SEOUL, 5 February 2016 – A young and aspiring Filipino film maker called on Philippine Ambassador to Korea Raul S. Hernandez at the Philippine Chancery to talk about the recent screening of his first full-length feature film in Korea after its general release in the Philippines late last year.

Nash Ang, a recipient of South Korea’s Ministry of Culture scholarship grant now pursuing an MA degree in filmmaking at the prestigious Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts), presented his film “Seoul Mates”, together with his musical director Gil Hizon, a Seoul-based veteran Filipino musician also known for his work in musicals advocating multiculturalism in Korea. “Seoul Mates” is a 114-minute indie film shot in the Korean capital, which IMDB describes as a “gender-bending tale of a Korean and Filipina set amidst the romantic landscape of Seoul”. Screened in malls in Metro Manila as an entry in the Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival in November 2014, the feature was screened at Indie Space in Seoul on 17 January 2015. Prior to his current work, Ang is known for documentary films on both sides of the 38th Parallel, winning his scholarship after presenting “Water Ghetto” (Sa Likod ng Palasyo) at the DMZ International Documentary Festival in 2011 and then winning Best Director for “Live to Dive (Lusong)” at the 13th Pyongyang International Film Festival in 2012. He won accolades early in his directing career after finishing an undergraduate degree in broadcasting at the Polytechnic University (PUP), with two grand prize awards at the 1st Southeast Asian Documentary Awards 2010 in Thailand and then at the ASEAN-Korea Multimedia Competition in South Korea in 2012. Filipino youth is a favorite theme, evident in his short doc, “My Reason for Existence,” a 2-minute film about urban poor children that won him the Grand Prize in the 1st Mirvac WA Short Film Festival in Australia and in his full-length "Paraiso", about children affected by Typhoon Haiyan, accepted at the Singkwentro International Film Festival on 21 February in Manila. His first workshop short film at K-Arts, “Poor House”, will have its world premiere as a 14-minute Korean-language entry for South Korea at the Granite Planet International Film Festival on 21-23 February 2015 in Newfoundland, Canada. --END-