.mov :: International Digital Film Festival 2005

films.mov

THE BIG DURIAN
(75min, DVCAM)
Malaysia (2003)
Language: Malay and English with English subtitles

On 18 October 1987, a soldier went on a murderous amok with an M-16 in Kuala Lumpur's Chow Kit district. Due to circumstances peculiar to the time and place, this became the trigger for a citywide panic amid rumours of racial riots. Nine days later marked the start of an infamous Internal Security Act clampdown, "Operation Lalang." The subsequent months also saw a certain shift in the Malaysian public's perceptions of the police, media, judiciary, royalty and political process. The Big Durian is a fiction/documentary hybrid in which 23 Malaysians (some real, some fictitious) talk about how the chain of events affected them ... or not.

New Asian Current Awards (Special Mention) - 2003 Yamagata Intrenational Documentary Festival
Dragons & Tigers (Special Mention) - 2004 Vancouver International Film Festival

http://www.doghouse73pictures.com/bdurian_page.html

SURPLUS: TERRORIZED INTO BEING CONSUMERS
(54min, DVCAM)
Sweden (2003)
Language: Swedish, English, Spanish with English subtitles

Synopsis
Surplus is a visual odyssey filmed over three years in eight countries. From the explosive riots of the G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, to a sex doll factory in the United States, Surplus explores the nature of consumer culture. Against a backdrop of world leaders, corporate captains and Microsoft CEOs, the film focuses on the controversial anti-globalization guru John Zerzan, who advocates for property destruction as a means of destroying capitalism. "We are terrorized into being consumers," he claims. Stunning editing and breathtaking cinematography turns the fact that 20% of the world is gobbling 80% of its resources from a plain statistic into an overwhelming emotional experience.

Biography
Erik Gandini grew up in Italy during "the world's worst T.V. conditions" - the so-called Berlusconi television boom of the '70 and '80's. Moving to Sweden in 1986, he encountered an inspiring documentary and public-service television tradition. His feature documentaries include: Roja Sarajevo (1994) and Sacrificio - Who Betrayed Ché Guevara? (2001), which screened at Cine Las Americas in 2002. Together with Tarik Saleh (co-director of Sacrificio), he runs Atmo, a Stockholm-based TV production company that produces documentaries, children's programs, cartoons and television graphics.

Directed and Produced by: Erik Gandini
Production: ATMO
Cinematography: Carl Nilsson and Lucas Eisenhauer
Editor: Johan Söderberg
Sound: Johan Söderberg and David Österberg
Music: Mark O' Sullivan -The Mighty Quark/Gotan Project/Tosca/David Österberg/Johan Söderberg

Cast:
George W. Bush
Fidel Castro
Bill Gates
John Zerzan

Awards:
First prize at the 2003 IDFA-Amsterdam Silver Wolf Competition.
Award best use of sound and music at the 2004 One World documentary Film Festival, Prague Czech Republic.
Jurys mention at the 2004 DocAviv, Documentary Film Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Second best short film at the 2004 Ecocinema International Film Festival, Rhodes, Greece
First prize as "greatest of all productions" at 2004 FICA, the International Festival of Environmental Film, Goias, Brazil.
Audience Award at Vila do Conte, International Short Film Festival , Portugal, July 2004.
Two Special Mentions at the Torino Environmental Film Festival, October 2004

Website:
http://www.atmo.se/zino.aspx?pageID=4&articleID=382

TIEXI DISTRICT: WEST OF THE TRACKS
(556min, digi beta)
China (2003)
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles

Synopsis
The Tie Xi district, in Shenyang in China's north-east, was established during the Japanese occupation and transformed into a highly populated industrial area. This unusually long-form documentary, taking us on a tour of this now decaying area, spreads over nine hours and three parts entitled "Rust", "Remnants", and "Rails". Factories and towns become ruins, people are buffeted by change, and time ebbs away. An extraordinary documentary that puts the realities facing Chinese society into stark relief, through an exclusive and extended exploration of the region.

Biography
Wang Bing was born in Xian, China in 1967. He studied Photography at Lu Xun Art Academy from 1991 to 1995, and participated in the advanced studies program of the Cinematography Department at Beijing Film Academy from 1996 to 1997. He has made a TV series Campus Affairs (1997). His other works include Distortion (1999).

Written, Produced, Shot and Directed by: Wang Bing
Editing: Wang Bing, Adam Kerby, Zhang Huimin

THE ISTER
(189min, video)
Australia (2003)

Through a fascinating journey down the 2840 kilometre long Danube, modern Australians investigate Heidegger's interpretation of Hölderlin. In other words about Fundamental Issues such as Culture, Nature, Technology and Politics.

In The Ister, a journey is made along the Danube -from the Black Sea Delta in Rumania upstream to the source in Germany's Black Forest -a journey based on the lectures given by the influential yet controversial philosopher Martin Heidegger around a poem by Hölderlin. The lectures date from 1942, the year when the Nazis decided to implement the Final Solution. Looking at the 2840-kilometre-long river, questions are posed about fundamental issues such as nature, technology and politics. The film demands a lot from the spectator, but it's worth it, because much insight is provided into the fascinating thoughts of Heidegger and into the foundations of Western civilisation. The film is made up of five parts. In part one, Bernard Stiegler discusses the story of humanity as the story of the history of technology. On the way we meet a Yugoslavian engineer who talks about the NATO bombing raids in Novi Sad in 1999. In part two, we travel through Hungary, while the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy reflects on the nature of political institutions and on the fundamental concepts of democracy in the face of tyranny. In part three, in Austria, the philosopher Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe investigates Heidegger's opinions about technology in relation to his Nazi sympathies. In part four, we again hear from Stiegler and two 19th-century German monuments are rediscovered. In part five, film maker Hans-Jürgen Syberberg prominently takes centre stage.

Written, Produced, Shot, Edited and Directed by: David Barison and Daniel Ross

Cast:
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
Jean-Luc Nancy
Bernard Stiegler

Awards:
Best Film, Association of Quebec Film Critics, 2004 Montreal International Festival of New Cinema

Website
http://www.theister.com

BRIGHT FUTURE
(115min, DV)
Japan (2003)
Original Title: Akarui Mirai
Alternate Title: Jellyfish Alert
Language: Japanese with English subtitles

Synopsis
What does it take to make people change something in their future? This is one of the underlying questions in Kurosawa Kyoshi's occasionally dreamlike Bright Future, with which he first made it into the competition at Cannes.

Apocalyptic science-fiction melodrama about friendships, generation gaps, murder and the will to change. In other words: how poisonous jellyfish end up in fresh water, yet still choose the deep.

