MAMANG (2018) by Denise O’Hara.
Lovely, warm and heartbreaking, Denis O’Hara’s Mamang paints a charming mother-and-son relationship while also tackling the difficulty of getting old. Celeste Legazpi and Ketchup Eusebio portrays a mother and son with credibility. The chemistry between the two felt natural that it looks like you’re watching real life mother and son.
The journey of the two characters from fun and light to heavy and heartbreaking is told smoothly. There is something mesmerizing watching the two having fun, deal with their problems together and be regular, be normal, just two individuals connected by blood and by love going through everyday together.
DISTANCE (2018) by Perci Intalan.
The choices we make because of love or happiness may not always turn out to be the best choice. But life goes on and it won’t stop because of you or any other person. Perci Intalan’s Distance isn’t loud in delivering its message. It’s interesting characters and story will keep you engage until its powerful confrontation.
The film gets how love can be blinding, can make one be numb of pain. Iza Calzado, Nonie Buencamino, Therese Malvar and Alessandra Malonzo make a great ensemble as they portray a broken family that’s hungry for answers and healing. It shows both sides of pain: the one that’s hurting and the one that brought the pain and it’s depiction of healing isn’t presented as something easily done, that there’s process, that even those who inflict pain are also wounded, are also damaged.
The 14th edition of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival runs until August 12 at CCP Theaters, Ayala Malls Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 1, TriNoma, UP Town Center and Legazpi.