A FILM created by a professor from the College of Arts and Sciences of Mariano Marcos State University made it as an official entry in the International Film Festival Manhattan Virtual Events.

Professor Melver Ritz Gomez directed the documentary film entitled “Yallatiw” which features an old oral tradition of prayers for the dead.

“This documentary pictures an almost dying Ilokano tradition and the struggles of the manglualos in passing it to the future generations,” Gomez said.

“The opportunity to document such tradition and seeing an Ilokano film in an international film festival are already a success for me, my team and for the community of manglualos,” he added.

IFFM offers a quality selection of world-class films in different genres from all over the world. It gives 20 awards to winning entries every year.

MMSU said Gomez’s entry is among the five documentaries and 36 films that will be showcased on May 28-30.

“Yallatiw is among the 10 Filipino films which made it to this year’s IFFM. Other countries that are represented in the competition are the United States, Russia, France, Canada, United Kingdom, and China,” MMSU said.

“Aside from the IFFM, Yallatiw was also selected for the IndieFEST Film Awards in California and the Diwa Filipino Film Showcase in Seattle, Washington this June 2021,” it added.

In 2020, Gomez’s other film “Dagiti Tallo a Virgen” won the Top Foreign Film award in the Kolkata Online International Film Festival in India.