Film on Robredo campaign makes it to Sundance

(UPDATE) A DOCUMENTARY film on the 2022 presidential campaign of former vice president Ma. Leonor «Leni» Robredo is named an official entry to the upcoming 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Award-winning director Ramona Diaz's «And So It Begins» will make its premiere at the film festival, with the movie discussing the Robredo «People's Campaign.»

«Amidst the traditional pomp and circumstance of Filipino elections, a quirky people's movement rises to defend the nation against deepening threats to truth and democracy. In a collective act of joy as a form of resistance, hope flickers against the backdrop of increasing autocracy,» wrote the film's description on the festival website.

On Thursday, Robredo took to Facebook to congratulate Diaz and expressed her hopes for the film to premiere in the country by April.

«Congratulations to award-winning filmmaker Ramona Diaz. Her latest documentary, 'And So It Begins,' about our People's Campaign, made it to the Sundance Film Festival 2024, the largest independent film festival in the US,» Robredo wrote. «The movie will premiere this January during the Sundance Week in Utah. Hopefully, it will be shown here in the Philippines by April 2024.»

Diaz is also known for her other movies, including «A Thousand Cuts» and «Motherland.»

After finishing second in last year's elections to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Robredo is currently the chairman of Angat Buhay, a nongovernment organization she founded, and has since gone on speaking engagements at home and abroad.

The Sundance Film Festival will take place from Jan. 25 to 28, 2024, in Park City, Utah, in the United States.