A documentary about Leni Robredo's 'pink movement' to premiere at 2024 Sundance Film Festival
A documentary featuring the “pink movement” ignited during Atty. Leni Robredo’s bid for the presidency is headed to Sundance.
On Thursday, Dec. 7, the Sundance Film Festival announced the lineup for the 2024 festival, featuring 92 fiction, documentary, and short films from around the globe in aiming to introduce “new voices and fresh perspectives.”
Included in the list is And So It Begins, a documentary film helmed by award-winning filmmaker Ramona Diaz—the same director of the acclaimed documentary A Thousand Cuts. It has been selected as one of the 20 films under the Premieres/Documentaries category of the prestigious film festival happening in January 2024.
We are Sundance-bound!!! Thank you @sundancefest. So many people to thank but none more than @raneyaronson. She’s been there from the very beginning. https://t.co/Td8KcDXEiK
— Ramona Diaz (@CineDiaz) December 6, 2023
Diaz’s documentary will look back at Robredo’s presidential campaign during the May 2022 elections.
The synopsis read: “In a collective act of joy as a form of resistance, hope flickers against the backdrop of increasing autocracy.”
“With the end of Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency and his attacks on democratic institutions like a free independent press, some Filipinos hoped for a new beginning. In contrast, others yearned for even more autocracy and a return to an era before the People Power Revolution and the restoration of democracy just a generation before,” it continued.
During the campaign, the former vice president, alongside her supporters dubbed "Kakampinks," created a "pink movement" that included house-to-house campaigns, massive campaign rallies across the countries, and donation drives that eventually extended to a nonprofit organization, Angat Buhay.
“And So It Begins chronicles what the defenders of democracy in the Philippines have experienced and is a haunting depiction of what is at stake in elections around the world,” it concluded. The film will be available to the public online and in-person from Jan. 25 to 28.
If you want to catch the film, the online ticket prices range from $25 (about P1,400) for a single film ticket to $350 (over P19,000), depending on the package.
For those who want to attend in person, the festival will be held in Park City, Utah. Tickets start at $30 (over P1,600) for a single film ticket. See more options here.
Established in 1985, the Sundance Film Festival is an annual event that serves as a platform for original storytellers and audiences. Apart from premiering films, they also hold panel discussions, daily filmmaker conversations, panel discussions, and more.
