Sinukuan Festival to Include Contest for Short Films

The advocacy to promote the Kapampangan language has just extended its reach to include the medium of film, with the launching of the First Sinukuan Film Festival, a competition of short films using the Kapampangan language.

The contest is the latest feature of the annual Sinukuan Festival, which is sponsored by the Foundation for Lingap Kapampangan, Inc. (KLFI).

According to Fer Santos, VP for Marketing of the KLFI, the film festival features short films (10 to 20 minutes long) that depict any topic or theme and use dialogue that is mostly in Kapampangan. It is open to amateur and professional filmmakers, Kapampangans and non-Kapampangans, living in the country or abroad.

A free workshop will be held at the Center for Kapampangan Studies, Holy Angel University for those who are interested to join the contest.

Santos says that participants will be taught how to make short films, from writing the script to using digital camera, directing, acting, editing and subtitling.

Kapampangan filmmaker Jason Laxamana of Kalalangan Kamaru, a co-sponsor of the contest, will serve as workshop facilitator. Cannes Film Festival Best Director, Brillante "Dante" Mendoza, a native of the City of San Fernando, will be guest lecturer.

The film entries will be shown during the festival and will vie for awards such as best picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay, cinematography, production design, sound & music and special jury prize. The top film will be awarded P30,000 in addition to the trophy.

Santos says that the organizers are arranging for the showing of the film entries in mall theatres and cable TV.

Robby Tantingco, Director of the Center for Kapampangan Studies which co-sponsors the contest, says that the film festival will celebrate the contribution of Kapampangans to the film industry in the Philippines, which is why there will be retrospectives and tributes to outstanding film actors, actresses, directors, screenwriters who hailed from the Kapampangan Region.

"But more than that, the festival's aim is to show that it's better to use the Kapampangan language in films depicting the Kapampangan experience," Tantingco says. "Eventually we will have our own movie industry here in Pampanga, the way the Cebuanos, the Davaoeños, and the other regions have done. It's time to decentralize the movie industry from Manila."

Those who are interested to join the free workshop and submit entries may contact the Center for Kapampangan Studies at tel. nos. (045) 888-8691 local 1312 or 1369, email kapampangancenter@yahoo.com, or text 0918 941 8599.