Gibbs Cadiz | Philippine Daily Inquirer

Filmmaker Joel Ruiz takes a subtler tack with theater actors in his sublime “Mansyon,” winner of the Cinemalaya Best Short Film award.

Brimming with silences and pauses, formless dialogue and music (a sensibility that recalls Sofia Coppola), “Mansyon” allows NVC’s Roselyn Perez, playing a maid opposite her gardener husband (Jess Evardone) in a marriage gone stale, to plumb the pain and new-found joy of her character mostly through gestural and eye acting.

The actors ditch the dense, expansive mannerisms of the stage for the compact requirements of Ruiz’s camera, and the result is a 23-minute jewel.

Rina Jimenez-David | Philippine Daily Inquirer

Written and directed by Joel Ruiz, “Mansyon” examines, in a little over 20 minutes, the shifts in the relationship of a married couple, Dolores (Roselyn Perez) and Ambo (Jess Evardone), who are hired as house-sitters for three months. At first reticent and reserved toward each other, the couple soon learn to open up and be more spontaneous as they revel in the luxuries afforded by the mansion and the autonomy they enjoy without the overbearing employer.

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Eden R. Estopace | Philippine Star

t is tempting to focus on the social divide in Joel Ruiz’ Mansyon, a short film about a couple tasked to houses it a mansion when the owners went on an extended vacation.

But this is not about the opulence of the mansion and the relative austerity of the room (and life) of its caretakers as it is about the shifting tone in the relationship of the husband and the wife as influenced by their temporary dwelling.

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Herbert Docena | Four People Full of Themselves

While watching the awards night of the Cinemalaya Film Festival, I daydreamed about being a film god. People would rave about my movies. I’d be treated like a rock star. Critics would knock themselves silly — and each other – debating about “what I really meant” in my latest work. Fans would lick my slippers and actors would slip me keys to their rooms.

The one thing I wouldn’t do is to attend awards nights. And, being the film god that I’d be, I’d even propose that The Industry does away with them altogether.

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Bayani San Diego | Philipine Daily Inquirer

Besting over a hundred entries, six filmmakers have made the final cut in the short film (15 to 20 minutes) category of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition.

The festival gathers a diverse group united by a love for cinema.
The six shorts premiering at the Cinemalaya tonight are: “Alimuom” by Rommel Tolentino; “Babae” by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo; “Blood Bank” by Pam Miras; “Kultado” by Lawrence Fajardo; “Mansyon” by Joel Ruiz, and “Panaginipan” by Anna Isabelle Matutina.

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