PH Consulate General in Calgary, Fiesta Filipino Hold Sinema Film Festival in Celebration of Philippine Heritage Month

CALGARY 02 July 2025 — The Philippine Consulate General in Calgary (Calgary PCG) in collaboration with Fiesta Filipino, and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) held the first SineMa Calgary Multicultural Film Festival on 29 June 2025 at the historic Plaza Theatre in Kensington, Calgary, Alberta Canada.

SineMa, short for Sine Mabuhay, is a multicultural film festival that aims to celebrate the diverse cultural narratives that live and work in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It also serves as a platform for emerging Filipino-Canadian filmmakers to share their work and be celebrated within a wider community of moviegoers in Canada.

The film festival celebrated Filipino creativity and multicultural dialogue through film, bringing together members of the Filipino community, the broader Calgary audience, and guests from the Consular Corps of Calgary, and local cultural institutions.

During the one-day festival on 29 June 2025, four films were screened in two segments. The first part, “Realidad,” showcased three short-form documentary films created by Filipino and Filipino-Canadian filmmakers that reflect the complexities, resilience, and lived realities of the Filipino diaspora in Canada. Each film offered a unique and authentic perspective on identity, culture, and belonging:

Ahon, a documentary by, disability (DisABLED) and social commentary and climate change (AKLAS). This was followed by a 30-minute panel discussion with the producers and film makers of the three documentaries. 

The second part involved the showing of the feature film “Sonata” which was the contribution of the Philippine Consulate General, Calgary. In her remarks to introduce the feature film presentation of “Sonata,” Consul General Emma R. Sarne thanked Fiesta Filipino and the Film Development Council for bringing Filipino cinema to a Canadian audience, but also reflected how the message of the film “Sonata,” in the context of Philippine Heritage Month reminds us not only of what we celebrate or display, it is also about what we recover, and the parts of ourselves we rediscover and reclaim what we may have lost along the way.

A total of around 120 viewers were present during the Film Festival, which included representatives from the Calgary Consular Corps, the City of Calgary, and Filipino-Canadian Film lovers. END

(From left to right) Harvey Nichol, Leonard Maglalang, and Paolo Oliveros during the panel discussion following “Realidad”, the first segment of the Film Festival which showcased their respective works: Aklas, Ahon, and disABLEd.  (Calgary PCG photo)

Consul General Emma R. Sarne introducing the feature presentation “Sonata” as the concluding film for the SineMa Calgary Multicultural Film Festival.

For more information, visit https://www.calgarypcg.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHinCalgary/.