SINAG MAYNILA Features TALAHIB with Kristof Garcia and Gillian Vicencio

Watched one of the featured films in Sinag Maynila called TALAHIB, a film directed by critically acclaimed director Alvin Yapan and produced by FEAST foundation. It's English title Legend of the Tall Grass tells a lot about where most of the incidents happen since this is a slasher film. 

The elements are there, but since this is an Alvin Yapan film, the story telling felt a lot different from usual. If it were heavily commercial, it could have taken a route of violence all throughout but since it delves more into lore, detective work and their past wrongdoings, you would need to understand more of the conversations in order to decipher it. It did not depend on violence alone, it had elements of mental anguish, ghosts and indestructible beings as villains in the story. 

Alvin Yapan says "I am so nervous about what we will see this afternoon, and at the same time excited that after a long while, we will be finally seeing this with the producers and the audience, and I hope they get to like what they could see in our film. We are planning to have this be shown in other platforms, that's also our goal." 

He adds "This is the first time that the actors will be seeing the film (except playbacks). This is now complete with editing and sound, I hope those who would see this film appreciate the work we put in to hopefully spread the word about TALAHIB. We plan to put this in cinemas too on October for Halloween. This is R13, which we were gunning for. Hopefully we could get everyone to watch it, we didn't want it to be plainly a gorefest. I'd want Gillian to get a Best Actress nomination for her work here. I also gave Kristoff his time to shine in this project, and I've seen how he excellently is making drama executed too. (Spoiler) You'll see a long scene with Gillian showcasing her command on screen. This is an ensemble piece, but they have their own moments, their own spotlights that movie goers should watch out for."  

Kristoff says "Gillian and I are really okay even after the shoot. It's been a year but we still stay in touch. We go out in groups sometimes, to bond over karaoke at times. Even before this project, I've already been able to watch Gillian in films. I know how great she is as an actress. I was really excited to work with her. When I saw her, I didn't know she was going to be that warm in person. She's also very kind, very pretty."

Gillian tells us "Of course I'm so happy to hear that from our director. The chance to work with him was already an honor, getting complements is just extra. I'm excited because this is also my first time to watch it on screen. We can't expect to win awards, so we don't get hurt in the end. I got recommended by Ms. Irma Adlawan and I'd like to thank her for that. We made this last year and we can't wait to see how it pans out on screen. I'm excited about TALAHIB even more because I'm not the one who's scaring people. I'm the one who's getting scared. It was also hard to shoot on location because you'll get to experience the sharp tall grass, it's real and you will experience getting nicked by its sharp blades every now and then."

Here's our video coverage of the premiere:

Congratulations to the Filipino Excellence in the Arts, Sciences and Technologies Foundation and other producers. This film certainly has that Alvin Yapan print on it. This will be shown in Gateway Mall, Robinsons Malls, SM Cinemas, and Market Market. Just check cinema schedules if you're raring to watch it on SINAG MAYNILA.

Banking on Talented Cast, Controversial but Realistic Story: "TAHAN"

It was a fun afternoon meeting the cast of upcoming sultry, suspense-thriller movie called TAHAN, which will be directed by Bobby Bonifacio Jr. under 3:16 Media Network. Tough Executive Producers John Bryan Diamante and Ms. Janilyn Carrillo deem unnecessary to think that this would be a challenge to do while we're all going through the pandemic because the material and story written by talented Quinn Carrillo (who's also part of the cast) was already enough reason to do this film. Bryan Diamante stresses that even though this is his first venture into the production side of the industry, he's got total trust with 3:16 Media Network. His goal is not just to create a quality movies like these... but learn the ropes while he's wearing the production hat in hopes to make even bigger stories come to life.  

He says "I'm glad that right now, things are easing up a bit. People are looking for interesting stories, Quinn really made a really good script and I'm very excited about it. I know this will certainly be something that people would love to see."

I've noticed that they've gotten no shortage of passion. Seeing how eager they are to tell the story (even if there are some really disturbing subjects in the story line) you wouldn't be able to just concentrate on it because of the realistic parts that would make anyone certainly connect with the characters in the movie. Lead star Cloe Barreto says "It's not that difficult and I think I'm equipped to do this. It's actually really exciting to see that I'm going to work with JC Santos and my idol Ms. Jaclyn Jose. People are going to learn a lot from the story, this is coming from the point of view of the daughter. She's gone through a lot and it will teach people that these things happen in real life."

Executive Producers John Bryan Diamante and Janilyn Carrillo

Here's our video coverage of the story conference which includes a few questions answered by the cast. Please, enjoy!

Again, the cast includes Cannes Best Actress Ms. Jaclyn Jose, the very talented actor JC Santos, writer and actress Quinn Carrillo, Karl Medina, AJ Oteyza, former pro basketball player Mac Cardona (who was very good looking), indie queen Mercedes Cabral, the funny EJ Salamante, Joseph San Jose (who told us a very inspiring story on how he was able to land this role), Stiff  Banzon and a whole lot more.

This surely looks so PROMISING, judging from the ensemble cast, a different kind of flavor from the usual romcoms you've been seeing released in PH theaters. One can just imagine how feisty Cloe and the cast is who promised they'll be bringing their A game once the camera starts rolling for this film called TAHAN. I can't wait to see it in theaters and digital platforms; they plan to have this out soon.

We wouldn't want to miss how this unfolds!

DINGDONG DANTES and BEAUTY GONZALEZ for I Can See You AlterNATE

Exciting is pretty much a word that defines what we felt during the blog conference for the I Can See You AlterNATE series on GMA. This is the first time that Dingdong Dantes is going to be paired with Beauty Gonzales. They've had this taping done late last year and they worked pretty fast because everyone was very professional. This also includes the on screen comeback of Jackie Lou Blanco and Direk Ricky Davao, which for one or more reasons would have been not done on Philippine TV.

Beauty says "I was so lucky to get  to work with this cast because it was such a blast, I hope we get the chance to work again because this was a little bitin. It was such a beautiful experience! It's nice to end the year with me working with a group like this. Dingdong is so professional, very intuitive, I know why he's very respected in GMA because he's very caring and very nice to everyone. To tell you honestly I was nervous at first because I just wanted to work with him, and now it's happening."

Dingdong adds "This show is very unique, quite different from the shows I've done previously because I play two people, with different personalities. It's more of the difficult ones I've done in my career. It's a beautiful experience working with her. In the beginning we had to test the waters because it's the first time to meet on set, and first time to work with each other. The difficult roles made us more open with each other because the requirement was really high. As actors we had to know each other because we're giving part of ourselves in the roles we played. You need to have complete trust and I think we have done that in the beginning of the work day, we've established that."

 

I Can See You AlterNATE will be seen week nights on GMA Telebabad so make sure you catch the episodes starting day 1!