Private Project

Tiempo Suerte

15-year-old, MANONG is busy working as a sugarcane slasher at the platation. Meanwhile, 9 year-old GINGGING is playing with a makeshift toy car. Manong arrives with a pack filled with food items. Gingging makes a quick dash to help her older brother and calls her mom.
Inside the house, they make an inventory of the food items. This is where Gingging offers to quit school and work at the sugarcane plantation like her brother. Manong disapproves leaving 32-year-old NANAY to explain that they have debts to pay, and she needs to finish school.
The next day, Gingging, is upset when she wakes up realizing that her older brother has already left without waking her up and bringing her to work as promised. To calm her down, her mother promises to let her tag along when she goes to the field later that day.
As promised, Nanay brought her to the sugarcane field and let her watch her brother work. Not content with her role as a spectator, she rushed towards her brother and greets him. Unfortunately, Manong shoos her away to her utter disappointment.
The next day, while going home from school, Gingging spots a machete left under a tree. She plays with the cutting tool until the owner arrives and scolds her. She leaves the owner with her own thoughts about why she has the right to be a sugarcane slasher.
When she arrives home, she finds Nanay and Manong talking to her brother’s schoolteacher, Ms. Cruz. The teacher is begging Manong to go back to school. The discussion reveals the demise of their father and their mother’s heart condition, reasons why Manong has to quit school and work at the field.
Gingging looks for her brother who goes out after he informs his teacher that he is no longer going back to school. She tries to convince her brother to change his mind by insisting that she should handle the work in the field. Unable to contain his frustration, Manong shuts her up and mocks her lack of understanding.
Gingging unleashes her frustration on a pile of sugarcane she spotted on her way back home. Eager to prove her strength, she bundles some sugarcane and try to carry them up with her young fragile body. There, she realizes, she is not ready for the job.

  • Jonathan Parpa Jurilla
    Director
  • Jonathan Parpa Jurilla
    Writer
  • Grace Jurilla Koch
    Producer
  • Jezzy Jurilla Koch
    Key Cast
    "Gingging"
  • Andriane Cedric Dalida Egnal
    Key Cast
    "Manong"
  • Alisandra Jurilla Delicano
    Key Cast
    "Nanay"
  • Grace Jurilla Koch
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Tiempo Suerte
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    19 minutes 36 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 24, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Philippines
  • Country of Filming:
    Philippines
  • Language:
    Tagalog
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • SineNegrense: Negros Island Film Festival
    Bacolod city
    Philippines
    November 28, 2021
    Local regional premiere
    Best Picture, People’s Choice Award, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor
Director Biography - Jonathan Parpa Jurilla

Age usually determines level of expertise. When you see someone is old, you would normally think that this person is an expert, a seasoned artist. That is not me.
I am not a seasoned filmmaker. Filmmaking is my passion and my economic circumstance has only allowed me to do filmmaking in this old age.
I experimented on animation shorts in 2006 using open source softwares during my free time. My animation shorts gave me some opportunities to be featured in the animation festivals in my country, and I got one jury citation award for my short, Samtang Bilog ang Bulan.
My next project was done In 2016, when I decided to join a short film festival. My short film, Isla, got me another jury citation at the Cinekasimanwa, the Western Visayas Film Festival.
When the Covid-19 Pandemic struck in the Philippines, I made a short film addressing the issue. My short film Luisa got produced in January 2021 and was featured in Cinema Rehiyon 13, an annual national film festival showcasing the best short films in the region. The same short film was featured during the Transparent Film Festival last May 2021 in New York, African Smartphone International Film Festival and Lit Scares International Horror Festival in UK, both, this December 2021.
My latest short film, Tiempo Suerte has won Best Picture, People’s Choice Award, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supprting Actor in SineNegrense: Negros Island Film Festival in November, 2021.

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Director Statement

Tiempo Suerte, the original title of this short film, is a term used in Negros island to refer to the season when sugarcane is harvested and brought to the sugar central for milling. It is the time when sugarcane laborers get to work again after tiempo muerto, or the close of the milling season when laborers are out of work and therefore, no source of income.
The milling season is a good time for sugar planters to finally convert their crop into cash and enjoy the good things in life. It is suppose to be a good time for the laborers, too, but sadly, they remain stuck in a perpetual state of tiempo muerto. The money they get from working in the land is used to pay for their debts, they have incurred during the off season. Such, is the social environment of this story.
For a child desperate to help her family survive poverty, what are her options given these conditions? Would she still manage to see some hope in education when everyday, she sees the promise of daily wages providing for their needs?