Wazzup Pilipinas!
A
short film which tackles brotherhood, parenthood and belongingness recently
bagged the Audience Choice Award in the Active
Vista International Human Rights Film Festival short film competition.
Seymour Sanchez‘s Caretaker tells the story of a
new caretaker (Rolando
Inocencio) who comes in to replace the previous keeper of a
vacation house of a wealthy family. He is a single parent trying to make ends
meet while taking care of his two sons (Jomari
Angeles and Luis
Ruiz). He meets his boss (Raymond Riñoza), the owner of the house,
and is informed the family will be using it for the holiday. He starts cleaning
the house in preparation for the family’s arrival. Meanwhile, the owner’s son (John Paul Duray) has
other plans. The caretaker is caught off-guard when the owner’s son
comes home one night, with his fraternity brothers. Moreover,
the caretaker is unaware that he is in for a big surprise.
Naglalahong Pamana, a documentary by Lucy
Lavirotte, Jerrica Manongdo, Berna
Sastrillo, and David Simantov-Levi,
won Best Short Film “for giving a relevant, poignant, and sensitive discourse
on a tribe’s loss of land and culture because of minings and plantations.”
Manongdo also took home the first runner-up trophy for her Ipinanganak
na Nakayapak short
film “for taking the audience in an uneven yet captivating journey in the joys
and struggles of a proletariat.” Meanwhile, Hayop by Robert Mark Liwanag got the second runner-up award “for
exposing torture and violence in a harrowing narration.”
Richard Legaspi of Red Room Media Productions received Caretaker‘s award
from Lourd de Veyra of film festival organizer DAKILA-Philippine
Collective for Modern Heroism on behalf of filmmaker
Sanchez during the Alab ng Puso: Stand Up for Human
Rights program at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani last December 10.
Caretaker, which Sanchez
co-wrote with Kristine Camille Sulit,
previously won second place in the short fiction category of the sixth CAM International Festival for
Short Films in
Cairo, Egypt last October. It also received the Golden
Philippine Eagle Festival Director’s Choice award and Best
Actor trophy for
Inocencio in the short film category of the third Singkuwento
International Film Festival co-organized
by the National Commission for Culture and
the Arts last
February. The short film was also shown at the 22nd annual Filipino
International Cine Festival (FACINE)
at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, California and the International
Film Festival Manhattan at
the Producers Club in New York City.
Sanchez is an
advocacy filmmaker, freelance writer, communication and film professor (Far
Eastern University-Manila, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and College of
the Holy Spirit-Manila), and a former producer for news and current affairs
programs (CNN Philippines, Solar News and TV5). He is a graduate of Ricky Lee’s
14th scriptwriting workshop and Brillante Mendoza’s first film directing
class.
Active
Vista features short films that tell compelling stories of people whose
freedoms and rights are trampled upon and give voice to those who suffer in
silence. The films dwell on human rights issues and stimulate passionate
discussions about human rights and capture the intensity of these filmmakers as
they view the world in their own perspectives. Completing the list of short
film finalists are Sa Loob at Labas by Bernice Dy, Mga
Handuraw sa Kahilitan by Amaya Han, Supot by Jelford
Teves, Magkabilang Panig by Noni
Abao, Kahilom by Jude
Gitamondoc and Phoenix by Marti
Salva.
The
Active Vista International Human Rights Film Festival is a mobile cinema
platform that allows audiences opportunity to debate, discuss, and spark
conversations on human rights that can shape society. DAKILA is a group of
artists, students and individuals committed to advocating social consciousness
formation both among their industry peers and their immediate audiences.
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