A short film featuring the life of three farmers in Atok, Benguet following a natural calamity has won Best Cinematography for a young digital filmmaker from La Trinidad, Benguet in the Korea International Short Film Festival 2022.
Patrick Wong, 24, the cinematographer in the film “Atin ang Langit-Ours is the Sky”, won the award for the crew mostly composed of young people, who spent their time taking shots in Atok to produce the film.
The film, which is also a finalist for Best Short Film, was directed b y Baguio boy Victor Lorenzo Ventura, a graduate of University of Baguio Science High. Ventura and Wong met in Manila where the duo decided to feature their hometowns starting with Benguet.
Wong, son of Ibaloy businessman Danny and Eunice Wong, took up Digital Filmmaking at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde and graduated this year.
Also behind the scene who contributed to the award are the members of colorist and camera department, namely Ian Galicia, Cj Villanueva, Tyrone James Luanzon, and Jan Christian Dijan.
The same film has also won awards such as the Best Editing in the Nabuturan Independent Film Exhibition with Meg Lacuna as the editor.
It was also nominated for Best Actor for Jemuel Cedrick Razon Satumba, Best Cinematography for Wong, Best Production Design for Nix Cereza Bueno, and Best Sound and Music for Mikhail Pineda, Zandrine Quizon, and Sean Tristan Francisco.
Based on the synopsis, the film deals with three farmers who found themselves at the mercy of nature when their crops were damaged.
Incapable of doing anything, they leave it up to time to start anew. The crew followed three farmers, Earl, Castor, and Bert, on their journey to find a way forward as farmers and as people. Believing they are cursed, the farmers sought an anathema to their plights only to be confronted by a futuristic, hydroponic farm.
They move between bouts of drinking, folk legend, and the possibilities of the future in their quest for an explanation and a way forward. In their journey, embittered by the loss of their crops season after season, they are confronted at a crossroads of farming and its meaning.
Finding forward, they must choose between an oppressive but productive future, a free but unsteady tradition, or a middle ground between two possible futures.
While there is a growing public demand for a possible film viewing, the same cannot be posted in any social media platform, as it is an official entry to other film festivals. – Harley F. Palangchao
