My debut feature film First Light is screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival this August! Kinda… no real words for how it’s felt bringing this to life over the past three years – it’s brought me from chaotic meetings in Paris to sleepy wet-season days with nuns in the mountains above Luzon, months in total solitude writing the script to days on set directing hundreds of extras, an exorcism (!!) and kanyaws and red eye flights, dinners with the embassy and typhoons that caused mudslides that rerouted our motorbikes, hospital trips, baptisms, funerals, Ifugao beauty pageants and pilgrimages to the graves of ancestors; the years realising this film have woven themselves into a tapestry of moments and relationships well beyond the language I should ever even attempt to really give them.
Much more to announce and say in coming months, but for now just endless thank you’s to the literal hundreds and hundreds of people who helped me bring this film to life, from my powerhouse producers
@gabriellemajella @janepeaguirre @christellelouu to my lead actor
@rubyruizzz who carries this entire film with jaw-dropping vulnerability and grace, my DP
@amydellar.dp who found the quiet beauty in the chaos of my screenplay, my editor
@geri______tv who let me sleep, my composer and sound designers, to my family, my dad, the assistants, my EPs, sales agents, publicists, HODs, VFX team, ADs, colourist, actors, post house, poster and key art team, best friends who held me through the nervy b’s, distributors, casting directors and script editors – wtf there’s actually too many people, I promise I’ll give you each your moment, but you all know who you are!
Special shout out to
@melbfilmfest for being some of the first ones to believe in the film and fund us, I volunteered at this festival for so many years, it’s surreal to be a part of the programming alongside the legendary filmmakers who created a language I am humbly learning to speak (Jafar Panahi?!). And another special thank you to my creative producer and actor
@emmanueltsantos for bringing me home and reacquainting me with intangible, pre-colonial wisdom.
Here’s a first look 💙 See you in August legends 🫵🏼
