If you celebrated your Valentine’s day single, worry not for the Cultural Center of the Philippines, in partnership with Lyf Malate Manila, is here with CCP Cinema Under The Stars (CUTS) to give you the butterflies you need through Cinemalaya award-winning romance films Pusong Bato (Stone Heart) by Martika Ramirez Escobar and Sana Dati (If Only) by Jerrold Tarog on February 16, 2024, 6:00PM, at Lyf Malate Manila. This event is free and open to the public.
CUTS is an outdoor, hybrid (drive-in, walk-in, bike-in) cinema experience spearheaded by the Film, Broadcast, and New Media Division of CCP, which screens the best of Philippine independent films from selected Cinemalaya and Gawad Alternatibo entries, as well as films from the CCP Collection. Since its re-launch in 2021, CUTS has successfully adapted and re-imagined a new and better normal for the film, art, and live-events industries after the limitations brought about by the quarantine protocols amidst the pandemic.
Film enthusiasts (single or not) are in for a romantic treat for CUTS’ first installment this year with Martika Ramirez Escobar’s short fantasy, magic, and realism film Pusong Bato and Jerrold Tarog’s drama and romance film Sana Dati.
Pusong Bato is about Cinta Dela Cruz, a middle-aged faded actress who tries to relieve and remember her glorious days as a movie star in the 1970s. She does this everyday by watching films at home until one day during an earthquake, something breaks into her window and wakes her up from her Hollywood dream. Pusong Bato won Best Short Film at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival in 2015.
Sana Dati is a love story about a woman whose wedding is thrown into disarray when a mysterious person arrives and reminds her of the man she really loves. It is the third part of Tarog’s Camera Trilogy after Confessional (Cinema One Originals 2007) and Mangatyanan (Cinemalaya 2009). The film won eight awards in the 2013 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival including Best Film and Best Director.
To get the latest updates on the future film screenings from CUTS and other programs by the CCP FBNMD, follow the official CCP and CCP FBNMD social media accounts on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
