KATORSE SHORTS now available online

Katorse Shorts may now be viewed online. Perfect for fellow Filipinos abroad thirsting for some rare Pinoy indies.

Films include: “Ang Kapalaran Ni Virgin Mario” by Ogi Sugatan,  “Ambulancia” by Richard Legaspi, “Blood Bank” by Pam Miras, “Dead Letter” by Grace Orbon, “Ika-Siyam Na Palapag,” “Panaginipan,” “Puwang” and “Walong Linggo” by Anna Isabelle Matutina, “Lababo,” “Shorts” and “Pagbugtaw” by Seymour Sanchez and “Manyika” by John Wong.

For only $4.95, you can watch as much as 3 short films from Katorse. Just go to neTVision and sign up.

Projects for the 3rd Produire au Sud Film Workshop Bangkok

As part of the World Film Festival of Bangkok, Produire au Sud is a biennial workshop in which indie producers and directors get a chance to talk with industry figures about their films and how to get funding for them. This year’s Produire au Sud Bangkok workshop will be held from October 29 to November 1. Six projects have been chosen:

* Stratosphere (Thailand) – producer Hassaya Rimphanawat; director Patavee Viranuvat
* I Carried You Home (Thailand) – producer Thacksakorn Pradubpongsa; director Tongpong Chantarangkul
* The Tour (Malaysia) – producer Joanna Lee; director Chris Chong
* Shadows of Noon (Philippines) – producer Elisse Aquino; director Ivy Universe Baldosa
* Balaan (Philippines) – producer Oscar Nava, director Ray Gibraltar
* Remembrance (Philippines) – producer Eloisa Espino-Sanchez, director Seymour Sanchez

They will make their pitch to producer Elise Jalladeau, screenwriter Miguel Machalski and sales agent Emilie Georges.

I Carried You Home previously came away with cash from the Asian Cinema Fund. Director Tongpong’s short, Wings of Blue Angels, is part of this year’s World fest program.

Here is more about Produire au Sud (Producing in the South), from the World Film Festival of Bangkok’s blog:

“Created in Nantes (France) in 2000 by the Festival of 3 Continents, Produire au Sud is a workshop aimed at Asian, African and South American producers.

In fact, if the state of worldwide film production covers heteogeneous realities, the problems that must be overcome for the development of a full-length film are often similar.

The main goal of Produire au Sud is thus to help and support the producers of these specific geographical areas with the learning and fulfilment of their job.

It is undoubtedly in the viewpoint of exchanging tips, skills and ideas that the Produire au Sud workshops are taking place each year in Nantes during the Festival of 3 Continents but also abroad in the framework of several partnerships with some international film festivals.”

One of the projects from the Bangkok workshop will be selected to attend the Nantes festival for further talks and workshopping.

Supported by the French embassy, the Bangkok workshop was started at the 3rd World Film Festival of Bangkok in 2005. O Nathapon’s A Moment in June was the first film selected. It recently premiered at the Pusan International Film Festival and is the opener of this year’s World fest. The workshop was held again in 2006 (since then it will be biennial) and Malaysian director Liew Seng Tat’s In What City Does It Live? was chosen.

source: http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com/

Akihiro Sato will appear in indie film “Handumanan”

Jocelyn Dimaculangan
Saturday, November 29, 2008
01:28 PM

Half-Brazilian, half-Japanese model Akihiro Sato will be introduced in the indie film titled Handumanan (Remembrance). This project came just a few months after appearing as one of the ten Celebrity Centerfolds of Cosmopolitan’s Cosmomen supplement released last September.

Chin Chin Gutierrez and Jason Abalos topbill the film, which is being shot on location in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. The film is about three people who seem to have lost hope of their worlds until their fateful encounter in a resort in Negros Oriental.

Chin Chin plays a romance novelist named Solita Locsin a.k.a. Soledad Miranda who cannot accept her publisher’s demand that she write erotic pocketbooks.  When she is diagnosed with a terminal illness, she decides to quit her job and go back home to Dumaguete.

