T HUR S DAY : OCTOBER 2 9, 2015
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ISAH V. RED EDITOR isahred @ gmail.com
SHOWBITZ
Director Cia Hermosa- Jorge with actors Villar and Aquino
Is anyone too old to be back to school? Angel Aquino plays the only daughter of Lola Fely
Buboy Villar plays the school bully in Old Skool
Lola Fely (Tessie Tomas) in her grade school uniform
ISAH V. RED When you’re 60 or over and realizes that you have missed school when you were younger because you devoted more than half of your life to your husband and children, would you consider going back to school? For Lola Fely, it’s as important as having her husband around. Now 69, Fely embarks on a journey to find ultimate happiness, and she thinks it’s in learning the things that she had sidelined when she got married and had children. With the demise of her husband, she tells her daughter that she doesn’t want to feel inutile or useless, so she decides to go back to school to finish elementary education. That’s the premise of a promising film of first-time director Cia Hermosa-Jorge. The film is called Old Skool. The quest for happiness is a universal journey and Old Skool shows us one roadmap to get there. The debut feature film of director Hermosa-Jorge produced by Till I’m 90 Films follows the story of Lola Fely (played by Tessie Tomas), who finds life meaningless after the death of her husband. Having spent five decades playing a role to fulfill the happiness of others, as a wife and as a mother, she is now faced with the ques-
is a huge responsibility. Only five years later, and of course through blood, sweat and tears, we have Old Skool. There really is no end date for following your dream and reinventing yourself.” Lead actress Tessie Tomas acknowledges Hermosa-Jorge’s deep insight in the character of Lola Fely having written the screenplay herself. “I felt the yearning to play the character in the screenplay,” says the comedienne/actress, “Because the opportunity is very rare. There aren’t many films about older people and what they feel and have in mind. This film, with Lola Fely going through the journey that she failed to experience when she was younger, should inspire a lot of older people to continue to seek the happiness they have been dreaming about.” Old Skool, starring Ms. Tessie Tomas, Angel Aquino and Buboy Villar, premieres on Nov. 4 at SM Cinema nationwide. ➜ continued on c7
tion of finding her own happiness. And the answer, she decided, is in fulfilling a lifelong dream - to receive her elementary diploma. With newfound determination, she goes back to school to finish Grade 6, only to discover the ruthless world of pre-teen campus life. The movie sees Lola Fely navigating lunchroom politics, bullying, making friends and dealing with the pressures of school. Through graceful storytelling, Old Skool tugs at the heartstrings with great subtlety. Generous on the comedy and punctuated with
genuine heartfelt moments, it is a movie with a bold message -- in your journey to happiness your dream is your north star. This theme resonates strongly with the director, who feels her own foray to filmmaking parallels Lola Fely’s journey. The mother of three first peered through the lens of a movie camera in 2010, under the direction of the late veteran director Marilou Diaz- Abaya. “Before studying film, I held a really good corporate job for over six years. At that time, my eldest son
was starting to develop into his own person and that’s when I knew I had to set a good example for him and follow my passion. I wanted him to see his mother put in 100 percent to pursue her dream because that’s how he’ll learn how to soar,” says Cia. “On the first day of film school, I was so nervous because I was 30 and everything was uncertain. But I was so hungry to learn. Direk Marilou taught me that being a filmmaker is a vocation, a calling. You touch people’s hearts, you inspire action, and you make people realize things through film. It
The quest for happiness is a universal journey and Old Skool shows us one roadmap to get there