The dynamic film festival culture in the Philippines, composed of nationwide, international, regional, and local festivals, is enriched when students produce and exhibit their short narrative films, experimental films, animations, and documentaries with the support of their colleges, universities, and student organizations.
This article aims to contribute to filling the gap in studies about student film festivals. The Cinemapúa International Student Short Film Festival of Mapua University and the Sinepiyu Film Festival of Far Eastern University (FEU) will both serve as case studies as they are among two of the oldest student film festivals in the “u-belt” (university belt) area of the Metro Manila. It is argued that student film festivals contribute to the legitimate recognition of the notion and practice of alternative filmmaking on the map of Philippine cinema.
Specifically, this essay looks into the management of these university-based film festivals by tracing their beginnings, purposes, processes, funding, collaborations, and the challenges that the organizers faced in mounting Cinemapúa and Sinepiyu through in-depth interviews of their founders and organizers as key informants supported by participant observations of the author as audience-researcher through the years from 2016 to 2023. Furthermore, the characteristics of the student-produced films and their programming are analyzed through the lens of Nick Deocampo’s notion of alternative film culture.
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You can find the article on pages 190 – 202 through this link:
https://www.pelikulajournal.com/volumes
or
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1emuw0-wnCOFrg3S5u58qPb4CK0-lvyNg/view
or
Here, I win. 