Director Mel Chionglo Is Monitoring Head Of Cinemalaya But Has An Entry In Sineng Pambansa

DIREK MEL CHIONGLO says he got excited with “Lauriana” as it’s his first movie to be filmed in his home province of Quezon. “The film is based on a true story that happened in the 1950s in a small town in Quezon to designer Rikki Jimenez,” he says. “It’s told from the point of view of a little boy, si Carding, to be played by child actor Adrian Cabido na nakuha namin sa auditions. He idolizes the character of Allen, a military man. Ampon lang siya ni Angeli Bayani, so he’s looking for a father figure. Later on, he gets traumatized nang makita niya kung paano bugbugin ni Allen si Bangs as Lauriana. We’ll show how this affected him when he grows up in the 70s. We’ll shoot the movie sa Tulay Buhangin for 8 days. I pray na huwag sana kaming ulanin doon para hindi ma-delay ang shooting.”

The movie is produced by Mrs. Baby Go who said she loved the material about domestic violence. Mrs. Go also produced Joel Lamangan’s “Lihis”, which is also written by Ricky Lee who’s really so productive these days after resting from scriptwriting for six years. He also wrote the script of “Burgos” starring Lorna Tolentino. All three movies (“Lihis”, “Burgos” and “Lauriana”) are all line-produced by Dennis Evangelista, who just resigned from a CineFilipino Filmfest entry, “Mga Alaala ng Tag-ulan”, due to personal differences with the director, Ato Bautista of “Palitan”.

Direk Mel Chionglo is also the Monitoring Head of the Cinemalaya Filmfest entries that will be shown next month at the CCP, taking over from Robbie Tan. He says most of the 15 entries are really worthseeing. “Isa na lang ang hindi natatapos, yung ‘Porno’ ni Adolf Alix. Isu-shoot pa lang, but he said it’ll be finished by the first week of July. “

So what’s his experience working with new filmmakers? “Siempre, may mga matitigas pa rin ang ulo’t pasaway. But I think mas nago-open up sila sa’kin dahil they know director din ako at nakaka-relate ako sa kanila. We give them advice on financing and casting at nakikinig naman sila.”