PHILIPPINES OPENS AS FOCUS COUNTRY AT 1st ASIAN HOT SHOTS FILM/VIDEO FESTIVAL IN BERLIN

Ambassador Domingo-Albert with “Keka” Director Quark Henares

21 January 2008  -- Philippine Ambassador to Germany Delia Domingo-Albert reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Philippines is the focus country at the 1^st Asian Hot Shots – Festival for Film and Video Art that opened last 16 January at the Babylon Theater in Berlin with a European premier of the film entitled “Keka” directed by Quark Henares.  The Festival will run from 16 to 22 January 2008. 

During the opening program, Ambassador Domingo-Albert welcomed some 500 guests and commended the pioneering efforts of the festival organizers, Green Chillies e. V.  The Festival brings together young Asian filmmakers and their works that will serve as a catalyst in enhancing friendship and understanding between and among film artists and their counterparts and with their German and international audiences in Berlin. 

On its first edition, the Festival chose the Philippines as focus country to highlight the resurgence of Philippine cinema as reflected in the dynamism and innovativeness of the Filipino filmmakers utilizing digital technology.  According to the organizers, the Philippines´ century-old cinema industry which began at the onset of the 20^th century to the present, is still taking the lead in Southeast Asian filmmaking. 

42 Philippine short and feature films will be shown throughout the festival, aside from other entries coming from the Asia-Pacific region.   

On 18 January 2008, Goethe Institute Manila launched the book entitled “Kino-Sine: Philippine-German Cinema Relations” edited by Tilman Baumgärtel that chronicles the beginnings of the experimental and alternative film movement of the 80s in the Philippines, which paralleled developments in contemporary German cinema.   

Thereafter, a panel of experts in Philippine and German cinema discussed Philippine-German cinema collaboration namely, Nick Deocampo (Director, Mowelfund Film Institute, Manila), Kidlat Tahimik (filmmaker Philippines), Richard Künzel (Director, Goethe Institut Manila), Ingo Petzke (Professor for film and video at Fachhochschule Würzburg), Christoph Janetzko (filmmaker Berlin), Jürgen Brüning (Pornfilmfestival) Berlin and Tilman Baumgärtel (Editor of Kino-Sine, University of the Philippines). 

The day was capped by a Filipino Night with Filipino food, band music and karaoke following the film showing of “Philippine Nightmare” by director Kidlat Tahimik at the Grüner Salon. 

/gary

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