BALANGIGA: A HOWLING WILDERNESS
It is a film that does not have much words; a surreal visual poetry of moving pictures with punctuations of disturbing images of fear, ravaged homes, massive killings, a scattering of human and animal carcass.
Gigi Javier Alfonso
BALANGIGA: A HOWLING WILDERNESS
While the film must be commended for its bold decision to tell the story of Balangiga through a boy’s eyes, for its imaginative way of creating character through riveting surreal dreams, and for the director’s deft orchestration of screenplay, cinematography, editing, and music, I must also be reminded that the point of making a historical film is still primarily historical.
Nicanor Tiongson
BHOY INTSIK
Bhoy Intsik is Carballo’s best work so far. His script is so tight that there are no loopholes in any part of the film. It’s just too bad that the blueprint he laid out for Bhoy Intsik was so neatly laid out that the viewer is often given clues on what is in store for the lead characters toward the end. But still, the screenplay deserves an A for effort.
Butch Francisco
BHOY INTSIK
Piniling mabuhay kahit mahirap at lalo pang pinahihirapan sa karahasan sa war on drugs ng administrasyong Duterte, na ang buhay at kamatayan ay wala na sa indibidwal kundi sa kanyang kapanganakang uri at tinahak na landas sa kawalang pagpipilian sa buhay, ang Bhoy Intsik ay isang mahalagang interbensyon ng kapangyarihan ng pelikula na makapaglatag ng diskursong kultural sa kaganapang politikal sa bansa.
Rolando Tolentino
BIRDSHOT
(Mikhail) Red shuns conveying this acerbic social commentary with a gritty look. Together with the cinematographer Mycko David, Red pursues a poetic style where the composition is consistently engaging with atmospheric as befits the story’s rustic setting. The angular chiaroscuro treatment in the interior night scenes is particularly noteworthy and the sharp shadows accent the narratives’ noirish subtext.
Mike Rapatan
BIRDSHOT
Birdshot is an unabashed exposé of the social ills lurking in remote places of our sad archipelago. It attempts to hit many birds with one stone (excuse the idiom): abuse of power, agrarian problems, corruption, destruction of natural resources, human isolation, and mortal depravity.
Shirley O. Lua
RESPETO
Respeto, is about groups and individuals in our community, in this place, at this time. It captures the beat of everyday life of survival, addiction to drugs, vice, and both huge and petty power tripping. It abounds with the verve of living, face to face with killings and enveloped in the socially created rationale for their deaths.
Gigi Javier Alfonso
RESPETO
Matapang ngunit matimpi at may bahagyang hinahahon ang pagsasaysay ng Respeto sa karahasan ng maykapanggyarihan sa pagsugpo sa gamit ng droga. Bumubukas ang pelikula ni Treb Monteras II sa malinggal at halos nakabibinging palitan ng mura at insult ng dalawang rapper sa gitna ng mga mirong nagsisigawan at nagpapalakpakan bilang suporta sa bumibersong kapanalig nila.
Bienvenido Lumbera
THE CHANTERS
The true artist in Sarah Mae is at the crux of losing the opportunity to sing for her idol and yet finding her grandfather and her own way in her protracted engagement with her community.
Gary Devilles
THE CHANTERS
Such wealth of questions and elegant obfuscations make this small film called The Chanters more massive than the civilization a false nation will expect to prop up, or with longing lose.
Tito Genova Valiente
TU PUG IMATUY
Tu Pug Imatuy, as a particular case, is instructive, because it aimed (and in my opinion, succeeded) in revealing how global forces have been relentless in their drive to erase societies in the peripheries in collusion with the state that is acting in the name of progress.
Patrick Campos
TU PUG IMATUY
(Arbi) Barbarona pointedly underscores the disenfranchisement of indigenous people from their ancestral domain by multinational corporate interests supported by military might. His film presents a blistering critique of the industrial-military machinery that continues to ravage ancestral lands and lifeways in Mindanao.
Mike Rapatan
The aforementioned films were the nominees for the Best Picture Category at the 41st Gawad Urian in 2018.
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