BALIKBAYAN CINEMA COMES TO MANILA

In the fast-moving local film industry, there's a lot of creative effort that falls through the cracks. Filipino films, short or feature, hardly get the airing they deserve, even in Manila, let alone on foreign screens.

- SCOTT GARCEAU

Trying to rectify that a bit, Cine Balikbayan took over Dengcar Theater at Mowelfund last weekend, launching its first exhibition of films from the Filipino diaspora. The launch screened 13 short films and one feature film on closing night — the Slamdance Film Festival honorable mention feature Alice-Heart directed by Mike Macera, which earned an outstanding acting prize for its lead actress Lissa Carandang-Sweeney at Slamdance this year. It was preceded by another Philippine premiere, the short film Flip the Record directed by fellow Slamdance alumna Marie Jamora.

According to event organizer Ren Aguila, Marie knew Lissa through Cinema Sala, the US-based Filipino film advocacy, and helped get the indie film Alice-Heart a screening in New York.

"Marie told me, 'We really should get Flip the Record shown in Manila,'" Aguila recalls. Jamora and husband Jason McLagan worked to put together the best version of it for its first screening in Manila.

And it looks great: a short, nostalgic introduction to teen wannabe DJ Vanessa — or "Van" — and her Fil-Am family in the California '80s, when turntables ruled the weekends. I had to ask Marie — since the film ends as abruptly as the finale of