The REEL ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL opens tonight and if you see any movie in this festival you have to see CAVITE.

Adam (Ian Gamazon) arrives in the Philippines to attend his father's funeral. He waits ... waits ... waits at the airport for his mother to pick him up, but she doesn't show. His bag starts ringing and in it he finds an envelope with a cellphone and pictures of his mother and sister bound and gagged. They have been kidnapped and unless Adam does what they say, they're going to kill them.

What ensues is a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat, heart pounding thriller ... and yes, I meant to use all those cliches to describe it because it's true.

I honestly don't think I've seen anything quite like it. It is perhaps the best truly independent feature I've seen, hands down. What's so amazing is that it's shot on a shoestring budget of a two-man crew. Directors Neill Dela Llana and Ian Gamazon show us guerilla filmmaking at its most ambitious and best. Forget CGIs and multi-million dollar special effects, the fascination is the emotional rollercoaster the viewer experiences and if this movie doesn't jolt you, you must be dead.

Given the feature's hand held camera work, it lends a documentary style realism to Adam's unwinnable situation. He's forced to chose between a bad decision and an even worse one as he travels through the intense poverty of his mother country experiencing that indeed the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Add to that the injustice extremists feel and the terrorists that watch his every move, Adam soon begins to realize that there is no way he can get himself out other than to complete the mission or sacrifice his own life.

CAVITE comes at a time when sensitive issues need to be addressed in a realistic way. It begs the question: While waging a war on terrorism is a good idea, isn't it just an ideal?

CAVITE
This Saturday, Nov 26 - 9:00PM @ Innis Town Hall
Tickets - $9
Directors in Attendance

Watch the full festival line-up recorded at the press conference.

Click on the image to download the video. (It's a biggie) (35MB MOV)

For more information on the Reel Asian Film Festival please refer to their official website. www.reelasian.com.