Asian Cinema Fund

ACF Asian Cinema Fund

Script Development Fund

2013 Script Development Fund

LIST The blackboard Princess

Category	Asian Project
Project	The blackboard Princess
Director	Racquel ZABALLERO-SANCHEZ
Country	Philippines
Director's Profile	Racquel ZABALLERO-SANCHEZ took up BS Architecture at the Central Colleges of the Philippines before embarking on a career as an interior designer and a stylist. She has put up her own accessories shop named Old Tokador. She has worked as a producer to films directed by her husband, indie filmmaker Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez such as Lasponggols (2005), Tsardyer (2010), and The Kidnapper of Ronnie Lazaro(2012) and The Boat Between Two Rivers (2012). Her first foray into directing, The Last Reel has won for her a Grand Jury Prize at the 2nd Sineng Pambansa Film Festival. It also received citations for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the recent 35th Gawad Urian in the Philippines. When not working, she plays mother to four young boys Sebastian Karl, Szackobe Kabro (Brocka), Stanlee Kubrick, and Seth Karwaiyimou.

Synopsis: A young girl goes to school in the mountains with his baby brother along with her while their mother works. She carries her little brother to school while the class is ongoing. Her strict teacher has a policy that whoever scores the lowest in that day′s quiz gets to erase the blackboard after class. Because she has to mind her brother during the whole class, she seldom finishes answering her quizzes that makes her get the lowest score. Her teacher considers her as stupid and idiot and will not get a better future when she grows up. Problem arises when she gets introduced to her mother’s real job, an internet sex worker who pressures her daughter to disrobe in front of a foreign customer. She runs off and hides with her baby brother in the school where she stays for the whole weekend while nursing a fever.

Director's Note: The state of education in the Philippines is really sad especially when you go to the far-flung barrios. You will see kids going to school walking miles and miles of rough road and even crossing rivers just to get a good education. Despite these hardships, we will see in the faces of these students they are all willing to study. Problem is, because of poor conditions and the lack of a good source of livelihood for their families, the farthest they can go is finish high school, worse just elementary school. After that, it’s either they end up like the sad plight of their parents or worse, parents themselves. This is the state of education in a third world country. This is The Blackboard Princess.

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