An experimental film from Mapúa University recently brought the school back to its winning ways in the film festival circuit by topping the 18th Piling Obrang Vidyo at the University of the Philippines Diliman.
“RAMBUTAN” directed by third-year Digital Film student Shayla Claire Perales from Mapúa’s School of Media Studies (SMS) was hailed the Best Film this year of the intercollegiate film competition managed by UP Cinema, a student film organization based at the UP College of Mass Communication.
Perales, who made “RAMBUTAN” as a project for her Experimental Film Production class, previously received a Special Citation for Subject Matter for the same film from the VanGarde Experimental Film Festival organized by SMS students last year.
The short film is a collaboration between Perales and her fellow writer, cinematographer, and editor Sheila Mae Tanagon. Original music is provided by composer Ryan Mangaliag.
Similar shape of fruit and the virus
Perales shared that she cannot express how grateful she is for the award and how unexpected it is. “RAMBUTAN is a very dear film to me because its concept came from my little brother, Shawn. He went into my room before and asked me, ‘Ate, gusto mo Covid?’ and then handed me a rambutan. From there, the film was born!” Her younger brother likened the appearance of the edible fruit to the coronavirus.
In the film, a rambutan interacts with an orange and suddenly doubles its number. The oranges rot every time they interact with a rambutan. Bananas use their capabilities to clean the rambutans and help address the chaos, to no avail. Fruits start to protect themselves with plastic, but others still die.
This is Mapúa’s second Best Film victory at POV following Celina Mae Medina’s “Ophelia” in 2019.
Mapúan filmmakers Hiyas Bagabaldo (“Sins, Senses and Saints”), Tricia Sotaso (“Ang Pagkalaglag ng Ginintuang Salamin ng Pagkakilanlan”), and Lloyd Reyes (“Ang Mambabarang at ang mga Taong Pinatay sa Limot”) nabbed the UP filmfest’s Best Experimental Film prize in 2016, 2017, and 2019, respectively.
Major haul for Benilde film majors
Meanwhile, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde film majors CM Bautista, David Edric Collado, and Xyron Parapara took home the bulk of the major prizes.
Bautista, whose works “vary from issues tackling personal struggles, social abuses, and political commentary,” received the Jury Prize and Best Screenplay for his short film “Pig’s Game” while actor James Ramada was adjudged Best Performance for the same film.
Collado won Best Editing and Best Sound Design for his film “Salamin” while Parapara’s “Taya” got the Viewers’ Choice award.
The politics of greed
“Pig’s Game” follows Al San Miguel (Ramada), a run-of-the-mill theater actor who got involved in a deliberately planned audition for a government propaganda campaign. A director and his crew lead the audition in a conventional manner while a famous figure seems to be watching it.
After they get satisfaction from the inhumanity that was filmed, deceit and manipulation take place in a room filled with cigarette smoke, heavy liquor, and hard cash being consumed by the pigs in the pen.
Bautista, who collaborated with co-writer and director of photography Tristan Aguilar and assistant director and sound recordist Warren Clarianes, shared that their film revolves around an organized black propaganda involving murder and it reflects the extent of a person’s greed when it comes to politics.
“Pig’s Game” earned the approval of the POV jury “for its deceptively simple form that turns an otherwise innocent Yes Room into a crime scene, in which viewers themselves take part, buoyed by a strong on-cam performance with seamless transitions between fakery and rawness.”
The jury is composed of filmmakers Carla Pulido Ocampo and Ligaya Villablanca, actress Therese Malvar, and film critic Jason Tan Liwag.
“Pig’s Game” also brought home the Best Screenplay prize “for its terrifying depiction of opportunity as a source of oppression, consent as a means for corruption and cruelty, and performance as a gateway towards punishment; turning the audience into the unwilling tormentor.”
Light at the end of the tunnel
In “Salamin,” a girl (Kirsten Collado) only has a mirror to keep her company as she lives in darkness. Her life changes when a burst of light emerges. She considers it the only way to escape from the surrounding voices that torment her. Despite the uncertainty of what is beyond the light, she peeks and sees a world better than what she has. Even if she wants to stay, she is unsafe from the voices that are hounding her.
Working with batchmate and musical scorer Carlo Barredo, Collado experiments and challenges himself to “create imaginative experiences and deliver a story that is deeply personal to him and the viewer.”
“Editing still frames to direct the cuts toward emotional gravity is no mean feat, and yet is achieved by this short film where the absence of movement went by unnoticed; frozen frames shifting mystically and flailing demonically to the beat,” reads the jury statement for the Best Editing recognition for “Salamin.”
“Salamin” also secured the Best Sound Design award “for its richly layered aural orchestration – at times spiritual, at times clawing savagely at the audience; violent without the violence.”
Child’s play amid domestic violence
“Taya” tells the story of Leo (Paolo Gratuito), a teenager who has been used to his father Ron’s (Rommel Rubina) frequent absence, as he gets by each day through the care of his mother Anne (Abby Luanzon) and his friends in their neighborhood. Ron is usually out of a job, comes home drunk, and hurts Anne.
Parapara used parallelism in demonstrating that “the childish games and insults would never be the same for Leo” as he chases his friends. This after witnessing his father slap his mother and leave them.
As “a person who is used to seeing the world in constant movement,” Parapara seeks “to show audiences the eyes that gravitate towards people, places, and things that matter.” He teamed up with production manager Andrea Salio, cinematographer Jan Christian Dijan, and editor Tyrone Luanzon in “Taya,” which won the viewers’ nod “for significantly evoking connection with the audience.”
Coping with the pandemic
Kukay Zinampan of UP Diliman earned Best Direction for “Nang Maglublob Ako sa Isang Mangkok ng Liwanag,” a tale of two friends who ruminate on mundane things during the pandemic. The film also merited Best Production Design and shared Best Performance award for Jzar Tabilin and Serena Magiliw.
Sophie Casasola of Far Eastern University won Best Cinematography for “Waltz of Qualm” by Francis Tavas. “Tara, Laro Tayo!” by Ben Francis De Lima and Patrick Demition of the University of Santo Tomas was awarded Best Music/Original Score.
“Mga Salitang Inanod” by Gabriel Carmelo of UP Los Baños received the Cinemasters’ Choice award for registering the highest number of votes among UP Cinema members. “An Eidolon Named Night” by Hans Piozon of UPD was given the Lansangan Award for best embracing this year’s theme, which “recalls the significant space that normally empowered the youth to form and share Filipino narratives that serve and inspire.”
Major award winners were given trophies, certificates, and a total cash prize of P15,000.