Running jokes are almost customary among cinephiles. One which in my book doesn’t get old is that festival season, like the one that’s upon us, is anticipated in collective anxiety it becomes the unofficial Winter to our Westeros—what with the dreaded pre-fest schedule-plotting and unavoidable thinning of the wallet. For the uninitiated, it can be overwhelming. And it’s a given: even decades-long film fans know nothing on the subject of making a workable film festival itinerary, much less an effective one.
(Just what’s up with my Game of Thrones references today?)
QCinema International Film Festival, known also as QCIFF and running now on its third year, is just around, happening on October 22 thru 31 at selected TriNoma, Gateway Mall, and Robinsons Galleria cinemas. A primer of sorts—dare I say it the ultimate primer—of which films excite me in the aims of helping you build a festival itinerary, and a compendium of synopses of the films in exhibition and competition.
If you want our film recommendations, CLICK HERE to jump right to it.
QCinema 2015 Screening Schedules
The screening schedules for the entire ten-day program of QCIFF follow.
Festival sections and lineup of films
QCinema makes certain that it caters to whatever’s one’s jam. Think of it as a smorgasbord of cinematic eye protein (I actually mean that; this year’s lineup is incredible).
Circle Competition
[videogallery video1=”youtube” url1=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5NUjN2zm7w” image1=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/vlcsnap-2015-10-15-20h57m21s564-1.jpg” caption1=”Apocalypse Child” video2=”youtube” url2=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHDpTv0dPBM” image2=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Iisa-0b.jpg” caption2=”As One (‘Iisa’)” video3=”youtube” url3=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAaTKEPH3F8″ image3=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/gayuma-thumb-1.jpg” caption3=”Gayuma” video4=”youtube” url4=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYvGNtfJbsg” image4=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/12108181_1048876038490957_7718979616013723513_n.jpg” caption4=”Kapatiran” ]
[videogallery video1=”youtube” url1=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfxHYBl1-aM” image1=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/matangtubig-thumb.png” caption1=”Matangtubig (Town in a Lake)” video2=”youtube” url2=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLtg36n47vk” image2=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/patintero-thumb-1.jpg” caption2=”Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo” video3=”youtube” url3=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54gsHzfZ83M” image3=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/sleepless-thumb-1.jpg” caption3=”Sleepless” video4=”youtube” url4=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-PjAVwrV6I” image4=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/vlcsnap-2015-10-19-09h24m21s778-1.jpg” caption4=”Water Lemon” ]
[column size=one_half position=first ][toggler title=”Apocalypse Child” ]Comedy, Drama / 2015 / PH
Directed by: Mario Cornejo
Written by: Mario Cornejo, Monster Jimenez
Stars: Sid Lucero, Annicka Dolonius, RK Bagatsing, Archie Alemania…
What if all your life you were told that you are the son of the Francis Ford Coppola? This is the story of Ford, a surfing instructor who has been wasting his youth as his mother petitions the director to acknowledge his son. As another surfing season ends, he is forced to confront the myths surrounding his life.[/toggler]
[toggler title=”Gayuma” ]Romance, Thriller, Drama / 2015 / PH
Directed by: Cesar Hernando
Written by: Cesar Hernando
Stars: Benjamine Alves, Elora Españo, Phoebe Walker
A dark tale of fatal obsession and erotic passion, Gayuma centers on a young student artist mesmerized by a beautiful and mysterious figure drawing model in his art school. [/toggler]
[toggler title=”Matangtubig (‘Town in a Lake’)” ]Drama, Horror, Suspense / 2015 / PH
Directed by: Jet B. Leyco
Written by: Jet B. Leyco
Stars: Amante Pulido, Dan Jarden De Guzman, Shielbert Manuel…
A girl’s dead body is discovered and puts the whole town on trial while the former’s companion remains missing. The ensuing media spectacle slowly exposes the town’s secrets. As they celebrate its yearly festival by the lake, an unknowing sleeping evil unravels and haunts the townsfolk.[/toggler]
