Nadine Lustre

In fact, maverick Filipino filmmaker Mikhail Red just turned 31 early this month—and, at the rate he's churning out new ideas for his film, TV and streaming ...

In fact, I remember my first time at ABS-CBN, and I had to go straight to the Penthouse (laughs)… It was a little awkward because I had to explain that her character was considered an institution who was going to get toppled by the school therapist, played by Bea. But once I overcome that hurdle of shyness and they see me geek out over the material, they realize how serious I am about filmmaking. “She’s very professional and very straight to the point, but she’s also very quiet and introverted,” he noted. Like, when we asked him about how he never seems to get intimidated by his high-profile actors, like “the” Charo Santos-Concio. We wanted to see what the struggles are for these ‘cleaners,’ ‘moderators’ and ‘deleters.’” What my team is trying to do is diversify from the usual content—we try to stay in the middle—because we also want something sustainable. He said, “We were fascinated by the rampant distortion of truth, censorship and fake news, as well as the people behind them. That’s why many of the characters in my productions are very introverted, very internal—which is what I am as a filmmaker. Even with limited budget, I want to show the local audience that we can do this type of productions… I make movies that I want to see as a Filipino viewer. As we see Mik continually evolve as a storyteller, we’re also impressed by how much he has managed to merge his character-forming indie sensibility with the more commercial aspects of mainstream filmmaking—which is a feat in itself.