courtesy of autodidactfilm
In my continuing support of the Filipino indie film, I am featuring one movie that intrigued me after watching the trailer. “Aparisyon” (Apparition) is a finalist in the New Breed category of 2012 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition.
I’ve always had this fascination with the life of cloistered nuns. I grew up spending four years of my life inside a seminary in Bulacan where a small portion of the property housed a monastery with around 20 of the contemplative discipline residing. It’s as if one has committed a sin should an attempt to speak with them be made. In fact, the only instances when I got to see their faces was through steel bars on the sacristy side whenever I visited their chapel during an annual holy feast in honor of a specific saint significant to their order. And I always have had nagging questions in my mind about their daily existence – all left unanswered up until my last day as a seminarian (I lost my vocation during senior year) .
Set in the early 70s, “Aparisyon” is a psychological drama that follows a group of conservative nuns in the Philippine hinterlands in the months leading to the 1972 declaration of Martial Law by former President Ferdinand Marcos. The moral dilemma arises when one of the young nuns fall prey to an act of violence. Directed by US-based Filipino director Vincent Sandoval, this is his second full-length feature after last year’s “Senorita” which was exhibited in several film festivals in the US and Europe.“Aparisyon” stars Mylene Dizon, Jodi Sta. Maria, Raquel Villavicencio and Fides Cuyugan-Asensio. It will have its red-carpet premiere at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on July 26, at 6:15 PM. Click on the several links above to signify your support for the movie. If you are unable to attend this event, then catch it during the festival’s regular run from July 20-29.