Bunot at the FACINE16: the 16th annual Filipino American Cinefest

FACINE16: the 16th annual filipino american cinefest
Start Time: Friday, November 20, 2009 at 1:00pm
End Time: Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 5:00pm
Location: Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library



The FACINE festival is the longest-running festival of its kind in North America that features films by and/or about Filipino/a and Filipino/a Americans. Now on its 16th year, the festival runs for two days, November 20-21, 2009 at the San Francisco Main Library.

Artistic Director/Film programmer: Mauro Feria Tumbocon, Jr.

Schedule of screenings:

Friday, November 20, 1-5 pm

PROGRAM 1
Our stories from the 'hood
1:00-2:00 p.m.

Legend (Mark Villegas, dir & prod; 5 min, 2009)

Got Book? Auntie Helen's Gift of Books (Florante Pete Ibanez, dir; UCLA Department of World Arts & Culture/Center for EthnoCommunications , prod; 8:45 min, 2005) - short documentary on Helen Brown, the founder of Pilipino American Reading Room & Library

Sounds of a New Hope (Eric Tandoc, dir; Mass Movement & Sine Patriotiko, prods; 41 min, 2009) - Tandoc follows Filipino American rap artist, Kiwi, through his work with youth both in the US and the Philippines where he uses music to raise political consciousness.

PROGRAM 2
In a weird, crazy world of my neighbors:
Hilarity ensues when Filipinos celebrate reunion;
imagination soars through moments of craziness and mayhem.
2:00-3:00 p.m.

The Reunion (Pio Candelaria, dir/prod; 3 min, 2009)
The San Miguel Family Reunion (Theophilus Jamal & Joel Rosal, dirs; MojaStudio & PhlipFLIX Productions, prods; 14:23 min, 2008)
Alice, Interrupted (Theophilus Jamal, dir; MojaStudio LLC, prod; 10 min, 2009) – A special preview screening
Bunot/Husk (Ivy Universe Baldoza, dir/prod; 7:08 min, 2008)
Nekro (Crisostomo Juan Andaluz, dir; Carl and Carl Productions, prod; 19:01 min, 2008)

PROGRAM 3
Special Premiere US screening
3:00-5:00 p.m.
Handumanan/Remembra nce (Seymour Barros-Sanchez, dir; Red Room Productions, prod; 85 min, 2009)
Filipina model/actress ChinChin Gutierrez stars as romance novelist faces the difficult changes in her career and life.

Saturday, November 21, 10 am-5 pm

PROGRAM 4
The Filipino, undaunted
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Gami dad Lnumfig/We, the Oppressed (Nerve Macaspac, Audrey Beltran, dir; 32 min, 2008)
- The indigenous peoples of the Philippines are still a people suffering from neglect and discrimination.

Kinulayang Kiti/Hand-painted feathers (Richard Legaspi, dir; Red Room Productions, prod; 24 min, 2009)
- A young boy yearns to have his own painted chick believing that it can bring back the life of his father shot in a picketline.

The Momentary Enemy (Angel Velasco-Shaw, dir/prod; 24:30 min, 2008)
An experimental documentary that explores a century's worth of war rhetoric and filmic representation from the dawn of last century's Philippine-American War to Vietnam and the Iraq War. Features interviews with Reynaldo Ileto, Howard Zinn and Ninotchka Rosca.

PROGRAM 5
What of woman, herself empowered
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Life Begins at O'Farrell Street (Peggy Peralta, dir/prod; 3 min, 2005)
Hello, My Name is Clarisse (Peggy Peralta, dir/prod; 3 min, 2005)
Killeg/Long life (Golda Mae Bao-ag Pay-ong, dir; University of Makati Film Society, prod; 9:52 min, 2008)
Soledad is Gone Forever (Mabel Valdivieso, dir; Cesar Viana Teague/Haiku Films, prod; 14 min, 2006)
Always Faithful (Sam Wellington, dir/prod; in association with South of Ten, Abyssinian Moon Productions, Palindrome Pictures, prods; Esperanza Catubig, star; 13 min, 2008)

BREAK
12:30-1:00 p.m.

PROGRAM 6
Special US Premiere screening
1:00-3:00 p.m.
Puntod/Baby' s tomb (Cesar Apolinario, dir; Arlyn de la Cruz/ADC Productions, prod; 111 min, 2009)
A daughter of Manila's slums dreams of having a dignified burial space for her mother, forges deep friendships with an old blind man and other children.

PROGRAM 7
Special US Premiere screening
3:00-5:00 p.m.
Anacbanua/The child of the sun (Christopher Gozum, dir; Sine Caboloan, prod; 105 min, 2009)
The filmmaker's love letter to his province, Pangasinan, in text and stunning visuals.

All films are either in English or in different Filipino languages (Tagalog, Bisaya, Pangasinan, etc.) with English subtitles.

A short Q&A with filmmakers in attendance follows after all screenings.

All screenings are FREE to public.

Handumanan (Remembrance)

Script selected to the 3rd Produire au Sud Film Workshop, 6th World Film Festival Bangkok P500,000 grant approved by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). To premiere in February 2009, during the celebration of the National Arts Month

Director: Seymour Barros Sanchez
Writers: Richard Soriano Legaspi and Seymour Barros Sanchez
Produced by the NCCA and Red Room Productions
In cooperation with the Katorse Writers Group (from Ricky Lee’s 14th scriptwriting workshop), Pixel Art Media Production Co., On Cam Productions and the University of Makati Film Society

About the Director and Writer
Seymour Barros Sanchez is an instructor at the University of Makati Center for Performing and Digital Arts, a special lecturer at St. Paul University Manila (SPUM), and founder and adviser of the University of Makati Film Society (UMak FilmSoc) while Richard Soriano Legaspi is a part-time instructor at the University of the East (UE) College of Fine Arts in Caloocan. They merged their knowledge of mass communication and fine arts to come up with the story.

Synopsis
“Handumanan” (Remembrance) is a story of three people who seem to have lost hope of their worlds until their fateful encounter in a resort in Negros Oriental. Solita Locsin/Soledad Miranda or Sol, 36, is a romance novelist who shuns her publisher’s demand for her to write erotic pocketbooks. In addition, she is suffering from choriocarcinoma, a terminal illness, so she decides to quit her job and takes that long-delayed journey back home in a place near the more popular university town of Dumaguete. Alejandro Tan or Lean, 21, wants to be a writer but he is trapped in his job at the Commission on Audit after finishing accountancy upon the wish of his mother. He also wants to escape from a world which has been harsh to his family. Carlos Silva, 23, a Brazilian print ad model, is searching for his roots and his blog is his main connection to the other side of the world. After Sol finds out about blogging from her niece, she makes use of this new tool to continue writing. This sets up a connection with Carlos who finds her blog in the Internet and wants to meet her. On the other hand, Lean is assigned to audit in Dumaguete but his escapist attitude leads him to Sol, whose romance novels play a significant role in his life.