FACINE - Filipino Arts & Cinema, International

The Filipino Arts & Cinema, International or FACINE, a nonprofit media arts organization, is committed to advance the interests of cinemas from the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora.

HISTORY OF THE FESTIVAL

FACINE organizes the annual filipino american cine festival in San Francisco. It has also hosted film-related events in the SF Bay Area.
 
The FACINE festival, owes its roots from the 1st Filipino American Film & Video Festival called Sine! Sine!, Mauro Tumbocon, Jr. organized in August 1993 as part of the first-ever Filipino American Arts Exposition in San Francisco. It was a one-month exhibition of independent works, a total of about 60 short and feature-length films and videos - from the Philippines, the United States and elsewhere - held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room and the Asian Art Museum.

After three years of being held at different venues like the Pacific Film Archive and City College of San Francisco, the festival left FAAE and stood on its own in 1996 as separate organization now known as FACINE when it started its own event at the San Francisco Main Library for the next 15 years – from 1996 to 2011.

In 2012, on its 19th year, the first time the festival was held outside of the SF Main Library, it was held in three venues in October - the Bayanihan Center and the Manilatown Center in San Francisco and the War Memorial Center in Daly City. Co-presentors included the Filipino American Development Foundation, the Manilatown Heritage Foundation and the City of Daly City. In 2013, FACINE XX/bente was part of Bindlestiff Studio Presenting Program. The festival ran December 9-14, 2013 at the Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco.
In 2014, FACINE decided to bring the festival to a more commercial theater venue, the historic arthouse theater, The Roxie, which became its home until the present when it celebrates its 25th year, its Silver Anniversary, with a competition of full-length films and the launching of its first cineSuri, the FACINE Critical Essay Writinf Competition on Filipino Cinema.
 
VISION
Filipino cinema will be sustainable when it has achieved both critical and popular acceptance and respect both in the homeland and in the diaspora.
 
MISSION
Filipino Arts & Cinema International (FACINE) exists to empower artists and diverse audiences to present films that speak of global Filipino communities, promote cinema as social document of Filipino culture and heritage and as medium of artistic expression;
 
FACINE works to strengthen and sustain a network of film artists and scholars, who provide a vibrant voice for Filipino communities everywhere.
 
FACINE strives to continue engaging generations of artists to portray complexities of Philippine realities and the Filipino diaspora, develop the craft of filmmaking and build the audience for Filipino cinema in the United States and across the globe.
 
HIGHLIGHTS OF FIRST 25 YEARS

• FACINE is the only international film festival that is all about you – the Filipino film artist and audience! Folks dismiss it easily as “very ethnically specific”, but why not? We, Filipinos in the United States are proud of the acclaim received by Filipino filmmakers in a number of foreign film festivals, hence we reserve this film event to be all about the Filipino film artists from all over – the Philippines and the greater Filipino diaspora.
• This is the longest-running film festival in the United States – and perhaps in the world outside of the Philippines – that has showcased new and classic works by and/or about the Filipino; and the only international film festival that has recognized and acknowledged the lifetime work of our artists, as well as those who contribute to the growth and development of our cinema.
• By re-launching its annual competition for short and full-length films, the festival serves not only as venue for friendly competition among peers, but a renewed conversation among our artists, the critics and academic community and our mass audience in the United States.
• FACINE is the only film festival that has included critical essay writing as an important and vital part of cinephilia when it launched its first cineSuri: FACINE Critical Essay Writing Competition on Filipino Cinema that is envisioned to encourage critical film viewing and scholarship.
• Because FACINE believes that building a community base, not only in terms of festival exhibition but also in terms of education and scholarship, is paramount to the long-term sustainability of our cinema in the US and elsewhere.