After its successful screenings in the Pusan and Vancouver International Film Festivals, Adolfo Alix Jr.'s Chassis will have its Philippine Gala Premiere this November 12, 2010 at the U.P. Cine Adarna. It will be screened at 7 p.m. (Gala). Its regular run will begin on December 6.
Chassis is a film revolving around a mother's struggle to live in the streets of Manila. It is a raw account of a woman's travails in her commitment to provide for her child as she tries to make ends meet.
Nora (played by Jodi Santamaria) and her daughter forced to live illegally under the chassis of container vans at the South Harbor in Manila. Nora is driven to prostitution so she could raise money for her beloved daughter.
Starring Jodi Sta. Maria and produced by Happy Gilmore Productions, Chassis is a film that challenges society to look into the real issues of life through the microcosm of a mother and child in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the port of Manila.
It is also slated to compete in the 25th Mar del Plata International Film Festival, which will be held in Argentina from November 14-21, 2010. Chassis is the first Filipino film to compete in the history of the Mar del Plata IFF, which is considered to be the only A-list competitive feature festival recognized by the FIAPF in Latin America and the oldest in this category in the Americas.
The premiere is sponsored by the U.P. Speech Communication Association. For ticket inquiries, please contact Franz at 09158696460. This is a fund raising event to help send the Philippine delegation to the Mar del Plata film festival and is also for the benefit of the Pier 16 residents.
The producers would like to thank the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) for its continued support of the film.
Chassis also stars Lemuel Pelayo, Evelyn Vargas, Rustica Carpio, Angeli Bayani, Paolo Rivero, Bjorn Aguilar and Kimberly Fulgar.
Reviews on Chassis:
"Continuing to examine those on the margins of Filipino society, helmer Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr. ("Adela," "Manila") casts a compassionate eye on a homeless young mother fiercely determined to give her young daughter a better life... Immaculately shot ...Sta. Maria is quietly compelling as a woman with a single, unshakable reason to live." -Richard Kuipers, Variety
"One of the year's BEST." - Cinelation
"Alix's cinema features a prolific vitality that echoes the work of Fassbinder and is capable of reinventing itself at an extraordinary fast pace with each film... the film's resolution doesn't hesitate to combine neorealism's discomfort with the fatalist bitterness of the best Fassbinder." - Mar del Plata International Film Festival
"This is a bold film by Adolfo Alix Jr. that criticizes society, venting sympathy and anger at the same time." -Kim Ji-seok, Pusan International Film Festival
"This scrupulously precise social-realist drama, shot in steely monochrome and 'Scope... its savage, explicit ending makes it suitable for adults only." -Tony Rayns, Vancouver International Film Festival