News:

2 Mindanao "dream" films
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/10 July)

    Two Mindanao films, one set in Maguindanao and the other in Basilan, have made it to the official selection of Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on July 11 to 20.

    “This is a testament that Mindanao is, indeed, a fertile ground for art to flourish, cinema included,” award-winning Moro filmmaker Gutierrez Mangansakan II, producer of the films “A Step for my Dream” and “Angan-Angan” (Dreams), said.

    "Before, people from Manila would descend upon our islands and make films about us, often resulting to disastrous ends. Now, we are capable of making our own stories, creating our own images," he said. Competing in the children's film section is “A Step for My Dream.” Written by Jun Macarambon and Monalyn Labado, the film features Abdul who dreams of becoming a leader of his town in Maguindanao. His natural charisma makes it easy for him to become friends with people even if he hasn’t known them for long. But his grandmother reminds him of their peasant roots which is no match to the traditional ruling family. Undaunted, Abdul sees it as a challenge as he envisions his future.

    The film was directed by Monalyn Labado, a computer engineering graduate of the AMA Computer University in Davao who was lured to doing video documentaries while in college. “A Step for My Dream” is her directorial debut.

    Competing in the short film category is Zamboanga-based director Sheron Dayoc's “Angan-Angan” (Dreams). The film, written by Dayoc and Honeylyn Alipio, featuers nine-year-old Satra who has been mute for as long as she could remember. But her determination to secure a good education reverberates clearly amid the strictures of her Yakan culture in Basilan.

    Dayoc is a philosophy graduate of Ateneo de Zamboanga University. Trained at the UP, he has produced several documentaries on the untold stories of marginal people and different tribes in Mindanao.

    Now on its fifth year, Cinemalaya has become the most important independent film festival in the country and the springboard of our country's most influential young filmmakers such as Auraues Solito, Adolf Alix and Emman dela Cruz. (MindaNews)