MAIKLING PELIKULA
Bawi
Jose Antonio de Rivera
In Filipino, BAWI means recovery or revenge. The director used this as an overarching there in carrying out his story and in his execution.
The film deals with the social reality of rampant yet largely unresolved child abductions combined with organ theft in the periphery of the National Capital Region. The film also seeks to explore recovery and revenge in terms of the narrative wherein a single mother recovers her child and inflicts her revenge through a final fight based on three Filipino Oral Epics where the heroines are not only live givers but life takers as well.
The film recognizes the success of realist films in recent memory as films that represent the realities of today’s modern society but it also seeks to infuse to new life into the traditional Filipino Oral Epics by presenting these stories in a manner that would be attractive to today’s film audience.
JOSE ANTONIO DE RIVERA is a graduate of BA Film and Audio Visual Communication, Cum Laude, at UP Diliman in 2011. Since then, he has worked in various film and television productions in and out of the country. He worked as Production Manager for an Indian film, Dhada (2011); Correspondent for Metropolis TV; Co-writer/co-director for Suntok sa Buwan (2012) & Balang Araw (2012) which are two feature films for the SM Bigshot Film Festival; Line Producer for Dagitab (2014); and Production Manager for Transit (2013) which was the official entry of the Philippines to the 86th Oscars.
He’s currently a Producer at ETCETERA (ETC-Solar) and an Associate Producer/Editor/Cinematographer for Sabong Nation in IBC 13.
His thesis film, Bawi (2011), got a Special Award for Excellence at the UP Film Institute.
MAIKLING PELIKULA is a program featuring outstanding and award-winning short films. Likewise to be featured will be a discussion and annotation by the director-filmmaker. The program will highlight the experimental and narrative genres of film.
