Author Archives: M C

Gráinne McHugh’s “Camino For Paco” Video

Video – Give Up Tomorrow wins in San Sebastian and Paco is there.

Ríndete Mañana gana el Premio del Público en San Sebastián Festival de Cine y Derechos Humanos.
Give Up Tomorrow wins the audience award at the San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival. Paco Larrañaga was given a pass from prison for a few days so he could attend the screening and awards ceremony.

Encore! Give Up Tomorrow is playing in Salem for 1 week

ORIGINAL POST HERE

Monday, May 7th, 2012

The Salem Film Fest 2012 winners are coming back for one week(June 1st-7th) in our screening room.
The winners are…
Jury Award: Unfinished Spaces
Audience Award: All Me: The Life of Winfred Rembert
Editing Award: Give Up Tomorrow
America Cinematographer Award: Stories From Lakka Beach

The showtimes will be:

Friday:
4:45 Unfinished Spaces
7:30 All Me
9:15 Give Up Tomorrow

Saturday:
11:15 and 7:30 Lakka Beach
12:40 All Me
2:40 and 9:15 Unfinished Spaces
4:30 Give Up Tomorrow

Sunday:
11:00 Unfinished Spaces
12:30 and 4:30 Lakka Beach
2:45 All Me
7:15 Give Up Tomorrow

Monday:
5:00 All Me
7:30 Give Up Tomorrow

Tuesday:
5:00 Lakka Beach
7:30 Unfinished Spaces

Wednesday:
4:30 Give Up Tomorrow
7:30 All Me

Thursday:
5:00 All Me
7:30 Unfinished Spaces

To get more information on the movies please go to the Salem Film Fest’s official site.

ORIGINAL POST HERE

Irish girl sets off on “Camino for Paco”

Original article in Spainsh

English translation

Pinoy docu awarded with Dutch film fest’s highest honor

By JULIEN MERCED C. MATABUENA

April 30, 2012, 10:28pm
 'Give Up Tomorrow' is Marty Syjuco's first film (Photo courtesy of ABS-CBNNews.com)
‘Give Up Tomorrow’ is Marty Syjuco’s first film (Photo courtesy of ABS-CBNNews.com)

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino producer Marty Syjuco’s “Give Up Tomorrow,” a documentary based on one of the most infamous criminal cases of the ’90s in the Philippines, was recently presented with the Audience Choice VARA Award, said to be the top prize at the 2012 Movies That Matter Film Festival held at The Hague, Netherlands.

“This is my first film. I was not a filmmaker prior to this film. We are so honored and grateful,” Syjuco told the ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, as quoted in a report on ABS-CBNNews.com posted on April 28.

“Give Up Tomorrow” chronicles the story of Paco Larranaga – who, according to the same source, is associated with Syjuco by virtue of “his brother [being] married to Paco’s sister” – one of the seven men convicted of kidnapping and murdering the Chiong sisters Mary Joy and Jacqueline in Cebu, 1997.

According to the festival’s official website, “Give Up Tomorrow” was under the Main Programme Camera Justitia category along with six other films. Said category “sheds light on the many angles of the human rights and justice theme, using films and debates on transitional justice, careful administration of national and international justice and the fight against impunity.”

“In a rapid, captivating series of interviews, newspaper clippings, and archive footage, the filmmaker (who was personally involved in the case) describes how the seven random boys [have fallen] victim to a judicial error.

“He also shows how the entire legal system is like a Kafkaesque story, featuring false witnesses, cover-ups and human rights violations,” the documentary’s description read.

Prior to this victory, “Give Up Tomorrow” had already won honors last year at the Tribeca Film Festival, Traverse City Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest 2011, Valencia Human Rights Film Festival, and the Antenna Sydney Documentary Film Festival.

Syjuco told the ABS-CBN News Europe Bureau that his documentary “brings further attention to the injustice that Paco continues to suffer and [to] our ‘Free Paco Now’ campaign. To receive the award in the international city of peace and justice is incredible, especially since we have a campaign to bring justice to an innocent man.”

As winner of the VARA award, “Give Up Tomorrow” will be broadcast on TV across Holland.

“We’re so thrilled that the entire country will get to see our film,” Syjuco said.

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

Review in Spain – “Ríndete Mañana”

Here is the English translation

Give Up Tomorrow in San Sebastian, Spain near Paco’s prison

Orlando Weekly: 4 Stars – “nothing short of jaw-dropping”

 

Give Up Tomorrow (4 Stars) Following, with remarkable depth, clarity and conviction, the 14-year saga of Paco Larrañaga and six other seemingly innocent men who were convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of two teen sisters in 1997 in the Philippines, filmmaker Michael Collins assembles a crack team of journalists and others involved in the case and deconstructs the case against them until it appears to be completely fabricated. The fallout, as portrayed by Collins, is nothing short of jaw-dropping; it’s a media circus that pulls in the likes of presidents, kings, Congress, the U.N. Human Rights Commission, drug lords and their puppets (some of whom may be the victims’ overzealous, spirit-channeling parents), news magazines and TV hosts, and a judge at least as cartoonish as Belvin Perry. The tone is solemn but thorough, finding a natural balance somewhere between the metaphysical obsessions of Werner Herzog and the reactionary zest of Errol Morris. – By Justin Strout (7:15 p.m. at Regal Winter Park)

Full article here

Interview with Japanese Magazine COOL-NY

http://www.cool-ny.com/en/archives/871

Movies That Matter 2012 – Audience Award

 


WATCH VIDEO HERE

Give Up Tomorrow receives the Audience Award at the 2012 Movies That Matter film festival in The Hague Netherlands. Presented by the Program Director of VARA, who says it is “A documentary about justice and injustice. A story so heartbreaking and thrilling at the same time that John Grisham as well as Franz Kafka would have been proud to tell it.”