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Last month, we were at the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market(FILMART) to check the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) where Isabel Sandoval’s newest project, “Moonglow,” is in the Work-in-Progress (WIP) section.

The WIP initiative caters to producers and directors whose projects need to secure post-production funds, hook up with distribution agents, and meet film festival programmers.  “Moonglow” is a co-production of the Philippines, the US, Taiwan, and Japan. The film follows a disillusioned police man in the late 1970s who steals from a corrupt police chief. Upon investigation, Dahlia (Isabel Sandoval) meets her former lover.

Sandoval is known for her international breakthrough film, “Lingua Franca (2019),” and the TV series “Under the Banner of Heaven(2022),” a crime drama starring Andrew Garfield and Gil Birmingham as two detectives investigating a brutal murder in a church community. She has also worked on the TV series, “The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022),” a coming-of-age romantic drama streamed at Amazon Prime Video.

BRINGING STORIES TO LIFE Producer Alemberg And and director Isabel Sandoval

Producer Alemberg Ang recalls how he was impressed with Isabel’s work. “I saw ‘Lingua Franca,’ Isabel’s film. It was shot in the US and talked about identity, gender, and migration.” It premiered at Venice Days, a sidebar of the 76th Venice International Film Festival in 2019, and got Isabel noticed in Hollywood. “She was able to work on some projects starring Andrew Garfield,” says Alemberg. “I am always impressed with Isabel’s characters and mise-en-scène.” The high school literature teacher-turned-producer was drawn to Isabel’s storytelling. “Putting all these together in a noir film, both challenged and excited me,” he muses.

Isabel recalls her last visit to Hong Kong over 15 years ago when she was a young cinephile. “I was to be in Manila that time, but I flew here for an interview at an American graduate school that we were doing interviews for Asian candidates in Hong Kong,” she confesses. “The one thing that stayed with me the most from my trip was being transported into a vision of Hong Kong, as contoured by the cinematic master Wong Kar-wai in films like “Chungking Express,” “Days of Being Wild,” and of course, “In the Mood for Love,” says the Cebu-born actress. “In those movies, Hong Kong was not simply a locale, or a setting, but a vivid, intoxicating character on its own,” muses the “Aparisyon” director. “It is only fitting that I return to Hong Kong this time as a filmmaker in my own right with my fourth dramatic movie, ‘Moonglow,’ which evokes the dreamy seduction of Manila from a bygone era.”

“Moonglow” is a romantic noir, a romance with crime elements. “It opens in 1979 with Dahlia, the jaded detective that I play, staging a heist, breaking into the mansion of the police chief and stealing all the money from the safe,” states Isabel. The police chief has no idea that Dahlia did it. “We know the crime and who did it,” she teases. “The mystery then, as the film slowly unfolds, is the slow revealing of the complex, more ambiguous reason why Dahlia did what she did.”

Film noir as a genre has the likes of “Casablanca.” This time, Isabel is imagining it with her unique style and Filipino spirit. “One that acknowledges corruption but also embraces and finds glimmers of hope, humor and transcendence,” utters one of the directors of Miu Miu's “Women's Tales.” “‘Moonglow’ blossoms in the sequences that bring to life the characters’ memories, dreams, and regrets.” Isabel has a mind of her own. “Speaking as a Filipino immigrant in the US, in a world where oppressive authoritarian forces maybe threatening our freedom, I feel emboldened and empowered to come home to the Philippines, with my production crew crafted the film as creatively uninhibited aesthetically bold, as rich as the celebration of Filipino talent and ingenuity as ‘Moonglow.’”

The director, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, recently joined the Directors Guild of the Philippines. “Moonglow” also stars Arjo Atayde. 

For the In-Development Project (IDP) section, Jun Robles Lana presented “Ang Magtutuli (The Circumciser)” in its early stage development to connect with producers and investors. The synopsis states, “Pepito, a 16-year-old boy in the Philippines under American rule in the 1920s, wants to learn English to escape poverty. His father insists that he stay home and continue training to become the town's next circumciser. Pepito's life changes upon the arrival of Diego, a new boy from school. Diego is the son of a cruel Spanish official. Uncircumcised and a half-Spanish outcast, he is bullied viciously by other kids, including Pepito, until Pepito realizes that Diego gives him the hiccups, which only happens when he is attracted to the person.”

We hope these two Filipino projects come into the big screen and get the necessary funding to finish their films. Directors Isabel Sandoval and Jun Lana are the upcoming names that the international film community should celebrate and be seen on the red carpet of A-lists film festivals.