Cinekas1manwa: Unifying Local Filmmakers of Panay Islands

Envisioned as a significant annual event that will unify filmmakers and merge their collective talents in promoting the region’s flourising film industry, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Commitee on Cinema and The Negros Museum in partnership with Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), UPV Cinematheque with SM City Iloilo and SM Cinema will stage the very-first “Cinekas1manwa: the Panay Islands Film Festival and Filmmakers’ Conference” on December 10-14 at SM Cinema 1, FDCP Iloilo Cinemateque and UPV Cinemateque. The Film Conference component and the launch of a definitive directory of filmmakers and film directors from Western Visayas will be in February 2014 during the National Arts Month.

For the first time, notable mainstream, digital, independent, experimental, documentary, animation and new breed full-lenght and short films of Panay Islands and the whole Western Visayas will be screened under one film festival with an advocacy of promoting and create a directory of filmmakers in the region. To promote the film festival, there will be a press conference on November 27, 10am at FDCP's Iloilo Cinemateque that invites local tri-media to attend the event prior the festival proper. On December 2-6, the organizers headed by its film festival director and programmer, Elvert de la Cruz Bañares, will have a series of campus tour in different schools and universities in Iloilo City to promote the event and be part of their Film Aesthetics, Film Production & Humanities subjects. The organizers are advocating to integrate the essence of filmmaking and its cultural-social relevance to Humanities and other art-related subjects for students in various schools.

Notable filmmakers who are set to take part in the film festival and showcase their films are Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes, Nick Deocampo, Tara Illenberger and Erik Matti.Top-notch filmmakers from Region VI: Joenar Pueblo, Ned Trespeses, Ronny Poblacion, Ciro Ray Gibraltar, Peter Solis Nery, Ned Trespeces, T.M. Malones, Jay Abello and more than 40 others with their films are scheduled to be screened at SM Cinema 1, Iloilo Cinemateque and UPV Cinemateque. Independent and young filmmakers with their short films are also invited to screen their works. In its first edition, the filmmakers in focus are The Filmmakers from Guimbal, Iloilo. The screening of horror short films entitled “Moo-Moo-An” scheduled on December 13 at the FDCP Iloilo Cinemateque is one of the most anticipated part of the film festival. The whole proceeds of the film festival will benefit the victims of Typhoon Yolanda in Western Visayas through the Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center. The film festival hopes to bridge familiarity, collective creativity, future collaboration and re-connect regional filmmakers through their cultural roots in bringing, uplifting local cinema as a medium of change and progress; all in one roof, a film festival that is truly Ilonggo and West Visayan in its truest sense. (RSL)