[toggler title=”Sleepless” ]Romance, Comedy, Drama / 2015 / PH
Directed by: Prime Cruz
Written by: Jen Chuaunsu
Stars: Glaiza De Castro, Dominic Roco
An offbeat rom-com about two insomniacs, it charts how they start to bond while the rest of the world sleeps. Drawn together by their nocturnal loneliness, they talk about love, zombies and everything in between.[/toggler][/column][column size=one_half position=last ][toggler title=”As One (‘Iisa’)” ]Drama, Tragedy / 2015 / PH
Directed by: Chuck Guttierez
Written by: Chuck Gutierrez
Stars: Angeli Bayani, Rio Locsin, Jess Mendoza, Mon Confiado…
A thriller about a never ending war, a town ravaged by a devastating storm and the woman caught in between.[/toggler]
[toggler title=”Kapatiran” ]Drama / 2015 / PH
Directed by: Pepe Diokno
Written by: Pepe Diokno, Lilit Reyes, Benjamin Tolentino…
Focusing on a elite law school fraternitty, Kapatiran follows a week in the lives of a neophyte, a master, and a lawyer alumnus, and crosses the lines of money, power and connections within Manila’s society.[/toggler]
[toggler title=”Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo” ]Drama, Comedy / 2015 / PH
Directed by: Mihk Vergara
Written by: Mihk Vergara
A young neighborhood ‘patalo’ assembles an unlikely team of losers to join her in the ultimate battle for the streets: “patintero”.
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[toggler title=”Water Lemon” ]Drama / 2015 / PH
Directed by: Lemuel Lorca
Written by: Lilit Reyes
Stars: Jun-Jun Quintana, Tessie Tomas, Meryll Soriano…
A film about the filmmaker’s hometown, Mauban, Quezon; and how chosen characters cope with smalltown blues, if they stay, or decide to leave.
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DoQC Competition
[videogallery video1=”youtube” url1=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BixBlyPFZBA” image1=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/audioperpetua-1.jpg” caption1=”Audio Perpetua” video2=”youtube” url2=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQjA9D1kEi8″ image2=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/vlcsnap-2015-10-21-10h44m41s721-1.jpg” caption2=”Bingat” video3=”youtube” url3=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTnX2vB7W6M” image3=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/vlcsnap-2015-10-21-10h29m42s559-1.jpg” caption3=”Of Cats and Dogs, Farm Animals, and Sashimi” ]
[videogallery video1=”youtube” url1=”https://youtu.be/FLMRPiWTe1M” image1=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/vlcsnap-2015-10-21-09h57m34s029-1.jpg” caption1=”The Crescent Rising” video2=”youtube” url2=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcPbOQoy6Pk” image2=”https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/vlcsnap-2015-10-21-10h39m05s441-1.jpg” caption2=”Translacion: Ang Paglakad sa Altar ng Alanganin” ]
[toggler title=”Audio Perpetua” ]By: Universe Baldoza
Audio Perpetua is a series of audio recordings that present an unseen America. This documentary feature unfolds through the eyes of eavesdroppers from the tropics.
Universe Baldoza is a filmmaker and video artist from Manila. She completed her screenwriting residency in the Asean-in-Residence programme in Thailand and participated in the DocNet SouthEast Asia’s Summer School, the Berlinale Talents Doc Station and Script Station.[/toggler]
[toggler title=”Bingat” ]By: Choy Pangilinan, Qubry Quesada, Joolia Demigillo & Abet Umil
Bingat documents the archeological diggings in a remote barrio. It unearths the individual and collective recollections of archeologists and the local residents of Tuhian, Quezon. Its intertwining tales become a tapestry of relentless socio-cultural and historical amnesia.
This feature documentary is a collective endeavor by Choy Pangilinan and Brian Quesada, who are both lecturers in the UP Film Institute; Joolia Demigillo, who is anthropology major in UP Diliman; and Abet Umil, an award winning poet and filmmaker.[/toggler]
[toggler title=”Of Cats and Dogs, Farm Animals, and Sashimi” ]By: Perry Dizon
Of Cats, Dogs, Farm Animals, and Sashimi is a slice-of-life documentary of the rubber plantation boys in Zamboanga Sibugay. It’s about boyhood journeys and life’s realities told in a free-spirited, yet melancholic manner.