Jason Abalos is Alejandro Tan a.k.a. Lean. He wants to be a writer but he is trapped in his job at the Commission on Audit after finishing accountancy upon the wish of his mother.  He also wants to escape from a world that has been harsh to his family.

Carlos Silva (Akihiro) is a Brazilian print ad model who is searching for his roots. He uses his blog to connect with people all over the world.  After Sol finds out about blogging from her niece, she makes use of this new tool to continue writing.  Intrigued with her writing, Carlos finds her blog on the Internet and expresses his wish to meet her personally.  Meanwhile, Lean is assigned to audit in Dumaguete but his escapist attitude leads him to Sol, whose romance novels play a significant role in his life.

The script of Handumanan is co-written by Richard Soriano Legaspi and Seymour Barros Sanchez, who is more popularly known as Meyor. Their script was selected during the 3rd Produire au Sud Film Workshop, which is part of the sixth World Film Festival Bangkok. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) provided the filmmakers with a P500,000 grant, allowing the film to premiere in February 2009 in time for the celebration of National Arts Month. Red Room Productions will also co-produce the film.
This film is also done in cooperation with the Katorse Writers Group (from Ricky Lee’s 14th scriptwriting workshop), Pixel Art Media Production Co., On Cam Productions and the University of Makati Film Society.

Seymour is an instructor at the University of Makati Center for Performing and Digital Arts, a special lecturer at St. Paul University Manila, and founder and adviser of the University of Makati Film Society while Richard is a part-time instructor at the University of the East College of Fine Arts in Caloocan.

12 Countries Represented at First Annual Competition

The first annual Muhr AsiaAfrica Competition at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) offers a selection of short films from Africa, Central Asia and the Far East that offer a bouquet of stories at once, organizers said today.

The Muhr AfricaAsia competition was introduced this year to stimulate and expose filmmaking from emerging markets. Nashen Moodley, Director of AsiaAfrica Programming for DIFF, said: “Short films remain important because they are where a lot of filmmakers cut their teeth, while some directors prefer to remain in the form because its limitations challenge them. For audiences, a short programme is a delight because it allows them to sample stories from a vast region, incorporating a variety of different themes and forms. Viewers that prefer diversity should consider our short programmes, which will not disappoint.”

Three of the films originate from Africa: The Birthday is a submission by Burkina Faso’s legendary filmmaker Idrissa Ouedraogo which sees the beautiful Awa decide to marry for money rather than love; in Expectations, a young man returns to his village in Chad tired and listless, but must confront the people who lent him the money for his journey; Jesus and the Giant, set in Johannesburg, follows an avenging woman who seeks out the man that battered her friend.

Further to the east, Iran’s 35 Metriye Sathe Ab (35 Metres from the Water) depicts moments of connection and beauty between unlikely lovers; in Ayak Al Tinda (Downstairs), a Turkish manual worker’s monotonous life is shattered by a striking revelation; Kam Sanabanyz (Everything is OK),Kyrgyzstani director Akjol Bekbolotov’s film on the plight of the thousands of homeless children of Bishkek, is an impressive and moving glimpse of life on the streets; from Kazakhstan, Bakhytzhamal depicts a mentally disturbed man runs away from a sanatorium to meet his old flame, while India’s Dhin Tak Dha depicts another escape—a village garage mechanic who falls in with a troupe of traditional touring performers.

From East Asia, Japanese black comedy Daichi O Tataku Onna (Woman Who Is Beating the Earth) depicts a lonely and bored butcher. Shifting gears, Ambulancia (Ambulance) introduces a group of desperate Pilipino ambulance drivers who believe that running over stray street animals can save dying patients’ lives, while Shao Nian Xue (Young Blood) takes us on a fun ride to a crowded housing complex in late 1980s Shanghai where teenage hormones run rampant.

The Taiwanese Tian Hei (The End of the Tunnel) is another take on young love, wherein a blind high school student bonds with an unlikely friend by using his piano skills, and Malaysia’s Chicken Rice Mystery shows a young boy as he ponders one of the greatest mysteries of his life: why is his mother’s cooking so appalling?

