Sue Prado and indie films

A writer once  labelled  Sue Prado as  the queen of indie films.

This year, she has appeared in two full feature films and one short film in the 2012 Cinemalaya. She portrays an OFW whose green card hope disappeared after her planned wedding did not push through in "Dayo",  the flirty secretary in Kamera Obskura and the troubled loving wife in the short film "In His Sleep".

I had a nice chat last night with Sue after the gala screening of the film Dayo. This movie takes place in Guam, a place with flavors both American and Filipino. It shows a slice of the lives of three women: Alex (played by Sue) , who plans to get married to get a green card before her impending return to the Philippines, Miriam, a former newspaper editor who just lost her job and is lost among a number of frivolous relationships, and Ella, a hard working hotel housekeeping supervisor who works to get her elderly mother in America.

The Director during his nervously. teary eyed  delivered  speech said that he is thankful that they were able to finish the film without big stars and minimal budget. I guess his statement has truth in it. Compared to the other films shown this year, this is i guess the only film that did not have known stars. With very minimal budget, Sue said that the credits will show that it was made due to the "Bayanihan" nature of Filipinos in Guam. The Fil-Ams shelled their share just to finish the film. Due to budget constraints, she stayed in Guam for only eight or nine days.






In 2011 Cinemalaya, there are  four characters that multi-faceted actress Sue Prado portrayed  in the four films she appeared..Three of the films are first features and are competing in the new breed category: Sue is a nurse in Eduardo Roy Jr.’s Bahay Bata; in dual roles in Zurich Chan’s Teorya; a drug mule in Joseph Laban’s Cuchera.  She is a public school teacher in Joel Lamangan’s Patikul which is in the director’s showcase category.

 Sue started attending University of the Philippines in Los Baños in 1998 but only graduated in 2006 with a degree in AB Communication Arts Major in Theater.  She took a break from school in 2003 until 2005 to work so that she could support her family and save enough money to finish her degree.

In an Inquirer Interview, she answered the question "What drives you to keep working in indie movies?"  by  "Not only do I get to do something I really love, I also get to fulfill my responsibility as a citizen. My goals are very clear—I may not be able to change the world, but I’m effecting change within my parameter."