CONFESSIONAL
Interpreting Truths Through Conversations
By GIGI JAVIER ALFONSO

CONFESSIONAL is a film produced by Creative Programs, Inc. through Cinema One Originals and Oddfield Productions, directed by Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Antipuesto with screenplay by Ramon Ukit (aka Jerrold Tarog). Early I would like to make mention of the acting as the core of this narrative. The performers are real and believable. This is a reflection of mature direction. Truly outstanding is Publio Briones III as the former Mayor, Lito Caliso. Lead actor Jerrold Tarog gives a sincere performance, he is likewise the co-director, writer, editor, sound designer, and he does the music score. [Read more...]

Death In the Land of Encantos
Sabayang Panahon, Produksyon ng Alaala at Proaktibong Cinema
Ni ROLAND TOLENTINO

HINDI ang kahabaan ng oras ang isyu sa pelikula ni Lav Diaz. Sa “Engkanto,” siyam na oras ang palabas, tulad ng naunang “Ebolusyon ng Pamilyang Pilipino” at “Heremias.” Sino ang handang maglaan ng isang araw ng kanilang gising na buhay para sa pelikula ni Diaz? [Read more...]

Endo
Depicting a social problem without pontificating
By BUTCH FRANCISCO

WITH all our concerns in this world, do we even bother to pause and think about the circumstances in life of those people who wait on us in restaurants, the sales clerks who get the correct size and shade of shoes that we buy in department stores and those young food attendants who take our orders in burger joints? Yes, those people we snap at when they bungle up on the job. [Read more...]

Foster Child
Cherry Pie simply brilliant
By BUTCH FRANCISCO

AT last year’s Gawad Urian, one of the frontrunners for best picture was “Kaleldo” by Brillante Mendoza, also nominated for best director. And even that early, I was sure that he would again be in the running at the next Urian Awards for his new project “Foster Child”. [Read more...]

Tirador
City of God, City of Man
By Lito B. Zulueta

BRILLANTE Mendoza expands the universe of independent filmmaking in “Tirador,” a multi-storied and multi-character movie that has the makings of an urban epic. Critics who have closely followed Mendoza’s brilliant career have always known that the director is someone who would not be circumscribed by the alleged limits of digital filmmaking. From gritty character studies that seem like mordant reinventions of the chamber drama (“Masahista,” “Manoro,” “Foster Child”), a genre that perfectly dovetails with digital filmmaking’s restrictions, Mendoza has widened his artistic breadth to embrace as well the varied, the myriad, and the jungle. With “Tirador,” he shows with dramatic flourish that his cinema could cope with the self-imposed limits of technology, even go beyond them. “Tirador” is simply right on target. [Read more...]

Tribu
Blood-lusty ballad of an inner city
By LITO B. ZULUETA

JIM Libiran’s “Tribu” has touches of autobiography. A sociologist, poet, and documentary filmmaker and himself Tondo-bred, Libiran seems predestined to make this ultimate anthem to the Tondo of cruel lore and terrible legend, the Tondo of both gentle dreams and passionate faith. [Read more]