Veteran filmmaker Elwood Perez’s latest project, Esoterika: Maynila, opens this year’s Cinema One Originals Film Festival. It is a guest film, not part of the final 10 that the cable channel is funding with a PHP2-million budget per digital movie.
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE 10 MOVIES IN THIS YEAR’S CINEMA ONE
Esoterika: Maynila will only be screened once, on Nov 9, 8pm, at Trinoma and is a “come one, come all” event, according to Cinema One channel head Ronald Arguelles.
Co-written by Perez and Jessica Zafra, the film is evocative of the director’s youth and draws from his personal experiences as the author of Bagwis, a superhero comic serial made into a movie in 1989.
“The protagonist, a Manila denizen, narrates his transition from restaurant peon to literary artist. In a voyage of self-discovery, Mario, alternately ingenious and ingenuous, plunges into the territory of the exalted, the charmed and the bizarre, swimming through the uncharted waters of the unique Filipino mystique,” according to the synopsis.
Co-funded by the Film Development Council of the Philippines, Esoterika: Maynila will launch the acting career of singer and Pinoy Dream Academy alum Ronnie Liang and also stars Vince Tañada and Snooky Serna.
“But the challenge to Ronnie isn’t just in taking his clothes off. It’s in tackling the film’s daring subject,” writes Boy Abunda on Philstar.com. “Ronnie surprised even himself when he consented to pull off not a few challenging scenes in the film that tackle transgenderism and same-sex love.”
WATCH THE TRAILER OF ESOTERIKA: MAYNILA
The 10 new films competing in this year’s film festivals are:
- Di Sila Tatanda by Malay Javier
- Seoul Mates by Nash Ang
- Red by Jay Abello
- Violator by Eduardo Dayao
- Soap Opera by Remton Slega Zuasola
- Lorna by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo
- Bitukang Manok by Alec Figuracion
- Abel/Cain (Esprit de Corps) by Kanakan Balintagos
- That Thing Called Tadhana by Antoinette Jadaone
- The Babysitters by Paolo O’Hara.
C1 Originals Festival 2014 runs from Nov 9-18 at Fairview Terraces, Glorietta 4, Greenhills Dolby Atmos and Trinoma. PHP240 Greenhills, PHP200 Fairview Terraces, Glorietta 4 and Trinoma, PHP150 student price.
For the complete schedule, check below.
TRINOMA
FAIRVIEW TERRACES
GLORIETTA 4
GREENHILLS DOLBY ATMOS
