Cinemalaya Short A's 2013

Reflection Paper: Cinemalaya Film

Cinemalaya is the biggest and most prominent independent film festival in the Philippines. We had a hard time purchasing tickets because most of the film tickets were already sold-out. So, the only film we watched is the “Shorts A” last August 2. The films are narrative features that serve to be an eye opener to us. I felt bad because I only got to see “Shorts A”.

The first is Bakaw, it is a story of two kids who steals at the Navotas fish port for them to have something to eat. It’s a barefooted run-around of the two kids trying to run from being caught of stealing fishes. The other kid was caught by the police. That’s why he surrendered the fishes that he stole. The twist in the story is that, the girl whom he had helped gave him a plastic of fishes but the boy threw it away and kept on running. And this film reminded me how life is so ironic because despite the hardships you encountered, you still get something you deserve.

Another is Missing, it tackles about a person’s forced disappearances. I think it is also a film about never forgetting. In the start of the film, violence takes place to a guy. The guy is already dead. The world he left behind is left to grasp the strands of his life as the people closest to him continue to keep his memory alive, and the search for answers haunts them. It also showed the true-to-life scenes before of the clashes between militants and police. This film made an impact on me because this kind of story still continues to happen and some of the missing cases today are still unresolved.

Para kay Ama is about a young Chinese-Filipino girl who discovers that she has a half-brother and she met him on the last day of her father’s burial. I noticed that the film has no cuts; it is continuous except for the intro and ending. 

The film is fine; I just didn’t appreciate the story. At first, I thought they were arranging plans for marriage because they are Chinese but it turned out that they are siblings and they have to keep their father’s business running.

Next is Taya, it is about a boy who learns to play the game of life with a new set of friends. They just moved into a new house, near the squatter’s area. This was one of my favorite because of its outstanding concept, camera angle, editing, etc. The film highlighted the traditional Filipino games. It also reflects the realities and disparities of our society. It made me realize that the things around us are not as they seem.

 The last one is Tutob, the film begins when there were recent bombings in the region which put authorities on alert. So, there were checkpoints around. A mysterious man dressed up in Muslim attire shows up. He was tasked to get a package. He traveled using his motorcycle to get the package. 

The twist in the story is amazing because I thought that he was one of the people who cause the bombings in the region but it turned out that he was only fetching medicine for his sick relative. This film tells us a moral about not to judge people by their looks.