Slingshot (Tirador)
Country: Philippines
Production year: 2007
Festival: 2008
Director: Brillante Ma. Mendoza
Producer: Renato Esguerra, Antonio Del Rosario
Cast: Jiro Manio (Odie), Kristofer King (Rex), Coco Martin (Caloy), Nathan Lopez (Leo), Jaclyn Jose (Zeny)
Duration: 86 min
Description:
About a month after Holy Week, a national election will take place. What future does it hold for a motley group of “tiradors” - local slang for petty thieves - whose daily survival depends on fast fingers and yearly atonement on divine grace? The tiradors all live in an old dilapidated tenement building in the slums of Quiapo, a busy business district of Manila where they ply their trade. The director: “'Tirador' is my perfect example of ‘guerilla-type’ independent filmmaking. It reinforces our faith in what we’ve always believed in these past years: Doing movies independently (from the dictates of money-oriented financiers) may be a sensible way of speaking out the truth without reservation and feeling either good or disturbed”.
Brillante Ma. Mendoza:
He was born in 1960 in San Fernando, Philippines. Studied fine arts at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. He worked as a production designer in feature films, television and theater. His first feature film "The Masseur" won a Golden Leopard award in the video section at the 2005 Locarno International Film Festival.
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