2 Filipinos reach mobile phone film finals

First posted 05:32pm (Mla time) Dec 06, 2005

By Erwin Lemuel Oliva

TWO Filipinos are among the six finalists in a mobile films contest in which first-time film-makers use mobile phones to create short films, INQ7.net has learned.

Noel Osting and Janice Yu are in the running for the 10,000-dollar cash prize, according to the First-Time Mobile Film Makers website.

More details and their interviews can be read at http://www.mobifilms.net/6finalists.html. Visitors to the website can vote for their favorite film-makers.

In his brief profile on the site, Noel Osting said he submitted a mini-documentary about his life experiences as a young Filipino growing in the Philippines.

"What inspired me most to enter this contest is my desire to give my family a decent house to live in, and to further enhance my skill thru the filmmaking workshop," he said on the website.

Osting's entry is titled "Kuliglig" (Cicada), a word to describe a native farm trailer commonly used as a tool for tilling rice fields in his community.

"I chose this because it represents my community's struggle to [be] free from the bondage of poverty," he added.

Yu's entry, on the other hand, dwells on the Chinese Cemetery in Metro Manila.

"My treatment of the story would be to focus more on how the cemetery brings about a sense of belonging to a present day Chinese-Filipino, who are slowly beginning to lose their sense of identity as they begin to embrace a more Filipino way of life," a description of her entry read.

Yu said the availability of video on mobile phones is "a godsend" for videographers like her as it gives them access to equipment that is packed with features despite their small size.

Discovery Networks Asia, the Asia entertainment company of Discovery Communications, has partnered with mobile phone company Nokia for this contest.