SINESILIP

Venue: Auditorium, National Commission of Culture and the Arts, 633 General Luna Street, Intramuros, Manila

6 February 2008, Wednesday, 1:30 PM
Death in the Land of Encantos
Directed by Lav Diaz

The main character of Kagadanan is a Filipino poet named Benjamin Agusan (played by Roeder Camañag). He is the hapless native who returns to his hometown Padang to witness the aftermath of a super typhoon. Director Lav Diaz short Kagadanan in Padang, Legaspi City, where a village was buried by landslides caused by super typhoon REming that hit the Bicol region on November 30, 2006.

For the past seven years, Benjamin has been living in an old town called Kaluga in Russia. With his grant and residency, he taught and conducted workshops in a university. The poet published two books of sadness and longing in the process.

In Russia, Benjamin shot video collages, fell in love with a Slavic beauty, buried a son, and almost went mad. He came back home to bury his loved ones—father, mother, sister and a lover. He came back to face Mount Mayon, the raging beauty and muse of his youth. He came home to confront the country that he so loved and hated, the Philippines. He came back to die in the land of his birth. He wanders around the obliterated village meeting old friends and lovers.

Shot in black and white, Kagadanan sa Banwaan ning Mga Engkanto (Death in the Land of Encantos) expresses an inexhaustible belief in the regenerative power of both nature and art.

13 February 2008, Wednesday, 6 pm
Ruben: An Aspiring Registered Nurse
Directed by Lawrence Cordero

Filmmaker-turned-nursing student Lawrence Cordero follows the triumphs and travails of four of his colleagues, from classrooms to exams to job searches abroad. Part mockumentary but mostly docu, the film centers on Ruben Lee, whose easygoing nature belies the anguish he and many aspiring Pinoy would-be nurses have experienced while switching careers in midlife.

20 February 2008, Wednesday, 6 pm
DV
Directed by Eric dela Cruz

Half-based on F. Sionil Jose's short story Dream Video, and half-inspired by science fiction anime, Fil is a middle aged, upper crust Sociology professor. A person of habit, his problem is that he hasn't got a life. Monotomy begets novelty, and he envisions a device that could record dreams. With the current assault of reality-based programs catering to the peeping tom in us, this contrivance will revolutionize and bring reality TV into a higher level.

27 February 2008, Wednesday, 6 pm
Carnivore
Directed by Ato Bautista

Young, ambitious, idealistic, yet ignorant, Lino Lucero went to the city from the province, wanting to make a name for himself and become “somebody.” But life in the city proves to be more vicious and cruel than what he expected.

With nothing but determination and drive to succeed, he attempts to run for a seat in the student council and gets rejected. Unshaken, Lino enters an infamous fraternity that he thinks and believes can build for him connections and clout that can eventually take him to the next step towards his goal.

As he strives to succeed in every initiation and trial that come his way, Lino succumbs to his ambition until that climactic ending where he is faced with the greatest dilemma of surviving in the jungle of life, where he gets the taste of human flesh that will forever stay with his tongue.