Written, Edited and Directed by: Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Production: Uplink Co. and Asai Takashi
Director of Photography: Shibanushi Takahide
Production design: Harada Yasuaki
Sound: Kohri Hiromichi
Music: Pacific Horn

Cast:
Joe Odagiri
Asano Tadanobu
Fuji Tatsuya
Sasano Takashi
Shiraishi Marumi

SPRING RHAPSODY
(84min, miniDV)
Australia (2005)

Produced and Directed by: Bill Mousoulis
Screenplay: Bill Mousoulis and cast
Director of Photography, Production Design, Sound: Bill Mououslis
Editing: Bill Mousoulis and Rad Rudd
Music: Mink Engine

Cast:
Kim Denman
Mark Dessaix
Bernard O'Connor
Rad Rudd
Josie Scott
Andrew Upward
Anthony Wemyss
Nicola Wright

Website:
http://www.innersense.com.au/spring/

PEEP "TV" SHOW
(98min, miniDV)
Japan (2004)
Language: Japanese with English subtitles

Synopsis
Raw, cheap and bravura video film that does not pay much attention to the boundary that apparently exists between fiction and reality. With and about a gothic girl and other kids from Shibuya, Tokyo, obsessed by the Internet, looks and security cameras.

Biography
Yutaka Tsuchiya (b. 1966) began serious creative work in 1990. He started the release of a freeware a shareware video, WITHOUT TELEVISION in 1994. He continues to spread networking of media activists. His documentary THE NEW GOD was shown at festivals worldwide.

Written, Produced, Edited and Directed by: Yutaka Tsuchiya
Director of Photography: Masaki Ninomiya
Production design: Tsuyoshi Eda

Cast:
Takayuki Hasegawa
Shiori Gezchof
Akiko Ueda
Risako
Ryo Momiyama
Hidetoshi Ishioka

THE NEW GOD
(99min)
Japan (2000)
Original Title:Atarashii Kamisama
Language: Japanese with English subtitles

Synopsis
A thrilling standoff between a left-wing progressive filmmaker and ultra-nationalist punk-rockers devoted to the emperor! Digital video technology bears witness to a peculiar dialogue betweenpolitical extremes. An actual and innovative look at shifting values among young Japanese today.

As a teenager, Karin had problems finding a meaning to her existence in society and repeatedly attempted suicide. It was the philosophy of the ultra right-wing nationalists that saved her. She and her "comrade" Ito put together a band and started playing nationalist punk music.
Left-wing filmmaker Tsuchiya, an unbending anti-imperialist, decides to give Karin a video camera to shoot herself and her daily life, and starts a peculiar three-way relationship with the couple.

Camera on board, Karin travels to North Korea and meets former Red Army terrorists who fled from Japan aboard a hijacked plane thirty years ago. As the camera keeps rolling, so does Karin. She decides to leave the political organization and makes her first steps towards a more independent persona.

An honest and humorous post-documentary of the new Japanese that deals with provocative issues of the state vs. the individual, and dependence vs. autonomy.

Written, Produced, Edited and Directed by: Yutaka Tsuchiya
Cameras: Yutaka Tsuchiya, Karin Amamiya, Hidehito
Narration: Yutaka Tsuchiya, Karin Amamiya, Hidehito
Music: Ken Kato (Rebel Blue)

Cast:
Karin Amamiya
Hidehito
Yutaka Tsuchiya

Diliman

Abe, a socio-political literary writer-turned-romance novelist, lives alone in a lower middle class housing unit in Diliman, the hub of the academe and artists in Manila. He's made a comfortable life out of his new trade but he's dissatisfied and confused. Abe looked out the window and chanced upon
a man sitting on the roof of the building. Watching the man becomes a growing fascination, then an obsession and then a mystery that will haunt Abe.

DILIMAN tackles the lives of Filipino literary writers. It dissect the most common fear that confronts people nowadays--loneliness. Being alone or lonely in this highly complex world drives man to the point of insanity.
Craving for companionship seems to be the ultimate dream of everybody.

CAST
CRIS VILLANUEVA RONNIE QUIZON
kasama sina
HERMIE CONCEPCION PERRY DIZON
LYN RONA MONTEBANON SOLOMON VILLANUEVA

Digital / Black & White / 77 mins.

SAMPAYBAKOD Production
Cinematograpiya BAHAGHARI ALBERT BANZON Editor ABBAS TABAS
Musika KHAVN SEM ED MANGUZ Production Designer CESAR HERNANDO
Sound ALBERT BANZON JORDAN JAMIR Sound Design MON CHING Production Manager KIMZEL INVENA Assistant Director ABET UMIL NOEL MONTANO Producer RAMON DE GUZMAN Iskrip at Direksiyon MES DE GUZMAN

"Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino"
(Evolution of a Filipino Family)
Direction/story/screenplay: Lav Diaz
Synopsis:

The story of "Eboluyson ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino" spans the years 1971 to 1987, the period that defines the problems of the present Filipino psyche-why is it so brutalized, so troubled, so apathetic and complex?
The years 1971 and 1972 were the height of radicalism by the Philippine Left (immortalized as the First Quarter Storm), the onset of the Muslim-Christian strife in the island of Mindanao (paving the way to the birth of the Muslim separatist movement) and the eventual declaration of Martial Law by dictator Ferdinand Marcos. From 1964 up to 1985, the Marcos regime trampled on human rights, institutionalized graft and corruption in the bureaucracy, and looted the national coffers. In 1986, a peaceful uprising called The People's Power Revolution forced Marcos out of the country ending his dictatorial rule and installing Corazon Aquino, widow of the murdered Ninoy Aquino- Marcos' top political foe, as President. Corazon Aquino's ascension was a very difficult transition period, not just for her fledgling leadership and the new political status quo, but for the entire nation; as marked by eight bloody military coup attempts, the escalation of the Mindanao war, the continuous revolution being waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the unabated effect of poverty besetting almost eighty percent of the entire population; which resulted in an increase in crime rate and an uncontrollable dive of the currency, sending droves of professionals and skilled workers to seek a better life outside of the country.

Against this backdrop is the farming family Gallardo, whose struggle and condition mirrors the marginalized population of the Philippines; the sector trapped in a situation not of their own doing, but born from a system that could not provide proper social services, and of a feudal culture that only protected and empowered the status quo. Central to the story are the disintegration, displacement and dysfunction caused by poverty, not just to the family unit but, also, to the individual members. Nine-year-old Ray running away from the barrio, as a result of the brutal rape and murder of his mentally-unstable mother, Gilda, and then drifting to and from different places and families. Ray's uncle and Gilda's brother Kadyo's downslide to the underbelly of life; thieving, killing, being imprisoned and, when freed, joining a murder-for-hire group. Puring, the tough grandmother, whose great guidance and undying belief in the soil as a source of life became the inspiration to her three granddaughters, Huling, Ana and Martina. These and other characters form the cycle of lives that intertwine and interact as the nation struggles to survive economically, politically, sociologically and spiritually.

