The UP Film Institue holds its annual celebration for human rights with
the Cine Veritas Human Rights Film Festival 2006 set from December 5 Tuesday
to December 9 Saturday. Now on its fourth year, Cine Veritas continues to present
for its latest edition a wide variety of films that seek to confront the
contemporary world’s most pressing social issues.

Opening festivities feature the Philippine premiere (Dec 5 Tue 7 p.m.)
of Lelaki Komunis Terakhir (The Last Communist) from Malaysia’s digital
filmmaking pioneer Amir Muhammad. The film that has made the rounds of
prestigious international filmfests beginning with the world premiere in Berlin
last February provides a rare account of the early life and legacy of the
banned Communist Party of Malaya’s exiled leader Chin Peng through testimony
and song. The screening will be preceded by the world premiere
of Martyn See’s Speakers Cornered—a documentary short subject on
pro-democracy activists in Singapore about to stage a protest during the
recent World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s annual meet.

Succeeding days are replete with more screening highlights. The League of
Filipino Students hallmarks on Dec 6 Wed at 2 p.m. a double feature with
ABC 5’s State of War and ST Exposure’s Alingawngaw ng mga Punglo.
State of War—the 2006 documentary made with correspondents Geann Pineda,
Jim Libiran, Jade Lopez and Ed Lingao—shows the effects of the national
government’s all-out war policy against the CPP-NPA-NDF on the lives of
innocent civilians and unarmed activists. Set in the Southern Tagalog
region, Alingawngaw ng mga Punglo discusses the Comprehensive Agreement
on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law vis-à-vis
the human rights violations committed against civilians allegedly by the country’s
armed forces.

Another Philippine premiere unveils courtesy of the Embassy of France in the
Philippines Rithy Panh’s S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
(Dec 6 Wed 7 p.m. with repeat on Dec 8 Fri at 10 a.m.)—a close-up look at
the Khmer Rouge prison camps in Cambodia of the mid-1970s. Attempting to
make peace between Cambodian torture survivors and the Khmer Rouge soldiers
who brutalized them, the film has won numerous awards and distinctions
including Francois Chalais Award—2003 Festival de Cannes; Golden Dove,
Fipresci Prize—2003 Leipzig DOK Festival; Special Jury Prize—2003
Copenhagen IFF; Best Documentary—2003 Valladolid IFF; Best
Documentary—2003 European Awards; 2003 Prix Italia; Human Rights
Award—2004 Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema;
Humanitarian Award—2004 Hong Kong IFF; 2004 Prix Albert Londres.

Homegrown true-to-life classics are represented with the special commemorative
screening (Dec 7 Thu 2 p.m.) of The Moises Padilla Story directed by National
Artist Gerardo de Leon and the 35th anniversary screening (Dec 7 Thu 7 p.m.)
of Asedillo directed by Celso Ad Castillo and starring National Artist Fernando Poe Jr.
The Moises Padilla Story recounts the travails of an underdog politico battling
a corrupt governor with a private army that enforces his repressive rule in their
province. Asedillo tracks the story of a schoolteacher rebelling against the
American colonial government and forming a militant peasant group.

Apart from distinct screenings, the Film and Human Rights forum on Dec 8 Fri at
2 p.m. serves as a key attraction with a panel composed of Amir Muhammad,
Nanette Matilac, Kiri Lluch Dalena and Sharaad Kuttan. Libay Linsangan Cantor
of the UP Film Institute acts as the moderator.

Full slates of international shorts plus an Asian shorts program on politics of
oppression and a Philippine shorts selection tackling kids and poverty are also
screened throughout the festival. In addtion to the opening film, visiting filmmaker
Amir Muhammad has a surprise film to preview on Dec 8 Fri at 7 p.m.

The Center for Environmental Awareness and Education takes part in this year’s
Cine Veritas with an acclaimed twinbill of new works on Dec 9 Sat at 10 a.m.
Nanette Matilac’s Memories of the Sea digs into the plight of the Badjaw
who—like most cultural communities pushed away from their roots to
desperate subsistence by war, poverty and oppression—suffer a far greater loss
of heritage not only for themselves but also for the country, the continent they belong to and for that matter the rest of the world. Karie Garnier’s The Silent Natives of Fuga dramatizes the tale of a Filipina and her Canadian husband whose journey
to paradise turns into a nightmare as they encounter the unlivable rules imposed
on the 2,000 poverty-stricken inhabitants of Fuga Island.

Closing film on Dec 9 Sat at 7 p.m. is Raya Martin’s Maicling Pelicula nang
Ysang Indio Nacional—the Grand Prize Winner of Lino Micciche Award at the
2006 Pesaro International Festival of New Cinema. The indie gem charts three phases of an Indio’s life during the Spanish colonial times first as an impressionable child church bell-ringer, then a pubescent caught in the growing pressures of the revolution and finally an actor for a community theater group escaping his troubled soul.

The Cine Veritas Human Rights Film Festival 2006 is a UP Film Institute
undertaking with the Office of the UP Diliman Chancellor and the UP Diliman
Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts as main partners.

Cine Veritas Human Rights Film Festival 2006
Truth sets us all free...

University of the Philippines Film Institute
(Member, CILECT/International Association of Film and Television Schools)
Plaridel Hall, Ylanan Road, UP Diliman, Quezon City
Tel: 9818500 (UP Trunkline) local 2669, 2670; 9206863 (Telefax)
Cine Adarna, Magsaysay and Osmena Avenues, UP Diliman, Quezon City
Tel: 9818500 (UP Trunkline) local 4286, 4289; 9262722 (Telefax)