Cinemata Holds Its Seventh Year of SineDisipulo
Photo by Keith Ayuman
Cinemata, the organization of the Cinema program of the University of San Carlos (USC), held its seventh run of their annual film exhibition SineDisipulo last March 22, 2019, at The Grid in Talamban.
The line-up of this year’s SineDisipulo consisted of short films made by students of USC and St. Theresa’s College (STC). One of the film entries was “Usa Ka Libo”, directed by Eli Razo from Studio Evision. The film won the award for “Best Short Film” in this year’s Sinulog Short Film Festival. “Hello Sunshine”, the short film of this year’s Kuris directed by Keith Ayuman was also included in the line-up.
Atty. Grace Marie Lopez, the adviser of Cinemata, opened the event, stating that the objective of SineDisipulo is to showcase each other’s works through the medium of film. Joi Villablanca, the president of Cinemata, echoed Atty. Lopez’ sentiments, saying that SineDisipulo is a gathering of local filmmakers to watch each other’s films. Villablanca added that the exhibition is not a competition, rather, it’s a collaborative effort. Atty. Lopez also said that the Cebuano film industry is currently at its peak since the creation of the Cinema program at USC.
The exhibition also took the time to dedicate Steven Atenta, who was a former instructor of the Cinema program and a good friend of the organization after he was hospitalized for heat stroke and was diagnosed with liver failure. His family is asking for donations that would pay for his hospital bills. A donation box was placed in the registration table in conjunction to their GoFundMe donation page. Diem Juilla, a faculty member of the Cinema program, gave a personal speech about Atenta, saying he was training for the martial arts competition of the Southeast Asian Games at the time of the incident. Juilla added that if Atenta wins gold, they would create an action film with Atenta as the lead actor.
The screening of films was split into two waves. In the first wave, the films shown were “Achi” directed by Altheia Celis from STC, “Beyond the Scene” by Ylyannah Canete from STC, “The Business Quarters” by Celis and Jacquelyn Tu from STC, “Hello Sunshine” and “Alamag” by Andrei Roman and Sophia Puerto from USC.
In the second wave, the films shown were “Wednesday Queer” by Ayuman, “Iridescence” by Hannanina Mantos from STC, “Padayon“ by Gerard Ma & Denise Macatangay from STC, “La Aurora” by Leela Labruada from STC, “A Fire’s Exhaustion” by Bobby Villacarlos II from USC and “Usa Ka Libo”.
Before the exhibition ended, Villablanca delivered her closing remarks, saying that this year’s SineDisipulo is organized by the first year students of the organization and the Cinema program and she was proud of everyone who was involved in organizing the event. She ended her remarks by concretizing SineDisipulo as an endeavor for the art of cinema.
