WOW Pinoy

Philippines Short Films Wins in China

Written by Ms. Confuse on Wednesday, June 18, 2008

After being featured in the non-competition Short Film Corner of the Cannes International Film Festival, actor-director Pedro 'Joaqui' Valdes 30 -minute film Bulong won the Golden Duck award for Best Short Narrative at the 2nd New Beijing International Movie Week on June 7.

The news was confirmed by Valdes in the phone interview with Inquirer Entertainment on Wednesday, a day after his return from China. According to Valdes, the original list of 150 entries was later trimmed down to the 25 short and feature-length fils that were screened at the film fest. He recalled that at least nine other short films competed in his category.

"Screenings for my movie were held in clubs and bars, as well as in the Beijing Film (CAFA)," he related. Valdes said the awards were announced at a dinner held in the home of a film professor from BFA. Response to his film was "overwhelming," he said. "Inspite of the language barrier, the Chinese students who watched the movie at the CAFA got it," he recounted. "The students were shocked to learn that my budget was only U.S. $4,000 (about P200,000).
He explained that he is dedicating his film to today's youth. "I want to address tha issue of apathy among Filipino youth. We cannot just watch from sidelines. We should all be catalysts for change."

He also met the festival guests speaker Rick Stevenson, the U.S. filmmaker behind Expiration Date. "rick saud that if I were a Chinese director, my film would've been considered controversial because it questioned the system," he recalled. "The festival definitely opened doors to me."

Valdes is now working on two movies: Hamog, an indie horror flick set in Mountain Province; and Hakaw, a celebration of food and family as experienced by three generations of Chinese-Filipinos.