ACF 170: 15th Annual Filipino American Cinefest this weekend in San Francisco

15th ANNUAL FILIPINO AMERICAN CINEFEST FEATURES NEW WORKS, PANEL DISCUSSION: “FILIPINO AMERICAN FILM,

WHAT’S UP, FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER?”

This festival will take place this weekend in San Francisco. Here's the info I've got on it. Check it out if you're in the area.

Filipino American artists will celebrate their own cinema with the premiere of at least nine new works at the 15th Annual Filipino American Cinema Festival on Friday, October 31 ( 1-5 pm) and Saturday, November 1, 2008 (3-6 pm) at the San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium. (100 Larkin Street @ Grove Street, Civic Center, San Francisco)

All screenings are free to the public. (Please see schedule below.)

The yearly festival is organized by FACINE or filipino arts & cinema, international, a not-for-profit media arts organization based in San Francisco that aims to promote and develop Filipino American as well as Philippine national cinema.

Two full-length documentaries, five short films and two web videos form the centerpiece of this year’s festival.

Cielito Torrijos’s Pag-asa sa Paglaya/Hope after freedom, is a compelling documentary on a timely subject, the social rehabilitation of Filipino ex-offenders and the divisive issue of death penalty abolition in the Philippines.

Jonald J. Reyes’s That Asian Thing inquires into the question of the relative invisibility of Asian America in mainstream American culture by way of interviews with prominent artists in Chicago.

The festival is open to all media artists of Filipino ancestry as well as non-Filipino filmmakers with works whose subject is Filipino or Filipino American..

Two action-adventure videos by LA-based filmmaker Ron Santiano which take a bow to popular adventure series like Heroes, while featuring Filipino American actors, provide interesting mix to this year’s festival: EVE: Beauty & The Blade and Wonder Woman.

Five short films complete the programme in a variety of genre and subject: the hilarious instructional video, Salo-Salo (how to cook dinuguan/meat cooked wirh pork blood); Yasmine Gomez’s music video You Will Remember, featuring Lumaya; and the short features, Jeannie Barroga’s Be His and Robert Casipe’s Afterplay, both inquire into the complexity of women’s relationships with men..

Noel Shaw’s Kundiman completes the program in a highly charged, provocative look at the impact of politics on an individual’s life.

A panel discussion will follow the screenings on Saturday, November 1 with guest filmmakers, Ron Santiano, Yasmine Gomez, Noel Shaw, Robert Casipe and Jeannie Barroga, to be moderated by FACINE Director, Mauro Feria Tumbocon, Jr.

The festival is co-presented with the Filipino American Center of the San Francisco Main Library. For information, please contact, Mauro Tumbocon, Director, FACINE at (415) 756-7331 or email: mftworks@hotmail.com.

Full festival schedule:

Friday, October 31, 2008

1:00 – 2:11 Pag-asa sa Paglaya/Hope after freedom (New Breed Productions,

71 min, 2008) Produced by Cielito Torrijos

2:11 – 2:31 Short Films Special: Blast from the Past

HoME (5 min, 2002) Directed and written by Matthew Abaya

she (7 min, 2001) Directed by Mark Bella and written by Bella

and Christopher Castillo

Silencio (9 min, 1995) Directed, produced and written by Michael

Arago

BREAK

2:45 – 4:10 That Asian Thing (Groovy Ghost Films, Inc., 84 min, 2008)

Directed, produced and written by Jonald J. Reyes

4:10 – 4:50 Wonder Woman: Balance of Power (Redcape Cinema, 40 min,

2006) Directed, produced and written by Ron Santiano

Saturday, November 1, 2008

3:00 – 4:20 Short Films Collection NOW

Salo-Salo (Poolboy Films, 5 min, 2008) Directed by Travis Kraft and Produced by Madley

Katarungan)

Be His (JNJ Productions, 7 min, 2008) Directed, produced and

written by Jeannie Barroga

Eve: Beauty and the Blade, Episode 1 (Redcape Cinema, 30

min, 2008) Directed, produced and written by Ron Santiano

Afterplay (Tiny Oak Pictures/Crosshairs Entertainment, 12 min,

2008) Directed and written by Robert Casipe

Lumaya: You Will Remember (Subject to Change Productions,

4 min, 2008) Directed, produced and co-written by Yasmine

Gomez

Kundiman (Pinoy Noir Films, 20 min, 2008) Directed, produced

and written by Noel Shaw

4:30 – 5:45 Panel Discussion: Filipino American film: what’s up, fifteen years after?

Guest filmmakers: Ron Santiano, Yasmine Gomez, Noel Shaw,

Robert Casipe and Jeannie Barroga

Moderated by Mauro Feria Tumbocon, Jr., director, FACINE