HOLY CRAFT

Runtime: 77'

Expected release: November 2020

Budget: € 238,000 (85% in place)

1st feature: 1st feature

Looking for: Festival, sales agents, distributor

Synopsis:

Holy Craft examines the peculiarities of religion, labor, capital and gender all intersecting at a Catholic figurines factory in the Philippines, where devout LGBTQ workers and outcasts pray to the same items they make. The film goes beyond the critique of the business of religion by focusing on the people behind the scenes and how they live and work within the absurdity of it all.

Director’s profile: 

Joseph Mangat is a Filipino filmmaker based in Brooklyn and Manila. His narrative and documentary shorts have garnered awards and screened at various international festivals. Mentored by acclaimed French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin He holds a BA in Visual Arts at UCSD and an MA in TV, Film and New Media from SDSU where he graduated with honors while receiving the Student Emmy Award, Kathleen Kennedy Fellowship, Fotekem Scholarship and Focal Press Best Student Film Award. He has also worked for non-profit groups including Pacarts and Tribeca Film Institute. He was a recipient of Uniondocs and Rockefeller Editing fellowship and was on the Creative Capital 2014 On Our Radar List. In 2019 he was selected for the Film Development Council of the Philippines and First Cut Lab inaugural film development workshop and was selected to Berlinale Talents and Tokyo Filmex’s 2019 Talents Tokyo.