Personal Notes

In 2017, I promised myself that if I'm trapped in a place; bored or challenged by circumstances, I'd shoot a film in the absence of books or any form of activity. In short, ayoko ng walang ginagawa, haha! So, this "mobile-sintas" series of mine was created. These are little personal films shot and edited using whatever phone that's available for use - whether mine or someone else's. 'Sintas' is a Hiligaynon word which means 'film'. Hiligaynon is a language spoken by more than 9 million Filipinos in Visayas and Mindanao regions. Iloilo province has the largest population of Hiligaynon speakers.

Hapunan sa Hatinggabi is the fifth in my mobile-sintas series. The films under the mobile-sintas are usually not submitted to film festivals with the exception of the 'Ang May Akda' micro-trilogy, 'Patibsok' and 'Red Sky, Purple Lake' which toured more than 20+ international film festivals combined.

I would categorize 'Hapunan sa Hatinggabi' as a narrative vignette which could be a portion or scene from a bigger storyline. In this case, it's a scene when one of the twin brother woke up and found his twin consuming something inside their bathroom. Given the target length of the work, I want everything to be assumed and would want watchers to interpret the situation. It's very interesting to hear reactions from friends and strangers after they've seen this. Some of them would even say "Pwede pala ang ganito?". I think despite its rich history, cinema is so young in a sense that our exploration of it and its capabilities can be very limiting.