By Atty. Dennis Gorecho

Black Rainbow, a film about a 12-year-old Aeta’s journey for his education, bagged major awards in this year’s Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

Zig Dulay’s Black Rainbow won Best Film, Best Screenplay and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award in the short film category. He also won Best Editing for the full length film The Baseball Player.

In 2017, Dulay’s Bagahe won Best Screenplay and Best Film in Cinemalaya.

Black Rainbow is about an Aeta boy in Porac, Pampanga. It is a tale about the Aetas who dream and trust that the first step to a better life is through education. He chases his dream of going to school to learn how to read the legal documents given to their community and to understand why they are being forced to give up their ancestral lands to give way for mining.

The citation read: “for being a bright jewel of a short film, for being a cross-cultural masterpiece that touches the heart and reveals the universality of family, and community and the determination of children to pursue their bright young dreams,”

Dulay stressed in his speech the value of storytelling: “It is not about how long or short, or how many films you have created, but how wide your audience is, how deep the mark of the film gives to the audience, including its relevance, meaning, and purpose, and the goal to give a voice to those seldom heard and give a platform to the marginalized especially to the indigenous people (IP) community”.

He earlier said that “it is our duty as storytellers to depict the IP in the right and appropriate manner — the value of responsible IP representation in media — for these stories we portray are more than the sum of a culture and way of life.”

An interesting scene was the chanting over the hills for Apo Namalyari to guide him on his quest for education. Apo Namalyari is the supreme god and great provider of the Aeta people who have a strong spiritual connection with him. They consider Mount Pinatubo as sacred for it is said to be Apo Namalyari’s abode. It was believed that the drilling operations for geothermal power was the cause of Apo Namalyari’s fatal wrath that he made the volcano erupt.

Thirty years ago, on June 15, 1991, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo was considered the world’s largest volcanic eruption that buried the region in ash.

Bursts of gas-charged magma exploded into umbrella ash clouds, hot flows of gas and ash descended the volcano’s flanks and lahars swept down valleys.

Special Jury Prize and Best Direction went to Gabriella Serrano for Dikit, a silent short  film praised for “pushing the frontiers of feminist cinema and reimagining of Philippine folklore.”

Audience Choice went to Mandum Handum Nga Nasulat sa Baras.

In the full length film category, three entries on troubled relationships and shattered dreams due to the Mindanao conflict likewise won major awards.

Carlo Obispo’s “The Baseball Player” won as Best Film along with three other awards: Best Editing by Dulay, Best Screenplay by Obispo, and Best Actor for  Tommy Alejandrino.

Anna Isabelle Matutina’s “12 Weeks” won the NETPAC Award along with the Best Actress award for Max Eigenmann.

For “Bula Sa Langit”, Pepe Manikan won the Best Sound Design Award.

The almost slice-of-life stories in these films showed how the armed conflict threatens to tear away the lives, hopes, and dreams of the characters caught in the crossfire

The film “Blue Room” also bagged major awards for its treatment of music and the war on drugs. It is a rock and roll commentary film on youth, power, and privilege as it revolves around the story of a progressive indie rock band Rebel Rebel who had the traumatic experience of being victims of “tokhang-for-ransom”.

“Blue Room” notched five awards, including Best Director for Ma-an Asuncion Dagñalan; Soliman Cruz for  Best Supporting Actor; Neil Daza for Best Cinematography, and Marxie Maolen Fadul for Best Production Design. It also won the Special Jury Award.

The other winners for the full length films section include: Ruby Ruiz (Ginhawa) as Best Supporting Actress; Isha Abubakar (Retirada) for Best Original Music Score; and “Kargo” by TM Malones as Audience Choice Award.

Since 2005, the Cinemalaya has continued “to discover, encourage, and support the cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers that boldly articulate and freely interpret the Filipino experience with fresh insight and artistic integrity.”

(Peyups is the moniker of University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0917-5025808 or 0908-8665786.)