Chicago Filipino American Film Festival 2009 Selections Announced

The film "Brown Soup Thing" recently had a successful screening at the inaugural Filipino International Film Festival Los Angeles this past weekend (click here for what else played there), but the movie's premiere happened at the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival.  Now preparing for their 6th annual festival, it will take place in the historic Portage Theater from November 6-8, 2009, and they just announced their list of selections.  I also got the chance to talk with a former entrant to get his take on his experiences and what he wants to see come from the Pilipino film community.

Trailers for each of the selections can be found at the official site (link below).  This year's selections are:

CONFESSIONAL by Jerrold Tarog (CAMERA Trilogy Part I)

MANGATYANAN by Jerrold Tarog (CAMERA Trilogy Part II)

DAYO

GIFT OF BARONG (Return engagement. Director Benito Bautista in attendance.)

100

INSIDE A CHANGE

BOSES

CONCERTO

CREATUR (World Premiere. Director, cast and crew in attendance.)

There will also be a documentary program and a shorts program, along with an opening reception and a couple of post-festival parties.

Santi Khairassame is a Chicago native currently pursuing his masters in Educational Communication and Technology at New York University.  He was selected for a previous Chicago Filipino American Film Festival and took the time out of his vacation back home to talk with us.

BakitWhy: What were the films that you entered into the [Chicago Filipino American] Film Festival?

Santi Khairassame: I submitted three shorts for the shorts portion of the show.  Two were animations and they revolved around the whole Chuck Norris jokes.  There were two Chuck Norris animations and one was my Pac-Man video.

BW: And this was back in 2006?

SK: Yes, '06.

BW: The festival was still young then, right?

SK: I think so...I think I'd heard of it the year before. 

BW: How did you get into it then?

SK: I think Daryl Blanco (a mutual friend of ours), he forwarded me the submission form...and that's how I found out about the show.  The due date was like two or three months in advance.  I tried to figure out what videos I wanted to submit.  I didn't have any feature length videos, so I wanted to do the shorts one.  I just figured these were my strongest shorts and just submitted those.

BW: I know they've moved to a bigger venue since then.  Where were they before?

SK: It was at the Chopin Theater on Division and Milwaukee.

BW: What have you done since the festival?  Are you still trying to go into film, or did that influence you in one way or another?

SK: If anything, I definitely took a career turn.  I fell more into the education side.  After I got a film degree at [the University of Illinois at Chicago] the first job I got was teaching video and animation and TV production at Gallery 37 to high school kids.  So most of my videos  I made revolved around those classes.  I taught kids how to make these videos and most of the stuff I did revolved around that.  So in terms of making my own work, I haven't done that in a while, but it's because I fell into the education side.

BW: But it's still a part of what you're doing?

SK: Yeah, definitely.  If anything, the film festival made me appreciate Pilipino film making more because it's not that prevalent.  I don't see that many films around, you know?  When I see there's a film festival I try to check it out, check out the work, try to see the artists.

BW: What advice do you have for people who want to enter the festival in the future?

SK: [Be] aware of the festival to begin with because [they] have a time frame of when they're accepting your work and it gives you a better idea of how much work you need to do.  My stuff was not necessarily Pilipino oriented, it was more pop culture.  In terms of advice, this goes beyond the film festival, but really work on a video you feel passionate about, work on something you know about .  Whether that revolves around your experiences as a Pilipino in America or not, just work on something you believe in because that will transcend your Pilipino audience.  As an audience member myself I want to see something that has meaning to the filmmaker.

BW: What do you remember from the festival you were in?

SK: I do remember this one film that stuck out to me called "Cavite".  It was a full length drama/thriller.  That really changed my whole perception of Pilipino film making because I never watched that many Pilipino movies or made by Pilipinos or about Pilipinos.  This film was really great; it was about a guy whose family gets kidnapped in this area of the Philippines, so he flies there - have you seen it? It's incredible - he has this wireless phone piece in him.  So he's listening to the guys who kidnapped his family as he tries to follow directions.  It's a really great film, and it made me respect Pilipino films even more, and made me realize that there are some people making some great work out there.  What I loved about the movie was that it's universal.  If anybody's in that situation, you're going to be going through the same emotions he's going through.  It was about a Pilipino person in the Philippines, but it could have been anybody. 

BW: Do you think it appropriately expressed some aspects of the Philippines that made it unique?

SK: One of the aspects of the movie was playing with corruption, like anything goes in a different country.  If this were to happen in the United States it wouldn't be as intense because you'd have the police working with you.  This guy was pretty much on his own and it showed a lot of the Philippine countryside, the barrios and everything.

BW: Do you think it's important for future Pilipino American producers, directors and writers to incorporate aspects of their Pilipino life?  Do you see that a lot?

SK: It really depends on what movie you're working on and what you're going for.  It gets cliche after a while.  "The Debut" did a good job with that, with the whole barrel man and everything, and I was waiting for a movie to do that.  But I think it's good that they did that because the Pilipino culture is deeper than those knick knacks.  There are interactions and relationships within Pilipino families that are unique to being Pilipino, that directors could focus on.  A lot of Pilipinos are superstitious, and I know there are some movies that deal with that.  Pilipino culture's definitely more than the barrel man, and it'd be cool if film makers could delve into that.

BW: Where can we see more information about the work you've done or are doing now?

SK: I'm currently working on a YouTube channel of the videos that my kids made.  As well, you can check out santipanti.com.

View all the selections and their trailers here: http://cfaff.org/films/
Visit Santi's site, which contains some of his video work, here: http://santipanti.com
Homepage of "Cavite": http://www.cavitemovie.com/
Link to the main site of the festival: http://www.cfaff.org

Special thanks to Jonathan Laxamana, Program Director of the Film Festival, and Santi Khairassame for taking time out of his short visit back to Chicago for the interview!