AT the recent 20th Gawad CCP Awards for Alternative Film and Video, Mikhail Nicolas Red won two first prize awards in the Experimental (?The Threshold?) and Short Feature (?Kamera?) categories. His proud father, Cannes winner Raymond Red, texted us about his kid?s twin victory.

Language of cinema

We saw Mik, who will turn 17 in December, grow up. The young director shares: ?I was not forced into filmmaking by my father. He always kept to himself with his work. However, as I child, I used to watch a lot of films on laser disc with him. I grew up appreciating the language of cinema.?

Raymond agrees: ?Filmmaking really runs in the blood, because both of my sons showed talent and an interest in the visual arts at an early age. They fiddled around with our video camera and learned to operate the PC. It was almost intuitive for them!?

Mik?s first video was a school project he made when he was 12 years old. He shares: ?I was happy when I got a good grade for the project. From then on, I submitted every project using video because it was fun and easy to make, and teachers preferred it over just plain reporting.? He has since done music videos, documentaries and experimental short features.

His winning entries are products of a summer workshop at the Marilou Diaz Abaya Film Institute. ?Kamera? stars Lav Diaz and Patricia Rollom. The short film shows how a camera can connect to the next generation.

?The Threshold? has Kiko Meily (director Mark and cinematographer Lee Meily?s son) and Simon Nicolas Jr. as actors. It follows an adventurer as he endures his dark journey.

Mentor

Mik regards his father as his mentor. Raymond explains: ?He is both my greatest ally and fiercest rival. He?s always there to challenge me. I learn a lot from him during car conversations while we?re caught in traffic. He usually doesn?t attend my shoots, but he?s first to criticize my work!?

What advice does Raymond have for his son? ?I always tell him that the art of filmmaking is not something that I can teach him. What I can do is point him in the right direction, so that he can teach himself and go on his own journey of self-discovery. The playing field has changed a lot since the early years of the independent and alternative film movement in the ?80s, to which I belong. Ultimately, the true artists will stand out and rise above the rest.?

Mik beams: ?For now, I deliberately follow his footsteps and often tag along with him wherever he goes. By doing so, I learn a lot from him. But, I know that I will eventually have to ?slay? the father figure!?