prizewinning film director and u.p. cal alumnus auraeus solito in u.p. diliman

HOMECOMING: a conversation with auraeus solito on PISAY, U.P., MAXIMO OLIVEROS and beyond

tuesday, 26 february 2008

2:30-4 pm

UP CAL AVR (Room 2104)
2nd floor, bulwagang rizal
college of arts and letters
university of the philippines
diliman, quezon city.

open to the public

***
Auraeus Solito (Palaw'an) studied theater arts at the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, where he directed for the stage and wrote screenplays. Later, he studied filmmaking at the Mowelfund Film Institute. His thesis dramatic production at the University of the Phillipines was about the stories of the Palawanon, and after graduating Solito spent seven years living on the island of South Palawan, Phillipines. Solito's documentary, Basil Banar/The Scared Ritual of Truth about the Palawan Islands won Best Feature Documentary at the Montreal First Peoples' Festival. His first narrative feature, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, won the Golden Zenith Award at the Montreal World Film Festival and the Kinderfest International Jury's Grand Prize at the Berlinale in Germany. The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros was the opening film of the 2006 New Directors/New Films series presented by The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Solito filmed The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros in Sampaloc, the neighborhood where he grew up in Manila, Phillipines As an Asian Public Intellectual Fellow of the Nippon Foundation, Japan, Solito made a documentary on island rituals in Okinawa and Borneo.

"Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros" won 15 international awards including 3 awards at the Berlinale (The Teddy award, International Jury Prize at the Kinderfest and Special Mention from the Children's Jury of the Kinderfest). It is also the first Philippine film nominated for Best Foreign film at the Independents' Spirit Awards in the US. It has been shown in more than 50 film festivals around the world.

“Tuli” , his second feature film, won Best Picture and Best Director at the Digital Competition at the 2005 CineManila Film Festival and recently won the NETPAC Jury Prize at the the Berlinale, International Forum for New Cinema; 2nd Prize for Best Feature Film at the Montreal Film Festival. It is at present making the rounds in film festivals in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

He is the first Filipino to make it to the premiere independent film festival in the world, the SUNDANCE Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA; two years in a row for both “The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros” and “Tuli”.

“PISAY (Philippine Science)” is his 3rd dramatic feature film. It is a story about eight students who makes it to the premier science high school during the politically volatile 80’s in the Philippines. These students find the world outside, with the chaos of the end of the Marcos dictatorship erupting into the People Power revolution in 1986, being replicated within the school as they struggle to graduate, contend with teachers, classmates, family, school officials, and a new classification system to segregate students into two groups based on their academic ranking. It chronicles their journey of self discovery as they go through the joys and pains of adolescence. PISAY is the winner of the Best Director, Best Production Design and the Audience Choice Awards at the 2007 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. More recently, the film bagged Grand Jury and Audience Choice Prizes at the 14th Vesoul International Film Festival for Asian Films in France.

ang pagdadalaga ni maximo oliveros
(the blossoming of maximo oliveros)

pisay
(philippine science)