The Perilous Odyssey to Mount Gulsuk
TFI Suppport
TFI Network 2019
Logline
Joseph, a reluctant teenage father-to-be, embarks on a quest to save the life of his pregnant girlfriend and unborn child. His surreal journey begins in the Philippines, takes him through the soul-devouring labor camps of Arabia, and ends at the peak of the mythical, eldritch Mount Gulsuk.
Jordan dela Cruz
Director
Jordan dela Cruz is a regional filmmaker from the province of Camarines Sur in the Philippines. He is an alumnus / fellow of the Asia Pacific Film Institute, the Doha Film Institute, and the Tribeca Film Institute Talent Lab. A single child, Jordan was separated for decades from his parents by the Filipino Migrant Worker phenomenon. In 2014, after graduating from the Asia Pacific Film Institute (where his thesis film BARDO won the distinction for Best Cinematography) he went to the Middle East to reconnect with his family and to secure funding for his personal projects. He worked as a video producer for Qatar Living, the largest online presence in Qatar.
In 2016, he directed the short experimental film THE DREAM THAT NIDA CHUA DREAMED ON THE MORNING OF MAY 25, 1985 as a response to the overwhelming victory of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippine presidential elections. The film was screened in the Short Film Corner of the 69th Cannes Film Festival, and was featured in a dozen other international film festivals and art exhibitions. In 2018, motivated by the resurgence of the country’s most sociopathic and predatory political dynasties Jordan quit his job in Qatar and moved back to the Philippines to focus on the development of his first feature film THE PERILOUS ODYSSEY TO MOUNT GULSUK.
Recently, he won best pitch at The Tribeca Film Institute / LPFF Talent Lab, studied screenwriting unde Dr. Doy del Mundo (scriptwriter of Manila in the Claws of Light & Batch 81) and was invited to participate in CineMart at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and TFI Network at the Tribeca Film Festival. THE PERILOUS ODYSSEY TO MOUNT GULSUK is Jordan’s first feature film.
Alemberg Ang
Producer
Alemberg Ang: educator, filmmaker and producer. After teaching for ten years, Ang shifted into a career of film producing. He started with Alvin B. Yapan’s directorial debut ANG PANGGAGHASA KAY FE (THE RAPTURE OF FE, 2009), which won the Special Jury Prize at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and the Best Digital Feature Film at the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival. His collaboration with Yapan is grounded on their shared interest with the intersections of film and literary aesthetics. Ang continued his partnership with Yapan, producing 6 feature films and 1 television series. These projects have won for the partners some of the most prestigious awards in the local entertainment industry and international film festivals.
Aside from Yapan, he has collaborated with other filmmakers, mostly first time and new filmmakers. These films have traveled extensively to festivals in Dubai, Warsaw, Cairo, Porto, Vancouver, Montreal to name a few. His most recent projects include Petersen Vargas’s 2 COOL 2 BE 4GOTTEN, a coming-of-age queer film that premiered at the Torino LGBT Film Festival, Loy Arcenas’s ANG LARAWAN (THE PORTRAIT), premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival and Kip Oebanda’s LIWAY premiered at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival.
With Ang’s growing filmography he was invited to attend the UNESCO International Meeting of Independent Producers 2011 in Igualada, Spain, the International Film Festival of Rotterdam’s Rotterdam’s Lab in 2012, the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2013, Network of Asian Fantastic Films of Pifan in 2012 and 2014, and Talents Tokyo in 2014. His projects have successfully participated at the Hong Kong-Film Financing Forum, BiFan’s Network of Asian Fantastic Films, Busan’s Asian Project Market, Tribeca Film Institute’s Filmmakers Lab, Golden Horse Film Project Promotion, SEAFIC, and Rotterdam’s Cinemart.bClearly, Ang’s filmmaking is shaped by his passion for teaching, socio-civic issues, and Philippine arts and literature. He dreams of one day making literature mainstream.
Arleen Cuevas
Producer
Arleen Cuevas was born in 1980 in Manila, Philippines. She graduated BA Film, cum laude at the University of the Philippines-Diliman and finished her Masters degree at Nanyang Technical University, Singapore. She worked in different production companies such as Furball, Industria, Bigfoot, Ignite Media and Bicycle Pictures and currently has her own production company, Cinematografica together with director Raya Martin and producer Armi Cacanindin.
Since 2005, she has produced over 20 feature films, among which are INDEPENCIA and MANILA. Both were Official Selections of the Cannes Film Festival. She works closely with Filipino independent filmmakers, most notably Raya Martin and co-produced his feature films, A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDO NACIONAL, NOW SHOWING, and INDEPENCIA, among others. She also worked with Filipino filmmaker Adolfo Alix Jr. and co-produced the films, KADIN, TAMBOLISTA, BATANES, DAYBREAK, IMORAL, and ADELA, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
She also co-produced THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN RAQUELA, directed by Iceland filmmaker Olaf Johannesson which won the Teddy Award for Best Film at the Berlinale 2008, and was line producer for American director John Sayles' film AMIGO in 2011. In 2018, she co-produced Shireen Seno’s NERVOUS TRANSLATION, which won the Best Asian Film NETPAC award at Rotterdam Film Festival. She currently works as lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.
Siege Ledesma
Co-Writer
Siege Ledesma graduated with a degree in Psychology and worked in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry for nine years. It was in this unlikely milieu that she found a passion for cinema.