And an award-winning one on top of that. Her short film entitled “Ang Biyahe ni Marlon” recently bagged the Best Film Award in recently concluded “Istorya ng Pag-asa Film Festival“. This film festival was a joint project of Ayala and The Office of the Vice President and The Ayala Foundation.

Ang Biyahe ni Marlon tells a story of Marlon, an Uber driver who has Tourette Syndrome which is a neurological disorder that gives involuntary and repetitive movements to those who suffer it. Passengers giving him suspecting and judgmental stares is one of the challenges he faced as an Uber Driver. But this won’t stop him to work honorably for his family. This is the trailer of the short film.

WHERE CAN YOU WATCH IT? If you’re dropping by to the following cinemas to watch a movie this week, “Ang Byahe ni Marlon” would be among the trailers!

I have watched the film myself and all I could say is, this short film/documentary will touch your heart. It’s a little bit of a tearjerker actually. Five minutes of watching it will be worth your time. This is great for those who will bring their children because it teaches resilience and love.

Meanwhile, I haven’t introduced my friend yet who’s the director of the film. Her name is Florence Rosini!

I met her in college. We both joined as staffers of our official university newspaper. Since then I already admired her writings to the point of insecurity. Hahaha! She’s really good.

To tell you the truth we just meet sporadically after I graduated in college. Like we frequently plan to meet in different film festival events but most of them, never pushed through. We just get in touch thru social media. Florence, being a writer in GmaNewsTV before, led to something like this; my Facebook comment being broadcasted in television. Haha! This screenshot actually came from my officemate. I was shocked someone I know would even noticed this small airtime of fame lol.

The time we met again was actually by an accident. We both signed-up for Lovelife retreat and surprised to see each other there. But then again, we really didn’t get to really bond until the Camerahaus Photofestival event last May 26, 2018. She was planning to score a Lumix Camera for her filming venture. She is now pursuing film studies in UP Diliman.

This time we actually really meet at last!

I was really excited for her and willing to support. I remembered I also once dreamed to be engaged in film industry , like a director or a producer or a writer. But it so happens I have too many dreams aside from that. But right now, I’m just happy to support and know a friend actually knows her dream and living that dream. Go Florence!

I am so honored to be featured in the first ever v-blog using her new camera. In the future, she will produce more films with this camera and I am so giddy thinking about that.

Aside from being a film director, Florence is also into blogging and v-logging. She chronicles her film adventures, writing on-set , film festival attendance and sometimes, foodie adventures. She also has a travel agency. Please follow her at:

Blog: https://florencerosini.com/

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/kimedes009

To Florence,

Congratulations to you besh! I know you have told me before the struggles of being a writer in this country ( and now you have more stories to tell about being director this time) but I’m proud that you just keep on with your dreams. Your winning film is just a start of a milestone after milestone and I’m so excited on what you can do more in the future! I am just here to support you always to the best that I can. And let’s do collaborations in the future 😉

——————-

PS: To all my friends who have watched “Ang Byahe ni Marlon” in the selected cinemas, please let us know your thoughts in social media and use the hashtag #AngBiyaheNiMarlon. We will definitely appreciate your support. Once again, I’m posting the details of the screenings. BE INSPIRED and watch films at the cinemas below.

Another PS: This is the first blog entry of #SupportArtistFriends blog series. I aim to promote not only my artist friends but also to endorsed to everyone to support their artist friends by actually buying their product , listening their ideas and celebrate their victories instead of asking their services for free. ( Below photo and words not mine)