Catch the 12th Cinemalaya Film Festival at Ayala Malls Cinemas

 POTATO ON THE GO NEWS FEED (Movie):

The country’s annual Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival celebrates its 12th year with a resonant theme “Break the Surface” featuring an impressive roster of films for full length and short feature categories that are currently showing at Ayala Malls Cinemas.

 For the first time, Ayala Malls Cinemas brings the festival outside Metro Manila at Ayala Center Cebu that will run on August 9 -14.  Marking its first opening at Ayala Center Cebu, Cinemalaya will have its opening night on August 9 featuring “Dagsin” and “Lando at Bugoy.”              

Ayala Malls Cinemas hosts this year's entries to the Cinemalaya Festival

POTATO ON THE GO BULLETIN (Movie):

Promoting and championing Filipino talents, Ayala Malls Cinemas hosts for the 3rd time entries that will compete in Cinemalaya Festival on its 9th year themed “Cinemalaya Cinesthesia.”

Ayala Malls Cinemas’ first collaboration with Cinemalaya back in July 2011 opened its Greenbelt3 screens to the entries, paving easy access for the festival’s followers within the metro. Ayala Malls Cinemas solidified its support to the festival by adding Trinoma screens as an additional venue on its 2nd year of partnership with Cinemalaya in 2012.

Award-winning indie film BWAKAW opens in theaters on September 5

POTATO ON THE GO BULLETIN (Movie):

Jun Robles Lana’s critically-acclaimed first independent film “Bwakaw” is set to be released by Star Cinema in cinemas nationwide on September 5 (Wednesday).

Rated ‘A’ by the Cinema Evalution Board (CEB), “Bwakaw” is a drama-comedy about growing old, and everyone's fear of growing old alone. It shares the life of Rene, played by veteran actor-director Eddie Garcia, a 75-year-old man who thinks that at his age it is too late for love, even companionship, and that all there is to look forward to is death. But Rene’s life suddenly turns around when a stray dog named “Bwakaw”—a Filipino street slang for greedy—suddenly teaches him a lesson about life.

Award-winning Cinemalaya indie film TWO FUNERALS airs on Cinema One on August 5

P.O.T.G. BULLETIN (TV / Movie):

The award-winning Cinemalaya independent film, “Two Funerals” starring Tessie Tomas, Jeffrey Quizon and Xian Lim, airs on Cinema One this Sunday (August 5). The film marks Lim’s first appearance in a full-length movie.

The film depicting ‘grief as a seriously funny business’ by Cinemalaya Best Director, Gil Portes follows the life of a mother (Tomas) who searches for the body of her daughter (Princess Manzon) after getting mixed up with the corpse of a wanted man. To claim back her daughter’s body, Tomas travels with her daughter’s fiancée, Gerry (Xian Lim) from Tuguegarao, Cagayan in the north to Matnog, Sorsogon in the south, a journey to the heart of the country during Holy Week in the heat of the election season.

Cinemalaya entry ANG KATIWALA features the team-up of Dennis Trillo and Direk Aloy Adlawan

 P.O.T.G. BULLETIN (Movie):

This year, one of Cinemalaya’s much-anticipated entries is 'Ang Katiwala' topbilled by award-winning Kapuso actor Dennis Trillo and written and directed by Aloy Adlawan.

In the story, Dennis portrays the role of Ruben who loses his job as a carpenter in a small town in Zambales. Desperate to sustain their living, he accepts a job as a caretaker of an abandoned property in Quezon City.

Ayala Cinemas Gives "Full Force" Support to the 8th Cinemalaya

P.O.T.G. BULLETIN (Movie):

Ayala Malls Cinemas hosts for the 2nd time the country’s Cinemalaya on its 8th year in developing and promoting Filipino independent films. Cinemalaya’s simultaneous screening at the CCP Theater and at Ayala Cinemas’ Greenbelt 3 and Trinoma will run from July 21 to July 29.

Paying tribute to one of the country’s acclaimed filmmakers, Ayala Cinemas’ Cinemalaya opening ceremony at Trinoma will feature the late Mario O’Hara’s “Babae Sa Breakwater” starring Katherine Luna.

Direk Jose Javier Reyes introduces the concept of "maindie" film via his Cinemalaya entry Mga Mumunting Lihim (Those Little Secrets)

POTATO ON THE GO FEATURE (Movie):

With the never ending debate between indie and commercial films, Direk Jose Javier Reyes comes into the picture with a happy median called "maindie".  With "maindie", Direk Joey hopes that it will bridge the two by bringing the people to love independent films and by making talents behind commercial movies experiment and continue to hone their artistry.

This is the primary idea that I learned in a recent blogcon with Direk Jose Javie Reyes.  Direk Joey is finally joining this year's Cinemalaya's Director Showcase via MGA MUMUNTING LIHIM (Those Little Secrets), the first independent film he wrote and directed.  But for Direk Joey, MGA MUMUNTING LIHIM introduces the idea of maindie.  In a writing career that spans thirty years and a listing of directorial works close to sixty movies, this is the very first time that Direk Joey ventured into making a film outside the studio system to finally join what he deems as the new directions and the true future of Philippine cinema.  Admittedly, he concedes that no mainstream studio will agree to produce a project that defies conventional storytelling and, more so, places popular mainstream actresses against their usual typecast.