July 31 Tue
5pm Pisay/Aureus Solito
Amidst the chaos of Martial Law in this Third World country in the 1980s, six teenagers in the top high school for the sciences discover themselves as they go through the joys and pains of adolescence. They were the top two hundred students from all over the Philippines who passed the examination for the Philippine Science High School, which was created for the purpose of giving an education highly enriched in the Sciences to exceptionally gifted Filipino children. Selected from the best and brightest from all over the country, they endure college-level courses in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics from their sophomore year onwards. Those who can make it are hailed as the future science and technology leaders of the New Republic, those who don't are deemed unfortunate victims of natural selection. They all learn however that they are neither isolated from the real world, nor are they exempted from living real lives. They find the world outside, erupting into the People Power revolution in 1986 against the Marcos dictatorship, being replicated within the school as they struggle to graduate, contend with teachers, classmates, family, school officials, and a new classification to segregate students meeting the high standards of excellence from those who do not.
7pm Tukso/Dennis Marasigan
The mysterious death of a young village lass leads to the investigation of those who knew her and what they may have to gain from her death. Told from the perspectives of the different characters, the film examines how one’s view may lead to varying interpretations of the same incidents.
Aug 1 Wed
5pm Still Life/Katrina Flores
An intimate and character driven piece, STILL LIFE is the story of James Masino, a gifted Filipino painter who finds out he is afflicted with a paralyzing disease known as Guillain Barre Syndrome. Faced with a future where he can no longer paint, James leaves his life in the city and goes on a self-imposed exile to paint one last time, one final masterpiece. Unable to imagine a life without his art, he plans to kill himself once he finishes this painting. But Fate intervenes and derails this grand scheme when James learns that he must share this exile with Emma, a beautiful and mysterious young girl who at 19 has lived a life much too old for her years. But it is her courageous and unfailing optimism despite what life has dealt her that ultimately inspires James to realize a life beyond his canvass. Her search for meaning propels his journey towards hope and redemption. And what unfolds is an offbeat love story between a 30-year-old man and a 19-year-old girl that begs the question what is truly the purpose of one’s life? The answer they find in each other will turn out to be simpler and far more astonishing than either one might have ever guessed.
7pm Kadin/Adlof Alix, Jr.
In the small Ivatan village of Chavayan in Sabtang Island , Batanes, Peping - a ten-year old boy and his family make a living out of the milk provided by their kadin (goat), Gima. One morning, he wakes up to find out that Gima, is missing. A storm is brewing, so they have to find Gima before it’s too late. Together with her younger sister, Lita, the two goes on a seemingly impossible search for the goat in the landscape of Sabtang Island, Batanes. A series of frustrating episodes mark the day, tension and desperation growing as chances for recovering the goat and with it, their dashed hopes, start to fade. What follows is a wonderful parable about innocence and the infectiousness of goodness. The odyssey teaches the boy about the true meaning of life- where kindness and cruelty can be found in close proximity.
Aug 2 Thu
5pm Endo/Jade Castro
Leo’s life is a series of terminable contracts. Unable to finish school and forced to be the family breadwinner, he takes on five month service-oriented jobs, one after another. Will his love affair with the spirited dreamer Tanya finally give him a taste of security and permanence?
7pm Ligaw Liham/Jay Abello
When one is invisible, one is likely to lose his way. To an individual whom society fails to notice because of a diminishing circumstance, it is easy enough to lose himself in things that would otherwise be unacceptable. Ligaw Liham is this kind of story. Nor, considered the town simpleton, finds an opportunity to sway to the dance of love when he takes over the pen of Karen’s husband and wrote letters not his. This is a story on how deeply people get affected when one of society’s basic services stops working. It takes inspiration from a true incident involving a provincial post office in Negros that simply stopped working at a pre-texting era when people tend to be completely dependent on the mailing system - letters were neither coming nor going, leaving an unaccounted number of corrupted lives.
9pm SHORTS A
Aug 3 Fri
5pm Tribu.Kim Libiran
Every night, in the dark nook and alleyways of marginal urban communities in this metropolis, violence erupts sporadically, waylaying and maiming young lives and youthful dreams. What feeds this brutality? How are lives affected by this vicious cycle? This is the darker side of Manila-by-night , where pubescent gangs, or “tribes,” roam the streets looking for quick fixes and cheap thrills. Here, Manila ’s working class district of Tondo throbs to the beat of hip hop and freestyle gangsta rap, while panoramic poverty is spray-painted like a multi-colored graffiti of promiscuous sex, crack heads, and alcohol-induced street battles. Thru the eyes of ten-year-old Ebet, we witness the deadly lives of teen age gang members in Tondo and the events that lead to their explosive confrontation.
7pm Sinungaling na Buwan/Ed Lejano
Three loves, three broken hearts. This offbeat “dramedy” begins when their affairs abruptly end. A TV weather reporter gets dumped by her older, married lover, turning to alcohol and horoscopes for escape. A radio dubber is deserted by his lover for another woman and becomes obsessed with his idol, a 70s pop diva named Divina dela Luna. A struggling actor is abandoned by his girlfriend and gets immersed into his stage role that mirrors his own crisis. Each dysfunctional character sharing a common experience of falling victim to a pattern of irony and lies. With its intricate plot, their separate stories converge during the performance of a play-within-a-film, Relasyon sa Ilalim ng Buwan. It climaxes with unexpected twists linking one another in surprising ways. Based on an award winning screenplay, their recurring, bittersweet experiences unfold like refrains from an old love song as the moon shines like a silent witness.
9pm SHORTS B
Aug 4 Sat
6pm Gulong/Sockie Fernandez
GULONG is about friendship, love and life. The story is told from the point-of-view of Apao, a smart, kindhearted boy whose quest for an old bicycle reveals the stuff he is made of. With him on this adventure are his insan Momoy and his bespren Tom-Tom. The story begins with a question: How are our 3 friends going to spend their summer vacation? Tom-Tom suggests that they go to his uncle’s fishpond, an hour’s bike ride from where they live. Apao and Momoy have a problem – they don’t own a bike! There are no jeeps and it is too far to walk. Momoy finds an old bicycle but the owner, an old woman named Tita Maggie, will only give it to him if he pays her a hundred pesos. He agrees and promises to come back with the money the next day. This starts a series of events which affects Apao, his friends, his family and even his community. In the end, a discarded 40 year old bicycle connects the past to the present and becomes a catalyst for healing old wounds and reviving a love affair that has long been left for dead.
8pm BEST PICTURE WINNER
