WMC-AP's Film Places In Top 20

WM Communications Asia Pacific joined as one of the 82 participants of the 168 Hour Film Project in the United States. They produced a short film entitled “Kamatis [A Tomato Story]” as its entry which was selected as one of the top 20 films and received three nominations for awards. The 168 Hour Film Project screenings and awards ceremony took place in Glendale, California on April 11-12, 2008. Kamatis was nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Scriptural Integration, and Best International Film.  It was the first film festival entered by the WM Communications crew.  The whole team rejoiced on hearing the news that Kamatis had done so well including it’s three nominations.

The theme for the 168 Hour Film Project this year was, “Set The Captives Free.” Each team was supplied a scripture verse on this there which was to become the basis for their film. The WM Communications team was assigned Galatians 2:4 which says; “This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.” Each team was given a one week timeframe (168 hours) in which to produce their film.

Kamatis tells the story of Galatians 2:4 through the symbolism of a young boy caught in the struggle to choose between the advice of his recently deceased father and that of a nosy neighbor in continuing his father’s work of tending the family garden. The story focuses on the boys efforts to raise a batch of tomatoes which is translated as ‘kamatis’ in Tagalog, the language in which the film is produced.

At times the production of Kamatis felt like an act of spiritual warfare as there were many situations that attempted to hinder the team from completing it’s task. During the pre-production meetings the team had many ‘friendly’ debates over how to portray their scripture in film. Despite the heated discussions however, God assisted them in creating the perfect script. The night before shooting was to begin the teams audio engineer was the victim of a hit and run motorcycle accident making him unavailable for the rest of the production. We praise God that Lenmark’s injuries were minor and full recovery was quick despite missing him during production. At the end of our first production day our equipment van was in a minor accident when returning from location. Early in the morning of the second day of shooting, prior to the team’s 6:00 AM call time, it was discovered that the WM Communications Asia Pacific studio facility was experiencing a major flood due to a broken water main. This resulted in part of the crew staying being on the second day of shooting to deal with this disaster. Finally, when returning from our final day of shooting our equipment van was stopped by police and had it’s license plates confiscated due to a broken body light. It is a testimony of God’s goodness, however, that the answered prayers and the success of the teams project outweighed all of these attempts from the enemy to distract them from their purpose.  The film was completed and submitted on time.

Although the film did not win any of it’s three nominations, the WM communications team is so thankful they were able to participate in this undertaking. They are also extremely proud of their film. Plans are already under way to reproduce a package which would provide the film “Kamatis” along with study guides, discussion content, and evangelism materials throughout churches in the Philippines.  Kamatis made its premier in the Philippines on April 24th at the WM Communications studio.

this post was filed under Press Releases on May 7, 2008