Tirador (Slingshot)

Director: BRILLANTE MENDOZA

Prolific production designer-turned-director Mendoza, 45, (six films in two years, including The Professor, Foster Child, and Summer Heat) brings an impressive visual flair to this digitally shot story of life on the teeming streets of Manila.

Filmed partially with hidden cameras during the city’s Quiapo Feast of San Nazareno, Slingshot’s stark portraits of hustlers, beggars and thieves “tiradors” are infused with an exuberant realism that blurs the line between fiction and documentary. “Mendoza depicts [his characters’] many hardships and fleeting joys with great urgency, capturing the bustle of the city whether the action at hand is a religious service, a cellphone-snatching or a police beating.” – Eye Weekly Toronto. Film won prestigious 2008 Berlin Film Festival’s “Caligari Prize” for new work.

Director’s statement: “Tirador is my perfect example of ‘guerrilla filmmaking’. I was in complete control of the film from pre-production through principal photography — up to, would you believe – marketing, distribution, including theatrical distribution.”

PHILLIPINES• 2006 • 86 MINUTES • DIRECTOR: BRILLANTE MENDOZA