Selected as part of the best of our Submit Your Film initiative in 2019, Eileen Cabling's Basurero continues its critically acclaimed festival run at 43rd Annual Asian American International Film Festival, Oct. 1 – 11 & 36th Annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Oct. 1 – 31.
Basurero made its critically acclaimed world debut in competition at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival in South Korea in 2019—where it was called a “must watch” by Asian Movie Pulse—continues its successful festival run.
The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF), proudly known as “The First Home to Asian American Cinema”—which will be held online this year, Oct. 1-11—is the first and longest-running festival dedicated to showcasing the moving image work by media artists of Asian descent for and about the Asian diaspora experience.
For more information on screenings of Basurero: Shorts Program in the Moment: https://www.aaiff.org/aaiff43/in-the-moment
The premier showcase for the best and brightest of Asian Pacific American and international cinema, the Los Angeles-based Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will run online Sept. 24—Oct. 31, featuring an exciting lineup of productions by Asian American and Pacific Islander artists from around the globe.
For more information on screenings of Basurero (being showcased Oct. 1-31): Short Program Windows: https://festival.vcmedia.org/2020/movies/basurero
Starring Filipino film and television leading man Jericho “Echo” Rosales (Alagwa, Baler, Siargao) as “Bong,” the poetic, neo-realist, short film plunges viewers into the complex world of a Filipino fisherman who finds himself embroiled in a dangerous undertaking
Basurero marks the directorial debut of Filipina-American filmmaker Eileen Cabiling, who also penned the original short screenplay.Manila/Los Angeles-based Cabiling is a Screenwriting Fellow graduate of the prestigious American Film Institute who has worked as a writer for Disney and as a story development producer. Born to immigrant Filipino parents in the U.S., Cabiling is drawn to the subject matter by a desire to explore the psychology of her ancestral home. Currently, Cabiling is set to make her feature-length directorial debut with her original screenplay, Manhid, starring and produced by Rosales.
In Basurero … With few fish left in the sea, Bong, an urban Manila fisherman, struggles to survive. Desperate for cash, he finds himself embroiled in a dangerous undertaking. Wracked with guilt and fear, Bong feverishly seeks a way out.
The film is a fictional expose inspired by actual events and a story anonymously related to Al Jazeera by Filipino fishermen, who told of widespread human rights abuses among the nation's most vulnerable. Rather than serving audiences a high-octane expose of the violence, Cabiling renders a more nuanced portrait, taking viewers inside the psychology of a man trapped by impossible circumstances.
Basurero has also been an official selection in 2020 Active Vista International Human Rights Festival – Philippines, Tampere Film Festival, Fribourg International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Sun Valley Film Festival, Cinemalaya Philippine International Film Festival and Minikino Film Week – Bali International Short Film Festival.
Says Cabiling, “What attracts me most to Bong's story is not just the inhumane politics and the vilification and killings of drug users, sellers and the poor in the Philippines, but also how this character's circumstances are a window into the complex Filipino psyche's search for value in the world.”