Hard questions are being asked and difficult answers sought by the story, just like the state of the Filipino psyche right now, searching, yearning, for redemption. The story indicts the Marcos dictatorship as the main source of the Filipino's woes. Worse than the more than three hundred years of Spanish colonization, worse than the almost one hundred years of American intervention, worse than the four years of Japanese rape: The twenty-four years of Marcos terrorism inflicted the greatest violence on the Filipino soul. What made it worse? For one, Marcos is a Filipino. And the crimes he committed against the Filipinos are unfathomable.

For those who are familiar with my works, "Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino" (Evolution of a Filipino Family) is "Batang West Side I". "Batang West Side" tackled the very same premise, subject and theme but explored it in a very different time and milieu-the need to critique the Filipino, examine his condition, confront his past. "Batang West Side" dealt with our scars, "Ebolusyon…" explores the infliction of the wound.

"Ebolusyon…" is eleven years in the making. I started pre-production in December of 1993 in Jersey City, and began photography on March 8, 1994 in Lexington, New Jersey. Production was protracted and independent; we shot only when there was money, and if the crew and actors were available. The Philippine shoot started in early 1997 in Gerona, Tarlac, and I thought that the camera grind finally culminated early April of 2003 in the majestic mountains of Itogon, Benguet (the rain poured beautifully and triumphantly on that day of shoot) but I added more scenes last October and November of 2004.

Post production started February of 2004 and finally stopped January 31, 2005. Different versions of the film was already shown in various festivals-The Asian American International Film Festival of New York 2004 (8 hours rough cut on vhs), The Toronto International Film Festival 2004 (10 hours on digital beta), The Rotterdam International Film Festival 2005 and Goteberg Film Festival 2005 (10 hours 43 minutes; maybe the final cut on minidv).

SWING MY SWING HIGH, MY DARLING
(93min)
Malaysia (2004)
Original Title: Buai Laju Laju
Language: Malay with English subtitles

Synopsis:
Swing My Swing High, My Darling is very freely based on the frequently (and powerfully) filmed story The Postman Always Rings Twice, the indestructible novel by James M. Cain. The film resolves to translate novel's sultry mood and erotic tension to Islamic Malaysia.

The story is well-known, so just a reminder... A stranger drops in one day at a café run by an older man and his beautiful young wife - perhaps too beautiful and young for the stranger's own good. From the first shot, the tragedy is inevitable. The strange title is borrowed from a Malay lullaby.

Biography
U-Wei bin Haji Saari (1954, Pahang, Malaysia) studied film making at the New York School for Social Research in New York City. An active member of the Malaysian Film Director's Organisation, he was the first Malaysian director to be invited to show at the prestigious Directors' Fortnight at Cannes (1995).

Written, Edited and Directed by: U-Wei bin Hajisaari
Production: Julia Fraser, leBrocquy Fraser Productions Ltd
Original Story: James M. Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice'
Cameras: Ali Hussein and Azman Razali
Production design: Fadzil Idris
Music: Embie C. Noer

THE BEAUTIFUL WASHING MACHINE
(118min, miniDV)
Malaysia (2004)
Original Title: Mei li de xi yi ji
Language: Mandarin/Cantonese with English subtitles

Synopsis
When young Teoh is dumped by his live-in girlfriend, she takes most of her possessions including the washing machine, leaving him unable to cope with life and the laundry. He buys a second-hand one that turns out to have more temperament than any warranty deal ever warned you about.

Into this cycle comes a middle-aged widower Mr.Wong with a manga-mask fetish, a few pirated-VCD gangsters, plus the consequences of love and abandonment in the fast-changing city of Kuala Lumpur. Pretty soon the eponymous appliance starts to seem like the most sane creature in this gleefully off-kilter dark comedy about more than one type of dirty linen.

Biography
James Lee (Lee Thim Heng) was born in 1973, Ipoh, Malaysia. Trained as a graphic designer. A self-taught filmmaker, he began directing theatre plays before venturing into video filmmaking. In 2001 he directed his first fiction film SNIPERS, followed by AH BENG RETURNS a highly stylized experimental film and ROOM TO LET which travels in various international film festivals. THE BEAUTIFUL WASHING MACHINE is his fourth DV-feature. He founded DOGHOUSE73 PICTURES an independent DV-filmmaking outfit. He also produced Amir Muhammad's award wining documentary THE BIG DURIAN and Ho Yuhang's SANCTUARY that receive a Special Mention in Pusan. Other then directing and producing, he also works as a director of photography for independent shorts and features.

Written and Directed by: James Lee
Production: Lorna Tee and Doghouse 73 Pictures
Director of Photography: Teoh Gay Hian
Editor: Grace Tan
Production design: Rogue Chan
Sound: Vincent Poon and Axle
Music: Berg Lee
Sales and Print: Doghouse 73 Pictures

Cast:
Loh Bok Lai
Patrick Teoh
Amy Len
Berg Lee
Yap Kok Chong
Chin Lee Ling

Awards:
Best ASEAN Feature - Bangkok International Film Festival 2005
FIPRESCI Award - Bangkok International Film Festival 2005

Website:
http://beautifulwashing.doghouse73pictures.com/
www.doghouse73pictures.com

SANCTUARY
(80min, DVCAM)
Malaysia (2004)
Original Title: Mu
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles

Synopsis:
Lai is a perpetual gambler who whiles away his days at a pool hall. See's days are monotonously spent at a photocopy center with its endless duplication. The Old Man has found peace and comfort taking care of a sick partner in his old age home. See would like to mend a rift created long ago between her and the Old Man, and Lai consistently refuses See's requests to put an end to his betting. Can these three people find a place where they can reconnect?

Biography
Originally trained as an engineer, Ho Yuhang (1971, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia) learned film making in the television advertising industry. Ho has since directed several independent short films and documentaries that were received with international critical acclaim. His first tele-movie Min won the Special Jury Prize at the Nantes Film Festival. Sanctuary received a special mention by the jury at the film festival in Pusan.

Written and Directed by: Ho Yuhang
Production: James Lee
Director of Photography: Teoh Gay Hian
Editor: Tan Chui Mui
Boom: Alex Thong
Sound Engineer: Tan Seng Jin
Executive Producer: Lina Tan
Music: Fuse

Awards:
New Currents Special Mention - Pusan International Film Festival 2004
NETPAC Award - International Film Festival Rotterdam
Tiger VPRO Special Mention - International Film Festival Rotterdam

Website:
http://www.doghouse73pictures.com/sanctuary_page.html
http://thebigdurian.tripod.com/

VISITS: HUNGRY GHOST ANTHOLOGY (108min)
Malaysia (2004)
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles

Synopsis:
The festival of the Hungry Ghosts in the Seventh Moon in the Chinese calendar is one of the most important and widely observed festivals in Malaysia. According to popular Chinese belief, the gates of Purgatory are thrown open from midnight on the last day of the Sixth Moon till the last day of the Seventh Moon. The hungry ghosts are released from incarceration to mingle with human beings for a period of thirty days.

