Benilde’s very own “Swelas,” a six-minute short film directed by Filmmaking student Lester Cristal, triumphed as Best Screenplay and 2nd Best Film in the 2018 CineMAYBANK Short Film Festival, a festival that highlights the creations of college filmmakers all over the country.
Swelas, a story that revolves around a shoemaker’s struggles to accept his daughter’s shoe design proposal in the midst of a failing business and an innovating industry, bested 20 other entries.
“Swelas not only tackles a story that can resonate to everyone, but this film intends to endeavor, uplift, and patronize our local shoe industry,” Director Shannon ‘Lester Cristal’ Paraico shared in an interview with The Benildean, adding that he has always wanted to make a film that would showcase the famed craft of his hometown, the shoe-making capital, Marikina City.
The short film portrayed a hardworking Filipino parent named Ronny (Mr. Soliman Cruz) to provide for his child’s needs. Alyssais, the shoemaker’s daughter (Kyla Ravago), decided to use the old shoes her father had made instead of her newly owned pair (Risqué design by Tal) since it had a sentimental value to her.
Ronny’s dilemma was to accept his daughter’s suggestion on improving his designs because of the failing shoe business; he then produced a new shoe style and showed a signage proving he agrees on the idea of change as part of her graduation gift.
Mr. Brillante Mendoza, a multi-awarded film director, led a creative two-day boot camp for participants as part of CineMAYBANK’s objectives this year in making a platform for art and culture that follow their bestowed values: to go beyond usual topics as students conceptualized the theme for the videos; and to make these filmmakers as storytellers with compelling reality stories of everyday people and circumstances.
Awardees were recognized at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig last November 17.
There will also be a free CineMaybank film screening tomorrow, November 27, 1 p.m., at Cinematheque Center, Ermita Manila. For the past 20 years, Maybank Philippines has been serving as the leading international financial institution, establishing partnerships with the Film Development Council of the Philippines and endorsement from the Commission on Higher Education.
