Charity screening of Filipino movie at Katara

By Joey Aguilar/Staff ReporterThe Ajyal Youth Film Festival will hold a special charity screening of Filipino film Hiyaw: A Shout From Within today, at Katara – the Cultural Village to help victims of typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.Lorina Villanueva, producer of Hiyaw, told Gulf Times that the Doha Film Institute (DFI) will also match the cash collected by Al Asmakh Charity Foundation from voluntary donors who will watch the film. The free screening will start at 10pm at the Sony Open-Air Cinema.“I really appreciate DFI’s initiative to raise funds out of the free screening which will help our compatriots back home,” she said.She also thanked its director, Janix Pacle who co-ordinated with the DFI for the film’s approval, urging members of the Filipino community to fully support the project.A 93-minute film produced by the Philippine School of Doha (PSD), Hiyaw is expected to be shown in many schools and universities in the Philippines. It aims to generate funds for the construction of a new school building in Doha.Pacle said the audience will see how talented and versatile the whole cast is. It is a story about nine migrant Filipino children in the Middle East who have different family backgrounds and “all with personal struggles to overcome”.PSD principal Alexander Acosta, also the film’s executive producer, is mulling taking Hiyaw to different countries in the Middle East especially to Philippine schools.He said Filipino expatriates will learn many lessons from the story.The school had organised an initial screening at PSD in September attended by hundreds of parents, students and Filipino expatriates. Acosta is also hoping Hiyaw will be shown in many cinemas back home. He earlier announced that they need about QR180mn for the construction of a new campus on a 14,375-sq m plot donated by the Qatar government.Due to the increasing number of Filipino expatriates in Qatar, the school has been struggling to accommodate students each year. But with a new campus, the principal said it can house many students and build more facilities such as a bigger gymnasium, laboratories and classrooms.A donation drive was earlier launched to raise more funds for its construction.