TORONTO, Canada –It was a moving sight — Anita Linda, at 83, attending her first ever international film festival, was applauded and cheered enthusiastically by the audience who came to the second screening of “Adela,” her movie directed by Adolfo Alix Jr. (left) and produced by Arleen Cuevas (right), at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival. A “question and answer” with the audience followed the screening which reflected the crowd’s affection for Anita and her performance as a grandmother marking her 80th birthday. I was told that the first screening of “Adela” was also a success. (Photo by Ruben Nepales).

MY good hunch about our two entries in the ongoing Venice Film Festival’s sidebar, Orizzonti, “Jay” and “Melancholia,” is proving to be right.

(Photo: “Jay” delegation on the Lido [from left]: distributor Ferdy Lapuz, actor-cinematographer Carlo Mendoza, lead actor Baron Geisler and writer-director-producer Francis Xavier E. Pasion)

Financial Times came out with the first review of director Francis Xavier E. Pasion’s “Jay” and it is very encouraging. The London paper’s critic, Nigel Andrews, cited Francis’ directorial debut which stars Baron Geisler, Coco Martin and Flor Salanga, as one of the standouts so far in the festival on the Lido.

Andrews wrote, “On the Venice fringe there have been two films to cheer: an Italian reconstruction and a Philippine satire. Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1963 La Rabbia (‘Rage’) was a potion of screen rhetoric, never before seen in the undiluted form the director intended…Giuseppe Bertolucci (Bernardo’s brother) has re-assembled the old material, added some never seen, and puts before Italy and the world Pasolini’s true original rage, a scintillating montage of 20th-century news footage – from Mussolini to Marilyn Monroe – unified and signposted by a genius’s vision.

“Perfidious media managers; treachery in the name of truth. They are everywhere today, not least in the lies of ‘reality TV.’ Francis Xavier Pasion’s Jay, from the Philippines, is an acutely funny tale of intrusive telly reporters, bearing down on a family bereaved by a gay son’s murder to make their grief part of a nation’s infotainment. They start by poking a lens at the family’s faces as they learn the news; they end by getting them to act, or re-enact, every emotional convulsion that needs a second, third or umpteenth take. The remuneration? The reporters will help find the son’s killer. By the time they do, even the murderer, we know, will be signing release forms and hungrily securing his 15 minutes of fame.”

Congratulations to the “Jay” delegation now in Venice! Next, Lav Diaz unveils his “Melancholia” on Saturday. I have high hopes for Lav’s second consecutive Orizzonti (Horizons) entry too.

THESE are exciting times for Philippine independent cinema. Pinoy indie films are being selected left and right as official selections in major film festivals around the world.

(Photo: RP pride on the red carpet in the Venice Film Festival where “Jay” opened Orizzonti, a competition sidebar: actor-cinematographer Carlo Mendoza, lead actor Baron Geisler, Venice Film Festival director Marco Mueller, selection committee member Paolo Bertolin, writer-director-producer Francis Xavier E. Pasion and distributor Ferdy Lapuz).

I just heard via e-mail from director Francis Xavier E. Pasion, whose Cinemalaya winning entry, “Jay,” just opened the Orizzonti (Horizons) sidebar of the ongoing Venice Film Festival.

While Francis sounded ecstatic about the reception of “Jay” at the PalaLido and PalaBiennale in the festival on the Lido, he also expressed his wish that the Philippine government and the private sector would support more enthusiastically the fledging indie film industry which has been reaping honors for the country.

The director of the film which stars Baron Geisler, Coco Martin and my long-time friend Flor Salanga wrote in his email to me, “I am extremely happy for Philippine cinema’s participation in the Venice International Film Festival, but at the same time, I feel that there is more to be done to be more competitive in the world stage. I envy some of the films that are given full support by the government and private sectors in their respective countries.”

He clarified, “We are grateful for the FDCP (Film Development Council of the Philippines) for their support for our film, but we hope that the government would give more funding to the agency because more films are getting invitations from festivals abroad, and there is a resurgence of independent films that need funding from the agency.”

Lav Diaz, whose “Melancholia” closes the Orizzonti on Saturday, September 6, had earlier expressed similar sentiments but in, let me say, colorful Tagalog terms.

The filmmaker who is going places with his first feature film added, “FDCP and the NCCA (National Commission for Culture and the Arts) are the two government institutions that are directly involved with the funding of independent films.”

He shared, “The international audience in Venice could hardly believe that we can produce a good film in 10 days with a budget of only 1.5 million pesos (25,000 euros).

Speaking about the subject matter of “Jay,” Francis said, “Some of the Italian documentary film directors and media practitioners said that they can relate with the strong message of media manipulation and the prevalence of infotainment in Italy.”

Both he and Francis have a chance of shouting “Mabuhay ang pelikulang Pilipino!” from the podium come awards night on Sunday, September 7.

IT seems like only yesterday when we interviewed Brillante “Dante” Mendoza and took pictures of him on Cannes’ famous Croisette last year. Now, we just learned the happy news that Dante is returning to Cannes this year but this time, his entry, “Serbis,” is in the major event — the in-competition category. We are so proud that another Pinoy filmmaker is following the Cannes path blazed by the late great Lino Brocka.

Dante is in great company. Just ponder the list of filmmakers whose films are also in competition this year: Clint Eastwood, Charlie Kaufman, Wim Wenders, Walter Salles, Atom Egoyan, Jia Zhangke, Steven Soderbergh and Arnaud Desplechin. Mabuhay ka, Dante!

A FILM on a Pinoy transvestite won Thursday the top prize at the Berlinale’s Teddy Queer Film Awards.

“The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela,” which stars Raquela Rios of Cebu, bagged the Best Feature Film Award in the sidebar of the Berlin International Film festival.

“Queen Raquela” was cited by the jury “for its ability to address race, gender and poverty in an entertaining way, while also playing with audiences’ expectations of form.”

Filipino director Auraeus Solito won the same award in 2006 for his acclaimed “Ang Pagdadalaga ni (The Blossoming of) Maximo Oliveros.”

The prize includes a 3,000 Euro endowment to the film’s director, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson. Arlene Cuevas co-produced “Queen Raquela” which also features actors from the Philippines and Iceland, including Olivia Galudo, Brax Villa, Amor Alingasa, Raniel Dave Balasabas, Ren Christian Balasabas, Stefan C. Schaefer, Edith Galudo, Luis Labandero, Archie Modequillo, Reynaldo Palatulon and Alexis Yap.

“Queen Raquela,” which also tapped a Pinoy crew that includes Alexis, Butch Maddul, Ragnar Santos, and Beverly Tañedo, was shot in the Philippines, Thailand, Iceland, Denmark, France and the US.

Olaf wrote the plot summary in the film’s IMDB.com entry: “Raquela is a poor ladyboy prostitute who dreams of escaping to Paris, France to supposedly find her knight on Champs-Elysees, marry and have a family… But she has little chance of getting a French visa…

“When Raquela is discovered by a photographer, she gets a job working as a webcam host on a popular ladyboy website. Within six weeks, she becomes the first Filipino online porn star and earns ten times the average salary in the Philippines. Wanting to escape, she tries over the Internet to find that special guy who will take her to Paris but she is not fortunate: she is stood-up month after month at the airport.

“Things change when she meets online Valery, the only ladyboy in Iceland looking for friendship and who promises to help Raquela with her visa so she can finally go to Paris.”