<p><b>“Raya Martin's weather-beaten melodrama is one hallucinatory emotional hothouse.” - <i>Time Out New York</i></b></p><p>With fake backdrops, overacting, deliberately rough effects and a black and white 1:33 aspect ratio, <i>Independencia</i> harks back to golden era of 1930s cinema to tell an earnest tale about a Filipino paradise lost, destroyed by American invaders. No less lush despite its low-fi aesthetic, <i>Independencia</i> manages to create a world both dreamlike and immensely original. </p><p>In homage to - or perhaps in critique of - the artifice of the 1930s Hollywood ‘talkies', prolific young filmmaker Raya Martin presents the second film (following <i>A Short Film About the Indio Nacional</i>) in his trilogy about the Filipino struggle for independence during the 19th Century.</p><p>Winner of the NETPAC Award at the 2009 Bangkok International Film Festival.</p>