VISITS: Hungry Ghost Anthology is a culmination of four interwoven ghost stories set during this festival. The stories are linked together by one theme. Each half-hour story features a range of interesting characters. The film is set in cosmopolitan Kuala Lumpur and the language is Mandarin. The film will be aired in cinemas during the Hungry Ghost festival from August to September.

Four award-winning directors Low Ngai Yuen, James Lee, Ho Yuhang and Ng Tian Hann were selected by Executive Producer Lina Tan. The treatment of each story is unique. While catering to mainstream audiences the stories are also artistic in its presentation.

Ngai Yuen's 1413 opens the movie with two teenagers whose suicide attempts go awry when one of them survives. This is followed by James Lee's moving piece Waiting For Them, a story about two friends and a ghost that comes between them. Hann's Nodding Scoop is a prediction ritual where the people call upon a spirit to embody a hanging scoop. A young filmmaker and his friends attempt to document this ritual get more than what they bargain for. Yuhang's Anybody home? is a story about a deadly obsession.

Producer: Javine Wong
Executive Producer: Lina Tan
Production Coordinator: Oh Sok Peng
Editor: Tan Peng Khoon

1413
Director/Writer: Low Ngai Yuen
Director of Photography: Haris Hue
Art Director: Kek Teng Lam
Translator: Oh Sok Peng and Ho Soon Theam

Cast:
Lim Ying Ling
Ian Yeoh
Carmen Soo
Wu Hon Kit
Lavendar Chong
Candy Cheah
Lor Yew Mien
Oh Sok Peng

Waiting for Them
Director: James Lee
Director of Photography: Teoh Gay Hian
Writer: Tan Chui Mui
Art Director: Eleanor Low

Cast:
Len Siew Mee
Yap Kok Chong
Tang Hui Ching
Tay Chin Fie
Steven Lim
Oh Sok Peng
Loh Bok Lai

Nodding Scoop
Director: Ng Tian Hann
Director of Photography: Albert Hue
Writer: Sia Sin Yee
Art Director: Eleanor Low

Cast:
Wong Sze Zen
Wisusanna Tioe
Ong Kok Liang
Chin Lee Ling
Chua Soo Hoon
Teng Whye Lyon
Chua Ching Pei
Chong Kong Fung
Koh Bee Yong
Leong Mun Kit
Thean Soo Gek
Ngiam Tu Wah
Aw Chun Fook
Chan Hsiao Syun
Foo Fatt Wai
Hoo Khai Meng
Deepak Kumaran Menon

Anybody Home?
Director: Ho Yuhang
Director of Photography: Teoh Gay Hian
Writer: Too Set Fong
Art Director: Wee Hunn Seong

Cast:
Jackie Lim
Adlin Aman Ramlie
Pete Teo
James Lee
Alan Tan
Yasmin Ahmad
Chris Chun
Chew Kwan Mei
Ho Yuhang
Chin Kah Yan

Website:
http://www.visits.com.my/

GRAVEL ROAD
(92min)
Malaysia (2005)
Original Title: Chemman Chaalai
Language: Tamil with English subtitles

Synopsis
The story is about a girl named Shantha and her family. Shantha lives in an estate where higher education for women is near impossible. Shantha aspires to leave the estate and further her studies. However, due to many unfortunate circumstances this dream becomes a difficult one to achieve.

An Indian film without singing and dancing, Chemman Chaalai is a film about Malaysian Indians told in a Malaysian way.

Director: Deepak Kumaran Menon
Production: Tan Chui Mui and Onehundredeye Sd. Bd.
Screenplay: Sooria Kumari
Director of Photgraphy: Albert Hue
Production design: Sylvia Ong
Art director: Sharon Lee
Sound: Khairul Hakimin
Music: Hardesh Singh

Cast:
Gandhi Nathan
Kalyani
Shangkara
Santhia Marathamuthu
Saratha Sivalingam
Tharoni Mottian
Dhaarshini Sankran
Dinesh Ganesan

Website:
http://www.chemmanchaalai.com/

THE BIRTH OF SEANEMA
(70min, miniDV)
Thailand (2004)
Language: None

Synopsis
The sea is the place that holds all the memories of every being and everything in the world. Through the cracks of the sea emerge the images from which a tale of a lost city is woven - the city in which its inhabitants' memories, dreams, emotions were fragilely interconnected.

Written, Shot, Edited and Directed by: Sasithorn Ariyavicha
Production: Sasithorn Ariyavicha and foundfootage
Cast: Anonymous people of a lost city, Chaluay Thongsook

ELIANA ELIANA (83min)
Indonesia (2002)
Language: Indonesian with English subtitles

Synopsis
A mother and daughter who have not seen each other for five years are forced to spend a night together in a taxi in Jakarta. Kuldesak director Riza gives Indonesian cinema a new impulse with this sharp drama

Biography
Born in Ujung Pandang, on October 2, 1970, Riri graduates from the Jakarta Arts Institute in 1993, majoring in film directing. In 1994, his final film project, Sonata Kampung Bata, won third place in the Oberhausen short film festival in Germany. In 1995, he directed two episodes in the documentary series Anak Saribu Pulau (Children of the Thousand Islands). However, Riri's main ambition is to direct feature films; an ambition he achieved when he wrote and directed Kuldesak (1998), together with Mira Lesmana, Nan T. Achnas and Rizal Mantovani. His second feature film, Petualangan Sherina (2000), made him a household name as a director. He then went to become a producer, together with Mira Lesmana, for Ada Apa dengan Cinta?; a film that set a record of over two million wievers, the biggest in Indonesian history.

Directed by: Riri Riza
Production: Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana and Miles Films
Screenplay: Prima Rusdi and Riri Riza
Director of Photography: Yadi Sugandi
Editor: Sastha Sunu
Production design: Adrianto Sinaga
Sound: Suhadi, Satrio Budiono, Adityawan Susanto
Music: Thoersi Argeswara

Cast:
Rachel Sayidina
Jajang C. Noer
Henidar Amroe
Arswendi Nasution
Marcella Zalianty

BALAY DAKU (195min, miniDV)
Philippines, 2002
International Title: Big House
Language: Ilonggo

Synopsis
After several years of living in Metro Manila, Julio, the youngest son of the Gonzalez family, returns for vacation in his home of Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. Accompanying him is his Iloilo born and Metro Manila lived wife, Stella.

Upon their arrival in Bacolod, everything seems to be normal and routine. Julio reunites with his widowed mother Inday Carmen, his elder brother Boy, and his old friend Isabela. He introduces Stella to all of them.

