DIGITAL EVOLUTION WORLD PREMIERE OF "EBOLUSYON", LAV DIAZ'S 10HR OPUS ON DEC. 4, 2004

"Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino" (Evolution of a Filipino Family), the latest film from award-winning filmmaker/scriptwriter Lav Diaz, will finally have its World Premiere at SM City Cebu, Philippines, on December 4, 1:30PM, in a special screening of the second .MOV International Digital Film Festival. The actual .MOV Festival will be held next year, from March 2 to 8 at SM Cebu; and from March 9 to 15 at SM Megamall.

Diaz, probably the most uncompromising Filipino filmmaker at present, follows up his five-hour masterpiece "Batang West Side" with an even longer film in "Ebolusyon." Running at around 10 hours, his new marathon work covers the period from 1971, a year before the declaration of Martial Law, to 1987, a year after the People Power at EDSA.

For Diaz, this is the period that defines the problems of the present Filipino psyche -- why it is so brutalized, troubled, apathetic, and complex. Ronnie Lazaro, Angie Ferro, Pen Medina, Joel Torre, Banaue Miclat, Lui Manansala, and Dido Dela Paz headline the story of survival of the Gallardo family, a poor farming clan caught in a web of political confusion. Photographed in black and white and mostly relying on natural sound, it is shot over a nine-year period.

Earlier this year, "Ebolusyon" has been screened as a "work-in-progress" in the New York Asian-American International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival to much acclaim. It will have its European Premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival this January.

Gertjan Zuilhof of the Rotterdam International Film Festival described 'Ebolusyon' as "without doubt the greatest film narrative about the sorrow of the Philippines."

Steve Gravestock of the Toronto International Film Festival said that the film is "quite simply one of the most extraordinary and ambitious films you will see this year."

Robert Koehler of Variety magazine called it "an intimate epic with uncompromising and austere seriousness." He added that its credo is the "call for an activist Filipino cinema attuned to the poor and marginalized."

Koehler hinted that the film's "radically slow pace and hyperminimalist mise en scene will excite international cinephiles at the most daring fests and showcases." The .MOV International Digital Film Festival is definitely one of these venues.

Diaz earlier took home the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Jury Award at the 2001 Cinemanila International Film Festival, Best Film award at the 2002 Singapore International Film Festival, Best Picture award at the Brussels International Film Festival, and the Best Picture and Best Director Honors at the 2002 Gawad Urian for "Batang West Side."

He also directed the critically acclaimed "Kriminal ng Barrio Concepcion" (Criminal Of Barrio Concepcion), "Hubad sa Ilalim ng Buwan" (Naked Under The Moon), "Burger Boys," and "Hesus Rebolusyonaryo."