Life behind the pumps

THE CANNES Film Festival has welcomed such Filipino film heavyweights as Brillante Mendoza and Lav Diaz in the recent years and this year it was the turn of a young director who is tipped for bigger and better things. 
Carlo Francisco Manatad, 29, already has plenty of experience at the world’s film festivals having screened his shorts at Locarno and in the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand.
He brought his latest work, the 13-minute “Employee of the Month” to Cannes to compete in the festival’s International Critics’ Week. 
A co-production between the Philippines and Singapore, the film also has the highly acclaimed Thai film editor Lee Chatametikool on board. 
“I wanted to collaborate with the Singaporean crew who include my director of photography and producer”, Manatad tells XP. 
“The film is self-funded with the support of our Singaporean crew”, he adds.
“I like reading articles especially in tabloids. The story is based on a girl who blew up herself in a gas station. People can be doing a good job, but destiny causes bad things to happen.” 
“Employee of the Month’” stars Angeli Bayani, who is well-known for her role in Lav Diaz’s “Norte, the End of History” and who played the Filipino nanny in the award winning Singaporean film “Ilo Ilo” as Jodilerks Dela Cruz, an attendant at a dilapidated gas station. 

Angeli Bayani plays a gas attendant in the black comedy “Employee of the Month.

Manatad says casting a professional actress like Bayani in a short film presented a major challenge. 
“This short film was meant as give me experience for my first feature film, so the producers wanted me to use the professional actor. Angeli is a great actress. When I approached her about the part, she said she didn’t feel very confident, explaining that my short is black comedy while she is more familiar with drama films, but I knew she’d be perfect. The film has dialogue but the dialogue is not that important. It is more about the shifts in the emotions of the character. The first time I directed her, I was very pressured, and she was pressured as well.”
Manatad was stunned to learn that the film had been selected by the Critics’ Week. “When I received the email, I called the entire crew one by one. An earlier cut of the film had been rejected by another festival, probably because we had finished it in a rush. The final cut was made after, and it went well.”
He is also grateful to Lee for his work on the editing. I had a great time working with Lee. He is my idol. I respect Lee in his work as he does great job in editing.”
After the screening in Cannes, “Employee of the Month” heads off on the film festival circuit and will soon be screened in the Philippines.