On the Road with BONA
The theatrical release of Lino Brocka's BONA (4K Restoration) is underway!
At the beginning of September, we left Hong Kong to begin a tour of North America for several months. We wanted to see the venues we screen in and meet its audiences. In the particular, we were following Bona’s fall festival tour; Taku Aoyagi’s visit to Los Angeles to open Tokyo Uber Blues at Laemmle; Daisuke Miyazaki and Kensuke Ide’s visit to New York for the premiere of Plastic at Metrograph; and now Bona’s theatrical release, which starts today in New York at Metrograph!
It always feels like we’re playing catch up with these newsletters, and alas, we’re already through with the first, and most eventful, half of the trip—our filmmakers are back in Tokyo though the films continue to screen. We’ve settled into Montreal now, where it’s a balmy -11 degrees today ( 12 degrees Fahrenheit for the Americans) and are back at making disks, promoting Bona and eating bagels from St. Viateur.
Bona opens today at Metrograph at 4:45pm in the small hall, but Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca) will introduce the film for the 9:00 screening, right after Elaine May’s Mickey and Nicky with May in attendance (I hope Elaine May comes to Bona! 🤩)
Last Monday, the Academy Museum hosted a preview screening of Bona which included a post-screening talk back with director Q. Allan Brocka, one of Lino Brocka’s nephews. Andrew Acedo, the Academy’s own Community and Impact Manager, moderated the talk. Reading the Letterboxd reviews and social media posts made us very proud of the film and immensely grateful to the community that came out. Bona screens today in Toronto, Washington DC, New York, and Minneapolis! Thank you everyone for showing up, and please keep telling your friends, your family, especially your tita and titos, and anyone you’ve heard say, “I can fix him”.
Dear reader, a perk for being a subscriber! I’ll tell you here first, before we post about it on social media: Bona theatrical posters are now available for sale. This is the first time we’re doing this, so we’re offering 30 posters to start off with. We may be able to release more in the new year (another 10-15 tops). But if you want to bring home this gorgeous poster, or have any questions then reply to this newsletter for details (we don’t have a shop set up!)
BONA Final Theatrical One-Sheet (27 x 39)
For the 2024 re-release, designed by Midnight Marauder.
$50 (includes shipping in continental US)
What’s New
✨ The second and third installments of Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s (informal, don’t worry!) feminist trilogy, Karnal and Moral are now available on Blu-ray — both with cover art by the incredible Cos Zicarelli. Karnal is a Gothic horror film set in the 1930s; Moral follows four girlfriends as they grow into themselves in their post-college years of the 1980s. Both were written by Ricky Lee, who also wrote Lino Brocka’s Cain and Abel.
✨ Angie Chen’s debut film Maybe It’s Love is our newest Blu-ray release, starring Cherie Chung (Peking Opera Blues) opposite Elaine Jin (Yiyi, Brighter Summer Day). The release includes an interview with Angie Chen, producer Lawrence Wong, the original theatrical trailer, as well as a booklet with archival, behind-the-scene photographs and a new essay from Katherine Connell, and is available to pre-order now at our usual storefront, Vinegar Syndrome (dot) com.
Upcoming BONA screenings
♨️ Opens Today (December 6) at Metrograph, with Isabel Sandoval introducing the 9PM screening. Metrograph is presenting Once a Moth (Minsay’ Isang Gamu Gamo) as part of their Nora Aunor: Filipina Superstar series, with screenings on December 7, 8, and 10th. We’ll have a special guest on the Sunday screening!
♨️ Screens for the last time tonight (December 6) at TIFF Lightbox, Toronto
♨️ Screens twice at Suns Cinema in Washington, DC - Tonight, and December 12
♨️ Screens tonight (December 6) in Minneapolis, at Trylon Cinema
♨️ Opens at Cinema Moderne on December 15 — Check out the poster in the window!
♨️ One-off screening in Edmonton at Metro Cinema on December 29
Bona will also be coming to Austin Film Society, Dave Barber Cinematheque (Winnipeg, MB), VIFF Centre (Vancouver, BC), SIFF Film Centre (Seattle, WA), Lightbox Film Center (Philly, PA), UW Cinematheque (Madison, WI), Alamo (LA, NY, Austin, Denver, Raleigh) and more to be announced this winter...
Some of our releases are still on sale for Partners’ Month at Vinegar Syndrome!
🍉 Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Beijing Watermelon is on sale for the first time, for $22.19!
🛸 Kong Dashan’s Journey to the West & Daisuke Miyazaki’s Videophobia on sale, starting at $13.99!
🍥 Dwein Baltazar’s Ode to Nothing, Lino Brocka’s Cain at Abel, and Tadashi Nagayama’s Being Natural are on sale for $11.99!
🎥 📚
After a long search, Ariel has finally found copies of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy in his preferred editions. Thank you Encore Bookstore for doing your magic!