QUEZON City, Philippines (October 11) – In a world where each and every individual wants to explore his talents and excel with the aid of 21st century technology, there will always be those people that stand out; stand out not just because of their mere talent but also how they use their God-given talents in order to pursue and promote the advocacy that they are into.
In the film industry, we have this Filipino motion picture director, producer and screen writer that goes by the name of Pepe Diokno. A 29 year old lad born in Manila, first of the six children of Divina Aromin, a writer and Jose Manuel Diokno, a lawyer. He was named after his grandfather, late senator and freedom enthusiast Jose W. Diokno.
Diokno attended La Salle Green Hills for his primary and secondary school then pursued his bachelor’s degree in film at the University of the Philippines – Diliman. At the age of 17, he mounted his first short film entitled “No Passport Needed”, which became a finalist in the short film category of the second Cinemalaya Film Festival. In 2008, he did a short documentary film entitled “Dancing for Discipline”, which tells the story of the dancing inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.
Diokno’s debut film was “Engkwentro”, produced with a very low budget, this film tells a story of two teenage brothers involved in opposing gangs and is on the run from a vigilante death squad. It was released in 2009 and received the Luigi de Laurentiis’ Award for Best Debut Film, as well as the Orizzonti Prize for new trends in cinema. It also received the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the 2010 Jeonju International Film Festival, and the Gawad Urian for Best Editing.
“Above the Clouds” was his second film. It is a family drama that tells the story of teenage boy who meets his estranged grandfather and goes through the process of getting to know each other as they struggle to overcome their grief. The said film premiered at the 2014 Tokyo International Film Festival and was nominated Best Film at the 2014 Singapore International Film Festival.
Last year, Diokno filmed his third feature entitled “Kapatiran”, an experimental film and cinematic essay on fraternities and Filipino society’s tribal nature. It was an Official Selection at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and was a grantee of the QCinema Film Festival.
As reviews came out for all three films of Pepe Diokno, a single adjective to describe each film will rise, and it is the word “brave”. Each film was created with different perspectives, but as he said in one of the occasional Q & A after the screening of his film “Above the Clouds” at the Cinematheque Center Manila, he always wants to create something new and socially-inclined. His films would always want to impart a message that concerns the social status of our society.
Aside from doing films, Diokno is also into creating TV commercials and TV series. Presently, Diokno is the chairman of Epicmedia, the independent production company behind Lav Diaz’s Berlin Silver Bear winner, “Hele Sa Hiwaga Ng Hapis”, and the box office hit “That Thing Called Tadhana.” He is also the editor-in-chief and a columnist of The Philippine STAR’s Saturday pop culture section, Supreme.
Pepe Diokno is known as an active Filipino film advocate. In 2013, Ateneo De Manila University held a TEDXADMU event where Diokno was invited as a speaker and he discussed the topic which has a title of “Who Killed Philippine Cinema?” This speaking engagement was just one of the ways for Diokno to inform the Filipino youth that Philippine Alternative Cinema does exist and is actually growing. Furthermore, he also gave emphasis on how we are contributing to killing the Philippine Film Industry by supporting other nations’ films and series but later focuses on the importance of our support to Filipino made films.
Behind every recognition that he received, this young man always has his goals intact, to help improve the quality of our film industry and to encourage the youth to enhance and use their God-given talents to help improve the society that we belong to.
(written by Aronica Azores, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Vince Alvin Villarin)