Perry Dizon is an actor and production designer from Mindanao. He was a member of the Sining Kambayoka theater group and has been a long-time collaborator of Lav Diaz.
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[toggler title=”The Crescent Rising” ]By: Sheron Dayoc
The Crescent Rising presents three portraits of different lives caught in crossfire of unwavering faith and ambiguous histories to create a tapestry of Mindanao’s forgotten people.
Born and raised in Zamboanga City, Sheron Dayoc’s debut film from Cinemalaya 2011, Halaw (English: Ways of the Sea), won the NETPAC Award at the 2011 Asia Pacific Screen Awards and Special Mention at the 2011 Berlinale.[/toggler]
[toggler title=”Translacion: Ang Paglalakad sa Altar ng Alanganin” ]By: Will Fredo
Traslacion: Ang Paglakad sa Altar ng Alanganin focuses on four LGBT couples and their stand on equality and the right to marry. This documentary addresses their complicated quests in defining themselves within a conservative society.
Will Fredo has directed three independent features under HUBO Productions which he founded. He took up filmmaking in the New York Film Academy and divides his time between Seattle and Manila.[/toggler]
Screen International, Asian Cinerama, and Special Screenings!
QCIFF curates a diverse selection this year, programming with a great lineup of import must-sees. Having Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now in the festival is truly their “drops mic” moment. Makes this year’s edition so rare and special.
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”Screen International”][column size=one_half position=first ]
Cemetery of Splendour
Country: Thailand
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
122 minutes | Drama | PG13
Cemetery of Splendour tells of a lonesome middle-age housewife who tends a soldier with sleeping sickness and falls into a hallucination that triggers strange dreams, phantoms, and romance.
Court
Country: India
Director: Chaitanya Tamhane
116 minutes | Drama | PG13
A sewage worker’s dead body is found inside a manhole in Mumbai. An ageing folk singer is arrested and accused of performing an inflammatory song, which may have incited the worker to commit suicide. The trial unfolds in a lower court, where the hopes and dreams of the city’s ordinary people play out. Forging these fates are the lawyers and judge, who are observed in their personal lives beyond the theatre of the courtroom.
How to Win at Checkers (Everytime)
Country: Thailand
Director: Josh Kim
80 minutes | Drama | PG13
After the loss of both parents, 11 years old Oat faces an uncertain future when his older brother must submit to Thailand’s annual military draft lottery. Unable to convince his brother to do what- ever he can to change his fate, Oat takes matters into his own hands resulting in unexpected consequences. Based on the stories from the bestselling book Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap, the film is set in the economic fringes of Bangkok and examines the joys and challenges of growing up in contemporary Thailand.
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Tale of Tales
Country: Italy
Director: Matteo Garrone
125 minutes | Fantasy, Romance, Horror | R13
Once upon a time there were three neighboring kingdoms each with a magnificent castle, from which ruled kings and queens, princes and princesses. One king was a fornicating libertine, another captivated by a strange animal, while one of the queens was obsessed by her wish for a child. Sorcerers and fairies, fearsome monsters, ogres and old washerwomen, acrobats and courtesans are the protagonists of this loose interpretation of the celebrated tales of Giambattista Basile.
Victoria
Country: Germany
Director: Sebastian Schipper
138 minutes | Drama, Thriller | R13
A movie shot in a single take about Victoria, a runaway party girl, who’s asked by three friendly men to join them as they hit the town. Their wild night of partying turns into a bank robbery.
Videophilia (And Other Viral Syndromes)
Country: Peru
Director: Juan Daniel F. Molero
120 minutes | Comedy, Fantasy | R13
A teenage misfit spends her first days out of school slacking and experimenting with drugs and cybersex. She meets Junior online, he’s an amateur porn dealer on a delusional journey regarding the Mayan Apocalypse and other conspiracy theories. Once they meet in the ‘real world’ unusual events start to unfold as bizarre characters appear in this contemporary non-love story that portrays a post-modern Lima, an internet glitchy virus, corruption, psychedelia and ancient ruins.
