This December, Mindanao filmmakers are once again conquering the silver screen with the Mindanao Film Festival. Now on its fifth year, the festival is bigger and better with more entries. Interesting ones.

Joining the Guerilla Filmmaking Category are:

• Binangay (Gems Productions). A paean to the banana plantation worker who toils from sunrise to sundown, dedicated and honest individuals, unyielding even amidst a very tempting offer coming from a banana pilferer.
• The Price of Fame (Maqer Media). A flamboyant and egotistical hip hop star finally meets his match in a short film that tackles fame and the pitfalls of paying its price.
• Boluntaryo (Plasticups Productions). The story of a street educator, who gives up everything to satisfy his desire, not the worldly kind but a benevolent passion to serve his brethren amidst obstacles and adversities.
• Anibersaryo (Film Grain Productions). A couple prepares for their anniversary, but the idyllic bliss is just but a mask that conceals an intricate web of lies and deceit.
• Singkwentaysais (Hyde out Entertainment)- A menacing looking motorcycle-riding man brings fear to a paranoid community most especially to Meloy, a young resident who loathes even the thought of facing the mysterious rider.
• Sandugo (Studio Beta Productions). April is bothered by her son Lyric’s penchant for making weird morbid storyboards. One chilling event will uncover the truth about the storyboards and Lyric’s deepest yearning.
• Maguwang (Studio 8 productions, Davao City National High School Special Arts Program). Jack was just fired from his job, in order to support himself and his younger brother who was born with autism, Jack chooses a life of crime. But as the old familiar adage says, crime does not pay.
• Litrato (Salamin Productions). Serendipity is a lost old photograph which bridges two distant characters.

And in the Open Competition Category, the entries are as follows:

• Kara (Four Heads Productions). Kara is your quintessential Magdalene striving to untangle her past. One day she is victimized by a thief who later becomes her friend and her lifelong mission.
• Kuraho (Avant Garde Productions, Knight Vision Films). Dissent within their very ranks threatens a secret order of mythical assassins.
• Hulagway (Durian Cinema Productions) Kevin is a wandering urban photographer who tries to capture the different facets of various cityscapes, one day he chances upon several enigmatic images that forces him to open not just his camera’s aperture but his own eyes as well.
• Kadena (Uma Productions Unlimited). A beautiful young woman is now a restless ghost that haunts the living in order to seek justice.
• Ang Gugmang Nag-alirong kay Mateo (Agdao Film Production and Creatives Media). A modern-day adaptation of the Bible parable the prodigal son by Dabawenyo guerilla filmmaker JP Seniel.

Two films will also be featured as Exhibition Films:

• Kindertotenlieder (Idleminds Productions). A mysterious hospital holds dark chilling secrets in this gripping edge-of-your-seat thriller.
• Way to the Sunset (Origano Films). This Nihonggo-language film tackles the convergent paths of friendship and the divergence of destiny between two people who gets to spend one seemingly ordinary day together.

These films will be available for viewing during the MFF School Tour on the following dates and venues:

• December 7 – UP-Mindanao, ADDU
• December 8 – UP-Mindanao, USEP, MATS College of Technology
• December 9 – ADDU, HCDC
• December 10 – Holy Cross Academy of Sasa
• December 11 – HCDC, DCNHS

And at the Gaisano Mall of Davao Cinemas on December 19 and 20.

This film festival will definitely be a delight for all Mindanao film makers and film lovers. See you at the cinema!

Film blurbs courtesy of RG Alama.