Yero wins in new York fest

The short documentary film Yero was adjudged as the Best Short Documentary at the third edition of 21 Islands International Short Film Festival (21 IInSFF) in Pregones Theater, Bronx, New York City on Feb. 10.

The director is John Lanbert Rafols, who teamed up with fellow UE CFAD students Jay Condeno and John Nico Nunag to put across the two factory workers’ story in everyday life through Yero, which depicts the real life of the factory workers inside a corrugated-iron recycling factory to experience harsh working conditions for scavenging metal scraps without safety tools and hazard protection.

The 13-minute film was part of the finals project in the video production class with mentor Richard Soriano Legaspi at the University of the East College of Fine Arts, Architecture and Design (UE CFAD). Legaspi, a UE CFAD graduate, is an award-winning indie films’ scriptwriter and director. Subsequently, both Rafols and Nunag completed the degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), major in Visual Communication (Advertising Arts), in December 2018 and April 2018, respectively. Condeno finished the BFA, major in Painting, in April 2018.

Yero was a lone entry representing the Philippines in the 21 IInSFF, and it was selected from over 1,500 multilingual film submissions from more than 200 islands worldwide including Australia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and United Kingdom. The 21 IInSFF was curated by filmmaker-media producer Melisa Ramos in partnership with Prime Latino Media, the largest network of Latino multimedia makers on the East Coast. Distinguished past partners include Cinefiesta de Puerto Rico and the New York State Regional Economic Development Councils.

Yero was officially selected in 2018 for the competition program at the 30th Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibo Pelikula at Video (Philippines) — the annual longest-running independent film competition of its kind in the ASEAN Region, and sixth Nabunturan Independent Film Exhibition in Compostela Valley.

Yero is set for competition in another international film festival in April under the short documentary program of the 21st edition of Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts in Egypt.

For details, call 362-3813 or visit www.ue.edu.ph.