Let’s talk about filmmakers.

Many people love watching movies and some–like Pol here–make films. The power of independent filmmaking is in its freedom to tell stories dripping with the aspirations and perspective of the common people or voices that could have been censored by movie-producing cash cows or government censor bodies.

1. What’s the last movie you saw in cinema and with whom?

Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles on its VIP screening at Greenbelt Makati with my co-filmmaker Matt Baguinon. We covered the event for Raymond Lee (screenwriter and producer of Zombadings).

2. What’s the next movie you’re going to watch on big screen?

Les Miserables this coming January.

3. Who’s that actor/actress you wanna sleep with hahaha

Anne Hathaway! She’s the perfect everything!

4. Is there a film that made a huge impact in your childhood in one way or another?

I watched Casper the Friendly Ghost when I was five. The movie gave that whole “ideal” film stereotype and became associated with this “perfect childhood” notion I eventually grew out of, after realizing that life wasn’t about me being a kid forever.

5. What film genre are you most comfy watching?

Rom-coms and drama.

6. What movies have made you cry like stupid?

Mababaw lang kasi luha ko! Climax-driven films like The King’s Speech, Love Story (the one with Ali Larter in it), City of Angels, Hachiko: A Dog’s Story, Forrest Gump, Pay It Forward, I Am Sam, Once (an Irish musical film), Seven Pounds (burned my eyes like hell). Sometimes Korean movies din (don’t hate me): My Sassy Girl, A Moment to Remember, 200 Pounds Beauty, etc.

7. What’s your all-time favorite film (foreign and local)?

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Local: Lino Brocka’s Bona.

8. If you are to pitch a movie, what story are you going to tell?

Probably anything transgressive fiction-ish: plots where characters are driven to extremes. I’ve this story about a freelance Cubao-based photog discovering that his future self has come back — to kill him. That would be cinematically nice when given a film treatment, I guess.

9. Do you follow the works of a certain director?

Mostly Alfred Hitchcock and Darren Aronofsky. I am also impressed by the works of Brian de Palma (Obsession, one of my favorites, as well as Dressed to Kill, Scarface and Body Double). Their film techniques and execution are at their prime; scripts are used at their best and scenes are empowered by good camera angles and subtle symbolisms and imagery.

10. Why should the Philippines watch regional films?

Genius is not and should never be treated as only foreign and mainstream; it is about time we Filipinos also acknowledge our gusto for creating films that matter, that provoke thought, that motivate. There are many of us spirited, young filmmakers out there only yearning for exposure — this is one of the best avenues for us. If we break from the bland consumer culture fed to us and instead divert into alternative avenues such as regional films, that gusto for local films will be restored. What a good way to celebrate national art and culture.

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Pol Singson‘s short political film “Bingwit,” co-created with Matt Baguinon and Marc Macalintal, is being shown in Cinema Rehiyon 5 caravans around CALABARZON.

Cinema Rehiyon 5 is co-presented by UPLB Foundation Inc. and Pelikulab. The much-awaited film festival will be in UPLB on February 5-8, 2013.

Cinema Rehiyon is the flagship project of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts–Cinema Committee.