Cebuano wins in Cinemalaya

CEBU, Philippines - The movie The Leaving garnered three awards at the recently-concluded Cinemalaya Film Festival, including Best Production Design by Cebuano filmmaker Ivan Zaldarriaga with Syrel Lopez. Since Zaldarriaga and Lopez were in Olango Island during the Awards Night, The Leaving director Ian Dean Lorenos accepted the award on their behalf. The film’s other awards were Best Supporting Actress (LJ Reyes) and Best Cinematography.

The Leaving’s plotline reads: Everything is moving, coming, leaving…and returning. Nothing is permanent, a constant transience in this world. This is the premise of THE LEAVING, set in the dynamic neo-Chinatown scenario of Manila.

The film also elaborates on how the identity of the Tsinoy (Filipino-Chinese) community diminishes. ‘The Leaving’ follows three stories that leave elements on the other stories in such that they are all connected.

According to Zaldarriaga, one of his next projects is the Cebuano indie film and Cinema One Originals entry Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria Kirschbaum, the screenplay of which was incidentally written by his mother, the Cebuana poet-fictionist Maria Victoria Beltran.