Rigodon, an independent film by Sari Dalena and Keith Sicat, the Best Feature Film Award during the 8th International Panorama of Independent Filmmakers awards show in Athens, Greece.
Rigodon, the 80-minute debut film of Dalena and Sicat, follows the story of three Filipino immigrants in the post-9/11 New york city. The film depicts the spiritual journey and interwined lives of Amado–an old boxer, Salome–the “dreaming war-bride,” and Dante–the “rebel-poet,” against the backdrop of US government’s racial profiling and crackdown. Joel Torre, Arthur Acuna, Chin-Chin Gutierrez, Stephanie Ruaux and Keith Barber play the lead roles in the movie.
The rigodon (rigaudon in French, also known in English as the rigadoon) started in rural is a group dance. It has two concentric circles of dancers moving in opposite directions, resulting in new partnerships as the circles rotate.
Spanish colonizers introduced the dance to the Philippines. Originally a peasant dance, it later became a symbol of the wealthy.
As if in a rigodon dance, the Philippines has been with various colonial powers: the Spaniards, Americans and Japanese.
Explaining the movie’s methaphor, its official website states: “Rigodon is the methaphor for the various colonial partnerships of the Philippines as well as the current “dance” of political spheres of influence, social groups, and the individuals that immigrate to far away lands in search of better lives who all continue to go around in circles.”