What personal and social values matter to you? Is it happiness? Or perhaps good governance? Are honesty and integrity important?
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) lets us reflect on these with the Sine Halaga Film Festival, which premieres worldwide on Wednesday, Aug. 25.
Like most film festivals during the pandemic, Sine Halaga will be hosted online through Vimeo OnDemand and the NCCA Learning Resources Hub website. And one of the perks of Sine Halaga for everyone around the world who’s interested in watching? All of its featured films will be available to stream for free.
The film festival will highlight a total of 19 Filipino values, including resilience, happiness, good governance, love for country, honesty, and integrity. These personal and social values weren’t just picked from the sky either—it took NCCA two years of research to identify which values are most important to present-day Filipinos.
Aside from highlighting these values, the film festival’s director Elvert Bañares also said in a statement that each film will feature depictions of local customs and practices. From over a hundred submissions screened by the Sine Halaga jury, 12 films made the cut and were awarded funds for production.
Here’s a list of the 12 Sine Halaga films you should watch out for:
- “Bakit Ako Sinusundan ng Buwan” directed by Richard Legaspi
- “Black Rainbow” directed by Zig Madamba Dulay
- “Dandansoy” directed by Arden Rod Condez
- “Hadlok” directed by Ralston Jover
- “Looking for Rafflesias and Other Fleeting Things” directed by James Allen Fajardo
- “Lorna” directed by Noel Escondo
- “Masalimuut Ya Tiyagew Ed Dayat” directed by Jan Carlo Natividad
- “Mina’s Family History” directed by Christopher Gozum
- “Sa Balay ni Papang” directed by Kurt Steven Soberano
- “Salog ning Diklom” directed by Jordan Dela Cruz
- “Ugbos ka Bayabas” directed by Manuel Magbanua Jr.
- “13 Feet” directed by Carlo Obispo
With Sine Halaga, NCCA hopes to reach the youth and empower them with values that are “positively Filipino”—hence the decision to make the films available through free online streaming.
According to Bañares, these 12 select films will also be used for classroom education. “We are organizing a series of webinars and preparing study guides to aid our teachers in discussing the films to their students. With the help of our teachers, we can articulate effectively the values that each film conveys,” stated the film festival director.
Sine Halaga Film Festival is presented to Filipino and international audiences by NCCA in partnership with the Negros Cultural Foundation. An opening program will mark its premiere on Aug. 25, and it will be broadcast live at 6 p.m. via Facebook.
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