To Calm the Pig Inside

Ang Pagpakalma sa Unos (To Calm the Pig Inside) is a contemplative film that ponders the effects a typhoon leaves on a small town. Myths are woven to try to understand how the people cope with the devastation and trauma. A girl divulges bits and pieces of her own memory of her grandmother and mother to tie in the experiences she felt visiting this ravaged town.

Director: Joanna Vasquez Arong
Length: 18:30
Country: Philippines
Language: Filipino
Year: 2020

Additional Info

Director Biography: Joanna started filmmaking in Beijing after deciding to leave the corporate and institutional world in search for new adventures. Joanna premiered her first feature documentary, Neo- Lounge, in 2007 recounting intimate stories of foreigners who went to Beijing searching to break from their past. It won four awards, including two Best Documentary awards. Her second film, The Old Fool Who Moved the Mountains, which explores an ancient Chinese fable and how it relates to three generations, premiered at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2008. It also won two awards, including one Best Documentary award. Her third film, Sunday School, filmed in Zambia, was commissioned by the International Film Festival Rotterdam for their Forget Africa series, and premiered in 2010. Joanna also creates film installations for galleries and museums, and her most recent experimental films were screened in galleries and museums in Cebu, Manila, San Luis Potosí, Chicago and New York in 2019 and 2020. Her documentary short To Calm the Pig Inside, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festi- val in January 2020, won the Grand Jury Prize. The film has won eight more awards including the Winner of Short International Documentary at Shorts Mexico as well as Best Documenta- ry Short at the Hot Springs Film Festival and at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It was also one of ten nominees for the 2021 International Documentary Association Awards for Best Short.