As the days and weeks progress, things start to turn sour and frustrating as old and unresolved personal issues, that Julio left behind, start to creep back into their lives. Stella is left to adjust herself to this different environment and people, as they in turn try to adjust to her liberated ways.
Emotional undercurrents swirl. Strains on relationships between the family members slowly start to reveal themselves, and finally come to a boil.

Directed by: Jan Philippie V. Carpio
Production: Jan Philippie V. Carpio and Maitet V. Carpio
Screenplay: Jan Philippie V. Carpio and Mae Astrid Tobia
Director of Photography: Bahaghari MFI
Editing: Jan Philippie V. Carpio and Pepper Marcelo
Sound: Jan Philippie V. Carpio and Bahaghari MFI

Website:
http://www.geocities.com/balaydaku/

YASUJIRO'S JOURNEY (46min)
Indonesia (2004)

Synopsis
1942, a Zero Sen Toki crashed in Indonesia. Yasujiro Yamada, the pilot, survived, but he was never found.

2002, Yasujiro Yamada, the grandson of the pilot came to indonesia to find his grandfather.

He was also lost, and never been found.

Directed by: Faozan Rizal
Production: Faozan Rizal and Sastha Sunu
Direcor of Photograpy: Agung Abriasto
Editing: Sastha Sunu
Art direction: Arief Bekham
Sound: Asifa Nasution
Music: Leodet Tambunan

Cast: Suzuki Nobuyuki

Website:
http://www.kotakhitam.com

SHELTER: THE CITY OF FORGETTING
(13:29min, mini DV)
Singapore (2004)
Language: English and Hokkien with English subtitles

Synopsis
An old lady, and inter-racial couple, two out of date gangsters, and the bus shelter that shields them all in its shade. This is a story about the little deaths that go unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of urban life.

Biography
Bee Thiam Tan is winner of Best Photo Essay in US ASEAN Film and Photography Festival 2003, Washington DC. As chairman of nu(STUDIOS) Film Productions in National University of Saingapore, he initiated the Singapore Shorts Project between prominent filmmakers in Singapore and university students. Shelter, the first film he wrote and directed, is a result of this project. He aslso recently served as jury and advisory board member to the United Nations Association Film Festival in Stanford.

Written, Directed and Edited by Bee Thiam Tan
Producer: Agnes Ang
Original Story: Dr. Gopal Baratham
Director of Photography: Hoong Sze Wei
Production Design: Pan Lexin
Sound and Music: Daren Ng Tzer Huei

Cast:
Shen Ye
Rajeshwari Asokaraj
Lim Chain Sing
Jace Lee
Ban Kah Choon

EXODUS (29:53min, miniDV)
Indonesia/ Singapore (2003)
Original Tile: Wanita Yang Berlari
Language: Indonesian with English Subtitles

Synopsis:
Two women and a man in cinematic dance, Subtle emotions and hidden desires, Revealing truth and deadly beauty.

Exodus deals with the unspoken nuances of human emotions. An encounter between a lower-class ethnic Chinese shampoo girl and a Javanese court dancer sparks an awakening that manifests the dialectics of obsession and the transient nature of human affection. Set against the backdrop of the dominant Javanese culture, this story deals with the aspirations and identity of two women, each gambling for a better life in a post-Suharto era.

Director's Statement:
This film was a labour of love for all involved. The fact that it was made was testimony to the tremendous contribution from everyone, including the choreographer Chendra Effendy and one of Indonesia's pioneer Javanese dancer, Nungki Kusumastuti, who is also an award-winning actress in Indonesia. With a miniscule budget that only allowed us to shoot on digital video for two days, we pulled it off through the sheer talent of the individuals involved from the choreography, original music, make-up, editing, post-production sponsor and the whole-hearted assistance from friends and acquaintances. What matters at the end is that we feel that we are a family and still is - "keluarga".

Director: Sherman Ong
Production: Helly Minarti
Choreography: Chendra Effendy
Story: Sulaiman S. Benongiann and Tjin Chen Fong
Cinematography: I Gusti Ketut Trisna Pramana
Sound: Kiki
Editor: Wahyu Tri Purnomo
Original Music: Syahrial
Songs: Arie Wibowo - Tony Prabowo
Assistant director: Jessy Harjadi
Production manager: Leilie Huzaibah
Make-up artist: Widi

Cast:
Nungki Kusumastuti
Mira Tedja
Syahrial
Tuti Alwi
QQ

Awards:
Runner's Up, Audience Award - Q Film Festival Jakarta, Indonesia (2003)
Special Jury Prize, Short Film - Malaysian Video Awards 2004
Best Experimntal Film - 6th International Panorama of Independent Filmmakers Greece 2004

Website
http://www.wanitayangberlari.cjb.net/

CROOK (5min, miniDV)
Singapore (2003)
Language: English

Synopsis
An encounter between a crook and the girl whose house he attempts to rob one quiet evening.

Biography
Aspiring filmmaker Aaron Chung was born and raised in Kushing, Sarawak. He is currentl based in Kuala Lumpur, pursuing a degree in film.

Written, Produced, Directed, Shot and Edited by: Aaron Chung
Production Design: Aaron Chung
Sound: Sheikh Munsar and Aaron Chung
Music: "Your Gonna Pay" by WWE

Cast
Kim Ong Saiful Murad

SAMA ORIGE (4:30min, miniDV)
Malaysia (2004)
Language English and Japanese

Synopsis
A postmmodern revisionist take on popular Asian mythology depicting one man's existential crisis and journey of discovery.

Written, Directed, Produced and Shot by: Bryant Low
Editing, Animation and Special Effects: James Gervais

Awards:
Bronze, Experimental - Malaysian Video Awards 2004

CUT (13min, DV)
Singapore (2004)
Language: English

Synopsis
Praise can be more deadly than cursing is the message of this musical ode to censorship.

Hilarious satire on the activities of the censors in Singapore, this is a parody in which the personification of censorship, Mrs Censor, is worshipped as a tasteful and genuine film lover. She is almost an 'author', who improves films fanatically with her scissors. A cheerful musical with exuberant dance, and all that to honour the woman with the scissors. Or: how to praise Mrs Censor into her grave.

Biography
Royston Tan (1976, Singapore) is a graduate from Temasek Polytechnic who received numerous awards for his music videos and short films. A short documentary on youth culture became the basis for his first feature 15, which screened at Sundance and in Venice for enthusiastic audiences.

Written, Produced and Directed by: director: Royston Tan
Director of Phtography: Lim Chin Leong
Editors: Azhar Ismon and Jonas Ang
Production design: King Li, Karen Khoo, Lim Boon Tek
Sound: James Choong

Cast:
Jonathan Lim, Neo Sulen Leong, Royston

LOST (9:30min, miniDV)
Malaysia (2002)
Language: English and Malay with English subtitles

Synopsis
279, 654 Malaysian identity cards were reported missing in the year 2001. This is the story of just one.

