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After years of struggling in Hollywood, my buddy wrote, directed, and produced this short film called “When We Danced” about a forgotten generation of Filipino farmers called the Manongs. It just premiered at TCL Chinese Theater and won “Best Short Film Special Jury Award.” Proud of him.
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That was excellent! Heart touching and for all generations. Very well written.
That’s awesome. I’ll be sure to show my wife, she was raised in the Philippines in a farming family. Beautiful story telling, really well shot and directed, and with good cinematography.
Made me tear up tell your friend thank you for such a beautiful short film
This has to be one of the BEST videos that I’ve ever watched, it was truly meaningful & inspiring to me !! As I’ve gotten older now (currently 74 +) the meaning of my life has taken a totally different turn. I’m so blessed to still have my amazing wife & two adult son’s. We got married in 06/1971 and have endured our share of hard times, but the good times far outweigh all of the bad times. Make every minute count because we never know when we will be taking our final breath.
glad this hit the reddit fp for me
lovely story
Please turn of “for kids” so it can be saved to playlists
Tears in my eyes.
I am a 36 year old man who works as a doctor.
I feel my 20s were ‘dedicated to the journey through medicine’.
I see hardships on the faces of so many, and most potently, on my closest loved ones. The expression of fear on their faces, and how stories limit the immersion into life is all I can see at times.
This movie so beautifully highlighted simplicity in moments, where fear had no space as a result in the immersion into the moment, into life. How the triumph of connection can breed life, how dance is flow.
And what I loved was in his final moments, the now elderly man, reflects back on the life, acknowledging i truth I have seen in room 3R 2 years ago, where a woman I’d just diagnosed said to me “I didn’t realize before the tumour that I was running away from death & fear, rather than running towards life”. I see that here and I see it daily. Running away from fear, creating guards & protections from it, taking flight.
But to run towards life, is to run towards love. Love in all its forms, including the love for life itself. An expanse of inner grace, trust and commitment TO life.
The scariest thing for many, I get it. But on the deathbed, the illusions dissolve of upholding the avoidance of life and the maintenance of fear aversion. And there, connection, to self, other life & the world is prioritized.
It doesn’t have to be then, near death, you can bring peace, a shift in perspective, a shift in objective & meaning, too.
From ‘when we danced’, to ‘And so, we dance’.
Because we can. As the Elder said “you don’t experience life with your head down”.
Beautiful film. Execution of a beautiful vision. Congratulations to your friend and the team. 🌹
Wonderful short film. Poignant, beautiful, and meaningful.
Does he know you shared this on social? I’ve been on the film festival circuit for a while and had my own film play at the same festival.
Sharing a film like this publicly in an online forum like this can disqualify it from other festivals. So just wanted to double check in that you were allowed to share his movie.
Otherwise, congrats on the jury prize! That’s always a huge deal at a festival + kudos to your friend for finally making his film! Go filmmaking!!!!
100% those two nurses were also Filipino.
Consider cross-posting to /r/indiancountry introducing it as an indigenous Filipino manong immigrant story. There are a number of themes that will resonate.
I watched the whole thing and had tears streaming down my face at end.
Well done to your friend.
That was a very sentimental watch, I enjoyed it
It’s weird seeing actually cool shit posted on this sub for once
Omg that was beautiful.
At one point when the young Manong smiled I saw a flash of recognition, and yup–Darion Basco is the brother of Dante Basco, aka Rufio in Hook.
Great short film, kudos to your buddy.
omg that was fucking beautiful I am literally crying rn
The music was beautifully scored. That must’ve been very high on the production cost.
💜💜💜
Your buddy had made an incredible peice of art. Wish him all the best with getting more opportunities to create more emotionally and thought provoking work!
Because the description is worded in a confusing way, “Manongs” isn’t a tribe. A manong, in some dialects, means “big brother” or similar to the use of “kuya” in Tagalog. In Bisaya, or at least in the part of the country where I grew up, we address someone who’s too old to be a “kuya” relative to the speaker as “manong” or “nong” for short.
You don’t have to be indigenous to be called a manong.
This reminded me of my own Grandfather who was like a father to me.
That was a really touching video. Thanks for sharing, kudos to your friend!
Wow, it was amazing! It brought back fond memories of my Grandfather who was more than a father figure to me. He gifted me my first ever fancy shoes, known as “wing tips”, and I proudly wore them on my first date with a girl I fancied from school.
I cant stop fucking crying. This was beautiful. Thank you for posting.
Damn. This uhhh… this fucked me up a lil bit 🥹
Only reason i know about this is from the rapper Bambu
https://www.last.fm/music/Bambu/_/Young+Old+Filipino+Man
Oh wow, I grew up in Hawaii and sometimes Filipino kids would call each other manong, like, “ey manong!” I thought it was some kind of slang (which I guess is how they were using it) and not a term referring to a specific group of people.
This really hit home for me. Not necessarily the dancing part, but the relationship between the boy and his grandparents. I’ve always been a lola’s boy, but my lolo, despite us not always seeing eye to eye, has always worked hard to teach me what he learned throughout his life.
I try my best not to take my grandparents for granted. They’ve been with me my whole life, and I’m so lucky to still have them around. But some of the values of the era they grew up in don’t always reflect the ones I value for myself in this day and age. Sometimes, that makes me less receptive of the things they want to teach me. But sometimes, they also make me reflect and realize how much of life I really take for granted and not show enough care for, and I’m really thankful that spending time with them has shown me that.
Thank you for sharing this. It’s a great reminder for me to appreciate my grandparents while they’re still here.
That was great. Thanks for sharing.
I’m not crying, you’re crying!
It was amazing. Kudos to your friend. A wonderful achievement.
Remarkable short film. Thel Bringas has a fantastic voice too, shame he hasn’t done more screen work as an actor. Wonder if he’s the same Thel Bringas with the deep voice who sang in the 60s and 70s.
This is so beautiful, so artistic.
Fresh, lots of heart, lacks pretension. Just lovely, thanks for sharing it.
touching and beautiful, thanks for sharing.
great film, interesting surreal but realistic mix
Please tell your buddy their film made me cry.
This was really great and reminded me of my on Grandfather who was like a father to me. Also, he gave me my first pair a nice shoes, “wing tips” as they were called, which I wore on my first date with a girl I liked from school
Couldn’t help but noticed the chicharrones
Beautiful as this is, and I truly believe it is a love letter to the manongs that had immigrated over here. I would have liked a little more research done for the historical bits.
At $0.14 an hour, it would have been nearly impossible for a Filipino to pay for a new pair of shoes, a good suit with matching trousers, a white button up and a tie. Quite often, the suits they wore were either handme downs from other Filipinos that had been in America for years, or they were borrowed.
I think it’s lovely that the story permitted the manong to travel with his sweetheart, but reality was that there were 100 Filipino women to every 10,000 Filipino men that immigrated, and it was more common for Filipino men to have courted outside their race, given the limited options at the time.
I had plans for writing a script about manongs a while back, but I’m so glad someone got to it first, I genuinely want them to get more recognition, as they’re often left out of history books.
Don’t mind me, just a kid of some immigrant illocano parents crying at his airport gate TT_TT
This was beautiful on so many levels. Bravo!!
It’s always someones friend.
I hope your friend keeps making many more.