A feature debut exploring The Philippines‘ underground punk scene and social activism is participating at the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market, which is part of the Tokyo International Film Festival‘s TIFFCOM market.
“Ria,” directed by award-winning short filmmaker Arvin Belarmino, centers on 25-year-old Ria, who lives in a punk commune facing demolition while caring for her diabetic foster mother. Working as a hotel housekeeper, she becomes entangled in underground porn operations as financial pressures mount. The story culminates in Ria mobilizing her punk community against the forces threatening their home.
For Belarmino, the project emerges from direct experience. “I have always wanted to make a film about the Filipino punk community, because it is the community I am in,” says the director, who has been organizing mutual aid efforts with punk groups since 2013. “We visit marginalized areas and give food and basic necessities to those in need. This is our form of resistance against the system that pushes us to struggle over our most basic rights. I do this until today, the only difference is I’m now making a film about it.”
Belarmino’s shorts have won several awards, with “Radikals” scoring a Cannes nomination earlier this year. “While sometimes strange and bizzare, my short films have always had sociopolitical layers to them. I guess that combination itself, of creative defiance and consciousness, is my punk side taking over,” Belarmino says.
Producer Kristine De Leon (“Radikals”) was drawn to the project’s unique perspective on Filipino society. “Upon reading the first draft, I finally understood why this film was meant for me to produce,” she says. “Ria’s story is rooted in a woman’s perspective of the world around her, specifically the chaos and impunity currently plaguing Philippine society.”
Belarmino, an alumnus of Talents Tokyo, Locarno Filmmakers Academy, and Produire Au Sud Workshop Nantes, was selected for the 2022 Festival De Cannes Cinéfondation La Residence for “Ria” and won the Centre National du Cinema (CNC) award. Producer Alemberg Ang, who co-produced 2022 Cannes title “Plan 75,” joined after connecting with Belarmino during the latter’s Cannes Residency. “We spent a considerable amount of time talking and that’s when I fully understood what he wanted to do with his first feature. Without much hesitation, I told him that I would like to come on board as one of his producers. And the fact that Kristine, our delegate producer, is someone I’m mentoring makes the collaboration even sweeter,” says Ang.
Beyond its punk aesthetics, Belarmino underlines the film’s deeper resonance: “In the Philippines, punk is not just about music. It is a movement, a group of people locked arms in solidarity to help the marginalized, and peacefully resist against a system of corruption and impunity.”
The project is at TIFFCOM seeking to close its financing gap while connecting with potential sales agents, distributors and festival programmers.
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