By ARIEL C. SEBELLINO
IT was a festival that had the child as the center of the universe.
Six films – Nino Bonito, Debut, Kapogs, Lumang Kahoy, Kinulayang Kiti, and Sweet Mandy- looked at the world through the children’s smiles and tears in the recent 3rd CinePambata Film Festival held at SM Centerpoint.
Declared the best of them all was Nino Bonito.
The movie is about Boni, a young rap-mumbling boy from the slums who squares off with the reality of drugs, petty crimes and dysfunctional family.
“The story and the depiction of characters are so clear and compact that they hit right to the bottom of children’s issues,” according to the citation.
Writer and director Rommel “Milo” Tolentino explained his choice of a hip-hop rapper as the central figure in this movie whose dialogues were done through rap to make it both realistic and symbolic.
He said: “In real life, the boy’s talent is really rapping but the style, instead of the usual straight-speaking lines, tell us of the kind of surrounding he lives in. But we just made good use of his talent plus its artistic call, too.”
Kapogs, which won best screenplay, tells the story of two young boys (John Lloyd and Joshua), who share the same adventures but whose solid friendship will be tested when they eventually fall for the same 16-year-old-neighbor.
First-time director and fresh communication graduate Maria Angelica Reyes said that her inspiration for the movie is puppy love, which kids go through in life.
“It is cute and offers kilig but more importantly, it tells us that children need to grow, play and pick up the ways of life themselves while parents are with them to give guidance,” Reyes said.
Now on its third year, the CinePambata Film Festival, organized by the National Council for Children’s Television (NCCT) , is being touted as the only one of its kind in the country and this part of Asia.
“I do not know of any festival abroad that has unpopular and small directors, focusing their films on children and the matters concerning them, or the child or children as the main character of their stories,” NCCT Executive Director Frank Rivera said.
The films, each running 20 minutes or less, focused on various issues and related topics on children such as child physical and verbal abuse, sexual exploitation, juvenile offenses, health, population, poverty and education.
National Artist Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, who was one of the judges, commended the filmmakers for showing the problems on children and for portraying children as beneficial and important citizens of the country.
She said: “These are films for and about them. Kids need to be educated on the kinds of films that they need to patronize. They speak about them for them to think, reflect and express their thoughts on the various topics raised in the films.”
“They are truly Filipino and reflective of the many problems and the sad situation about children in our country,” veteran movie and television director Mario O’ Hara said. “The kids are central to the story and not treated as mere subjects.”
He cited the issues raised in Nino Bonito and Kinulayang Kiti that children should not be physically and verbally abused.
“They’re so real that you can almost taste and see the grit, but you get the heart of the issues,” he noted.
Both Alvarez and O’Hara observed that “what the movies lack in terms of technical polish, they make up through no non-sense story lines and story telling”.
Former Bright Child Ambassador BJ ‘Tolits’ Forbes, now 13 years old, who served as the lone child-judge, said: “The festival is art with a heart. The children take the center stage. This is about us.”
Tolits has quit showbiz and is now in fourth year high school. He dreams of becoming a scientist one day.
Aubrey Lagpas, a fourth-year high school student from St. Mary’s School in Cagayan de Oro City, did not regret coming to Manila to watch the six movies. She hosted the festival program with two other kids from Luzon.
She said: “We need to see movies that show Filipino values for children to keep. They show that kids can rise above the harsh realities in life. We don’t need to follow what our elders or adults do wrong.”
Teresita Rodriguez, a high school teacher from the Pinamukan National High School in Batangas, brought 10 pupils to the Festival.
“They (movies) are an eye-opener, but while some are bitin (hanging), the messages are still clear,” Rodriguez said.
“I like it (Debut) because it is child-friendly,” her pupil Aira Beatriz Naryo quipped.