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A Simple Life
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Anna Hui
118minutes | Drama | PG13
Co-presented by Asian Film Awards Academy
This deceptively simple film about Ah Tao, longtime family servant to Roger Lee, reaches remarkable heights through its rich cultural detail and Ann Hui’s perceptive direction. After suffering a stroke, Ah Tao leaves her job and moves into an elderly home. Although a busy film producer, Roger makes the time to visit and care for Ah Tao. The film weaves an intimate bond between the two in a role reversal between nanny and charge – that also stands as a deeply moving reflection on the moral and purposeful upbringing that the uneducated Ah Tao has encouraged in the successful Roger.
Nader and Simin: A Separation
Country: Iran
Director: Asghar Farhadi
123 minutes | Drama | PG13
Co-presented by Asian Film Awards Academy
The film’s lucid portrayal of modern Iran through a Tehran family’s case of divorce won Iran its first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Simin asks her husband Nader to move overseas with their daughter Termeh for a better future, but Nadar refuses because his father is suffering from Alzheimer’s and needs constant care. As Simin files for divorce, the revelation of secrets and demands spur a series of tragic outcomes as filmmaker Farhadi illuminates class divisions, human relationships, and the suffering of both adults and children.
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Niño
Country: Philippines
Director: Loy Arcenas
100 minutes | Drama | PG13
Co-presented by Asian Film Awards Academy
Now in her old age, Celia was an opera diva in her youth. Living in her once illustrious family’s ancestral mansion, she cares for her enfeebled brother Gasper, a former congressman who never realized his political ambitions. Celia’s daughter manages the household and conducts a secret affair with boarder Katherine. One day, Gasper has a heart attack and falls into coma. His daughter Racquel and son Reinhardt return from the US wanting to sell the house, but a desperate Celia tries to sing Gasper into consciousness so that he can stop the sale.
Overheard
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
99 minutes | Drama | PG13
Co-presented by Asian Film Awards Academy
When surveillance cops tap in on a stock-fixing plan, the scene is set for shady business in Overheard, a sleek thriller from Infernal Affairs co-creators Alan Mak and Felix Chong. The policemen are not immune to the lure of easy money, and soon two cops are shoveling cash into shares with insider info, and dragging a third into the mess while a kingpin gets wind of their game.
[/column][/cbtab][cbtab title=”Special Screening”]
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A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Country: Iran
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
101 minutes | Horror | R16
In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
Apocalypse Now
Country: USA
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
153 minutes | Drama, Action | R18
During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.
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Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Nightmare
Country: USA
Director: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola
96 minutes | Documentary | R18
The documentary that chronicles how Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) was plagued by extraordinary script, shooting, budget, and casting problems–nearly destroying the life and career of the celebrated director.
Human
Country: France
Director: YannArthus-Bertrand
188 minutes | Documentary | PG
A combination of testimonies and exclusive aerial images, Human is a unique documentary. This sensitive experience is an introspection into whom we are today as a community but also and most importantly as an individual. Through wars, inequalities, discriminations, Human confronts us with the realities and the diversity of our human conditions. Beyond this darker side, testimonies show the empathy and the solidarities which we are capable of. All these contradictions are ours and Human leads us to reflect about the future we wish to give to people and the planet today.
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Indie Nacional and QCinema Reloaded
Aside from the competing films, QCIFF is also hosting screenings for a great selection of Filipino titles including John Torres‘ Lukas the Strange. Jun Lana is also premiering his new film Anino sa Likod ng Buwan at the festival on October 23rd at TriNoma Mall.
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”Indie Nacional”]
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88:88
Country: Philippines
Director: Isiah Medina
65 minutes | Experimental | PG13
You can not pay your bill. Your heat and lights are cut. You pay. The clocks initially flash 88:88. You set the clocks. You can not pay. You pay. 88:88. Repeat. 88:88. Cut. You stop setting your clock to the time of the world. 88:88. Subtracted. You make do with suspension. 88:88.