Muhr AsiaAfrica shorts will be screened in three separate programmes during the fifth annual Dubai International Film Festival, from December 11 to 18. For further information or to buy tickets, please visit the festival website at http://www.dubaifil mfest.com/ en/films- explorer/ ?id=1375

Seven days of indie movies at .MOV International Digital Film Festival

The Daily Tribune
09/26/2008

If filmmakers could rewrite The Creation of the World, a lot of things would certainly change — it would be in digital format, black and white, linear, deleted scenes, re-takes and extras. But it would still begin with “Let there be light” — followed by camera and action.

.MOV (dot-mov) — the first digital film festival in the country — is a week-long festival that will showcase innovative films from independent filmmakers both from the local and international arena starting Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, at Robinsons Movieworld, Robinsons Galleria.

.MOV is the first digital film festival in the Philippines. Dedicated to the exhibition and promotion of digital filmmaking, the festival spotlights the future of filmmaking with a dynamic line-up of film screenings, in-depth panel discussions and hands-on technology presentations.

Digital Dekalogo 10×10

.MOV will have an exhibition of 10 of the very best local and international independently produced digital features explained through 10 local filmmakers with aims of mentoring the Filipino audience to appreciate world cinema with an expert’s eye and Filipino sensibilities.

Tribute.MOV

Cineastes may look forward to .MOV’s tribute to local filmmaking mavericks — Lav Diaz, Roxlee and Kidlat Tahimik — with a book, CD and DVD launch plus premieres of Melancholia, Green Rocking Chair and Maikli at Tahimik.

Retrospective.MOV

A retrospective on the wild, wired, digital world of prominent movers in digital filmmaking with this year’s theme of “Extreme Cinema Wasakero” highlights films and filmmakers that challenge the norm with the themes of their movies.

Shorts.MOV

The inaugural event will also have a program called Shorts.MOV, a showcase of the best digital short films in the world from two of the most prestigious international short film festivals, Clemont-Ferrand (France) and Oberhausen (Germany).

Silvershorts

A short film competition for students and professionals will range from narrative, experimental, documentary, animation, to music video. Finalists for the student category include: 123, Anomi, June 9, Kamatis, Kumot, Papelove, Pisi, Stop, Play and Pause, Ultra and Publico Makata. Finalists for the open category include: # Café, Ambulancia, Ampo, Andong, Libingan, Nekro, Saling Pusa, The Prayer, Tiangge and VTR.

Film Concert.MOV

A special programming of rare, out-of-print Filipino classic films scored live by the country’s most recognized independent bands such as Radioactive Sago Project, Pedicab and Queso will be featured with a digital twist that underscores the festival’s aim to showcase film’s ever changing language.

Cinemo: Young Artists Initiative

To develop a new breed of filmmakers to follow these legends’ footsteps, .MOV will have workshops led by world-renowned industry experts, as well as a young critics’ initiative that focuses on teaching how to write about films by tackling a new wave of criticism, retrospection, and commentary on films to help artists to interface with the international community.

So The Creation of the first digital international film festival was rewritten, reedited and redirected, and there was .MOV. And the film gods saw that it was good.

The event is sponsored by Filmless Films, Robinsons Movieworld, Swiftsure Group and Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. For more information, visit http://www.movfest.com or e-mail dotmov@gmail.com.

“Ambulancia” short film wins best editing in Italy

Yehey.com
3 September 2008 | 8:57 AM

Anna Isabelle Matutina won the Miglior Montaggio or Best Editing Award for Richard Legaspi’s short film “Ambulancia” at the 14th San Gio International Video Festival held recently in the Courtyard of the Old Court, Scaligeri Palaces of Verona, Italy.

The good news was relayed to Legaspi via email by San Gio festival director Ugo Brusaporco. The festival (http://www.sangiofestival.it), an international extension of video and images in motion, was judged by Spanish actress Maria Jesus Hoyos, critic Juan Ferrer, Italian actor Alain Libolt, actress Donatella Mei, and writer Vanessa Picciarelli.

