MANILA, Philippines – Moira Lang is not your average filmmaker. Just to have a Lav Diaz film under a producer’s repertoire is enough to speak for one’s work but Lang earns her dues from grit. Some producers would not risk going in the independent film scene, let alone going beyond the conventional two-hour format, Lang did just that.
In 2013, she produced the six-hour film Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan, which had its world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival and went on to string a couple of international awards including Best Film in the Pancevo International Film Fest, Nuremberg International Human Rights Award, and Best Picture in the International Cinephile Society Awards in 2013.
Prior to that, Lang brainstormed for Star Cinema and wrote the screenplay for some of its best remembered films: Anak, where he collaborated with Ricky Lee to tell the story of an Overseas Filipino Worker whose absence in her home caused a rift in her relationship with her children; Kailangan Kita, which got her the Best Screenplay and Best Story Award in FAMAS Awards in 2003; and the multi-awarded film Tanging Yaman that got her several nominations and a Young Critics Circle’s Award for Best Screenplay.
Meanwhile, Coreen “Monster” Jimenez’s introduction to filmmaking is not paved on a traditional path. In 2001, a story about an American Vietnam war veteran, Victor Pearson, broke out; convicting him for rape charges.
Jimenez said, “Everybody forgot about it,” but not her. She started weaving Pearson’s story into an article in 2005.
“Unfortunately, that article did not get published, but I had a story and it’s a great story so I decided to turn it into a film,” she said in a previous interview.
So in 2006, Jimenez started filming “Kano: An American and His Harem,” which garnered the 2010 Best Documentary Award in Cinemalaya and 2011 Gawad Urian Awards, and the Award for Best First Appearance at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Jimenez went beyond painting vibrant film characters but unfolds real people behind Pearson’s case.
Her 2015 film Apocalypse Child was deemed Best Picture in the QCinema International Film Festival and the Five Flavours Asian Film Festival.
More recently, Jimenez brought two of the biggest rappers in the underground hip-hop scene: Loonie and Abra in the Cinemalaya film Respeto, which immediately had a nationwide release immediately after the festival. The hip-hop film was critically acclaimed and won Best Picture, NETPAC Jury Prize, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing, Best Sound and Viewer’s Choice in Cinemalaya alone; Best Picture, Best Director and Audience Choice at the Cyprus Film Days International Film Festival; Grand Prize and Best Music Score at FAMAS; and Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor at Gawad Urian. The film was also the country’s official entry to Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and New York Asian Film Festival in 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nyzjp9MbFs&t=2s
Jimenez is currently working on the post-production for Return of the Owl directed by Martika Escobar. She has also been on several film festival juries and selections including Singapore International Film Festival, Viddsee Short Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Osaka International Film Festival, QCinema International selection committee.
Get the chance to learn directly from Moira Lang and Monster Jimenez on SWIPE WRITE: A Course on Writing and Producing Movies to Love, With Love. Tickets are at 7,500 including dinner, complete module, film screening, and certificate of completion. Register here.
