OUR Q&A this week:

What is the Philippine counterpart of Sundance Film Festival? ?Malyn Masdo, Singapore

Like the Sundance Film Festival, Cinemalaya?s goal is to promote independent cinema and give aspiring filmmakers a push. In its six years of existence, a good number of entries to its competitive sections for feature and short films have won awards in international tilts and a few have found an audience in the local arena.

And the decade-old Cinemanila International Film Festival is a venue for both local and foreign filmmakers to showcase their movies and for audiences to appreciate diverse cinematic themes and styles.

Robert Redford, whose character in his 1969 movie with Paul Newman, ?Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,? which inspired the renaming of the Utah/US Film Festival in 1991, has like-minded counterparts in local show biz. But, the iconic American star?s efforts have been unmatched.

Boutique

Catching ?Gremlins? recently on TV reminded me of Phoebe Cates. Where is she now? ?Jane Diaz, Canada

The lovely actress with Filipino ancestry is in New York running her own boutique called Blue Tree, which opened in 2005. She is called ?Our Fearless Leader? by her staff and handpicks most of the store?s merchandise?from clothing to home goods and gift items?during her travels across the globe.

Cates has been married to Kevin Kline since 1989. Their teenage kids, Owen Joseph and Greta Simone, had their film debut in ?The Anniversary Party,? the 2001 directorial collaboration of Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cummings that also starred the Kline couple.

The actress allegedly agreed to appear in the movie as a favor to Jennifer, who?s been a friend since they costarred in 1982?s ?Fast Times at Ridgemont High.? She considers herself retired from acting since the early 1990s. It looks like Owen Joseph will pick up from where his mother had left off, because his follow-up project, ?The Squid and the Whale,? has earned him rave reviews!

E-mail jtvalle2008@gmail.com