From a small town in Antique to Cinemalaya and now in South Korea, director Arden Rod Condez is “still in disbelief” over how far his three-year-old movie John Denver Trending has traveled. Making history as the first Filipino film to be widely screened in Korea, it’s now showing in theaters there such as CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox.
Cinemalaya as an institution has always been a beacon of hope for independent filmmakers, but it must mean even more for filmmakers who started their careers in the provinces some of which are still based there.