Alen Drlievic’s “Esma” (Bosnia – Herzegovina), which tells the lasting search of a woman named Esma for her missing husband, who was abducted by the Bosnian Serb Army inside a United Nations peace camp, won the grand prize Miglior Video or Best Video Award.

The other winners are Nebojša Slijepcevic’s “Za 4 Godine” / “In 4 Years” (Croatia) for Best Direction, Milos Tomic’s “Plivnuti Polibkem” / “Splitted by Kiss” (Czech Republic) for Best Screenplay, Tibor Banoczki’s “Milk Teeth” (United Kingdom) for Best Animation, Ragnar Neljandi of Mari-Liis Bassovskaja’s and Jelena Girlin’s “Kleit” / “The Dress” (Estonia) for Best Cinematography, Ollie Davis of Sally Arthur’s “A-Z” (United Kingdom) for Best Music, Rikke Lyllof of Anna Goldblum Treiman’s “Gaven” / “The Gift” (Denmark) for Best Interpretation, and Jadwiga Kowalska’s “Tãt ou tard” (Switzerland) for the Soave Ways Award.

“Ambulancia,” which tells of a painful twist in an ambulance driver’s belief that a dying patient can be saved by running over stray animals on the street, was also selected as one of ten finalists in the Open Category of Silvershorts, the short film competition section of the 3rd .MOV International Digital Film Festival (www.movfest.com), which will run from September 24 to October 7 in selected Robinsons Movieworld cinemas.

Aside from Ambulancia, also vying for the P100,000 grand prize in the Silvershorts Open are Jan Philippe “JP” Carpio’s “VTR,” Antoinette Jadaone’s “Saling Pusa,” Milo Tolentino’s “Andong,” Jose Maria Basa’s “Ampo,” Ray Gibraltar’s “Tiangge,” J.I.E. Teodoro’s “The Prayer,” CJ Andaluz’s “Nekro,” Ramon del Prado’s “Libingan,” and Leo Valencia’s “#cafe.”

Matutina and Legaspi are both part of the Katorse Writers Group, graduates of Ricky Lee’s 14th scriptwriting workshop for film and television (katorseshorts.wordpress.com). The latter, a faculty of the University of the East College of Fine Arts, is a fellow of the 2007 Asian Film Academy, an educational program of the Pusan International Film Festival, South Korea, while the former is also an independent filmmaker and a freelance editor for film and television.

“Ambulancia” will next compete in the 10th International Panorama of Independent Film and Video in Greece, 14th Bite the Mango Film Festival in the United Kingdom, and 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival in North Korea. It earlier won the grand prize in the Viva – Pinoy Box Office (PBO) Digitales 2 short film competition and the best short narrative film in the first Quisumbing-Escandor Film Festival for Health. It also competed in the 32nd Open-Air Film Festival Weiterstadt in Germany and 5th Naoussa International Film Festival in Greece.

“Shorts” to compete in Thailand

“Shorts,” a short film about a young copywriter/production designer who seems to have gone crazy, will compete in the 12th Thai Shor Film and Video Festival, which will run from August 29 to Septembe 14 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Pathumwan Junction.

Seymour Barros Sanchez’s “mockumentary” will vie for the award in the
festival’s R.D. Pestonji International Short Competition section, which will be shown on September 6. The other finalists are Asaf Saban’s “Mapping” (Israel), Marie Helene-Panisset’s “On Pretty Happy Dame” (Canada), Tubmi Koukou’s “Place” (Japan), Wong Jong-shik’s “Watermelon Chicken” (South Korea), Vicent Burgevin’s and Franck Lebon’s “Edwards in Wonderland” (France), Emanuel Rossi’s “Clara’s Child” (Italy), Jystyna Nowak’s “Dragonfly”
(Poland), Karl Tebbe’s “Karaoke Show” (Germany), Thomas Adamicka’s “The Limits” (Germany), Conor Ferguson’s “The Wednesday (Ireland), and Anders Skog’s “Tag!” (Sweden). The award is named in honor of R.D. Pestonji, regarded as the father of contemporary Thai film.

