Aperture 2018

PEOPLE POWER BOMBSHELL: THE DIARY OF VIETNAM ROSE
a film by John Torres
12 Sep, 8pm: Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle – presented in partnership with Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival
24 Sep: Close-Up Cinema, London + Q&A with John Torres – London premiere
dir. John Torres, Philippines 2017, Filipino/Tagalog + subtitles, 89 min
People Power Bombshell is the result of found footage of an unfinished film by prolific Filipino director Celso Advento Castillo. Heralded as the saviour of Filipino cinema in his homeland, Celso Advento Castillo made many diverse films across genres, including ‘bomba’ films – erotic dramas with moral tales. In the 1980s, he was making a film with the promising young actress Liz Alindogan, but due to financial difficulties the film was never completed. The film was also being shot at a time when the People Power Revolution was taking hold. It was from under Alindogan’s bed that the reels of footage were recovered. 30 years later, John Torres set about mixing this footage with new footage, together with a new soundscape including interviews with the original cast and crew. The result is a unique piece of work, recalling the experiences and memories of the cast and crew as if from an imagined script, while Alindogan reveals the difficulties she encountered, never having truly realised her dream of becoming a film star in the 80s.
Official Festival Selections:
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017
Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2017
Singapore International Festival of the Arts 2017
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2017
Past Screenings:
31 Mar, 1pm: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow
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John Torres – Biography
John Torres is an independent filmmaker, musician and writer. His filmography includes Todo Todo Teros (2006), Years When I Was a Child Outside (2008), and Lukas the Strange (2013). His work fictionalises and reworks personal and found documentations of love, family relations and memory in relation to current events, hearsay, myth and folklore. John teaches part-time at the Ateneo de Manila University. He conducts filmmaking workshops and co-organises artist talks and screenings in Los Otros, which he co-founded, a Manila-based space, film lab, and platform committed to the intersections of film and art, with a focus on process over product.
Also screening in Aperture / Southeast Asia focus
dir. Tan Pin Pin, Singapore 2017, 62 min
15 Sep, 6pm: Kings College London (Lucas Theatre) – London premiere presented in partnership with Chinese Visual Festival
...
Asia Through the Aperture – regional framings in cinema and art
free workshop jointly organised by Aperture and CREAM, University of Westminster
...
dir. Davy Chou, Cambodia/France/Germany 2016, Khmer + subtitles, 101 min
17 Sep: 8.15pm, Close-Up Cinema, London + Q&A with Kanitha Tith, UK premiere
...
dir. Pimpaka Towira, Thailand 2015, Thai + subtitles, 105 min
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