Biography
Amir Muhammad (1972, Kuala Lumpur) graduated in law but devotes himself entirely to other activities, such as writing and film making.

Written, Directed, Shot and Produced by: Amir Muhammad
Editor: James Lee
Extract from poem "IC" by Kubhaer T. Jethwani
Special Thanks: Sharaad Kuttan

Awards:
Critics Prize, Best Asian Digital Film - 2002 Singapore International Film Festival

Website:
http://6horts.tripod.com/id1.html

LOVE FOR DOGS
(24min, DV)
Malaysia (2003)
Language: Malay and English with English subtitles

Synopsis
A commercial traveller and a girl. His medicines are fake; she plays deaf and dumb.

Attractive small-scale feature about a man who returns after years of absence to an important spot from his past. Parallel to that, the film tells the story of a girl who must cope with her ordinary and frustrating life. The man arrives as a traveling salesman of fake medicine. The girl pretends to be a deaf-mute. An encounter seems inevitable, but we don't know what it will yield.

Biography
Woo Ming Jin (1976, Malaysia) graduated in Film and Video Production at San Diego University. He has made several short films and music videos, and is currently finishing his first feature.

Written and Directed by: Woo Min Jin
Production: Greenlight Pictures, Woo Ming Jin
Cameras: Woo Min Jin, Mike Chuah, Aron Cheng
Editors: Mike Chuah and Woo Min Jin
Sound: Aron Cheng

Cast:
Koh Choon Eiow
Pearly Chuah
Patrick Lim
Goh Su Sin

WOMAN OF THE COSMOS
(5min, animation)
Malaysia (2003)
Original Title: Wanita Cosmos

Synopsis
Light-hearted and satirical animation film about the selection of a young Islamic woman to be the first Malaysian cosmonaut. The film was made in a kind of school textbook style (in fact based on the Peter and Jane books), that makes a major contribution to the strange and entertaining effect. The life of the woman is totally changed by her election. For those who think that Malaysia has cosmonauts or that a Muslim woman could become a cosmonaut, this film might be less enjoyable

Biography
Diffan Sina Norman (1983, Malaysia) directed two music videos at the age of 20 that won prestigious medals in the Cyberjaya digital-video competition.

Written, Produced and Directed: Diffan Sina Norman
Music: Morcheeba, Rafeah Buang, Shanson Medyanik

Cast:
Norman Abu Hassan
Mahasin Hamoudah
Sobhan Iman
Noor Syukrina
Mohammed Hafez
Wan Amrul
Anwar Izudin
Sean Sharidz
Awie

OUT OF THE CLOSET
(2min)
Malaysia (2004)

Synopsis
Short, refined joke. Or maybe a play on words. About self-discovery and identity. A film can't get much shorter or much more effective. Any description betrays too much, but it is beautiful and humorous.

Biography
Chi Too is a young, committed filmmaker, photographer and writer who studied at the Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU). His short Just Pretend (duration: 50 seconds) won the first prize in the 2004 MTV AIDS Day Competition.

Produced, Shot and Directed by: Chi Too
Story: Gaz la' Faber and Chi Too

Cast:
Khalil Bistamam
Jess Yeong

GOODBYE TO LOVE
(16min, miniDV)
Malaysia (2004)
Original Title: Mei You Ai de Re Je
Language: None

Synopsis
A man waits. He longs for and mourns for, his increasingly disconnected and disparate love for a person. Goodbye to Love is an epilogue of a romance, contemplative of a protagonist who meditates on the forking ways his liaisons have left him. Suspended in that final, desperate monochrome moment, Goodbye to Love geometrically traces the evaporating points of a love triangle in three spare, melancholic acts. An elegy to the demise of a feeling, and the longing that permeates.

Written and Directed by: James Lee
Production: Sylvia Tan and Doghouse 73 Pictures
Director of Photography: J. Ishmael
Lighting Design: Tan Eng Heng
Art Director: Rogue Chan
Editor: Johnny Kok
"Another Day, Another Night" dance choreography by Amy Len

Cast:
Lee Swee Keong
Pang Khee Teik
Toh Mei Mei
Lee Choy Wan
Khang Tsung Hui

Camiling Story (1 hour 20 minutes)
Camiling Story is a little romance set in a "town of famous men" where
the distance to Andromeda is sometimes nearer than a boy and girl in
love.

Starring:
Diego Mapa & Sonjia Calit
Randy Villarama, Ermie Concepcion, Lui Manansala, Jaya Ababao,
Monalisa, Joel Tiongson, Ernest Concepcion, Cesar Hernando

Written, scored, sound-designed and directed by Erwin Romulo.
Photography by Eli Balce
Edited by Carlo Suratos
Costume Design by Yvonne Quisumbing ydg
Production Design by Darwin Yuson & Jun Sabayton
Musical Director/ Sound Engineering Noel Garcia
Associate Producer Irene Villamor
Line Producer Mads Adrias
Executive Producer Erin Pascual
A Production of the NCCA

Southeast Asian Features:

YASUJIRO'S JOURNEY (46min)
Indonesia (2004)

Synopsis
1942, a Zero Sen Toki crashed in Indonesia. Yasujiro Yamada, the pilot, survived, but he was never found.

2002, Yasujiro Yamada, the grandson of the pilot came to indonesia to find his grandfather.

He was also lost, and has never been found.

Directed by: Faozan Rizal
Production: Faozan Rizal and Sastha Sunu
Direcor of Photograpy: Agung Abriasto
Editing: Sastha Sunu
Art direction: Arief Bekham
Sound: Asifa Nasution
Music: Leodet Tambunan

Cast: Suzuki Nobuyuki

Website:
http://www.kotakhitam.com

MIN (78 min)
Malaysia, 2003
Language: Malay with English subtitles

Synopsis
Yasmin, or "Min" for short, is a 20-year-old teacher in a Kuala Lumpur secondary school; she's of Malaysian-Chinese ancestry, but was adopted and raised by Malay parents, who have a daughter of their own. One day Min impulsively decides to investigate her birth parents; during the half-term break she visits the town where her birth mother works as a supervisor in an electronics factory... Alongside Amir Muhammad's films, Min is the brightest sign of life in Malaysian cinema in many years. Resolutely minimalist and oblique (you can see that Ho Yuhang knows his Hou Hsiao-Hsien), it pieces together unemphatic fragments of everyday life in a way that encourages us to intuit unspoken thoughts and feelings, make connections and draw conclusions. Its overt subject is motherhood and mother-daughter relations, but the enigmatic ending (and the presence of a very large butterfly) hints at something more. Much more.

Biography
Originally trained as an engineer, Ho Yuhang (1971, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia) learned film making in the television advertising industry. Ho has since directed several independent short films and documentaries that were received with international critical acclaim. His first tele-movie Min won the Special Jury Prize at the Nantes Film Festival. Sanctuary received a special mention by the jury at the film festival in Pusan..

