AFTER it was canceled last year because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland will be held this year, with live screenings to be held at the Piazza Grande, as well as online screenings from Aug. 4 to 14.
The Locarno Film Festival, which has been held annually in August since 1946, is celebrating its 74th year.
This year there will be one Filipino film in competition, and three non-competition Filipino films.
Competing in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente (Filmmakers of the Present Competition), a section dedicated to emerging directors, is Carlo Francisco Manatad’s Kun Maupay Man It Panahon (Whether the Weather is Fine).
The film, starring Daniel Padilla, Rans Rifol, and Charo Santos-Concio, follows a mother and son struggling to survive Typhoon Yolanda that devastated Tacloban, Leyte in 2013.
“This is more focused on the journey of three people,” the film’s director said during an online press conference on July 29 held via Zoom, hosted by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP). “It’s more focused on the story of the mother and the son, not just trying to survive, but the journey of finding freedom,” said Mr. Manatad
OPEN DOORS PROGRAM
This year’s Locarno Open Doors program will showcase films from Mongolia and the Southeast Asian region for the third and final year. The program consists of the Open Doors Hub, Open Doors Lab, and Open Doors Screenings to be held simultaneously from Aug. 6 to 10.
Alyx Ayn Arumpac’s documentary Aswang and the short films Excuse Me, Miss, Miss, Miss by Sonny Calvento and Next Picture by Cris Bringas, will be part of the non-competitive section of the Open Doors Screenings. The Southeast Asian Open Doors short films entries will be available for viewing online via https://play.locarnofestival.ch/page/open-doors-shorts/.
Sophie Bourdon, the Head of the Open Doors program, said that one of the challenges in this year’s edition was scouting for talents and filmmakers through correspondence online.
“Cinema is a human adventure. The digital tool is wonderful because it allows us to keep the connection,” she said.
Aside from previously mentioned movies, Filipino director E. Del Mundo and producer Pamela Reyes’ film Sam will be part of the Open Doors Hub, a six-day tailored program that will give filmmakers access to group discussions and networking activities. Meanwhile, producer Stelle Laguda will participate in the Open Doors Lab, a producer-centric six-day training program to hone their skills and awareness in the international marketplace.
“We are always very eager to discover new talent. The Philippines is among the countries where we may find distinctive voices [and] talents,” Ms. Bourdon said. “Locarno is a festival where we are really keen on showing how filmmaking is a never-ending process… We are always eager to show new ways of filmmaking
“I hope this experience can inspire you to enrich your filmmaking,” she added.
FDCP Chairperson and CEO Mary Liza Bautista Diño-Seguerra stressed the importance of representation of Filipinos and their stories on a global stage.
“When your films are in these festivals, it means that the kind of filmmaking that we do does not just resonate with the local audience but with the global audience. So, it’s very important for our cinemas to find audiences not just in the Philippines but all over the world,” Ms. Diño-Seguerra said. “This is exactly what cinema does — for us to speak and represent our stories — represent what the Philippines is, the many facets about us, through our filmmakers and their films.”
She added that for the Philippines to be chosen as part of the film festival “creates a reputation among the international stakeholders to look into the Philippines.”
For more information on the Locarno Film Festival 2021 and the participating films and projects, visit the official website at www.locarnofestival.ch. To view the Southeast Asian film entries for the Open Doors Shorts, visit https://play.locarnofestival.ch/page/open-doors-shorts/. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman