Cinemalaya Film Festival 2010: 9 Full-length Feature Films

Here are the nine (9) Full-length Feature films included in this year's Cinemalaya Film Festival 2010. The festival runs from July 9-18, 2010 and will be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in Manila.

[This post will be updated further. So please come back to check. Thanks!]

Synopses were taken from the Cinemalaya website:

HALAW Trailer

 HALAW 

by Sheron Dayoc

Synopsis:


The film centers on an illiterate Badjao, Jahid and his 9-year-old daughter Daying as they illegally cross the border of the Philippines and Malaysia through the southern backdoor. Determined to reunite with his wife, he leaves behind everything they have in Jolo to search for his lost wife in Sabah where an uncertain future awaits him.  He meets Hernand, who poses as a war photographer as he is drawn into the world of white slavery across the sea border. The two meet as they board the pump boat to the nearest Island of Sabah .

LIMBUNAN Trailer

Official Trailer - Limbunan from Bidadali House on Vimeo.

LIMBUNAN

by Gutierrez Mangansakan II

Synopsis:

Limbunan glimpses into the life of a bride-to-be as she is kept from public view prior to the wedding in her private quarters – limbunan.

The film captures the ritual motions of the women in a family preparing for the wedding of seventeen-year-old Ayesah who is betrothed to a man she barely knows. As preparations for her union is underway, Ayesah is reunited with her childhood tutor Maguid who returns to the village as a militiaman after five years, reawakening Ayesah’s past memory of childhood infatuation. Throughout Ayesah’s confinement her precocious and rebellious eight-year-old sister Saripa becomes her eyes to the world beyond her room. Her mother Amina keeps her composure despite the fact her husband sleeps with his second wife half of the time, finding solace in the belief that it is both her religious and familial duty to be an obedient wife. Ayesah’s aunt Farida is tasked to ensure that she is prepared for the wedding. However, Farida’s dark past challenges Ayesah’s resolve finding herself choosing between love and loyalty to tradition and family.

MAGKAKAPATID Trailer

MAGKAKAPATID 

by Kim Homer Garcia 

Synopsis:


Magkakapatid is a story about a family that drifted apart due to socio-economic differences. Three siblings, three narratives, one tragedy, wherein a brother kills his own brother, a father struggles to accept a daughter’s marriage, and a daughter who could not mourn. In a situation where even traditions can’t pull them together, a tragedy drags them together.

MAYOHAN Trailer

MAYOHAN

by Paul Sta. Ana

Synopsis:

May is the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Christ.  In Infanta, Quezon, locals turn each of the 31 days of May into a charming honor not only to celebrate good harvest in their agricultural setting, but also to pay tribute to the virginal virtues of the Mayohan.  Every month of May, a padasal or series of novenas commences to mark the beginning of Mayohan.  This will culminate in a Pasayaw or Tapusan in every purok of each barangay.  A system of ambagan or donation ensues for the festivities to take place.  In the hopes of keeping a tradition alive, the elders support its continued celebration; through the years, however, decadence has long taken over the Tapusan.  Proud  beauty queens, town officials, curious participants and passersby, intoxicated men with carnal needs all play roles in the midst of a spiritual undertaking.  Some have unwittingly tarnished the event’s reputation and essence.  Underlying values and tokens are lost in the turning over of tradition.

Amidst the festivities, a 15-year old young outsider becomes the focal point in  the preparation that the Pasayaw entails.  As this grieving young man comes of age and deals with the recent loss of both parents,  his attention shifts to Lilibeth, a 19-year old provincial lass, the elected presidenta of the pasayaw’s pamunuan, who, herself gets lost in the hoopla and hullabaloo that transpire before May ends. As the event underscores gender lines, generation differences, and class issues, they become entangled in an unlikely partnership,  in their own search for growth and acceptance.

REKRUT Trailer

REKRUT

by Danilo Gomez Añonuevo

Synopsis:


What is the measure of true friendship? Jamir, a devout Muslim, and Lando, a Christian, are among an elite group of young recruits formed by military officers for a classified operation. These impressionable young men would undergo intense and grueling training that put their will and strength of character to the test. Amidst all the hardships, these men set aside their differences and became brothers. But what happens when the institution they have sworn to protect becomes the wedge that will tear their brotherhood apart?


 

SAMPAGUITA Teaser

SAMPAGUITA

by Francis Xavier Pasion

Synopsis:

SAMPAGUITA NATIONAL FLOWER is a film that chronicles the journey of the sampaguita flower from the time the buds are plucked in the province to the time they are sold in the city. The story is told by the children who are involved in the different stages of the journey.


 

SI TECHIE, SI TEKNOBOY AT SI JUANAB 

by Art Katipunan

Synopsis:
Techie and Jay, both OFWs from Qatar, decide to come home for two weeks to get married. Techie is nurturing a plan to meet her virtual lover, Teknoboy, before her wedding day. The story unfolds when Techie connives with her high school best friend, Juana, a TV writer turned struggling indie filmmaker, to be with Teknoboy. The two women journey through Pinoy cyber culture and its many facets — online romance, cyber addiction, Facebook reunion, hi-tech baptismal party, 3G doctor, digital wedding, cyber sex — in the process discovering many things about their lives, dreams and the society they live in. The evolution of cyber Pinoys and how relationships unfold in the middle of a hi-tech society form the core of this film.

THE LEAVING Trailer

THE LEAVING
by Ian Loreños

Synopsis:
There is always a constant transcience in this world. This is the premise of “THE LEAVING (離別)”, sets in a neo-Chinatown in Manila where the “Tsinoys” (Filipino-Chinese) struggle with the diminishing of their morals and culture. We follow three intertwining stories (MARTIN, The LOVERS, WIFE) that leave elements on the other stories such that they are all connected.
 

“THE LEAVING: MARTIN”


MARTIN is living independently when he suddenly got laid off from his job, he’s  now caught up in a situation of uncertainty. MARTIN later decides to leave the country and work abroad.  He tries to visit the places as he collects memories of his past to find answers.   But the sudden strange encounters during the CHINESE HUNGRY GHOST FESTIVAL(中元節) gives him something more than what he’s asking for.

“THE LEAVING: LOVERS"


A TSINOY businessman, WILLIAM is already married but finds his happiness with JOAN, a charming, nomadic bachelorette office worker. But the uncertainty in their relationship causes JOAN to decide to leave the country to start a new life on her own. But as JOAN is about to leave, her departure is halted and results in an unexpected event.

“THE LEAVING: WIFE”

A typical conservative Filipina-Chinese housewife, GRACE moves in the apartment building with her husband in same building where MARTIN lives. Neglected and unappreciated, GRACE finds comfort through his neighbor MARTIN but their relationship is fenced by their present circumstances. GRACE finds out her husband is cheating on her…then a sudden haunting later on unravels a horrifying secret.

All beings exist to find permanence in this world. But it seems to be the most grounded are the ones do not really exist at all…

VOX POPULI Trailer

VOX POPULI

by Dennis Marasigan

Synopsis:


It is Saturday before the 2nd  Monday of May, the last day of the official campaign period before elections. CONNIE is the daughter of a former Mayor of the town of San Cristobal  and is now running for the same position. She is now running a three-cornered campaign against the former Vice-Mayor and a former student leader, helped by her brother RICKY, campaign manager TONY and an increasing number of supporters . On this day, she goes out on a factory and market visit, a house-to-house campaign, attends the signing of a covenant for clean elections and her “miting de avance”. She also meets with influential individuals, all in pursuit of an irreversible bandwagon that will prove she is the popular choice of the people.