Filipino film gets good feedback at Tribeca
By Walden Martinez Belen | Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom
April 23, 2012
“Graceland,” a film by Filipino director Ron Morales, is getting good feedback at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival (TFF).
TFF Director of Programming Genna Terranova said, “I think it can connect to its audience because it is a thriller and thrillers are immediately acceptable by the audience.”
Another ace up its sleeve is the interesting story.
“There’s a bigger story going on in that movie. That’s an important story and hopefully people are going to walk away questioning what’s happening in that movie and being curious on what’s going on,” Genna observes.
She goes on, “‘Graceland’ is a very intense thriller that comes from the Philippines and we’re excited about it. We were surprised to find it in the Philippines and it has a unique story and point of view.”
Genna also thinks Morales, who wrote the film as well, belongs to a new set of filmmakers who fuse many genre elements in their movies.
She believes Morales, a graduate of Parsons and NYU film school, did a good job because his movie basically moved them. It is also not your “regular story” or “regular movie” that you see.
“I think the community here is excited about it and we are too to show this new film, ‘Graceland,’” reveals Genna.
The film stars indie actor Arnold Reyes, who plays a long-time driver of a politician. One day, he brings his daughter to work. He and his boss are ambushed. To make matters worse, their assailants kidnap the daughter by mistake. They demand ransom which the driver can’t afford. What will he do to save his daughter?
Making the cut at the 11th TTF is not easy. A TFF report says organizers sifted through 5,950 submissions around the world. A total of 3,090 were feature films while the remaining 2,860 were Shorts.
Thus, “Graceland’s” inclusion in the festival is a feat in itself. Geoff Gilmore, the festival’s Chief Creative Officer explained what the Festival represents.
“The Tribeca Film festival is always a multi-faceted genre and a spectrum of what you want to do. We really are a festival born with community but we are really a festival that is really about excited about innovation, about discovery and the work that means in terms of its usefulness in the industry. At the end of the day we want to accomplish at this year’s program quality and quality means a lot of different things. What makes a movie a Tribeca Film is that it has no limits. We have this spectrum that we can showcase and we are excited about that presentation in terms of what it means for the International and American Cinema.”
Another Filipino filmmaker, Ramona S. Diaz, will showcase her documentary, “Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey” at Tribeca. It is the story of Filipino singer Arnel Pineda who made it as main vocalist of iconic rock band Journey.
