Pony Boys

Runtime: 100'

Expected release: January, 2025

Production stage: Post-production

Budget: €175 000 (70.62%)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents, Distributors, Buyers, Co-Producers for post, Gap Financing, Impact Campaign, Marketing and Promo

Synopsis:

“Pony Boys” tracks the lives of young horse handlers as they navigate adolescence while earning a living, offering a poignant coming-of-age tale set against the world of horse tourism in Baguio, a city carved in the mountains of the Philippines. The film quietly confronts the enduring effects of U.S. occupation on a local community, offering a fresh perspective on historical legacies and their implications.

Director’s profile:

Joseph Mangat, a Filipino American filmmaker, who directs and edits documentaries and narrative shorts. He is a Uniondocs & Rockefeller Fellow and Talents Tokyo alum. Mangat received numerous awards, including a student Emmy Award, Kathleen Kennedy Fellowship, SGIFF SEA-Doc Award, and just recently, the SDAFF’s Emerging Filmmaker Award. His debut feature, “Divine Factory,” premiered at the 2022 Dok Leipzig Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Dove, FIPRESCI Prize, and Prize for Interreligious Jury. It was also selected for the RIDM-Montreal International Documentary Festival and Singapore International Film Festival. Mangat holds a bachelor’s degree in Visuals Arts at the University of California, San Diego where he was mentored by avant-garde filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin. and a Master of Arts in TV, Film, and New Media from San Diego State where he graduated with honors.

Producer’s profile:

Alemberg Ang was a schoolteacher before stumbling into filmmaking. His filmmaking is shaped by his passion for socio-civic issues while providing a voice to marginalized and underrepresented communities. His filmography includes: Whammy Alcazaren’s Bold Eagle about a gay thirty-something online sex worker’s existential angst (2023, Fantasia and NYFF, 2024 Sundance), Chie Hayakawa’s Plan 75 about Japan’s social systems and elderly care (2022, Camera D’or Special Mention, Un Certain Regard at Cannes), Joseph Mangat’s Divine Factory about a Catholic factory and its LGBTQ+ employees (2022, Dok Leipzig) and The Rapture of Fe about a battered wife’s journey into freedom (2009, Best Digital Feature at Cairo IFF). Ang participated at Rotterdam Lab, Berlinale Talents, Locarno Open Doors, IDFA Producers Connection, Institut Francais’ La Fabrique Cinema du Monde and EAVE Producers Workshop.