Anak OFW Film Festival: Inspiring and creating awareness on migration issues
by Leony R. Garcia
To dramatize the flight of the families especially the children of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), film enthusiasts and filmmakers led by IMPACT CODE (IMPACT Creative Organization for Development & Empowerment, Inc.), in cooperation with the ECMI-CBCP (Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants-Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines}, has come up with a film festival called Anak OFW Film Fest, centering on the theme, “Reflections Of Our Realities, Dreams & Triumphs.”
Five short films, with their corresponding sponsors and partners, were unveiled on December 10 as the official entries exclusively exhibited at SM Cinemas. Spearheading the filmfest is Jenny Pearl Ninalga, more popularly known as Direc JP, whose first indie film in 2006, Ina, Anak,Pamilya has touched many lives and made a successful tour worldwide among OFW organizations and communities.
“The filmfest is born out of the years of being immersed in the issues of migration, its effects on the families and support systems being sought by various sectors. After almost two decades of advocating these concerns through films, documentaries and infomercials, we have decided to revisit our first effort to find out how things have changed,” Direc JP said.
She continued: “In June this year, we started to do comprehensive and extensive work by conducting storytelling workshops among the children of OFWs and we were able to gather substantially a hundred good materials, selected six story concepts and turned them into screenplays.”
According to Direk JP, while the issues on migration appear to remain as they are perceived, the featured short films will surely pave the way for rethinking and designing coping mechanisms and programs for the families, especially the children of OFWs.
The filmfest entries are as follows:
Si Tita ang Nanay Ko, supported by Personal Collection Direct Selling, Inc., staring Gelli de Belen, Andrea del Rosario and Nicole Dulalia, and directed by JP Ninalaga, tackles the emotional struggle of a mother in reconnecting with her daughter (raised by her aunt), after years of working in Italy.
Cherry Mobile adopted A Better Life which tells the story of a young couple coping to survive a long distance relationship and becoming great parents despite being miles apart. It stars Gabby Eigenmann, Rich Asuncion and Hyannah Estanislao.
Smart Communications adopted Pasaway Boys, a story derived from a group of OFW children in their high school years. The story tries to find out if there could be other positive ways of dealing with their emotional struggles being left behind by their parents. This movie serves as directorial film debut of actor Christian Vasquez.
Also his directorial film debut, Logie Ninalga, presents Confessions of Grace which stars Jade Lopez, Irene Celebre and Agatha Tapan-Galiza. It has an anti-trafficking theme and deals with the harsh realities of life where a mother decided to take the illegal way of sending her daughter to work overseas. Global Filipino Movement helped in the said production.
The 5th film, Precious Moments, which should have been the directorial debut of Starstruck avenger Jade Lopez, was not able to beat the timeline. The main challenge was to find the right talents which require a ballerina mother and daughter tandem. This film shall still be produced according to Direc JP.
With the group’s excess fund from their sponsors, Amboy’s Pigeon, taken from the point of view of a young boy (Daiki Ang) that needs to deal with the realities of loss, and being left behind, was made. It is Christian Halili’s first film who works as a TV commercial cinematographer.
The awards night will be on December 15, at the SM Megamall Cinema 12. Award-winning director Elwood Perez chairs the distinguish board of judges. After the festival, the films will be toured starting off in more than 20 SM Cinemas nationwide starting February 2016.
