Location: Casa San Miguel, San Antonio, Zambales, Philippines
City/Town: San Antonio, Philippines

Description:

As with the exhibits, the film festival also aims to take stock of the development in the works of the center’s resident filmmakers for the past 15 years. CASA San Miguel will showcase six (6) films that were all filmed and co-produced at the center. The film showings will take place from March 2 to 7, 2009. Special performance of Cynthia Alexander on closing night.

The Films:

BOSES
Philippines/2008/Fiction/Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil

Boses (Voices) is the story of a musician named Ariel (played by Coke Bolipata) who offers violin lessons to a child of the slums (played by Julian Duque). Through the violin, the abused child Onyok is able to get back his voice from a mute, desensitized existence. A violin teacher and his student, a mute 7-year old abused child in a shelter, develop a friendship stemming from their love of music. Ariel discovers the immense talent of Onyok hiding behind a veneer of silence and pain caused by an unhappy and cruel father. In the developing relationship of teacher and student, both characters reveal more of themselves that otherwise may have remained unspoken. They discover each other's strengths and failures through the violin lessons.

CONCERTO
Philippines/2008/Fiction/Paul Alexander Morales

Concerto is about how, in the last part of World War II, a special piano concert is held in the forest outside Davao City, in Mindanao. In these boondocks, a displaced Filipino family, lead by Military Commander Ricardo and his wife Julia, become acquainted with a group of Japanese officers, similarly camped nearby. Their son Joselito, a Japanese speaker, becomes the conduit with the neighboring Japanese. Their daughters Niña, an aspiring concert pianist and the musically gifted, Maria, who is able to play by ear, are alternately repulsed and intrigued by the officers. Family values are questioned as the family treads the thin line between enmity and friendship with the occupying Japanese. Based on true stories from the director's own family history, Concerto celebrates a family whose reverence for life, expressed through their love of music and friendship, can survive even war, and shows how beauty and compassion does grow in even the harshest of conditions.

KULIMLIM
Philippines/2004/Fiction/Maryo J. De los Reyes

A suspense/horror film that shows the power of evil. Jake is a rich gun storeowner with a beautiful wife, Hannah. Three devil worshippers, aptly called Tres Demonyos, take a fancy on Hannah and rapes her. The rapists are imprisoned while Hannah bears a son from the tragedy. After eight years, the three rapists are released from prison, which forces Jake to take matters into his own hands. Through his connections, he arranges for the three criminals to be salvaged. In a bizarre twist of events, Jake is possessed by the three devil worshippers.

PUTING PAALAM (The White Funeral)
Philippines/1997/Fiction/Sari Raissa Lluch Dalena

A bride walks on the desert. She takes off her bridal ornaments and turns into a harlot. A multitude of people crawl on their bellies, become sick and soon die. A volcano erupts. White ashes of lahar cover the earth. The bride remembers her betrothal and repents--symbolically paving the way for the resurrection of her people. A final bridal march into a new heaven and earth takes place. World Premiere at the 2nd Pundaquit Festival of the Earth, Zambales, April 1998

SI JULIAN, ANG SIRENA AT ANG DAGAT
Philippines/2008/Animation/Don Salubayba

This animation piece is based on the play written by Coke Bolipata based on a local folktale about a boy who is taken by a bewitching siren to her underworld, forsaking his mortal life for the beauty beneath the sea, where there are no tears, no dying, or dreaming. Only later to turn his back on the siren and her world, to return to the world of mortals, choosing the pain of a mortal life to discover his own humanity.

HOMING
Philippines/2008/Fiction/Ruelo Lozendo

Every year, in a town in Zambales, northeast of the Philippines, the locals release pawikan (sea turtle) hatchlings toward the sea. This is the start of the journey of these hatchlings, oblivious of the predators and perils that await them in the depths of the ocean. Some will perish, and some will live long enough to return twenty years after to the same spot where they were released.

The Pundaquit Festival:

The festival runs until June featuring concerts of noted Filipino artists, exhibits of artists in residence from 1993 to 2008 as well as the local Zambales community, student recitals of the growing talent within the community, film showings of movies filmed and produced at CASA San Miguel, and other fun activities. For details, log on to http://www.pundaquitfestival.com/.

All events to the Sixteenth Season of the the Pundaquit Festivals are free to the general public, made possible by support from a grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and sponsored by Chemrez Laboratories. Interested sponsors can call 903-8657 for details regarding support. There is a gate admission of P200 for family vans and P100 for cars.

About CASA San Miguel:

Alfonso “Coke” Bolipata established CASA San Miguel in his family’s mango orchard in San Antonio, Zambales in 1994 decades ago when he returned home from his studies at Julliard School of Music in New York and University of Indiana. He wanted to set-up an Arts center to provide opportunities to gifted children outside Metro Manila to develop their talent whether it is in classical music, visual arts and theater. Children as young as 3 years old from various backgrounds - fisher folk, farmers, sari-sari vendors, tricycle driver, market vendors as well as teachers, doctors and other professionals - come week-to-week to hone their talents. Bolipata said “this is truly a unique cultural endeavor. There is nothing like this in the Philippines or anywhere else in the world.”

Sources here and here