Film director Petersen Vargas’ second feature project Some Nights I Feel Like Walking has been selected for this year’s Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Hub program in Switzerland.
Established 17 years ago, the Open Doors Hub Program is Locarno Film Festival’s industry sidebar. Directors and producers with projects chosen for the program will be mentored and will have the opportunity to network with potential international distributors and partners. This year, the co-production platform will present eight (8) promising projects from Southeast Asia for international collaborations.
The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), the country’s film agency, takes pride in the honor brought to the country by Vargas and his team.
“We are focused on encouraging our Philippine filmmakers and talents to go international now more than ever, and Locarno’s Open Doors Hub gives our filmmakers and their projects the platform to make this goal happen. We are very proud of Petersen, and we wish them all the best in looking for potential international collaborators during the program to realize his project into film,” said FDCP Chairperson and CEO Mary Liza Diño.
Vargas’ coming-of-age debut feature 2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten won best picture at Cinema One Originals Film Festival 2016. Some Nights I Feel Like Walking is part of the five projects that are selected for the third edition of the Southeast Asia Fiction (SEAFIC) Film Lab, an intensive script development lab for Southeast Asian filmmakers, making him the Lab’s first Filipino participant.
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking is co-produced by Jade Castro and Alemberg Ang. At present, the film project is in the pre-production stage.
In the Director’s Note, Vargas said, “My second film aims at being a portrait of a nation (and of a city, homeland, people) as seen through its outskirts and shadows. To walk Manila by night is a revelatory peek into Filipino youth on the fringes of society.”
The Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Hub runs from Aug. 7 to 13, while the 72nd Locarno Film Festival takes place from Aug. 7 to 17. It is one of the longest running and most prestigious film festivals in the world that showcases arthouse films.