I-LIBINGS

BY ROMMEL ANDREO SALES

Synopsis:

A coming of age story about Isabel’s lessons and realizations on life and death as a funeral videography intern.  Due to her family situation, Isabel is cynical and skeptical of everything that comes her way.  When she enters the I-libings for her required college internship, she sees it as the worst internship her college adviser could suggest to her.  Later as she accumulates her required hours, she realizes that the company is not just a place where videographers make money out of other people’s misfortunes but is a place where the dead and the grieving receive special attention.  It all comes full circle when Isabel is faced with an unusual family tragedy.  Isabel realizes that her internship might have been just 200 hours, but the lessons that the I-libings left her would last a lifetime.

Filmmaker’s Profile

Rommel Andreo Sales graduated from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts degree on Film and Audio-Visual Communication.  In 2007, he attended the Berlinale Talent Campus in Germany, which opened many opportunities for his personal and artistic growth as a promising director and cinematographer.  His recently lauded works in film include The Leaving, a 2010 Cinemalaya finalist, in which he won best cinematography;  Squatters in Mars, a sci-fi short film about the future of the Philippines which won 3rd place at the Philippine Graphic Fiction Award.   Slow Fade, his first feature,  was a product of the 2009 PLDT-SMART Foundation and Cinemabuhay film grant competition in which he bested out several veteran directors for the prize. Slow Fade recently was chosen as among the five indie films to participate in the 2010 MMFF TxtB4 Marriage, a documentary finalist to the 2008 Dekada Cinemanila International Film Festival.  His other works are Ranchero, a feature film screened in Cinemalaya 2009 and adjudged as the official selection for the Paris Cinema International Film Festival; and Paano Kaya Managinip ang Taong Grasa, an official short film entry to the SP* T Film Festival in New York, 2003.  Rommel has done work for different production outfits, TV stations as well as different government and non-government offices in the Philippines.  He has shot close to a hundred music videos some of which have won awards at the MTV Philippines music video awards.  Rommel believes that film should always try to speak of the realities in life whether fictional or documentary.  Film is life presented with cinematography.

Major Credits:  Cast:

Glaiza de Castro as Isabel Fabros, Rez Cortez as Eddie Fabros, Louella De Cordova as Mely, Marc Abaya as Kuya Boy, Carlo Aquino as JC, Alchris Galura as Harold, Earl Ignacio as Boss Erwin, Dexter Doria as Legal Wife, Osan Reodica as Rachel, GA Villafuerte as Josel Chua, Valkent Darunday as Renato, Gege Severo as Conrad,  Betty Uy Regala as Elaiza, Enzo as Alejandro, Maecon Timbol as Linda.  

Production:  

Co-production-,Brainchild Studios, Digital Fusion,  Bigtop Media and Leather Lane Films, Line Producer-Daphne O. Chiu, Creative Producer-Joe Alandy, Co-Producer-Richard Reyes, Associate Producers-Jombits Quintos, Biianca Balbuena, Romulo Marco Sales

Trailer: