It’s particularly interesting to note that documentaries, fiction, or an exploration of both make up the main short film slate at this year’s Cinemalaya Film Festival, sidelining animation and experimental work. But what’s more jarring is how the two sets clash with each other. Set B, for that matter, is infused with better plotting and aesthetic panache – aspects that its counterpart is in dire need of.
Which is to say, there’s something amiss in the programming decision. Thematically, Set B makes far more sense, with narratives that wrestle with historical trauma, erasure, exploitation, and acts of violence, in its many iterations, in hopes of crafting gentler ways forward. Most shorts in this program at the minimum feel more confident in their visions and modes of articulation, with some exhibiting more experience than the rest.
i was walking on the streets of chinatown (dir. Ryan Capili) Opening the lineup is Ryan Capili’s i was walking on the streets of chinatown , which sees an artist returning to his hometown to complete an autobiographical film. Arguably the oldest of its kind, Chinatown – also known as Binondo, a commerce and trade center in Manila – in the film as in real life has been tenanted by so much history and change, which the protagonist and, by extension, Capili tries to contend with.
The film tours us around the cityscape, retracing a once-famed arcade, an abandoned shopping center, a tailoring store, an Art Deco building, a tobacco factor.