On 14 December at the Vue Piccadilly we convened for a very special community preview of Raging Grace, the first British-Filipino film produced for UK cinema & the feature debut of Paris Zarcilla.
Raging Grace centres the Filipino experience using brushstrokes of horror & drama rendered through the prism of race and power. This bold coming-of-rage transports audiences beyond terror to deliver us to the joy and peace we find when we transgress our masters.
Produced by MilkTea’s co-founder, Chi Thai & featuring a richness of ESEA representation on-screen & behind-the-camera, our homecoming screening will be a celebration of all things ESEA - our voices & our stories; our rage & our joy.
Raging Grace has been delighting audiences around the world at some of the most prestigious festivals including SXSW (winner Best Film in Competition & Best Debut), Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (Critics Prize, Audience Award & Youth Best Film), Sitges International Film Festival & Busan International Film Festival. The film also recently picked up two BIFA nominations for Raindance Maverick Award & Best Breakthrough Producer.
Our screening kicked off with a keynote speech from British Filipina actor, Lourdes Faberes; the film was followed by a special Q+A with Paris Zarcilla (writer-director), Chi Thai (producer), Jaeden Boadilla (actress) & Christopher CF Chow (editor); moderated by Jessica Henwick, actor (The Matrix 4, The Glass Onion & The Royal Hotel) and writer-director of the BAFTA nominated short film Bus Girl. Courtesy of our community partner Jollibee, we then headed to their flagship restaurant for the After Party.
This event has now passed - you can see highlights from the screening here.
Jessica is a Eurasian actor, writer and BAFTA nominated director. She was born in Surrey and raised on a steady diet of Singaporean food and fantasy books before dropping out of school aged seventeen, to her father's dismay. She can currently be seen in Kitty Green's feature film 'The Royal Hotel', and is best known for her roles in 'Love and Monsters', 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' + 'The Matrix 4'. Her directorial debut 'Bus Girl' was nominated for BAFTA's Best Short Film this year. She has been named The Hollywood Reporter's Rising Star + Variety's Top 10 to Watch.
Lourdes is an actor and filmmaker. She recently had a historic win as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the Guy Ritchie feature, “Operation Fortune”, a first for a BESEA in the awards’ history.
Recent notable credits include playing the part of Pollution in the Neil Gaiman series, ‘Good Omens’ for Amazon Prime, as well as in the series, ‘The Sandman’ for Netflix. She was also part of the multi-award winning feature, ‘Boiling Point’. She recently featured in the Young Vic production, ‘Untitled F*ck Miss S**gon Play.’
She is a lifelong volunteer for refugee and other humanitarian causes.
