Championing the best of filmmaking, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), through the Lakbay Sine program under its Film, Broadcast and New Media Division (CCP FBNMD), will screen an exciting, back-to-back lineup of award-winning local films for free this coming February 22, 23, and 24, in various venues in Metro Manila.
CCP’s Lakbay Sine is an outreach program that brings different film projects, such as the CCP Cine Icons and Cinema Under The Stars (CUTS), to different regions, partner communities, organizations, and campuses primarily to popularize the works of Filipino filmmakers and encourage film appreciation among the youth and the general public.
The cinematic experience starts at the University of Santo Tomas. Made possible through the partnership with the oldest university in Asia, the Cinemalaya award-winning film Liway by Kip Oebanda will be screened on February 22, 1pm, at the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. Building.
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Based on the director’s life story, Liway tells the story of Dakip, a little boy who lives with his parents Day and Ric inside Camp Delgado, a makeshift prison for rebels and criminals inside a military camp.
Day does her best to shelter her child from the harsh realities of life with songs and stories about an enchantress named Liway. However, at the tail end of Martial Law, her dark past catches up on her and the lives of the detainees become increasingly difficult. She is confronted with the cruel possibility that the best interest of her child means never seeing him again.
There will be back-to-back programs at the St. Paul University in Quezon City on February 23, kicking off with Cinemalaya 2022 Best Film Blue Room by director Ma-an L. Asuncion-Dagñalan at 8:30am.
Blue Room is about Rebel Rebel, an indie rock band composed of woke albeit sheltered teens, who get their biggest break at a prestigious local music festival. But after their celebratory night at the local bar, they are arrested for drug possession. Instead of the standard procedures, they were hauled to the Blue Room, a VIP detention area where they could bribe their way out through rogue cops. The band members have to decide whether to use their privilege to go on with their lives or to own up to what they had been preaching.
In cooperation with ABS-CBN Sagip Pelikula, CCP Cine Icons follows with a special screening of Anak, written by National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricky Lee, at 1pm. There will be a talkback session with the filmmakers and the cast.
Starring award-winning actresses Vilma Santos and Claudine Barretto, Anak is about a Filipina overseas contract worker who is forced to leave her family and take a higher-paying job in a more-prosperous Asian country, unaware of her husband’s death. When she finally returns to the Philippines, she is met with resentment and hatred by her children.
Launched in 2023, CCP Cine Icons is a special program of the CCP Film, Broadcast, and New Media Division that honors the life and works of National Artists Nora Aunor who has starred in various award-winning TV and film masterpieces, Marilou Diaz-Abaya who was known as one of the movers of the Second Golden Age of Philippine Cinema, and National Artist Ricky Lee who has penned several films, plays and novels.
On February 24, 5pm, through the partnership with the Valenzuela City Library, CCP Lakbay Sine brings CUTS featuring the 2009 Cinemalaya film Dinig Sana Kita (If I Knew What You Said) by Mike Sandejas at the ValACE Roofdeck in Valenzuela City.
The film is a love story between a deaf boy who loves to dance and a troubled rocker girl who abuses her hearing. One lives in the world of solitude and silence, the other in noise and fear. Crossing paths in a Baguio camp that mixes deaf and hearing kids, both find that they have more in common with each other including a love for music. This is the first Filipino film to have a deaf actor, Romalito Mallari, in a lead role. The film also features several deaf actors in the cast and ensemble.
CCP CUTS is an outdoor, hybrid (drive-in, walk-in, bike-in) cinema experience that screens the best of Philippine independent films from selected Cinemalaya and Gawad Alternatibo entries, as well as films from the CCP Collection. Since its re-launch in 2021, CUTS has successfully adapted and re-imagined a new and better normal for the film, art, and live-events industries after the limitations brought about by the quarantine protocols amidst the pandemic.
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