Reaction Paper on Cinema Rehiyon Films

Last February 5 to 8, 2013, Cinema Rehiyon on its 5th year was held in DL Umali Hall and Searca Auditorium. The event’s theme for this year was “Nurturing Cinemas of Home”. The remarkable event featured many movies from the provinces of Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and other crossing regions. I was fortunate to watch the two movies from Baguio and Sulu; these movies were Anac Ti Pating(Son of a Shark) and Taguri: The Kites of Sulu, respectively.

The first movie that I watched was Anac Ti Pating from Baguio. The movie was written and directed by Martin Masadao. The movie narrates the life of a hard-working boy who struggles to reach his dreams because of having many hardships and questions in life. Sixto and his family were just caretakers of a house in Baguio. He is a very intelligent but an apprehensive child, maybe because his known father was always drunk and his known mother wasn’t loyal. As I watched the movie, the true life of Sixto was being revealed gradually.

The film started when Sixto’s English teacher gave a project. The English project of Sixto became his dream. The film was very inspiring for the reason that the antagonist in the movie (Sixto) was very dedicated and passionate to his dreams even though he faces many hurdles in life. It is also a mind opener for those who are hopeless since even though Sixto was only a boy, he bravely deals with the challenges in his life. The ending of the movie wasn’t that very satisfying because it wasn’t said in the movie that Sixto lived happily in Manila for he run away from home. However, I guess Sixto reached his dreams by becoming a famous author of the book: Clark the Shark because the camera zoomed in the poster of the cover book (Clark the Shark) which Sixto made as a project in his English class.

The second film that I watched was a documentary film entitled Taguri: The Kites of the Sulu which is a Mindanao entry and directed by Khalid Hasan. The film exposes the life of the Sulu people in making the Taguri which is a kite. I remembered that one of the interviewed person from Sulu mentioned that there are three main Taguri in Sulu. These said kites were Mandal, Janggayan and Awak-Awak. The three main Taguris were not just names for kites but each one of them reflects the life in the Sulu. The Taguri expresses the way of life of the Suluan. The Mandal Taguri is like a very lady like person and she is like a common woman in the Sulu, the Janggayan Taguri is like a vivacious and flirty woman and the Awak-Awak Taguri represents a brave man and a future leader. I was amazed by how the people of Sulu preserved their culture. They said that Taguris are common past time in Sulu because according to them, life in Sulu is just simple so, flying kites were already a joy to them.

I have watched many documentary films before but this one is very interesting because it feels like the film made the audience to experience how to be a simple person in Sulu. I also learned many things from this film. I found out that there is a kite culture in the Philippines. Since Sulu is far from civilization, because of the film, maybe the viewers now already know that there is a kite culture which still remains in the Philippines. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish the great film but the film was very amazing and historical.

It was my first time to experience the Cinema Rehiyon. I am so lucky to watch such beautiful films for free. It was an unforgettable moment. I hope that I will be able to watch films from around the Philippines again next year.