The Niko and Karylle story

I am officially a Cinemalaya casualty.

I’m actually blaming myself for this, although funnily enough Derek, who I went with to the CCP Main Theater for yesterday night’s viewing of Ligaw Liham, was much more apologetic than I expected. Thinking we lost Sars since he stopped to get himself a quick snack, we decided to walk to the CCP Main Theater from DLSU. We decided to dash to the entrance, via the driveway, which is very rough. It’s perfect for vehicles, but not for a person who’s running uphill, trying to stop, and yet gets hit by another person who just couldn’t.

I got into the entrance with a badly scraped left elbow and right palm, which was bad since I’m right-handed and I’m doing important stuff for out shooting for FEATURE over the weekend. We realized that Sars replied to my text message. “Hay naku,” she wrote. “Sa CCP na lang tayo magkita. On the way kami.” So much for the fuss. So much for wounding myself in three places! We eventually met up at the line to the ticket booth, me still applying pressure on my bleeding wounds, and later Derek and I made our way to the clinic to have myself cleaned and bandaged.

Maybe I wasn’t just seeing double

Let’s get this out of the way first – I think I have a slight crush on Nisha Alicer. I just think. Maybe it’s me being an incurable romantic of some sort, but I got the slightest of reminders when I flipped through today’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and saw her uncredited with Nix Lañas. But the other point is, their entry Doble Vista is confusingly amazing.

The reason why I got myself to watch one half of the short features in competition is because, well, Nisha invited the entire FEATURE class a week before. I’ve been emailing her about the schedule, and the apparent fact that the version of the film being exhibited is different from the copy the DLSU Department of Communication has – yes, it is a thesis, and the most outstanding one for 2006 at that – and that was enough to whet my curiosity, somehow. And, okay, seeing Nisha. Maybe I should stop pushing it.

When I finally got to see it – with Karla and Norman – we were surprised at the cut. Karla has seen the thesis copy before and was surprised because she thought the ending was good. I, on the other hand, was surprised because if the ending is good, as they say – Nisha, who wrote the film, personally likes that scene, as she pointed out in her last email – then there must’ve been no plausible reason to cut that, right?

Rubbing shoulders at the premiere

We were required to watch the opening for the third Cinemalaya film festival. Well, it wasn’t much – I was excited to watch Foster Child anyway. That film was exhibited at the Cannes Film Festival, as part of the Director’s Fortnight, and after everything was done there was that golden chance to talk to people. Cherry Pie Picache was there, as well as the kid (I think) who played John-John, the kid who’s to be passed to his formal adoptive parents.

Well, everyone would have agreed that the film is excellent. True, we were late (thanks to TELEPRO) and thus got a bit dizzy after watching shaky camera handling at the very first row of the CCP Main Theater, but despite missing twenty minutes we were amazed. As usual I ended up sitting with Naomi, and I knew she was also enjoying it.

It was something with the way the film was done. Again, the camera handling was shaky – Naomi didn’t agree, thinking that director Brilliante Mendoza badly needed a tripod throughout the entire film – but I think, for us students being taught about keeping things clean before breaking the rules, it won’t be easily understood except for a few. But what works here is the fact that the kid – what’s his name anyway? – is adoring, as usual, and everyone is left to linger in that.