"A good movie has disparate virtues but a great movie's merits are comprehensive-a unity of style and drama, tone and theme, images and performances. That's why a great film can be recognized from its first shot, and that's how it is with "Filipiñana," which I knew absolutely nothing about in advance and which grabbed me from the very beginning, announcing itself as a masterwork-which is all the more remarkable given that it's the first feature by the Filipino director Rafael Manuel."
"In 2021, in response to the covid-19 pandemic, the Sundance Film Festival went entirely online. When the in-person event resumed, in 2023, the online component continued, and it's still going. However, not everything that's screened at Sundance is available for home viewing; only the films in competition at the festival are required to be streamable, and only during a short window at the tail end of the festival."
The Sundance Film Festival maintained an online component after going fully virtual in 2021 during the covid-19 pandemic, with in-person screenings resuming in 2023. Only competition films are required to be streamable and only during a brief window at the festival's end. Two Asian-made films, Filipiñana and zi, emerged as instant classics noted for exceptional aesthetic distinction. Filipiñana is the first feature by Filipino director Rafael Manuel and opens with a long, avid view from behind a van's front seats along a sun-drenched Manila street, introducing luxury tourism themes through a hostess who joins tourists bound for an upscale golf resort.
Read at The New Yorker
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