Ten years after Coco Martin was launched in the indie film Masahista by Brillante Mendoza, his younger brother Ronwaldo is taking the same path.
He first appeared in Kip Oebanda’s Tumbang Preso followed by Joselito Altarejos’ Kasal under his screen name Ron Cieno. Now, as RonwaldoMartin, he is the lead actor in a full-length Kapampangan film produced by Holy Angel University (HAU) titled Ari (My Life With A King). Ari in Kapampangan means king.
This is a coming-of-age story about a Kapampangan boy who doesn’t speak his own language until the king of Kapampangan poets enters his life.
Except for Ronwaldo and his leading lady Chloe Carpio, all cast members are Kapampangan non-actors, including Pampanga poet laureate Francisco Guinto and environmentalist Cecile Yumul. An Aeta woman, Jonalyn Ablong, who was nominated Urian Best Actress for the 2006 Brillante Mendoza film Manoro, also joins the cast.
The film was produced by STAR contributor Ferdinand Lapuz, an alumnus of HAU and recent recipient of the University’s top alumnus award called Order of St. Gabriel the Archangel. The school also recently held a festival of films produced by Lapuz to raise funds for scholarship.
The film is the directorial debut of Carlo Enciso Catu, 21, still a student taking up HRM at HAU. Catu’s short film Miss Da Ka (I Miss You) won Best Film, Director and Actress awards in last year’s Cinekabalen Kapampangan Film Festival, as well as first honorable mention for Best Film and Best Supporting Actress at this year’s Singkuwento International Film Festival.
This is also the first screenplay written by Robert Tantingco, the University’s vice president for external affairs.
The student-directed film gets solid support from respected and award-winning filmmakers like cinematographer Carlo Mendoza, editor Carlo Francisco Manatad, creative consultant Jason Paul Laxamana, and co-producer Jim Baltazar of CMB Film Services.
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