Two other Filipino films, Raya Martin’s “Childhood in the Philippines Islands, undated” (Infancia en las Islas de Filipinas, sin fecha) and Marlon Fuentes’ “Bontoc Eulogy,” will be screened as part of the S-Express Philippines program on September 10. S-Express is a traveling short film program of some of the region’s most outstandin and notable independent filmmakers to be presented by the respective curators from each country.

Film festival project coordinator Sanchai Chotirosseranee, also an S-Express Thailand programmer, revealed that “the tougher short competition program (was) selected from more than 400 shorts from around the world.” The jury for this section are Ekachai Uekrongtham, director of “Beautiful Boxer” (Panorama in Berlinale 2003) and “Pleasure Factory” (premiere at Un Certain Regard 2007), and Prawich Tangeaksorn, a noted Thai film critic and lecturer.

The festival will also offer special short programs which have never been shown or premiered in Thailand. Exclusively granted the green light, this year’s festival proudly presents the best selection fro Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, the world’s biggest film festival of its kind, to be attended by French programmer Roger Gonin, the Queer Shorts program which selects international shorts to celebrate the variety and fluidity of human sexuality, the Airplay program portraying the behind-the-scene of the à la mode music video from popular British singers and bands, and award-winning Thai shorts arraying in the international film festival circuit during the recent years. Martin Thau of the Munich Film and Television Academy will also conduct a special screenwriting workshop from August 23 to 27.

“Shorts” stars commercial model Peejay Lanot, Nora Ruth Aquino, Jhovannie Santos, John Emmanuel Bautista, and Andy Del Rosario, with cameo appearances by award-winning actress Gina Pareño, director Jeffrey Jeturian and Sockie Fernandez, University of Makati Center for Performing and Digital Arts executive director Mary Acel German, former Yes FM DJ Edu Mansanas/Jobert Monteras and DZXL/UNTV/Bantay OFW host Marvin Javier.

The short film earlier won third prize in the Viva – Pinoy Box Office (PBO) Digitales 2 short film competition and will also compete in the Bite the Mango Film Festival from September 19 to 25 at the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Pinoy environmental documentaries compete in 10th Eco-Etno-Folk Romania

Pinoy environmental documentaries compete in 10th Eco-Etno-Folk
Romania

“Bodong (Pactul de Pace / Peace Pact),” an environmental and cultural
documentary from advocacy filmmaker Seymour Barros Sanchez,
and “Bunker 0: Sumirib Plus (Buncarul 0: Sumirib Plus),” a
documentary on the Guimaras oil spill by Jan Philippe “JP” V. Carpio,
will compete at the 10th International Festival Eco-Etno-Folk Film
from September 2 to 7 at the Slatioara Village, Valcea County in
Romania.

Program coordinator Ana-Maria Aelenei informed Sanchez and Carpio
that their films have been chosen by Eco-Etno-Folk’ s selection
committee. “We are congratulating you for this realization and for
the presence of your country at this 10th edition of the Festival. We
hope that your film will be appreciated by the International Jury of
the Festival,” Aelenei added.

The festival, which is organized by the National Foundation “Niste
Tarani,” is open to documentary short films and reportages, less than
30 minutes in length, dealing with subjects either in the Ecological -
Environmental – Touristic category, or in the Ethnographical -
Folkloric – Anthropological category. It aims to promote films for
the protection of cultural and national identities in villages,
preserving their rural traditions, and highlighting the consequences
of destroying our environment.

“Bodong,” co-produced by Red Room Productions and Pixel Art Media
Production Company, is about the traditional peace pact entered into
by warring tribes in the Kalinga. This documentary seeks to encourage
Cordillera people to forge a “bodong” to fight destructive mining and
intensified militarization in the region.

On the other hand, Linao Films’ “Bunker 0: Sumirib Plus” shows a
series of moments involving the people of Sitio Sumirib, Barangay La
Paz in the municipality of Nueva Valencia, province of Guimaras, one
of the areas most affected by the massive oil spill from the sunken
tanker Solar 1 chartered by the Petron oil corporation. The film
focuses more on their thoughts and feelings regarding this man-made
ecological disaster, and the actions they are taking to somehow cope
with very difficult times ahead.

