Why Astig is worth another viewing

Astig, the multi-awarded independent film and top grosser during the 2009 Cinemalaya Film Festival, is now out on DVD nationwide. It was praised by international film authority Cho Young-Jung during the 14th Pusan International Film Festival for “portraying severe reality which doesn’t allow even for small dreams and capturing the hope and despair of four men and their low lives in Manila.”

Astig won four awards in last year’s Cinemalaya Film Festival: Best Director (GP Sampedro), Best Supporting Actor (Arnold Reyes), Best Editing (Charliebebs Gohetia) and Best Sound (Ditoy Aguila, Junnel Valencia and Mark Locsin). It was hailed in various international filmfests like the 14th International Film Festival where it got a Special Citation — New Currents Section, the Osaka Film Festival; the Festival de Cine Asiatico de Barcelona; the 10th Asiaticafilmmediale in Rome and the Geneve Festival de Films in Switzerland.

Astig stars four talented young actors: Dennis Trillo, Arnold Reyes, Edgar Allan Guzman and Sid Lucero. It is of interest to note that Trillo, aside from being a certified box-office and TV star is also a brilliant actor.

Critics and award-winning bodies cited Lucero and Reyes for performances in films before Astig. Lucero was Best Actor at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for Selda (tied with Emilio Garcia), Urian and Gawad Tanglaw for the same movie; the Golden Screen Awards Breakthrough Performance by an Actor for Donsol, Cinema One Originals for Best Actor for Tambolista, among others. Reyes has several acting nominations including Best Actor Aliw Awards and the Asian Television awards, while Edgar Allan emerges as an exciting presence in this movie.

The actors’ performances explode with gritty realism and sensitivity that ignite empathy from an audience unconsciously desensitized by life’s daily toils.

Such intelligent and affecting performances are uncommon for actors of their age these days.

Astig boasts of a stellar line-up of thespians and multi-media personalities in supporting roles: Ai-Ai de las Alas, Pooh, Bianca Gonzalez, Mariel Rodriguez, Sitti Navarro, Jhong Hilario, Vhong Navarro, Chanda Romero, Rustica Carpio, Keanna Reeves, Glaiza de Castro, Angellie Urquico, Gardo Versoza, Emilio Garcia, Kim Atienza and Paolo Paraiso.

Astig intertwines their respective characters in a most unexpected way that heightens their perceived depravities and makes the city come alive as a living

predatory character whose ruthlessness decrees no mercy.

A straightforward narrative of the four young men’s tales vividly depicts the inner turmoil of their complicated stories. Astig successfully marries the art of filmmaking with real circumstances and

emotional turbulence.

Experience the art of filmmaking and savor the bittersweet taste of reality in Astig. The movie’s co- executive producer is my good friend Boy So.

Magnitude 7 on the Orchestra Scale

Cultural Center of the Philippines presents the 1st National Orchestra Festival 2010 on Sept. 21 to 25 at the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo at 8 p.m.  The event, tagged Magnitude 7 on the Orchestra Scale, features concerts by seven of the country’s finest orchestras: FILharmoniKA, Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO), UP Orchestra, Angono Chamber Orchestra, UST Symphony Orchestra, PREDIS Chamber Orchestra and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO). 

A Festival Orchestra, composed of select members of different orchestras, will perform in the festival’s opening and closing concerts. The grand finale on Sept. 25 will feature various conductors taking turns in leading the Festival Orchestra.

PPO, under music director Olivier Ochanine and the Festival Orchestra will kick off the 1st National Orchestra Festival 2010 on Sept.21.  

PREDIS Chamber Orchestra, under conductor Jeffrey Solares, and the MSO, under Arturo Molina, will perform on Sept. 22. On Sept. 23, FILharmoniKa, under the baton of Gerard Salonga, will perform Terry’s Theme from Limelight by Charlie Chaplin, arranged by Salonga, Night on a Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, Yerma by Francisco Feliciano and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. On the same day, the UST Symphony Orchestra, led by Herminigildo Ranera, performs.

UP Orchestra, under Edna “Michi” Marcil Martinez and the Angono Chamber Orchestra, under Agripino “Nonoy” Diestro will perform on Sept. 24.  

For more information, call CCP Box Office at tel. no. 832-1125 local 1409 and 832-3704.