Just last May 2001, while in Italy for the Far East Film Festival, Jeffrey paid a visit to the Basilica de San Marco. “Isn’t it that Filipinos have a belief that if it’s your first time to visit a church, you should make a wish? Well, I prayed that my movie Tuhog would make it to the Venice Film Festival.”
A few months later —August 29-September 8 to be exact—Jeffrey got his wish!
Out of 2,800 entries
from all over the world, Tuhog was one of 20 that made it to the 58th
Venice Filmfest’s Cinema of the Present Competition. It was only the
third time that a Filipino film has been screened in Venice.
“I’m so lucky I get to travel because of my films,” says the director
whose three films—Sana Pag-ibig Na, Pila Balde and Tuhog—have received
acclaim here and abroad. “My goal is to make one good film a year and
then travel the rest of the year!”