Anatomiya ng Pag-Ibig
Country: Philippines
Director: Joan Fernandez, Jewels Sison, David Molina, Jav Velasco, James Mayo, ER Alviz, Thop Nazareno, Sari Estrada, Martika Escobar, Joris Fernandez, James Vapor, Martin Valconcha, David Corpuz
120 minutes | Drama | PG13
A 12-act anthology film about the lives of several people whose love stories take tragic turns as they try to fill in the void in their respective lives. The film, adapted from the Palanca-winning stage play by Allan Lopez, is a combination of various genres such as melodrama, experimental, comedy and fashion. Bliss and sorrow are portrayed in 12 different styles by 13 young filmmakers that roll into a unifying theme of love and its wages.
Anino Sa Likod Ng Buwan
Country: Philippines
Director: Jun Lana
121 minutes | Sex, Drama | R18
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Anino Sa Likod Ng Buwan follow the story of a husband and wife who are refugees of war and their fragile friendship with a military man. What starts as a night of playing cards slowly escalates into a terrifying struggle for survival when deep secrets are revealed threatening to destroy everyone.
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Bonifacio: The Producer’s Cut
Country: Philippines
Director: Enzo Williams
100 minutes | Historical Drama | PG13
Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo is a historical action epic that brings to light the powerful, true-to-life drama of Filipino revolutionary Andres Bonifacio—one of our country’s national heroes—with his virtues and humanity, unfolding through the eyes of a young man in this day and age.
Desaparadiso
Country: Philippines
Director: Khavn De La Cruz
75 minutes | Experimental | PG13
What can a family do if someone disappears in a dictatorship? You can’t go to the police for help or information. Many families were affected in this way by the cruelty of the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986). The film shows one of them as an example of paradise lost.
Heneral Luna
Country: Philippines
Director: Jerrold Tarog
75 minutes | Experimental | PG13
General Antonio Luna, commander of the revolutionary army, is spoiling for a fight. After three hundred years as a Spanish colony, the Philippines must endure a new foreign power: the United States of America. General Luna wants to fight for freedom but members of the elite want to strike a deal with the Americans. The infighting is fierce in the new cabinet but General Luna and his loyal men forge ahead even as his military decisions are met with resistance from soldiers who are loyal only to President Aguinaldo. Ultimately, it is the general’s legendary temper and pride that bring him to his death when a pack of presidential guards assassinate him in broad daylight. While American newspapers blame Aguinaldo, the mystery of General Luna’s assassination was never completely solved and his killers never put to justice.
[/column][/cbtab][cbtab title=”QCinema Reloaded”]
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Alienasyon
Country: Philippines
Director: Arnel Mardoquio
Alienasyon is the story of a retired university professor who refuses to leave his home in the campus despite an administrative order for eviction. With his whole life bearing witness to Diliman estate’s evolution, he is only remaining gatekeeper of the histories of his homeland.
Ang ‘Di Paglimot ng mga Alaala
Country: Philippines
Director: Carl Joseph E. Papa
A young woman grasps at the memories her mother left – leading to a vicious cycle of remembering, of forgetting, or mourning. This is a story of a daughter’s grief and her struggle to preserve happy memories and un-remember painful ones.
Gaydar
Country: Philippines
Director: Alvin Yapan
Young working girl, Tina, is convinced her love life is cursed when every man she falls in love with turns out to be gay. Turning to her best friend Nick to console her, she swears off men, vowing to never again fall in love – that is until she meets Richard, an FX driver. Determined not to make the same mistakes, Tina ropes Nick into helping her orchestrate a series of traps to test Richard’s sexuality. Complications arise however, when it is revealed that Nick, who Tina has always assumed is gay, isn’t and is hiding the fact that he is actually in love with her.
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Hello, World
Country: Philippines
Director: Joel Ferrer
A coming of age comedy focusing on two childhood friends, Jeff and Johan, who are running headlong into the next stage of their lives as young adults. After finishing high school, the pair have one final summer or reckless abandon but at the same time, they must start growing up and make the choices that will affect the rest of their adult lives, choices that could potentially change their friendship forever.
Lukas Niño (Lukas the Strange)
Country: Philippines
Director: John Torres
Lukas, an awkward teenager is coming to grips with his own journey into manhood just when there is a movie shoot in the neighborhood. Several nights earlier, he is told that his father is a mythical half-man, half horse creature called tikbalang, which naturally drives Lukas into wondering if he actually half beast. As the cameras start to roll, the village erupts into chaos and the film’s story begins feeding directly into the strange boy’s musings.
