MANILA, Philippines — An “absurd” coming-of-age anthology film about high school classroom cleaners in the backdrop of Tuguegarao City in 2008, “Cleaners” by writer-director Glenn Barit claimed the top prize at the QCinema International Film Festival 2019's awarding last Friday.
The twist lies in the movie’s original photocopied visual style. If you’ve heard the phrase “cut and print,” Barit and his crew took it to the next level by manually photocopying, highlighting, crumpling, scanning, and assembling around 43,200 printed frames.
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"For its fresh and innovative storytelling that soars high from the seemingly small space of the narrative to the larger issues of acceptance, friendship, and love, driven by a vision whose complexity lies in its simplicity,” the Asian Next Wave Best Film award to “Cleaners” read.
Barit’s feature film debut also bagged the Audience Choice and Best Screenplay awards.
The director's short film "Bundok Chubibo" won Best Short Film at the Sinag Maynila Independent Film Festival 2017, while his more recent "Aliens Ata" won the NETPAC Jury Prize at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival 2017.
In his acceptance speech, Barit highlighted the need to afford opportunities to artists in the provinces.
"Ang dami daming mga artista at artists sa probinsya. Sana bigyan natin silang lahat ng opportunity,” Barit said.
(Actors and artists are abundant in the provinces. They should all be given an opportunity.)
“Ang laki-laki ng potential sa probinsya...Sana hindi lang sa elite accessible yung arts.”
(The provinces have so much untapped potential...Arts should be accessible to all, not just the elite.)