PHILIPPINES – JULY 25, 2011 – After a successful ten-day screening of this year’s entries, the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival commenced last night with an awarding ceremony held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines hosted by Paolo Bediones and Angel Aquino.
Publicis Manila’s president and chief creative officer Marlon Rivera was named Best director for his film Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (The Woman in the Septic Tank), also declared the Best Film in the New Breed category for full-length films and winner of the Audience Choice Award. The movie’s writer, Chris Martinez, also won for Best Screenplay. The film’s lead star, comedienne Eugene Domingo, was named as the festival’s Best Actress.
Ang Babae sa Septic Tank is a comedy about misguided ambitions, the art of making art, and the romanticization of poverty. The film also starred JM De Guzman, Kean Cipriano and Cai Cortez, with the special participation of Mercedes Cabral and Cherry Pie Picache.
Martinez shared their inspiration in doing the film, “It’s a real experience that we had, Chris and I, when we were in Busan and we showed it and people ask us, ‘Why are you showing this kind of a filipino family?’ It’s a rich Filipino family, middle class, and they are surprised that we are not showing poor people. We came to realize… that there’s an impression about the Philippines based on the films that we bring out. So things that we show the world actually quite narrow and we said this has to come out and no one’s talking about it. So we said, why don’t we make fun of it? We want to show that the Philippine independent cinema is not all about poverty porn.”
JP Cuison, senior art director of Publicis Manila, designed the poster of the award-winning movie. When he was contacted by Martinez to design the poster, he immediately agreed to the project. And instead of showing him pegs from different artists, they showed him some of his gig posters. And the poster brief? Martinez reminded him, “JP, ayokong magmukhang movie poster yung poster natin ha, gusto ko magmukha siyang gig poster…rebel.” (JP, I don’t want our poster to look like a movie poster, I want it to look like a gig poster… rebel.)
Moreover, Straight Shooters Media Inc. was the film production house for the ten-day shoot.
This is not the first time that Rivera and Martinez participated in the Cinemalaya festival. In 2009, they set up Rivera-Martinez films to produce the movie entry, 100 – which starred Mylene Dizon, Tessie Tomas, and Eugene Domingo. Aside from film and advertising, Rivera is also a fashion designer and stylist. He presented his fifth collection in the recent Philippine Fashion Week.
Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival is an annual event showcasing the independent Filipino movies organized by the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
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