Bwaya, my opening indie film in 2014's Cinemalaya

Bwaya, a well crafted execution that captures the true sentiments of simple people. Humanity is dramatized thru tone and dramatization. The Agusan marshland, bwaya, a floating schoolhouse and a marginalized community were the novel elements to stage a universal message of a mother's emotion for loss, a sense of community and the concrete experiencing of the various stages of change from shock, denial, revenge and eventual acceptance.

Director Francis Xavier Pasion effectively puts across the message through the films' tonality, choice of actors and their interpretation and the technical technique. The slow pace, subdued lighting, crawling banca movement contribute to picture the character of the place and the theme.

While lifted from a true story in Agusan,it is presented not as a semi-documentary but as an interesting story with an intro,several highlights, conflict and a resolution.

Meeting Director FX Pasion and
Actor Karl Medina after the screening

Practitioners of change management will appreciate this 2014 Cinemalaya entry. A community with shared values can relate, a family moved and an individual touched.





Updates: Karl Francis
http://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2016/07/09/1600882/no-role-too-small-karl-medina
http://entertainment.inquirer.net/191588/bwaya-otwol-director-francis-pasion-found-dead-in-qc-unit