MENTORING. Hundred Islands Film Festival participants in Alaminos City, Pangasinan listen intently to the ongoing workshop on cinematography on Thursday (May 25, 2023). The festival aims to encourage more young people to express their creativity through filmmaking. (Photo courtesy of HIFF Facebook page)
ALAMINOS CITY, Pangasinan–This city is gearing towards being known not just for the famous Hundred Islands National Park but also as the home of multi-awarded filmmakers as it continues to hone and encourage its youth to filmmaking.
With the advent of social media, smartphones, and many other platforms and equipment available, the young people in this city have developed their love for filmmaking that started in their schools and now have the support of their city government.
One of the pioneers but already successful in this field of short filmmaking is Hannah Ragudos.
Her short film titled "Decalcomania" produced by students under Layag Productions of Alaminos City National High School, won the 2020 International Teen Short Film Festival (ITSF) in Beijing, China.
Decalcomania, a French word that means the art or process of transferring pictures and designs from specially prepared paper (as to glass), was written and directed by Hannah Ragudos, a Muslim senior high school student, who has been living in the province.
Ragudos said, in a recent interview, she coped with bullying by praying and excelling in school.
She said her mentors, Jerome Dulin and Joseph Arcegono of North Luzon Cinema Guild Inc., together with Layag Productions founder, Dr. Raquel Rarang-Rivera, taught her filmmaking processes and techniques.
“They taught me how to write a screenplay and create relevant regional films that could influence and alter people's minds about the unknown's truthfulness. I never knew entering the film industry would impact me big time,” she added.
Before Decalcomania, she wrote and directed a short film Ana Bikhayr'.
Mayor Arth Bryan Celeste took an interest in supporting the young people following the successes and consistencies among the young aspiring filmmakers and started the Alaminos Film Festival.
“It has been going on for three years now. It was first online because of the pandemic and the first face-to-face was held last year. There are so many aspiring filmmakers in our city,” he said.
The film festival involves 50 high school students who are undergoing training by mentors such as Director Zig Dulay, who directed the hit Maria Clara and Ibarra television series, Carlo Catu, Carlos Obispo, Arjanmar Rebeta, Tim Rone Villanueva, Joseph Arcegono, Jerome Dulin, and Victor Villanueva, among others.
“We would like to encourage our youth to go to this path of filmmaking and hopefully, we will have renowned filmmakers. What is exciting is that they enjoy it and many are also excited whenever we host the film festival,” Celeste said.
Last year, the festival tackled social issues but this year, its genre is freestyle to not limit the participant's creativity and instead expand it, he said.
Celeste said the festival is more on learning or workshop for a whole month on the processes of filmmaking from script writing to casting as well as workshops on directing, film directing, cinematography, production management, and production design. and not about winning competitions.
“It's more on enhancing themselves and enriching their knowledge,” he said.
The participants will write their own scripts which will undergo screening and only the top five would be made into films that will be shown to the public on June 1 this year.
“Technology and social media are very strong and being creative is one of the key components in being successful in terms of putting gauges to boost engagement. Being creative helps in business and creatives are sought after now in the age of social media,” he said.
As part of the festival, the participants and organizers are also visiting different schools and conducting free screenings of short films through the Lakbay Sine, Open Air Cinema, and Cinema Under the Stars to further promote the advocacy and the event to the young people. (PNA)
