Film Review: Binisaya Film Festival 2014

The Binisaya Film Festival just concluded last September 20, 2014 with its series of activities that included a master class, film showing and a concert.

The winner for the Asian short films was, “Boonrerm”, by SorayosPrapan from Thailand. The movie was about a housemaid named “Boonrerm”, whom received a lot of weird orders from her master. Aside from winning the Binisaya award, the film has also won the 2014 Salon Internacional de la Luz, Columbia, the 2014 Athens International Short Film Festival Psarokokalo, Greece and the 2014 Phnom Penh International Film Festival, Cambodia.

The film is really a shocker especially when Boonrerm’s master asks her to lie down on the dog cage. I was wondering if that is where she will be sleeping the whole night. What a cruel life that would be.

Looking for that recipe book was also tiring for the protagonist as she was asked to scavenge the whole garbage area for it.

In the end, the movie had a happy ending, which is if working for a department store passes for a happy ending.

“Retaso”, by Ernest Diño from Cebu won the best short film. The film is a compilation of unrelated spare shots and b-rolls edited together to tell a story.

“Retaso”, was very unique from the rest of the other short films as it showed a lot of trippy images. Trippy in a sense that it made me wonder if the director was on drugs. But I know the director personally and the guy is not into drugs, which only means he is just naturally creative like that.

All in all, watching the Binisaya films reminded me of my college days. This is because the films were kind of similar to a performance art where you see a lot of unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated stories or images. The only thing different here is the performance is captured on camera. So it was a memorable experience for me.

The festival also was properly organized by the Bomba Press people as it had a lot of various activities like concerts, parties and a pledgers night to spice up the event .It also achieved to unite musicians, visual artists and film directors on this one too. The event also had a lot of media coverage.

So congratulations to the winners and the organizers. Hope to see you again next year.

About the author: N.M. CABANGBANG graduated Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Painting at University of the Philippines Cebu. He is now currently teaching grade 6 – 10 Art at B.R.I.G.H.T. Academy.