Directed by: Ho Yuhang
Producers: Osman Ali, Mohd Subhi B. Mohd Saleh
Screenplay: Anoushka Khorbakash, Ho Yuhang
DOP: Teoh Gay Hian
Editor: Ravi Kumar
Cast: Kok Mei-Ling, Inom BT Yon, Ahmad Bin Hashim, Noor Khiriah

Documentary

Romeo Must Rock (46min)
Philippines, 2005
Language: English and Filipino with English subtitles

Synopsis
The brother of the film maker as the Filipino Iggy Pop. Too fat, too old, but still a Wild Thing.
Not just a portrait of a seedy rock musician. Roxlee clearly has feeling for old rockers, but now things are more personal. Rocker Romeo Lee is the film maker's brother, and his best days are behind him. Romeo is too fat and too old to play the Filipino Iggy Pop. But he just can't stop.

Roque Federizon Lee (1950, Naga City, Philippines), better known as Roxlee, started as a cartoonist and began making films in 1983. With his cynical humour and unconventional ideas, he became an icon of the Philippine underground cinema.

Director: Roxlee
Production: Cinema Regla
Camera: R.A. Rivera, Jun Sabayton, Maisa Demetillo, Ericson Ong
Editor: Patrick and Paolo Almaden
Cast: Romeo Lee and the Brown Briefs

The Island at the End of the World (109min)
Philippines, 2005
Language: Filipino and English with English subtitles

Synopsis
An intimate account of Batanes, its people, and their cultures.

A film by: Raya Martin

TIME, AND THE RIVER (73:51min)
A film by David Ellsworth
USA

A fresh documentary about the inevitable passage of time using the river as the main metaphor for change and stasis.

Director: David Ellsworth
David Ellsworth worked in video post-production at Broadway Video in New York, NY for 10 years. Since then, he has made award winning short films that have appeared at festivals in the United States (Ann Arbor Film Festival, Athens International Film and Video Festival, Black Maria Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Dallas Video Festival, Florida Film Festival, Full Frame Documentary Festival, Hi Mom! Festival, James River Festival of the Moving Image, Louisville Film Festival, NextFrame Festival, SXSW Film Festival, and the U.S. Super8 Film & Video Festival), Canada (Antimatter Festival of Underground Short Film and Video, Toronto Super-8 Film Festival), Cuba (Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano), France (Cinémathèque Français, and Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume,, Paris), Italy (OLTRE I MEDIA, Architecture in Video Festival, Florence), Korea (Busan Asia Short Film Festival, Busan), Netherlands (Shadow Festival, Amsterdam), and Switzerland (Videoex, Zurich).

Focus:
THE FRENCH EXPERIMENT : Selected Shorts by MOUNIR FATMI and AUGUSTIN GIMEL
A sample of the best works from two of France's leading experimental filmmakers.

Jon Jost Retrospective:
Jon JOST (1943, Chicago) grew up in Georgia, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. After being kicked out of university, he started making 16mm films. In 1965, Jost was imprisoned for two years for being a draft dodger. After his release, he became politically active and helped to set up New Left Film. For a considerable time, Jost has also focused on making DV films.

1. HOMECOMING (narrative, accessible, 104 mins)
America without glamour. An ordinary family tries to keep its head above water but loses out to macro economics and macro politics. And they have to send a son to war.
Recalcitrantly shot and apparently improvised feature about a family that is very deeply affected by the great political and economic developments in America after 9/11. Jeff and his wife Mattie live in Newport, Oregon, a town on the coast. Both of them work to try and make ends meet, but they only just manage. Their son Chris is also a cause for concern, as he is unemployed and his girlfriend wants to dump him. He visits a therapist, but he more or less assaults him, and the sessions also reveal that Chris' father is not really his father. Then there's another son, Steve. Steve remains off-screen because he is serving in the army and has been sent to Iraq. This is another worry for Jeff and Mattie, and to top it all off, their worst fears become a reality: Steve comes back in a 'transfer tube', to be buried at home. Having lived and worked for more than 10 years outside the USA, Jost returned to record the effects of recent developments on the ordinary population. And like no other film maker, he investigates the 'homefront', the vulnerable underbelly of the superpower America. Jost evokes a melancholy and realistic picture of America. While clearly fiction, the film has a high degree of naturalism. Polished Hollywood beauty is nowhere to be found. Everything looks ugly. The people. The houses. The weather. Like life itself.

cast: Ryan Harper Gray, Kathryn Senella, Keith Scales, Kateri Eastman, Steve Taylor
music: Erling World

2. NAS CORRENTES DE LUZ DA RIA FORMOSA (sort of a doc, slow, beautiful, 112 mins)
Jon Jost describes this digital video experiment as "a spiritual portrait of a place and time." Jost used a flawed camera, withdrawn from the market because of a focusing problem, and put its very weakness to creative use. Footage from two Portuguese towns is noticeably out of focus and, in brighter lighting, seemingly in bloom, resulting in an unusual visual style. According to Jost, "It has no evident narrative, though I hope I was able in my editing and other choices to impart a kind of slowly developing momentum which functions vaguely like a narrative, or like the melodic line in a piece of music."

3. 6 EASY PIECES (70 mins, kind of an essay-doc-experimental)
Jon Jost explores the aesthetic possibilities of digital video and consumer level non-linear editing systems with this compilation of images that the filmmaker also calls "...a commentary on contemporary arts, past history, creative energies, society, and shall we say a grab-bag of the author's interests, from social observations to the use of symmetry in religious architecture and music." Featuring voice-over narration and translation by Edoardo Albinati and dancing by Vera Mantero and Sarah Antunes.

4. CHHATTISGARH SKETCHES (vision of India trip, 72 mins)

A video film as a series of watercolours. Light and colour captured in the North-east of India.
An investigative video film that you cannot describe as a documentary and certainly not as a feature. Jon Jost, always a sensitive cameraman, has for years been a great advocate of working with digital video and now has an incomparable command of the technology. In this film, he allows his trained video eye to roam the colourful streets and landscapes of Chhattisgarh, a province in northeastern India. Jost gave workshops to students in Raipur and in addition made his own video excursions that certainly go a lot further than showing off or sightseeing, but did have a lot to do with that. Maybe it is most reminiscent of the quest of a painter for a motif. He records in watercolour what maybe one day will become an oil painting. And the video painter is conscious of the fact that the spontaneous sketches, made in amazement at the light and colour of the moment, are often the most beautiful and are seldom surpassed by the final painting, whatever that may be. The interventions in the material are sparse, but occasionally radical and effective. The images are sometimes slowed down to their most essential movement and the light and colours are often reduced to a single `stroke of watercolour'.

Non-Competition Shorts:

SEA

BUS STOP (Tasaporn Mongkol) -Thailand
Thailand after dark.

