Sig Sanchez's Works @ Magnet Cinekatipunan | January 11, 2007

Thursday, 11 January 2007
5:30 – 8:00 PM
Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez: ANAK NI BROCKA
(Philippines/ Narrative/ 2005/150 mins/Filipino with
E.S.)
Seymour Barros-Sanchez: LABABO
(Philippines/ Narrative/ 2006/17 mins/Filipino and
English with E.S)

LABABO (Kitchen Sink) covers significant dates
concerning the Philippines' relationship with the
United States. Parallel to these historical events is
the story of Kuala (a crazy woman based on the female
character in Lino Brocka's "Tinimbang Ka Ngunit
Kulang") and a young woman named Juana who both fell
for the same American soldier, Joe. "Lababo" is a look
into the complex relationship between the Philippines
and the United States. This relationship is mirrored
in the lives of the film's protagonists, two Filipinas
who fall in love with an American soldier. The short
film comes at the most opportune time, when the
Philippines is taking a closer look at the Visiting
Forces Agreement in the wake of the alleged rape of a
Filipina by American soldiers in Subic.

DIRECTOR: Seymour Barros Sánchez PRODUCTION: Red Room
Productions PHOTOGRAPHY: Ogi Sugatan SCREENPLAY:
Sigfreid & Seymour Barros Sánchez FILM EDITING:
Sunshine Matutina
CAST: Nerissa Icot, Virnie Tolentino, Stephen Patrick
Moore

(Lababo synopsis from
http://www.slingshortfest.com/films_internalaffairs.html)

ANAK NI BROCKA (The Son of Lino Brocka). A motley
group of television journalists stumbles upon a
possible scoop: that the Philippines' national cinema
hero, Lino Brocka, actually sired a son. Video cameras
in hand, they set off in search for clues by asking
people if they might have come across a young man
named "Onil" who claims he is the son of Brocka. They
delve into the life of the National Artist, even going
so far as to interview director Brocka's family
members, friends, associates, and many of the actors
and actresses he groomed. In the end, the journalists
discover a lot of things about the late filmmaker-much
more than they expected. This eye-opening digital
feature includes interviews with many of the late
directors protégés and colleagues including Nonie
Buencamino, Jacklyn Jose, Gina Alajar, Bembol Roco,
Angie Ferro, Jeffrey Quizon, Joonee Gamboa, Chanda
Romero, Soxy Topacio, Menggie Cobarrubias, Geoff
Eigenmann, Nanding Josef, Allan Paule, Timothy Diwa,
Francis Magalona, Behn Cervantes, and Philip Salvador.

THIRTY-year old, six-feet four, and two-hundred pounds
Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez was born to a family of
writers and artists in Vito Cruz, Manila. At 16 years
old, he wrote articles and interviewed alternative and
underground musicians for 1990s Filipino rock music
bible, Rock & Rhythm, while studying Political Science
and trying out for a basketball varsity slot at the
University of the East-Recto campus. He decided to
leave school to learn more about filmmaking after
watching short films done by Jon Red (“Trip”) and
Roxlee (“Tito’s Wedding”), which a Humanities
professor asked them to watch.

In 1999, he became part of the prestigious 11th Ricky
Lee Scriptwriting Workshop and shortly after studied
directing at the Filipino Feature Filmmaking class of
Direk Marilou Diaz-Abaya in Ateneo. The year after, he
further honed his craft at the 10th Cinema-As-Art
Filmmaking Workshop at the Univeristy of the
Philippines Film Center (UPFC) under Direks Tikoy
Aguiluz and Raymond Red, among others.

His first job in the movie industry was as a script
reader for Viva Films until he was given a chance to
write his first script “Alas Dose” (2000). His next
assignments include writing “Kilabot at Kembot”
(2002), “Bertud ng Putik” (2003), and “Prosti” (2003)
and acting for “Dos Ekis” (2001). He also wrote for TV
shows like “Erik Matti’s Kagat ng Dilim” (2001) and
“Darating Ang Umaga” (2003) and acted for kiddie shows
like “Hirayamanawari” and “DetekKids”. In between, he
was also taken as script reader for Seiko Films
(2003).

His first foray into indie filmmaking was as an actor
for Jon Red’s “ASTIGmatism” (2004) whom he met for an
aborted project (“Balong Malalim”) back in 2001. He
then acted for Khavn dela Cruz’s “Barong Brothers”
(2004), Topel Lee’s “Nak Ng!” (2004), Ato Bautista’s
“Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula Sa Kamulatan” (2004), and
again for Jon Red in “Boso” (2004).

Before the year 2004 ended, he was finally given a
chance to direct his first two films via film grants
from Cinemalaya and Cinema One Originals. The result
are the black comedy “Lasponggols (Last Take, Last
Shot)” and the mockumentary “Ang Anak Ni Brocka (Lino
Brocka’s Son)”. "Lasponggols" was invited to the
Fribourg Film Festival in Switzerland last March and
is again invited to the Leeds Film Festival in UK and
the Hawaii Film Festival late this year. "Ang Anak ni
Brocka" was screened last June at the Pesaro Film
Festival in Italy and will also be screened at the
San Pedro, California Film Festival and the Hawaii Film
Festival. Aside from these, he also wrote Topel Lee’s
Cinema One entry “Dilim” and acted for other indie
film festivals finalists like Mike Daganalan’s
“Isnats,” Ron Bryant’s “Baryoke,” and Jon Red’s “Anak
Ng Tinapa”.

Sanchez is also an accomplished music video director.
He recently won Best Director plum for this year’s
Awit Awards for Sugarfree’s “Hari Ng Sablay”. His next
video, Hale’s “The Day You Said Goodnight” was also as
successful as it was nominated at the 2005 NU Rock
Awards for Best Music Video, the 2006 MYX Awards, and
the 2006 Awit Awards. His third video Kyla’s “Till
They Take My Heart Away” is also faring well in the
charts. He was also assistant director to Bamboo’s
“Hallelujah” video. He has two recent music videos in
the tube, Shamrock's "Okey Lang" and Parokya Ni
Edgar's newest video "Gitara".

He considers his stint at the actual film shoots of
his filmmaker friends and mentors Erik Matti and Jon
Red his best film schools.