Nick and Chai
Country: Philippines
Director: Cha Escala, Wena Sanchez
On November 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan claimed the lives of Nick and Chai Quieta’s four children, leaving them with nothing but each other and a house torn to pieces. Now, four months later, we step inside the Quieta home and observe how they cope with their loss. What is it really like to lose all your kids all of a sudden?
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Back Throwback, Rainbow QC, and Music Genius
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”Back Throwback”]
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Bagong Buwan
Country: Philippines
Director: Marilou Diaz-Abaya
130 minutes | Action, Drama, War | PG13
Co-presented by ABS-CBN Corporation
A Moro surgeon working in Manila returns home to Mindanao upon learning of his son’s death at the hands of Christian vigilantes.
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Ganito Kami Noon…Paano Kayo Ngayon?
Country: Philippines
Director: Eddie Romero
136 minutes | Drama, War | PG13
Co-presented by ABS-CBN Corporation
Set at the turn of the 20th century during the Filipino revolution against the Spaniards and, later, the American colonizers, it follows a naive peasant through his leap of faith to become a member of an imagined community.[/column]
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Oro Plata Mata
Country: Philippines
Director: Peque Gallaga
194 minutes | Drama, War | R13
Co-presented by ABS-CBN Corporation
A tale set in World War II Philippines about how a rich family copes with the war and how the people change amidst violence and death.
[/column][/cbtab][cbtab title=”Rainbow QC”]
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Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Country: Netherlands
Director: Peter Greenaway
105 minutes | Bio, Comedy, Romance | R16
The venerated filmmaker Eisenstein is comparable in talent, insight and wisdom, with the likes of Shakespeare or Beethoven; there are few – if any – directors who can be elevated to such heights. On the back of his revolutionary film Battleship Potemkin, he was celebrated around the world, and invited to the US. Ultimately rejected by Hollywood and maliciously maligned by conservative Americans, Eisenstein traveled to Mexico in 1931 to consider a film privately funded by American pro-Communist sympathizers, headed by the American writer Upton Sinclair. Eisenstein’s sensual Mexican experience appears to have been pivotal in his life and film career – a significant hinge between the early successes of Strike, Battleship Potemkin, and October, which made him a world-renowned figure, and his hesitant later career with Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and The Boyar’s Plot.
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Tangerine
Country: USA
Director: Sean Baker
88 minutes | Comedy, Drama | R18
On Christmas Eve, transwoman sex worker Sin-Dee Rella, who has just finished a twenty-eight day prison sentence, meets her best friend Alexandra, also a trans sex worker, at Donut Time in Hollywood. Alexandra informs Sin-Dee that her boyfriend and pimp Chester has been cheating on her with a white cisgender woman, Dinah. Outraged, Sin-Dee storms out of Donut Time to search the neighborhood for Chester and Dinah, the “fish” he has been sleeping with.
As Sin-Dee searches for Chester and Dinah and Alexandra prepares for her stage show in West Hollywood, Razmik, an Armenian cab driver, drives clients around Los Angeles to raise money for the girls’ company under the nose of his suspecting mother-in-law.
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The Summer of Sangailė
Country: France
Director: Alanté Kavaïté
88 minutes | Drama, Romance | R16
17 years old Sangaile is fascinated by stunt planes. She meets a girl her age at a summer aero-nautical show. Sangaile allows Auste to discover her most intimate secret and in the process finds the only person that truly encourages her to fly. [/column]
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20,000 Days on Earth
Country: UK
Director: Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
97 minutes | Docu-Fiction | PG13
The film depicts a fictitious 24 hour period in the life of Australian musician, model, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and actor Nick Cave, prior and during the recording of his 2013 album Push the Sky Away.
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Gainsbourg by Gainsbourg: An Intimate Self Portrailt
Country: France
Director: Pierre-Henry Salfat
94 minutes | Documentary | PG13
A boy raised listening to his father’s piano, Serge grows up between the beauty of art and music, the sensuality of the opposite sex, the mysteries of poetry and prostitution. And being a Jewish boy during the war.
