FOLLOWING its first on-site edition last year since the pandemic, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) Tingin Film Festival returns for a 7th year.

Presenting a selection of films from countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), it takes place on Aug. 17 and 18 at the Red Carpet Cinema of Shangri-La Plaza Mall in Mandaluyong City. The theme is “Enchantments of a Fragile World,” on the topic of Southeast Asian folklore.

“It’s a theme that challenges us to ask what folklore means to us in and how it can help us understand the people of this region in this day and age, as separate peoples and as a people with historical links,” said Patrick Campos, festival programmer, at a press conference on Aug. 8.

The Tingin Film Festival will have “a mix of established and emergent filmmakers from centers as well as peripheries of our respective cultures,” he added.

It will open with The Long Walk, by Laos’ first female filmmaker Mattie Do. It follows an old hermit who discovers that the ghost of a road accident victim can transport him back in time to the moment of his mother’s painful death.

“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 anchor for a society battered by scientism,” said Maya Quirino, festival director, on the relevance of folklore in films today.

In Dreaming and Dying by Singaporean director Nelson Yeo, three middle-aged friends reunite for the first time in years and find something emerging from their reunion. “Their vacation takes a surprising turn when the undercurrent of their past lives threatens to resurface,” the summary of the film reads. The movie won the Pardo d’oro for Best Feature Film (Cineasti del Presente Competition) at the Locarno Film Festival.

From Myanmar comes Once Upon a Time There Was a Mom by Lin Htet Aung. The film follows a man who transforms back into his teenage self, the same age as his son, after his wife dies. The film took the Best Screenplay award at the Singapore International Film Festival.

Memoryland by Vietnamese filmmaker Kim Quy Bui revolves around three people who grieve after losing loved ones and deal with it through the rituals that accompany the end of life.

Malaysian film Snow in Midsummer by Chong Keat Aun is about an opera troupe amid the country’s deadly racial riots in 1969, and the woman who confronts those events 50 years later.

Short films that round out the selections are Boren Chhith’s Golden Dragon from Cambodia, Uruphong Raksasad’s Worship from Thailand, Natasha Tontey’s Of Other Tomorrows Never Known from Indonesia, and Hazrul Aizan’s Part of Me from Brunei.

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. There will be a discussion after the screening with the cast and crew of the film, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the USA.

“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,” said Mariel Nini, head of the Sentro Rizal International Cultural Affairs Office of the NCCA.

Aside from the film screenings, the festival will also hold a contest for the Best Theme Attire — the theme being folklore — on opening night, where the winner will walk away with a cash prize. The contest mechanics are on Tingin’s social media pages.

The Tingin ASEAN Film Festival will run from Aug. 17 to 18 at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall Red Carpet Cinema. Admission is free. For the complete screening schedule follow Tingin ASEAN Film Festival on Facebook. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

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