Sanchez’s documentary was a finalist in the 2007 Moonrise
Environmental and Cultural Film Festival, while Carpio’s entry was a
part of the “Guimaras: Short Films on the Oil Spill” project
comprised of works by 16 independent Filipino filmmakers and
organized by the Philippine Independent Filmmakers Multi-Purpose
Cooperative and former ABC 5 show “Dokyu: Ang Bagong Mata ng Pinoy
Documentaries. ” Sanchez also directed a Guimaras short “Pagbugtaw
(Waking Up)” starring Carpio as a documentary filmmaker.

In 2005, a Philippine entry, the 25-minute tourism promotion film
entitled “Cebu – Queen of the South,” won the coveted Horezu City
Hall Award at the 7th staging of the International Eco-Etno-Folk
Festival.

Sanchez previously directed “Lababo” (Kitchen Sink), the anti-US
armed intervention short film which won the grand prize in the first
Viva – Pinoy Box Office (PBO) Digitales. The short film went on to
represent the Philippines at the 48th International Festival of
Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, Spain for the first time in
more than 50 years and also competed at the 8th International
Panorama of Independent Film and Video in Athens, Greece. It was also
shown at the Jakarta Slingshortfest (Internal Affairs Program) in
Indonesia and the 8th Cinemanila International Film Festival. He
also helmed “Shorts,” a third prize winner in Digitales 2 which will
compete in the 12th Thai Short Film and Video Festival in Bangkok and
14th Bite the Mango Film Festival in UK. He currently teaches mass
communication at St. Paul University Manila.

Carpio is a Bacolod City-bred writer and filmmaker who has already
written and directed three full-length films shot on video – the
first in 2000, “Girl of My Dreams,” the second in 2002 “Balay Dakû,”
and the third in 2007, “Hilo (Thread).” He is a National Commission
for Culture and the Arts Cinema Grant recipient for the first full-
length film in the Ilonggo language, “Balay Dakû.” Apart from a
number of pending projects, his fourth full-length film “Palanggâ
(The Beloved)” is now in post-production. He is currently a freelance
videographer and editor, and a contributing writer on film and art to
spacephilippines. com.

Both graduated from Ricky Lee’s scriptwriting workshops, with Sanchez
a part of the 14th batch and Carpio from the 11th batch. ##

First Filipino entry in “Woodstock of short films”

“Ambulancia, ” a short film written, directed, and produced by Richard Legaspi, will compete and have its German premiere at the 32nd Open- Air Film Festival Weiterstadt, which will take place from August 14 to 18 on the arcadian site of the Braunshardter Taennchen.

Filmfest Weiterstadt, also known as the “Woodstock of short films,” received more than 1,600 submissions worldwide and the festival committee selected only 195 films this year.
Since 1977, the festival, which is one of the oldest “open air” events of its nature in Germany, is “beyond comparison for its dedication to screen films in diverse genres in an immense program.”

Andreas Heidenreich, who is in charge of Weiterstadt’ s international programming, revealed that “Ambulancia” is the first Filipino film selected in their festival since it started. Aside from Legaspi’s short film, representing Asian Cinema in the festival this year are films from Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and a German-Chinese co-production.

Legaspi, a faculty of the University of the East College of Fine Arts (UE CFA), is a fellow of the 2007 Asian Film Academy, an educational program of the Pusan International Film Festival, South Korea and a graduate of Ricky Lee’s 14th scriptwriting workshop for film and television.

“Ambulancia” has a painful twist about an ambulance driver, played by character actor Alan Paule, who believes that a dying patient can be saved by running over stray animals on the streets. Paule, who is being managed by Ed Instrella, co-stars with thespian Nor Domingo of the Philippine  Educational Theater Association (PETA).

Legaspi was also ably supported by director of photography Albert Banzon, assistant director Jules Katanyag, AD/co-producer/ editor Anna Isabelle Matutina, co-producer Eloisa Espino-Sanchez, production manager/musical scorer Pam Miras, co-PM Seymour Barros Sanchez, and production designers Sunny Completo, Bon Labora, Grace Orbon, and Bernadette Reyes.

