School indie youth film makes the cut at 10th International Film Festival in Bangladesh

TACLOBAN CITY, Jan. 11 (PNA) -- Leyte National High School’s (LNHS) short film “Laot” (High Seas) has been chosen as one of the finalists to the upcoming 10th International Film Festival in Bangladesh.

The film will be the country’s entry and is categorized under the Child Filmmakers' Section.

Produced by a team of young talents from LNHS, the film was firstly, Eastern Visayas’ entry to the 2nd National Adolescent Health and Youth Development (AHYD) Film Festival held in December 2016.

LNHS, based in this city, is the largest public secondary school in Eastern Visayas.

The film, which focused on adolescent health issue and environmental advocacy, earned best trailer, best production design, best editing, best screenplay, best director and best actor during the regional film fest hosted by the Commission on Population (PopCom) and earned the ticket to join the national fete.

The film juxtaposed the changing climate through super typhoon Yolanda experience and emphasized on how the environment affects the health and well-being of young people. It is directed by Peter Am Alre Gaylon.

The Popcom-led regional and national AHYD film festival has become a venue for creating awareness on the status of today’s adolescents and young people and help them in the crucial stage of their development so they will grow into healthy, responsible, and productive adults.

Popcom Eastern Visayas Regional Director Elnora Pulma is elated with the official finalist selection of the region’s entry saying this will open new opportunities for young people to further their advocacy on adolescent health and environmental concerns.

The International Children's Film Festival in Bangladesh is an annual film festival which showcases full length features, shorts, experimental films made for and by children, including fiction animations and documentaries from around the world.

Founded in 2008, it is the biggest and also the only international film festival for children and young adults in Bangladesh.

The festival prevails with the vision of opening a new world of movies to the children of Bangladesh and exposing them to a diversity of cultures and traditions from various nations through cinema.

One of the primary missions of the festival is to provide the youth with a platform to showcase their talent in media and to understand its role in bringing attention to various social issues and in learning through entertainment.

The festival will be held from Jan. 24 to 30, 2017 at the Central Public Library in Shahbagh, Dhaka in Bangladesh, along with 11 other venues throughout the country. The Central Public Library will be the event’s central venue. (PNA)
FPV/SQM/AHLETTE C. REYES/EGR