Friday, May 12, 3:30 PM, Charles Theatre 2
Sunday, May 14, 11:00 AM, Rotunda Cinematheque 1

Director: Auraeus Solito

Cast: JR Valentin, Soliman Cruz, Neil Ryan Sese, Ping Medina, Bodjie Pascua, Nathan Lopez

Country: Phillipines
Year: 2005
Running Time: 100:00 minutes
Format: video

A multiple award-winning film from Montreal, Sundance, and a variety of other international film festivals, this remarkable film inhabits a place that will be fascinating and strange to most audiences: one family’s home in the midst of a poor neighborhood in bustling Manila.

Our guide is a charming, wily, tough 12 year old named Maximo Oliveres. Maxi is a pro at maneuvering through his neighborhood, and his interest in everything around him is infectious. Though the men in his family range from the criminal to the reprobate, they love and are devoted to Maxi. He returns the affection by cooking, washing, and generally holding things together. This isn’t a family that fits any model normally described when family values are glibly mentioned, but that special bond that can tie families together is palpable.

Because he is 12, Maxi is experimenting, testing, exploring; he’s trying to figure out what all this means, and how he can fit in on his own terms. Every interaction, no matter how incidental, is part of his schooling. When a good looking young police officer named Viktor comes into the neighborhood and helps impose some order, Maxi feels a gravitational pull away from his family for the first time.

--Jed Dietz

Presented By: Producer, Raymond Lee

Raymond Lee has co-written some of the biggest blockbusters in Philippine cinema, including Anak (Child), Tanging Yaman (The Only Treasure), and Milan. He also shares screenwriting credit for The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros. Raymond teaches writing for film at the University of the Philippines Film Institute, and runs ufo Art Gallery. The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros is his first foray into independent film production. The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros is quite possibly the most internationally awarded Filipino film. To date it has won Best Picture at the Montreal World Film Festival First Films Competition; Best Feature at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto; Best Picture at the Asian Festival of First Films in Singapore; NETPAC Jury Award for Best Asian Film at Rotterdam 2006; the Teddy for Best Feature in the 2006 Berlinale; Best Picture (International Jury) and Special Mention (children's Jury) also at the 2006 Berlinale's Kinderfilmfest; Best Picture, Audience Award, and Best Actor (Nathan Lopez) at the 2006 Las Palmas film festival, Canary Islands, Spain; and Best Picture at the Turin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It was also the first homegrown Filipino movie at the Sundance Film Festival.