“Ambulancia” is also set to compete in other international film festivals in Greece (Patras City), North Korea (Pyongyang), and the United Kingdom (Bite the Mango) next month. It earlier won the grand prize in the Viva – Pinoy Box Office (PBO) Digitales 2 short film competition and the best short narrative film in the first Quisumbing-Escandor Film Festival for Health.

The film also competed in another festival in Greece (Naoussa) and was exhibited in South Korea (Pusan’s AFA Fellows’ Night). It was also screened as part of Cinemanila 2007’s Young Cinema Night program, Cinemalaya 2008’s Best of Indie Sine Shorts `08: Katorse, and University of Sto. Tomas’ CineVita. Along with six other short films from the Katorse Writers Group, it had a successful week-long screening at the Robinsons Galleria Indie Sine last June.

For more updates on Filmfest Weiterstadt, visit http://www.filmfest – weiterstadt. de. For more information about “Ambulancia” and other Katorse short films, visit http://katorseshort s.wordpress. com.

“Ambulancia, ” “Shorts” in UK’s Bite the Mango Film Festival

Richard Legaspi’s “Ambulancia” and Seymour Barros Sanchez’s “Shorts” were selected for screening in the Bite the Mango Film Festival which will run from September 19 to 25 at the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

As part of the official selection, both short films are eligible for the Golden Mango Award which will be awarded to “the film that is considered the best contribution to the promotion of cross cultural awareness, educating the audience about different cultures.”

Festival Director Addy Rutter relayed the good news via email to both directors, who are both part of the Katorse Writers Group, a collective of filmmaker-writers from Ricky Lee’s 14th scriptwriting workshop. Incidentally, “Ambulancia” and “Shorts” got the first and third prizes, respectively, in the second Viva – Pinoy Box Office (PBO) Digitales.

Since its inauguration in 1995, Bite the Mango has been growing and defining its identity in the world. Conceived as a festival that would profile the work of black and Asian filmmakers in Britain, it has quickly evolved into a celebration, through film, of cultures around the world. At present, the film festival is at the forefront of working with other countries and people to find the latest and best of world cinema.

Bite the Mango will be showcasing an eclectic mix of features, shorts and documentaries and a selection of master classes, seminars and workshops delivered by industry professionals providing an exciting and culturally vibrant atmosphere. The festival will again be bringing audiences an impressive collection of the very best cinema from around the world drawing influences from Africa, South Asia, Central America and the Far East.
Starring Alan Paule and Nor Domingo, “Ambulancia” is a short film
which tells of a painful twist in an ambulance driver’s belief that a
dying patient can be saved by running over stray animals on the
streets. Aside from the Digitales grand prize, it also won best short
narrative at the first Quisumbing-Escandor Film Festival for Health.
It is also in competition at the 32nd Open Air Filmfest Weiterstadt
in Germany, Pyongyang International Film Festival in North Korea,
International Panorama of Independent Films and Naoussa International
Film Festival in Greece, and was screened at the Asian Film Academy
Fellows’ Night in South Korea, Young Cinema Night of the 2007
Cinemanila International Film Festival, and the CineVita filmfest at
the University of Sto. Tomas.

“Shorts,” a comedy shot in the form of a “mockumentary, ” tells the story of Richard Marquez, a young, hotshot copywriter/producti on designer of one of the country’s top advertising agencies, who suddenly “snaps” or seems to have snapped as relayed by people close to him. He seems to be doing anything to make his new shorts dirty to the fear of everyone. The film stars Peejay Lanot, Nora Ruth Aquino, Jhovannie Santos, John Emmanuel Bautista, and Andy Del Rosario, with cameo appearances by award-winning actress Gina Pareño, directors Jeffrey Jeturian and Sockie Fernandez, former Yes FM DJ Edu Mansanas/Jobert Monteras and DZXL/UNTV/Bantay OFW host Marvin Javier.