San Diego, CA – A premium set of short films, appropriately described as unique and diverse, was showcased in last week’s CineLibre, thanks to the empowering San Diego Filipino Cinema (SDFC), which celebrated its sixth anniversary by exhibiting the shorts for free in cooperation with the Chula Vista Public Library Civic Center Branch, where the screening was held.
Chula Vista is a relatively populous and impressively scenic city in San Diego County that apparently has a strong artist community, with CineLibre made possible by the Chula Vista Performing and Visual Arts Grant.
Seven shorts were shown last Dec. 5, highlighted by one directed by Grace Simbulan called Bonifacio, which stars veteran character actor Lito Pimentel. The short film features the latter in the role of a humble father with a pure heart, making him the hero figure of his academically bright son despite being hardly educated and poor. The film stands out ironically because of its showcase of a setting that projects the serious struggle of everyday Pinoy in the Philippines.
“I think it’s safe to say that we need to support our artists so that our stories and our humanity can endure,” said SDFC executive director and co-founder Benito Bautista.
I recently met this no-nonsense gentleman, and I could say he made me further understand Filipino artistry and ingenuity by how he speaks about them. Here is a true-blue artist who unapologetically blends the art of filmmaking and being a Filipino. You can feel that by letting him talk and hearing him, which he does with utmost sincerity, he can make you reassess your love of country by going deep into your Filipino roots wherever you are in the world.
The docudrama Dear Watsonville by director Sandra Lucille is both informative and reflective as it presents an emphatic picture of how earlier Filipino immigrants withstood the challenges of relocating.
“It was amazing and brilliant. I’m really surprised by the high quality of the films,” expressed Erwin Magbanua, principal librarian and cultural arts manager of the Chula Vista Public Library Civic Center Branch. “The storytelling is (generally) incredible, and I like the variety of formats and the themes.”
Director John Paul Corton’s My Father Drowned In Soup displays some visual innovation that made it a delightful watch, while San Diego filmmaker Marissa Roxas mirrors the visceral force reminiscent of what was revealed in the now-classic Brokeback Mountain as her film You + Me Will Always Be Back Then features two young ladies bonded by intense romance and tricky complexity.
The rest of the shorts are as strong as the aforementioned; it’s difficult to single out the strongest among them. Each has stamped its own identity one way or another, with Lola (Grace Hanna), Back To Normal (Cecilia de Jesus), and Fidel (Luke Lace) in the fold.
Bautista explained, “CineLibre is an ongoing outreach to experience cinema culture and to promote understanding, empathy, cultural representation, and critical awareness through cinema. These films are love letters to all of us from the filmmakers.”
SDFC programming director and co-founder Emma Francisco is credited for “meaningfully curating the films and licensing them” for CineLibre.
SDFC is the presenter of the San Diego Filipino Film Festival (SDFFF), which is the largest curation and exhibition of global Filipino films in all of North America.
Magbanua noted, “These CineLibre films are like a nice tapestry of our experiences, showing the diversity of our experiences as Filipinos here in America and back home.”
Bautista reiterated the deep collaboration and specialization involved in the process of producing a film. He looked back at how healthcare professionals were valued as heroes at the height of the COVID pandemic and connected that to the equally important role of filmmakers who keep creating to help heal and save us from such a global catastrophe.
He urged that for the film and art community to further grow, those with creative inclinations should participate, while the plea for funding must not fall on deaf ears. He asked those who can afford to give: “Release those five dollars. If you can, 100 dollars,” he said. “That is of value to the art that we are making.”
