Before we get to today's full length features, let's take a look at the festivals shorts competition entries first, because short films deserve some love.
QC SHORTS A
SHORT SHORTS REVIEWS
Let's face it, you've probably seen the plot of Anya Ti' Nagan Mo? lots of times in lots of short films past. But that really doesn't take away from the fact that it's a sweet film about home, which (if you believe the popular adage) is where the heart is. As a small footnote, I was pleasantly surprised to see MJ Jacobo, one of the subjects of Sunday Beauty Queen, in this film.
The basic premise of Babylon is pretty simple: two girls go back in time to assassinate a barangay dictator. But how the film gets there is something crazy in and of itself. Like Keith Deligero's film Lily (2016), Babylon has a certain irreverent, punkish aesthetic that is wildly entertaining and hilariously funny. There are also some jokes in Cebuano that gets stuff under the radar, so to speak. (Ask a Cebuano speaker what the chicken is saying.)
Flavored by lush underwater cinematography, Gikan sa Ngitngit nga Kinailadman is a movie that isn't driven by a conventional narrative structure. It's better felt rather than understood, and in making us feel the emotions it wants to convey it's largely up to the viewer. In my case, it's a short film full of powerful images: that of a revolution long forgotten, of rebels deep in the forest, of a police car announcing curfew, its siren sounding like a widow's wail.
My favorite short film from shorts A has to be Kun' Di Man, about two lonely blind musicians who begin to realize they need each other. Even though it's short, it's no less emotionally powerful. I still think of its images hours after I've seen them, a testament to the indelible power of wanting to be loved.
QC SHORTS B
SHORT SHORTS REVIEWS
There's something profound behind what Link is trying to say about the creative process, in the relationship between creator and creation, but ultimately it feels a bit inadequate in this case.
From the team that made one of my favorite films of 2015, Manang Biring, Love Bites is about two people finding each other in old age, through a certain quirk that really can only be done by senior citizens. Love Bites is a stop motion animated film, and in my experience, the amount of technical skill put into a project like this is praiseworthy. Sure, the film can get hokey, but it isn't really that big a problem.
There's no doubt that Pixel Paranoia was made with a shoestring budget; I mean, weird "surgeries" can't be done with any kind of precision with only a knife and a pair of thick rubber gloves, no matter how underground or illegal it may be. But there's a certain texture to this film that I like, especially in the last few sequences where things get really crazy, where the film begins to subvert and play on your expectations. That said, it feels like a film that doesn't take itself too seriously. In the way it gives no fucks, the film also has something of a playful quality to it.
My favorite short film from shorts B, and probably my favorite of this year's shorts program, is Si Astri Maka si Tambulah, about a transwoman and a man who are in love but are torn apart by traditions and prejudices within their society. There's also a bit of commentary on the dowry system and how people from the Badjao tribe (as well as many other tribes in Mindanao) get engaged and get married. It's simple and a bit predictable, but it's still tragic.
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