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Heaven Adores You
Country: USA
Director: Nickolas Dylan Rossi
104 minutes | Documentary | PG13
Heaven Adores You is an intimate, meditative inquiry into the life and music of Elliott Smith. By threading the music of Elliott Smith through the dense, yet often isolating landscapes of the three major cities he lived in — Portland, New York City, Los Angeles — Heaven Adores You presents a visual journey and an earnest review of the singer’s prolific songwriting and the impact it continues to have on fans, friends, and fellow musicians. [/column]
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Tribute to Screenwriter, Director in Focus, and Special Screenings for Children
This year, QCIFF brings to spotlight two rightful personas: the novelist Lualhati Bautista, whose most-known works list Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa? and Dekada ’70, both films which scripts are based on her own literature; and filmmaker Gaspar Noé, whose most recent work Love is making sweltering raves among film critics. In addition, the festival also screens a select few titles intended for children including the much-awaited Mark Osborne film iteration of the classic The Little Prince, and the World Premieres Film Festival-standout, Will Fredo‘s Filemon Mamon.
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Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa?
Country: Philippines
Director: Chito S. Roño
109 minutes | Drama | PG13
Co-presented by ABS-CBN Corporation
Lualhati Bautista’s award-winning novel was adapted to the big-screen with brilliant results: the casting (especially Vilma Santos as the strong-willed Leah Bustamante) is perfect; Bautista’s script is filled with comic and dramatic undertones. 8 year-old Serena Dalrymple provided most of the laughs as the innocent child who serves as Leah’s mirror of her personality. Everything in the film is a labor of love and art, and it deserves to be a classic.
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Dekada ’70
Country: Philippines
Director: Chito S. Roño
132 minutes | Drama | PG13
Co-presented by ABS-CBN Corporation
A middle-class Filipino family struggles to survive in the era of dictatorship in this Chito S. Roño–Lualhati Bautista modern classic. The film is restored in 2012 by Central Digital Lab, a local post production company that handles the digital film restoration aspect of the ABS-CBN Film Restoration project. Its 35mm archive print source is a well-preserved clean copy and was scanned into HD which took a minimal number of hours to restore. This was one of the 3 films selected as the quality benchmark of the restoration project.
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Enter the Void
Country: France
Director: Gaspar Noé
161 minutes | Drama, Fantasy | R18
A U.S. drug dealer living in Tokyo is betrayed by his best friend and killed in a drug deal. His soul, observing the repercussions of his death, seeks resurrection.
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Irréversible
Country: France
Director: Gaspar Noé
97 minutes | Crime, Horror, Drama | R18
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass.
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Love (3D)
Country: France
Director: Gaspar Noé
135 minutes | Drama | R18
A sexual melodrama about a boy and a girl and another girl. It’s a love story, which celebrates sex in a joyous way.
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Filemon Mamon
Country: Philippines
Director: Will Fredo
94 minutes | Comedy | PG13
Filemon Mamon is a high school student who desires two things: to win the heart of the girl he loves and to be the lead in a musical play about his Philippine hero Andres Bonifacio. But he has a big problem-his weight. His out of work father and his OFC mother leave him to adhere to the guidance of his grandmother who loves to cook and remind him that “to be fat is to be healthy, and to be healthy is to be fat.”
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The Little Prince
Country: USA
Director: Mark Osborne
108 minutes | Animation | G
Co-presented by MTRCB
At the heart of it all is The Little Girl (Mackenzie Foy), who’s being prepared by her mother (Rachel McAdams) for the very grown-up world in which they live – only to be interrupted by her eccentric, kind-hearted neighbor, The Aviator (Jeff Bridges). The Aviator introduces his new friend to an extraordinary world where anything is possible. A world that he himself was initiated into long ago by The Little Prince (newcomer Riley Osborne). It’s here that The Little Girl’s magical and emotional journey into the universe of The Little Prince begins. And it’s where The Little Girl rediscovers her childhood and learns that ultimately, it’s human connections that matter most, and that it is only with heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
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Microbe and Gasoline
Country: France
Director: Michel Gondry
103 minutes | Comedy | PG
Microbe is a timid child, often immersed in drawing. Gasoil, an inventive and cheeky boy, winds up in Microbe’s class in the middle of the year. A close friendship immediately forms between them.
