A New Movie Company Dares Produce Five New Meaningful, Socially Relevant Local Films

IT’S ALWAYS A reason to celebrate when new producers venture into local filmmaking at this time that the industry has slowed down, as this means more jobs for our actors, directors, writers and crew members. One very active production company now is BG Production International of Mrs. Baby Go. They have two new films in the can and three new films in production. And what’s nice is that they are all meaningful movies, socially relevant and not just the usual mindless escapist entertainment offered by most companies.

Their two films that have been completed are: “Homeless” – About people who lost their home and property due to calamities in the province and come to the city to end up as beggars, starring Snooky Serna, Ejay Falcon, Dimples Romana and Martin del Rosario. This is partly filmed in Cambodia.

“Bigkis” – About population explosion, congestion in hospitals, the sacrifices of people in the medical profession, starring LJ Reyes as a young mom, Lauren Young as a dedicated nurse, Mike Tan, Enzo Pineda, Rich Asuncion, Pancho Magno, Rosanna Roces and Perla Bautista. Both films are helmed by Neal Tan.

The three films in production are: “Tupang Ligaw” – Directed by Rod Santiago, this is an action-drama about gun issues starring Charee Pineda, Emilio Garcia, Kuya Germs Moreno and new comer Mario Marcos.

“Child House” – Based on the true stories of children afflicted with the big C who benefit from the halfway house spearheaded by Mother Ricky Reyes. This is a touching film showing their and their parents’ struggles against the dreaded disease, written by Socorro Villanueva and directed by Louie Ignacio. The child stars who’ll play the lead characters are Mona Louise Rey, Miggs Cuaderno, Therese Malvar, Vince Magbanua, Felizia Dizon (daughter of Allen Dizon) and Erica Yu. Nadine Samonte plays Mona’s mom while Katrina Halili plays Miggs’ mom.

“Daluyong (Storm Surge)” – Written by Ricky Lee and directed by Mel Chionglo (the same team who did the acclaimed “Lauriana” that is an entry in the Hanoi International Filmfest next month), Ricky says the film shows the loneliness of priests while trying to remain faithful to their vocation as “alagad ng Diyos” and the ordinariness of evil. Allen Dizon plays a young priest who is reassigned to a remote town after he gets one of his parishioners (Diana Zubiri) pregnant. In his new assignment, he meets a priest who is a drunkard and a healing priest. Then he becomes a suspect in the murder of a powerful man in their town, with explosive results.

We wish all these films would find the audience that they deserve. People who keep on complaining for the lack of good and truly worth seeing local movies should watch out for these movies when they are shown.