LOREN FILES SENATE RESOLUTION COMMENDING MOVIE DIRECTOR

Senator Loren Legarda, ON MAY 26, 2009, filed a Senate resolution congratulating movie director Brillante Mendoza for winning the "Best Director" award in the recent 62nd Cannes Film Festival.

In resolution No. 1097, Loren noted that Mendoza, an independent filmmaker from San Fernando, Pampanga, won the Best Director award for his film, "Kinatay," at the the Cannes Film Festival, considered as the world's most prestigious film festival;

Mendoza was the first Filipino to win the Best Director Prize in the festival, besting established and critically-acclaimed directors such as Ang Lee, Pedro Almodovar, Jane Campion, and Quentin Tarantino.

"By winning the said prize, Mr. Mendoza joins a list of revered filmmakers who have won the coveted prize such as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Robert Bresson, Costa Gavras, Bernard Tavernier, Werner Herzog, Robert Altman, Joel Coen, Pedro Almodovar and Gus Van Sant," Loren said.

"Serbis", a film that Mendoza also directed, competed for the top prize of Palme d'Or in the festival last year, the first time for a Filipino-made film since 1984.

"The films Serbis and Kinatay portrayed present-day realities in Philippine society and drew the attention of international audiences to these social realities thereby educating both Filipinos and foreigners on the plight of some of the poor and the marginalized in the Philippines," observed Loren.

Mendoza offered his prize to all the Filipino filmmakers who had come before and would come after him, Loren added.

For these reasons, Loren said, the Senate should resolve to congratulate Mendoza.