE TO START
ClickTheCity at Cinemanila 11: Day Three
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Monday October 19, 2009 in Festivals, Movies, Indie Films, Local Movies
As I was watching the Young Cinema shorts in exhibition in the middle of Bonifacio High Street, I couldn’t help thinking about the problems of the set up. Outdoor screenings are great in theory, but like anything else, they come with their drawbacks. I had envisioned the outdoor screenings to be somewhere out in one of the empty fields that the Fort still has. The middle of High Street is a problematic location for several reasons. First of all, they don’t turn off the street lamps for the screenings, which makes it difficult to see the darker films. Michael Angelo Dagñalan’s Karoler, with its dark corridors and unlit streetscapes, could barely be seen. Secondly, there’s a nearby Seattle’s best that plays its coffeehouse muzak a little too loudly. When you have a bunch of short with minimalist soundtracks, it just becomes difficult to immerse yourself in the mood of the pictures when some light jazz is playing in the background.
ClickTheCity at Cinemanila 11: Day Two
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Sunday October 18, 2009 in Festivals, Movies, Indie Films, Local Movies, Movie Reviews
This year’s festival, being held in the vast openness that is the Fort, took the opportunity to hold outdoor screenings at Bonifacio High Street. The first outdoor screening was the young cinema program, featuring short films by young Filipino filmmakers from all over. Considering how cold it is in the Market Market cinemas, it was kind of a nice to be able to avoid air conditioning for a while. Outdoor screenings do have their drawbacks, though. Some of the entries to the program were shot on film, and logistics pretty much dictated that we were going to see everything on video.
ClickTheCity at Cinemanila 11: Day One
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Saturday October 17, 2009 in Festivals, Indie Films, Local Movies
Cinemanila’s new home is Market Market in the Fort. On any given day, three Market Market theaters are assigned for the festival, with extra screenings held at Fully Booked U-View. For those who’ve never seen it, it’s a small multi-purpose viewing room equipped with an HD projector found in the basement of Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street, just behind the Manga section. Outdoor screenings will also be held at the Bear Area of Bonifacio High Street, marked B3. The weather’s been pretty good lately, and those screenings ought to go off without a hitch.
ClickTheCity At Cinemanila 11: Opening Night
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Friday October 16, 2009 in Movies
The opening of Cinemanila has historically been a rather low-key affair. Sure, it would often be packed, and a good amount of wine would be served, but the opening itself would really just be a couple of speeches extolling the virtues of the festival and local cinema. That’s not the case this year, perhaps marking a change in the direction of the festival. What’s clear is that Taguig is taking the hosting of CInemanila seriously. It feels like the city has something to prove.
Countdown To Cinemanila: Introducing Paul Schrader
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Thursday October 15, 2009 in Movies
The guest of honor at this year’s Cinemanila is screenwriter and director Paul Schrader. Schrader is often introduced as a frequent collaborator of Martin Scorsese, and in fact, the Cinemanila website itself mentions this fact within the first three sentences of its press release. But that sort of does a disservice to the full breadth of work Schrader has produced.
Countdown To Cinemanila: More Films
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Thursday October 15, 2009 in Movies
Outside the main competition, the festival gets pretty interesting as well. The one film nobody can avoid is Quentin Tarantino’s latest, Inglourious Basterds, his sorta-kinda-not-really-remake of Enzo Castellari’s Quel maledetto treno blindato.
Countdown To Cinemanila: A Preview Of The Main Program
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Wednesday October 14, 2009 in Movies
Cinemanila opens and closes with two local cinematic heavyweights. Opening the festival is Lola, the latest from Cannes best director winner Brillante Mendoza.
Countdown to Cinemanila: Introduction to Machinima
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Monday October 12, 2009 in Movies, Indie Films
Cinemanila is upon us once again, this time springing from the heart of the rapidly growing city of Taguig. As we get closer to opening night, we’ll be looking at some of the things to look forward to in this year’s iteration.
Cinemanila Finalists Announced
posted on Monday October 5, 2009 in Events, Festivals, Movies, Movie Releases
The 11th Cinemanila International Film Festival released today its finalists for the Digital Lokal Section (Philippine digital films) Young Cinema Section (Shorts in Competition and Exhibition), and SEA Shorts (Southeast Asian shorts in Competition and Exhibition). They are as follows:
