A Cinema One Originals movie from Davao wins awards in Germany,

Filipino filmmaker Sherad Anthony Sanchez recently won the One Future Prize award at the Munich Film Festival in Germany for his digital movie Huling Balyan ng Buhi (translated in English as The Woven Stories of the Other) for its international release. It also bagged the Prix Premiere or The First Film Prize Award in the First Film and Sound Competition at the recent 18th FID (Festival International du Film) or the Marseille Documentary Film Festival in France. It has also recently won nominations for Best Picture and Best Director at the 30th Gawad Urian to be held this August.

This brilliant movie from Davao features Marilyn Roque (who plays the first balyan), Ronald Arguelles (one of the rebels with problematic ideological identity) and the people of Arakan Valley, North Cotabato. Gigi from Arakan Valley is a woman rebel who teaches young comrades the facets of their struggle as they remain to be in waiting after they were ambushed. In a nearby village, Junjun and his fellow soldiers take a rest. He attempts to chance upon a girl he longs for, but instead encounters a balyan/tagbawian (shaman) in a very disturbing situation. Somewhere, two kids, Abyan and Busaw, trek the forest back to their mother.

Huling Balyan ng Buhi: O Ang Sinalirap nga Asoy Nila weaves the tales of rebels in waiting, playful soldiers at rest and a troubled balyan (village healer) in a very ambiguous predicament. A quandary that will usher them all to one encounter that can bring to light the questions of trans-cendence.

With Cinema One set to celebrate and feature select classic Filipino movies in its 2nd Annual Kool Pinoy Klassiks at the SM Megamall, Huling Balyan ng Buhi will also be one of the main feature films. It will also run in the 2007 Cinemalaya Film Festival this month.

Huling Balyan ng Buhi (The Woven Stories of the Other) is produced in 2006 by CPI under the Cinema One Originals project.

Chosen from over a hundred submitted competitors, Munich Film Festival Competition’s seven jurors from Europe, Asia, USA and South America shortlisted the entries to 25; choosing carefully the five nominees. Here’s where Sherad’s Huling Balyan ng Buhi came forth as one of the finalists.

With the jury’s enthusiasm over the young filmmaker’s work, Sherad was reportedly invited to next year’s competition already to be a jury member; henceforth making him the first Pinoy to be a jury in the Munich Filmfest Competition and also the youngest.

Huling Balyan Ng Buhi is one of the seven winning independent films in last year’s Second Annual Cinema One Originals of Cinema One, the Philippines’ premiere movie cable channel and one of the strongest channels of CPI (Creative Programs, Inc.), a subsidiary of ABS-CBN.