Directed by Arden Rod Condez, "John Denver Trending" was named Best Film and also took home the awards for Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Music Score and Best Actor for Jansen Magpusao, who played the title role.
All these and more are what Cinemalaya 2019 film John Denver Trending aims to tell this August. Directed and written by Arden Rod Condez, this drama film shot in Antique follows a 14-year-old farm boy who gets accused of stealing an iPad. He then ends up in a brawl with a classmate to shield himself, but his whole life changes when the incident gets caught on video and circulates online.
John Denver Trending first gained recognition in Palanca, after winning second place in the Filipino screenplay category. What inspired you to tackle the theme and eventually write the story?
In August 2017, I was on my way to work in an e-hailed car when I heard the news over the radio. A mother in Negros found that her 14-year-old son had committed suicide inside their house. It was a shock to her. The boy was a happy child. But when the family went to the police station to get the boy’s death certificate as a requirement for his body’s embalming, they found out early that morning that he was sent by his teacher to the station to be used for a blotter report.