DAGSIN AT CINEMALAYA FESTIVAL: A BREATH OF FRESH AIR FOR FILIPINO MOVIEGOERS

I chanced upon a Filipino independent (indie) film titled “DAGSIN” today and I must confess that I nearly broke down into tears at the end. And yes, I’d recommend it to hopeless romantics like myself. It’ll be well worth your while and your 150 pesos (only!).

I can only speak from the point of view of someone who’ve only seen mostly foreign films my entire life because this was how we were raised – no “bakya” TV shows or movies. “DAGSIN” is world-class quality, in my humble observation. I’m captivated
by its story as well as the storytelling. I think that our movie industry has come a long way and we should showcase our countrymen’s talents in movie-making and acting by joining more international film fests and competitions.

Considering that our indie film makers have a relatively limited budget in producing these films, I’m eager to see what they are capable of with a considerably bigger war chest. Let’s patronize CINEMALAYA films so that these quality movie-makers can keep on making films that our race can really be proud of. Kudos to Director Atom Magadia, cast members Tommy Abuel, Lotlot De Leon, Benjamin Alves, Janine Gutierrez, Alex Diaz, Sue Prado, Yoshihiko Hara, et al and the producers – a job well done!

It is interesting to say that among the audience are Caucasian-looking people who were undoubtedly impressed by “DAGSIN”. That’s Filipino talent, I can proudly say to them.