MANILA, August 13, 2013—After encountering challenges in coming up with a new actor and team, the San Pedro Calungsod film, an official entry to the 39th Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) will start filming the movie this week, according to its director.
Francis O. Villacorta’s film “San Pedro Calungsod: Batang Martir” will start its shooting schedule this week until the last week of September.
“Hopefully by mid-November we have a complete film. We will also have a shoot in Cebu,” Villacorta said.
Villacorta also said this is not the typical MMFF film because this will give the audience a glimpse at what and how far Christianity has gone since 1668 during the mission of San Pedro Calungsod.
Effect to the young
He believes that the film will have a positive effect on the youth citing that life doesn’t have to be long to be able to make something of it.
“Just like San Pedro Calungsod, it was a short life but a meaningful one. That’s why we are celebrating him in this film. There should be a celebration of Christianity which is our aim and hope of this film,” Villacorta added.
When asked how would they draw the attention of Filipinos to watch the movie, he stressed that the audience will appreciate the adventure, fears and tensions in the film.
“I hope the youngsters will watch the film because the story telling is great and they will realize that the saint had done something admirable that should be a model [for all]. We want to tell the youth to be like San Pedro Calungsod wherein the sacrifices he did in the name of Jesus Christ and the Christian faith was very admirable,” he added.
His advocacy as a film maker is to affect people’s lives thus doing works on the lives of saints in film and theater.
“Hopefully this will be a hit but if now, we will still be happy because what we really want is that this will have an effect in the lives of the audience in a small positive Christian way,” Villacorta furthered.
Meanwhile, Ina Tiongson from the HPI Synergy Group, the producer of the film emphasized they are doing the film not for the money.
“This is something different and not your typical commercial film. So we think that this is something that we should do,” she added.
The film is slated for a nationwide theatrical release on December 2013. (Jandel Posion)
