ALL FILM & TV FEATURES
Musings on music and physical media with 'Recto Records' director Jego Rafael
Amid minimalism and technology, Mang Greg continues to set up shop each day in Recto, surrounded by albums ranging from The Beatles’ Abbey Road to Avril Lavigne’s The Best Damn Thing. Read our interview with director Jego Rafael on ‘Recto Records,’ still streaming on Cinemata.
Fearless and Uncontained: The Ambitious Cast of Sinepiyu XVI
“Be liberated from convention,” goes Sinepiyu in their program invitation (arbitrarily translated by me). It’s not just a challenge posed to the filmmakers participating in the film festival, but it’s also a dare for future audiences: to suspend everything they think they know about student cinema and permit themselves to experience the new, the perverse, and the ambitious.
Behind Black Beret 2024: Talking to UP Student Filmmakers
In this year’s edition of Black Beret, student filmmakers from UP Film Institute presented stories about unconventional friendships, long-lost loves, and grief amidst personal transformation.
We interviewed three of the directors this year, namely Coby, Raia, and Hanns, read Sofi’s feature for more:
SINEGANG.ph's 2024 Oscars Predictions and Staff Choices
With the Oscars just right around the corner, staff at SINEGANG.ph has cast their own ballots as to who they think will win and are most deserving of the Oscar trophy.
Beyond ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’: On Male Gaze and Its Grip on Our Community
In honor of Women's Month, I find myself reflecting back on 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire,' its impact on the exposure of male gaze, the need for feminine empowerment, and my deepened love to the enduring grace of how inspiring it is to be a woman—a sister, a mother.
Sinalang Film Festival Offers Alternative Modes of Film Spectatorship
The inaugural edition of the Sinalang Film Festival celebrates Philippine cinema in unconventional and innovative ways, encouraging an active and participatory viewership.
Victor Villanueva raises the bar for comedy with 'I Am Not Big Bird'
Victor Villanueva’s 'I Am Not Big Bird' gives a new appreciation for friendship and introduces us to a more innovative style of filmmaking. Read about our interview with him as he discusses shooting in Thailand and directing the big comeback of Enrique Gil.
From Romblon to Berlinale, Ryan Machado on the unlikely journey of ‘Huling Palabas’
‘Huling Palabas’ director Ryan Machado talks about getting into Berlinale with a genre-bending coming of age film.
Anyone But You: Sigh no more, it's the return of the modern Shakespeare adaptation
Anyone But You, directed by Will Gluck brings back a Shakespeare flavored rom-com with 2000s energy, in an imperfect but charming movie that’s a fun time at the cinemas.
John Rogers Gets Real With 'As If It's True'
In 'As If It's True', a social media influencer and a musician enter a fake relationship to resuscitate their dying careers. Read our interview with director John Rogers as he talks about the process of making his film and more.
Tokyo Story, on the inevitability of change and its universality
Tokyo Story explores the limits of finite time and the inevitable passing of age, while offering a subdued yet profound examination on the gaps between tradition and modernity.
Past Lives: Holding on to what's left at home
Celine Song’s Past Lives poignantly expresses this ever-present eternal yearning for all the things that were left behind and forgotten, so beautiful and emphatic.
Black Beret 2023: Feelings on Death, Legacy, and Everything in Between
With this year’s Black Beret showcase, it’s easy to find some type of excitement in the ways that the scene could grow in the future. Not often does a showcase like this teach the collaborative nature of filmmaking, especially in expressing ideas on an artistic level like a short.
Filmmaker Spotlight: Queena Li
Writer-Director, Queena Li who made her eclectic debut feature, Bipolar, has been seen in many film festivals to a widespread acclaim, since its debut at the 50th IFFR.
Wood and Water: Stillness and Silence Speak Volumes
There's hardly any narrative to offer with Jonas Bak’s Wood and Water but it doesn’t matter. It is a contemplative piece about the constantly evolving world that we are all faced with in our own distinct ways. It’s about exploring oneself through unfamiliar places, yearning for people, and trying desperately to connect with them through the places that has a great significance to them.
Iginuhit ng Tadhana: A Deep Dive into the First Marcos Propaganda Film
Iginuhit ng Tadhana was the Marcos family’s first propaganda film, a biopic produced to rally support for their 1965 presidential run against Diosdado Macapagal. It was filled with blaring historical inaccuracies that laid the foundations for a mystical mythology around Ferdinand E. Marcos that has persisted to this day.
The blessing in disguise of seeing a wrong film, and some thoughts on Before, Now and Then (2022)
Hopefully more people would see this gem, with the knowledge of actually seeing Before, Now and Then instead of watching this because it was mistakenly projected.
“In the Mood for Love”’s New 4K Restoration is More Tragic as It Replaces Romance with Ambivalence
Wong Kar-Wai’s new 4K restoration of “In the Mood for Love” mutes its ravishing reds and replaces it with a tint of ambivalent green. This shifts the mood from romance to ambivalence, with more of a focus on each character’s individual processing of trauma and less on their warm connection with one another. It also further amplifies its sense of tragedy.
Liway: How cinema archives the people’s struggle
‘Liway’ upholds this tradition of active remembrance and resistance, which is reflective of Philippine cinema that, by hook or by crook, tries to hold and create more space for anti-Martial Law narratives.
What ‘Better Call Saul’ Does Better Than ‘Bad’
In this landscape of unoriginality, Better Call Saul makes it mark by giving fans the benefit of familiarity but also introducing never-before-seen emotional depths to a character that merely served as a comic relief.