Job Interview
Dir: Khoo Eng Yow
2004 / Malaysia / 6.45 min
The film is about a Malaysian who goes to Singapore for a job interview, and it reveals the differences between the two countries and how much they depend on each other.

Philippines

SETH THE DESTROYER (Mihk Vergara)
Seth has superpowers. Seth thinks he can't live that kind of responsibility. He asks his best friend to help him end it all. The suicide attempt ends up as a love story of comic book proportions. With great power sometimes comes great stupidity.

PLANO (Antoinette H. Jadoane)
A story about a tough guy and an even tougher kid.

CEBU SHORTS:
HAUNTING (Jerrold Tarog)
Weird things start happening in a Cebuano household where three teenage siblings, a guy, a girl, and their autistic sister are left to fend for themselves. By turns frightening and hilarious, a preternatural will get the better of them.

SINULOG 2005 DOCUMENTARY
25min
Produced and Directed by Raymond Ismael N. Aquino
The filmmaker, who is anthing but a Sto. Niño devotee, challenges himself to make a documentary unlike the usual Sinulog documentary.

SERANTE SERRANO
10min
a film by FRANK
A man wakes from a dream and all he can remember are the words: "Serante Serrano." Soon he is obssessed in finding out what they mean, what they stand for, and discovers the answer is far beyond anyone's expectations.

Philippine Shorts

IYAK NI MARIA (7min, miniDV)
Philippines
Language: Filipino

Synopsis
A music video (image video) that delves on the objectification of Filipino women through time, and the resistance or submission that have resonated since

Song: "Iyak Ni Maria"
Artist: Matilda

Director's Biography
Sherad Anthony Sanchez is a third-year college student majoring in AB Communications. He was born on August 1984 in Davao City, southern Philippines. This is his first year in film production, and had written and directed two shorts (October 2004) which includes APPLE and Iyak Ni Maria

Shot, Edited and Directed by: Sherad Anthony Sanchez
Screenplay and Production design: Sherad Anthony Sanchez and Maria Carmela Arnado
Special Effects and Compositor: Maria Carmela Arnado

Cast: Matilda

APPLE (miniDV)
Philippines
Language: Cebuano with English subtitles

Synopsis
A study on depravity in the eyes of a young mananaptan (local funeral/death chanter), as she struggles with an apathetic life and learns to serenade death

Written and Directed by: Sherad Anthony Sanchez
Director of Photography: Armand Cain
Editor: Wyrlo Abrajano
Production Manager: Jimmy Mata
Assistant Production Manager: Virgilio Yap

BLIND BEAUTY (6:44min, animation)
Philppines
Language: English

Synopsis
A stop-motion animation about one woman's vanity.
Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

Directed by: Melvin Calingo
Story: Melvin Calingo and Joanah Tinio
Narration: Dexter Lira and Joanah Tinio
Music: Rai Lim
Animators: Melvin Calingo, Rai Lim, Robby Villagarcia, Michael David

BINALIW (9:07min, hi8)
Philppines
Language: Cebuano with English subtitles

Synopsis
The story takes place in Binaliw, a poor town in the outskirts of Cebu City. Rina, a graduating student is hoping to make it to college via a scholarship exam in one of the country's leading universities. To be able to take the exam, students must pay Php300 - a considerably large amount for the likes of Rina. But on the day of the exam Rina loses the money meant for the exam, thus diminishing her chances for a better future.

Written, Shot and Directed by: Kristoffer Villarino
Original story: Kristoffer Villarino and Cheryl Lyn Toting
Editing: Kristoffer Villarino and Tomas Estrada
Production design: Chirstine Geneblaza

Cast:
Rina Velasquez
Juvinil Pahang

Awards:
Best Regional Entry - 15th Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video
2nd Prize Narrative Category - 15th Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video

FIESTA 2052 (11min)
Philippines
Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Synopsis
Submitted for the 2003 Discreet Philppine Animation Competition at the Graphic Expo, Fiesta 2052 is a short film made in accordaqnce with the contest's theme of technology and Philippine culture. It tells the story of Ningning, a young girl thrust into a futurisitc Flores de Mayo tradition.

Directed by: Michael Rivero
Production: The Artist Society
Screenplay: Paraluman Cruz
Direcors of Photgraphy: Michael Rivero and Paraluman Cruz
Production design: The Artist Society
Sound: Michael Sean Tan and Dennis Billones
Music: Dennis Billones and Joon Guillen

Cast:
Paraluman Cruz
Michael Sean Tan
Joseph Gemora

Awards:
Best Animated Short Film - 2003 Discreet Philppine Animation Competition

Website:
http://www.theartistsociety.tk/

RED SAGA (15min)
Philippines, 2004

Written and Directed by: Gabriela Krista Dalena
Production: Mowelfund Film Insitute, Southern Tagalog Exposure, PIA
Directors of Photography: Gabriela Krista Dalena and Claude Santos
Editing: Gabriela Krista Dalena, Jomel Lawas, Bryan Quesada, King Katoy
Production Design: Jomel Lawas, Renato Mabilin, Vivian Limpin
Sound: Bobby Macabenta and King Katoy
Music: Utad Arellano

EGG (26min, animation)
Philippines, 2003

Synopsis
A misplaced chicken egg n a balut (duck egg) factory is ostracized by the other eggs because of his different appearance. To make things worse, he is told that gis different appearance is a disease to which he must find a cure. He then sets off on a journey to cure his "disease" but ends up finding more about accepting one's differences and meeting many different creatures along the way.

Shot and Directed by: Ramon del Prado
Production: Ramon del Prado and Out of the Box Film Productions
Story: Ramon del Prado, Marco, Danga, Katerina Rillo
Screenplay: Marco Danga
Editing: Ramon del Prado and Marco Danga
Sound: Katerina Rillo
Music: Pepe Manikan

Cast:
Wilben Santos
Rachel Tesoro

Awards:
First place, animation catefory - 5th UP Video and Film Festival 2003
Finalist, Best Short Film - 2003 Catholic Mass Media Awards
Finalist, Best Short Film - 2004 Gawad CCP
Grand Jury Award - Indeo Film Festival

TAWID GUTOM (3min, miniDV)
Philippines

Written, Produced, Shot, Edited, Directed (and everything else) by: John Torres

Cast: Paul Doble

BLOODBANK (25:03min, miniDV)
Philippines
Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Synopsis
Three hapless characters and a blood bank provide the existential back-drop to this tale of mortality, friendship and choices they have to make. Blood isn't always thicker than water.

Written, Produced and Directed by: Pam Miras
Direcor of Photography: Ogi Sugatan
Editing: Sunshine Matutina
Production Design: Chet Rigonan
Music: Cleavage

Cast:
Rose de Leon
Ian RG Vvictor
Marnel Julian