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Short Films, Forums, and others…
QCinema IFF is hosting a series of free forums in which filmmakers and pundits tackle different topics on world and Philippine cinema. Perhaps most prominent is the panel “The Heneral Luna Revolution” set up specifically for Jerrold Tarog‘s hit Antonio Luna biopic. Talks on the topics of animation, cult films, and film platforms are slated all throughout the festival (see the schedules in the first part of this article).
A collection of Filipino short films (including Victor Villanueva‘s Ang Nanay ni Justin Bieber) will also be screened, along with foreign ones. See QCinema IFF’s website for their final lineups. The festival’s opening film is The Last Pinoy Action King, a tribute documentary to the late Filipino action hero Rudy Fernandez.
Film Recommendations
The year of the Apocalypse
The news of a local film festival screening Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now send queasiness in my stomach. To cinephiles, the opportunity to watch the film in a cinema screen—the only way films must be consumed—is a giant branchy stick to fetch. I’d say we’re all salivating, but let me get a hold of myself.
It doesn’t end with Apocalypse Now.
The documentary Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Nightmare chronicles the production of Coppola’s film, during which he went over-budget and faced a handful of prod hiccups. The doc, directed by Francis Ford’s wife Eleanor Coppola (with filmmakers Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper), is also playing at QCIFF 2015 (see schedules above), alongside Mario Cornejo and Monster Jimenez‘s Apocalypse Child, a dramedy pivoting around a young surfer in Baler who believes his father is the Apocalypse Now director. The film, starring Sid Lucero, is competing under the fest’s Circle Competition category.
Films to make time and save money for
Remember early on when I talked about our wallets thinning during film festival season? No humor comes close to the reality of that joke (and Princess Kinoc approves!). Here’s a few films we urge you to see if you’re tight on both budget and schedule.
You already know Coppola’s Apocalypse Now playing at a local theater is a rare event, but there’s no way I can reiterate this enough, so go and drag this atop your priorities. You can worry about if its pro-war or discreetly anti-war later on. *wink*
The competing films under both the Circle Competition and DoQC categories look to promise a welcome, diverse experience. Will Fredo‘s Translacion: Ang Paglalakad sa Altar ng Alanganin and Perry Dizon‘s Of Cats and Dogs, Farm Animals, and Sashimi look promising, as well as Universe Baldoza‘s doc/video art Audio Perpetua, which is giving off the feels of, dare I say, the doc/experimental film Leviathan (2012). I’m excited to see Jet Leyco‘s Matangtubig, Lem Lorca‘s Water Lemon and Mario Cornejo‘s Apocalypse Child; and Kapatiran looks to affirm my admiration in Pepe Diokno‘s works. Prime Cruz‘s Sleepless is in my most-anticipated list too, but that’s just because I’m secretly a sucker for the maimed genre that is the rom-com.
I encourage you to watch: Sean Baker‘s film Tangerine, famous for defining microcinema with tremendous output; Apichatpong Weerasethakul‘s new film Cemetery of Splendour, just because; Matteo Garrone‘s Tale of Tales if only for the visual spectacle; Khavn Dela Cruz‘s Desaparadiso, since you’re in a turmoil thinking about Philippine governance and politics; and the new Jun Lana film, Anino sa Likod ng Buwan, because you sort of owe this to the man who gave you Bwakaw (2012) and Barber’s Tales (2014).
Finally, will you do yourself a favor and catch Gaspar Noé‘s Love (3D) and get a taste of his cinema. (Get it? Get a taste? Oh, me and my puns!).
See you at the cinemas!
This should be enough to build you a festival itinerary that works for you. To the incredibly O.C., here’s a planner you can use to plot out the whole experience.
QCinema International Film Festival is not in any way affiliated with Film Police Reviews—except that we are sincere supporters of their program and cause. All information in this unofficial literature is solely based on the information the festival organizers put out. For more information about the festival, visit their website www.qcinema.ph and like their Facebook page www.facebook.com/QuezonCityFilmFest.
