Direk Raymond Red on telling big stories in short films

What also makes the culture and tradition of telling stories and exploring topics through moving images persist and prosper is the effort of local governments and private companies to mount film festivals.

- By JERRY DONATO

The CINEGOMA Film Festival, organized by RK Rubber Enterprise Co., encourages film enthusiasts and practitioners to display their creativity and points of view in short form or short films.

For its sixth edition, the filmfest's theme is "May Kwento ang bawat Laban," and it is open to amateurs, professionals, students, RK Rubber insiders and anyone.

They can submit their entries to the various categories, from student to commercial, professional to artificial intelligence (AI) and RK exclusive.

Aug. 15 is the deadline for registration for interested participants. There's no registration fee.

The film festival will run from Nov. 24 to 29, and awards and cash prizes will be given away.

The CINEGOMA festival director is Xavier Cortez, CEO of RK Rubber, while filmmaker Raymond Red, also a pioneer and figure in the country's alternative and independent cinema, sits as the co-festival director and creative consultant.

"The short form is really quite challenging," said Raymond when The STAR asked him about the exciting part of this kind of filmmaking in a recent press conference. "You can try to follow the supposed rules of, you know, let's say, (the ones being) applied in full-length movies."

"But in a short film, you can break those rules," added he, giving the three-act (structure) story as an example in writing one's screenplay, "because you have to find your own way to tell it."

Although short films are good starting points for an enthusiast or a student of this art form, he said that one needs to study it.