MANILA, PHILIPPINES — A project of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Tingin Southeast Asian Film Festival is back this year with a roster of award-winning films that celebrate the region’s diverse myths, legends, and folklore. Supported under NCCA’s Culture and Diplomacy program, Tingin is the country’s longest-running and only film festival dedicated to Southeast Asian cinemas. Tingin aims to strengthen the ties of Filipinos and our neighbors in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region through film.
Themed “Enchantments for a Fragile World,” the 7th iteration of Tingin returns to the Red Carpet of the Shangri-La Plaza Mall in Mandaluyong City from August 17 to 18. Admission is free. The festival is composed of six full-length films and four short films. Shangri-La Plaza Mall is the official home of Tingin.
“NCCA’s Culture and Diplomacy Program remains committed to familiarizing Filipino moviegoers with the multifaceted and rich cultures and cinemas of Southeast Asia. Tingin is part of our mission to develop the cultural palate of film students and young moviegoers by exposing them to excellent films from the region. As part of the celebration of ASEAN Month, this year’s theme showcases the region’s myths and legends, which have striking similarities in different member states. We are extremely proud of this year’s incredible lineup of films, which have won accolades at prestigious film festivals across the world,” said Mariel Nini, Head of the Sentro Rizal International Cultural Affairs Office of the NCCA.
The festival theme looks to the region’s myths and legends as repositories of lessons and guidance amid the present economic, social, and environmental upheavals. “Filmmakers have time and again drawn from the rich wellspring of folklore to revisit old paradigms, to use it as a foil to new but harmful lifeways, or to serve as an anchor for a society battered by scientism. Some of Southeast Asia’s auteurs have built their most important work around the enduring tales and expositions of indigenous cultures still given to mystery,” said Maya Quirino, Tingin Festival Director.
The festival will open with Laos PDR’s The Long Walk, by director Mattie Do, Laos’ first and only female filmmaker. In The Long Walk, an old hermit discovers that the ghost of a road accident victim can transport him back in time fifty years to the moment of his mother’s painful death. Mattie Do’s film premiered in the Giornate degli Autori section of the 76th Venice International Film Festival and also showed in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the Toronto Film Festival.
The festival will close with the Philippine theatrical premiere of In My Mother’s Skin by director Kenneth Dagatan. Set in the Philippines during World War II, the movie follows a young girl who finds that her duty to protect her dying mother is complicated by her misplaced trust in a beguiling, flesh-eating fairy. The film premiered at the prestigious Sundance International Film Festival. The closing program will feature a talkback with the cast and crew of In My Mother’s Skin, including producers Bianca Balbuena and Bradley Liew, as well as director Kenneth.
One of the festival highlights is the return of Singaporean director Nelson Yeo to Tingin with Dreaming and Dying, which won the Pardo d’oro for Best Feature Film (Cineasti del Presente Competition) at the Locarno Film Festival. In Dreaming and Dying, three middle-aged friends reunite for the first time in years. Each of them sets out to confess unexpressed feelings, but their vacation takes a surprising turn when the undercurrent of their past lives threatens to resurface.
Another festival draw is Myanmar’s Once Upon a Time There Was a Mom. In this movie, on the day after a mother’s death, the character of the father transforms back into his teenager self, becoming the same age as his son in the movie. Director Lin Htet Aung won Best Screenplay at the Singapore International Award for this film. The movie was also screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Vietnam’s Memoryland is also hotly anticipated. The film revolves around three characters: A woman whose son does not want to carry out her burial wishes after her death; the widow of a young construction worker who brings his ashes to the village of his ancestors; and a painter who loses a love only met late in life. The connections between the fates of these characters, whose stories abruptly succeed one another, only become clear over time. At the center of the episodically linked stories in Memoryland stands death and all the rituals that accompany the end of life. Director Kim Quy Bui’s film has traveled the festival circuit, showing at the Berlin, Busan, Hong Kong, and Moscow international festivals.
In Chong Keat Aun’s Snow in Midsummer, Ah Eng seeks refuge in an opera troupe amid Malaysia’s deadly racial riots in 1969. 49 years later, she confronts the dramatic loss that has come to define her life. Snow in Midsummer premiered at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.
Boren Chhith’s Golden Dragon (Cambodia), Uruphong Raksasad’s Worship (Thailand), Natasha Tontey’s Of Other Tomorrows Never Known (Indonesia), and Hazrul Aizan’s Part of Me (Brunei) round out the selections.
This year, the festival will hold a Best Theme Attire contest on opening night. The winner will receive a cash prize. The contest’s mechanics are posted on Tingin’s social media pages.
