Pepe Diokno’s Engkwentro goes to Hollywood, picks Shoreline as global agent

Rejected by the 2009 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival jury, Pepe Diokno’s international award-winning debut film Engkwentro will be shown in Santa Monica in California on Nov. 4 to 11 during the 30th American Film Market, a move that could pave the way for the film’s global commercial distribution. The American Film Market is acknowledged as the premiere global market for motion pictures, with Hollywood’s wheelers and dealers converging there every November since 1981 to close production and distribution deals worth more than US$800 million. More than 5,000 films are in the latest catalogue. Last week, Diokno signed a contract with Shoreline Entertainment, an elite Hollywood feature film production and distribution company headed by the iconic film producer Morris Ruskin, to represent him and Engkwentro all over the world, except in the Philippines. Engkwentro won the Best Picture award in the Orizzonti (New Horizons) program of the 66th Venice International Film Festival held last Sept. 2 to 12. In the same festival, Diokno took home the “Lion of the Future" prize, formally known as the Luigi de Laurentiis Venice Award for a Debut Film, which carries a prize of US$100,000 donated by Filmauro; the amount is divided equally between the director and producer. Two separate international juries in Venice conferred the awards unanimously to Diokno and his film Engkwentro “for its bravery, novel storytelling, and technical achievement." The 22-year-old Diokno is one of the youngest winners in the Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest film competition. Inspired by true events, the 61-minute Engkwentro is the story of two teen-aged brothers -- Richard and Raymond – who are members of rival gangs. Richard leads the gang Bagong Buwan (New Moon) while neophyte Raymond is being inducted into Batang Dilim ("Children of the Night"), whose leader Tomas gives Raymond the difficult task of killing his older brother Richard to gain admission into the gang. The story of Richard and Raymond and their deadly gang rivalry unfolds against the backdrop of unexplained killings widely blamed on an urban death squad allegedly supported by the city mayor. The shadowy death squad is also believed to be behind the many unsolved murders of teen gangsters. The film takes the viewer along the death squad’s hunt for Richard; what happens to his brother Raymond is also chilling. Away from indie In an exclusive interview, Diokno was modestly excited but extremely guarded with the international attention generated by Engkwentro in the commercial distribution circuit. “Our film is now being represented in Hollywood by Shoreline Entertainment, one of the most important film distribution companies in the US. We just signed a contract with them last week. They will handle selling Engkwentro worldwide and will represent it at the American Film Market in November," Diokno said. “A showing in the American Film Market, however, does not guarantee a buyer. So we are all crossing our fingers that we would generate interest from buyers," said Diokno. Shoreline Entertainment is a heavyweight in marketing, selling, and distributing foreign films worldwide, with 60 percent of its business interests devoted to sales. The company has two sub-labels: Watermark for indie, art, drama, and comedy films and Riptide for thriller, action, and horror pictures. “We are trying to steer Engkwentro away from the indie film circuit," Diokno said. “After winning two awards in the 66th Venice Biennale, we received numerous inquiries and feelers from many people from all over the world," he said. Among the foreign companies strongly interested in distributing his debut film are those from France, Britain, and Germany. Asked what got Shoreline interested, Diokno said the company was impressed with his technique of getting all the 51 cuts in Engkwentro “digitally erased to make it look seamless." Diokno has revealed that in order to create the illusion of the film’s signature long-tracking shot, he and his crew built a 2,000-square meter set in a squatters’ area in Sta. Ana near Makati and hired some 500 extras. “The shooting involved a lot of preparations and rehearsals," he said. Sound designer Mark Lacay had to build the film’s audioscape “from the ground up" and entirely recreate it in the post-production process. Aside from Hollywood, Engkwentro is going to Greece, where it is the opening film of the special program spotlighting Philippine cinema in the 2009 Thessaloniki International Film Festival. It will be shown on Nov. 14 and 16. Diokno’s film was invited by the Greek festival organizers because they view it as “one of the newest Filipino digital films that illustrates the country’s various realities, deals honestly with its past, and stands out as fresh, non-conformist cinematic voices … radical in content and form." In the Venice Biennale, Engkwentro triumphed over 24 films from countries such as the United States, Italy, Russia, China, Egypt, and Vietnam that competed in the Orizzonti. Engkwentro has been invited to several film festivals including those in Spain, Vienna, Taiwan, Slovakia, Singapore, and Norway. Special mention Ironically, it did not receive any awards last July from Cinemalaya, where it originally competed. Last Oct. 7, businessman Antonio O. Cojuangco, chairman of the Cinemalaya Foundation, hosted a dinner at the Silangan Hall of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) to honor the now-celebrated Diokno. It was attended by the big bosses of Cinemalaya, the Film Development Council of the Philippines, Engkwentro’s cast and crew, and Diokno’s supporters. Back in July, Diokno had left the CCP Main Theater with a heavy heart for failing to be recognized for his work. This time around, Cinemalaya patron Cojuangco presented Diokno with a plaque of “special mention" which was surprisingly dated July 26, the 2009 Cinemalaya awards night. During the dinner, Diokno described as “surreal and overwhelming" his experience of winning two awards in Venice. “Three months before the festival, we were shooting in the slums of Metro Manila, struggling to finish our film. So to go from that to receiving an award in front of the world’s top film professionals, that was unbelievable," he said. “Just to be invited to the festival was a prize in itself. We weren’t expecting anything – if just one person there appreciated our film, that would have made us feel good already," he said. On the initial reactions of the Filipino audience to Engkwentro, Diokno said: “We are trying to provoke discussion. All reactions, whether good or bad, are welcome – for as long as it contributes to a healthy debate." Diokno is the youngest full-length feature finalist in Cinemalaya’s history. He expects to graduate with a degree in film from the University of the Philippines in March. In between his studies, attending to details of Engkwentro’s trip to Hollywood, and its exhibition in numerous film festivals, Diokno is squeezing in some time to write the script for his second film. He is on schedule in crafting the script for his second full-length film, which he has described as a “feature-length narrative about children warriors within the Islamic insurgency in southern Philippines." – GMANews.TV