Mariit will premier at the Straight-Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival
It was a long and difficult journey for me. I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker since I was a child. Poverty got in the way and so I ended up in a different profession. Fortunately, i got hired as a university instructor after graduation and this gave me the opportunity to finally realize what i always wanted to do. I taught myself photography at first, then later, I studied videography, all, through youtube. Then i joined my friends doing documentary projects. Finally, i tried filmmaking. My first short film got me a jury citation from a local festival. And the rest is history.
*What inspired you to make your movie?
I actually received a grant from my University to make a film. There’s one requirement: the film should be about water because my university’s flagship program is fisheries and oceanography. So i hought about possible conservation themes and got led into the concept of ‘mariit’- a term generally understood as synonymous with haunted or danger zone but in a study of Dr. Alicia Magos, the same concept is actually an environmental discourse which calls for people to respect and leave the environment to flourish. These grant requirement and scholarly study led me to create characters confronted with this environmental issue.
*How has your style evolved?
As a first time filmmaker, i cannot say i already have a style or if i have, it has already evolved. One thing, I always want my films to confront certain socio-political issues but the more i got into filmmaking, I realize that i am also getting into certain psychological concerns.
*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?
I don’t know if they are just technological glitches but i think i was able to capture some strange voices during the shooting of some scenes.
*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?
Honestly, this is the first time I have heard of these and upon reading this question, I immediately googled the terms and that’s where i found out about them. Sorry, i haven’t thought of them until now. But then, yeah, film revolutions are a means for the aesthetic to evolve.
*What can we expect from your next film?
I think i’ll go back to short films. I think i still need to improve my filmmaking skills and short filmmaking is a better medium to do so.
