First-ever musical film entry in Sine Kabataan tackles losing voices and embracing truths among trans communities
First-ever musical film entry in Sine Kabataan tackles losing voices and embracing truths among trans communities
SINEGANG.ph published this press release by Piyesa. No staff writer participated in writing this article.
Sometimes, a single change reveals the most needed truth you need to welcome about yourself.
Being the first ever musical film entry in what is the most known platform for budding filmmakers, Piyesa is a warm, pulsing coming-of-age tale of losing voices and definitive decisions during life’s important transitory periods. Written and directed by Ryand Angelo Ugalde, the film joins the other entries for this year’s FDCP Sine Kabataan Film Festival, and is set to premiere this coming September 2026.
Like a musical progression that reaches its summits, Piyesa follows Kris, a young Ilocano transgender man, who is navigating the avenues of his growth and development not only as a soprano singer but as a person caught in a crisis of identity. With an ongoing hormone therapy that threatens to cut him off of his scholarship grant, his art, and his craft onstage, Kris goes through significant phases of truth confrontations. The stage becomes his refuge and his reminder of the parts of himself that he has to unearth.
Woven from the musical classics of Ilocano culture, Piyesa utilizes the powerful force of music to tell a story of change and metamorphosis. The stakes are profound, and personal for Kris, reminding us that the greatest leaps for ourselves are achieved by gradual episodes of bravery. Pieces enriched by Nasudi Chorale performances, an internationally awarded choir from Ilocos Norte, embedded themselves into the narrative.
Ugalde’s previous project, Magindara, which featured an important allegory on flood control scandals, won the Best Picture Award on the Ilocos Norte Short Horror Film Festival 2025 and the Best Screenplay and Jury Prize at CineKasimanwa: The Western Visayas Film Festival 2025. It also was a finalist at the Sinag Maynila Independent Film Festival, and the 13th Nabunturan Independent Film Exhibition.
From its totality, Piyesa is a cinematic reminder of our coming-of-age that has come and gone, revealing a tableau that we have to face as the music clears, and our voices change. It banks on the reality that important decisions in life are always formative, and that compromise is not always available—most particularly for those who have not known the option because of what society deprived them of.
Piyesa’s nearing premiere at the Sine Kabataan Film Festival would allow Kris to finally show the world how he has allowed himself to confront the truth of his own identity. His voice will be representative, not only for his own turmoils, but for the silently carried everyday challenges of trans folks—and this coming September, they shall be heard and sung.
