Following the successful exhibition of the highly-acclaimed independent film “Jay” at the 2008 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival here in the Philippines and at International Film Festivals in Bangkok, Bahamas, Venice, Vancouver, Pusan, London, Thessaloniki, Oslo, Bratislava and Berlin (Asian Hotshots), the masterpiece of director Francis Xavier E. Pasion makes way to local cinemas beginning February 4, 2009. On that date, it will be shown on the following SM Cinema Branches: North EDSA, Megamall, Fairview, Manila, Sta. Mesa, Southmall, Mall of Asia, Bacoor, San Lazaro, Cebu, Davao, Pampanga and Clark.

The movie shall have succeeding runs at International Film Festivals in Rotterdam (January 21 – February 1, 2009), Goteburg (January 23 – February 2, 2009), Geneva / Blackmovies (January 30 – February 9, 2009) and Mexico / FICCO (February 17 – March 1, 2009).

“Jay”, a film which is loosely based on the gruesome killing of a television show producer who was found dead in his apartment sometime in 2006, is masterfully told through a cinematic narrative. It brings together two of the country’s most effective actors, Baron Geisler and Coco Martin, to give realistic portrayals of the characters as envisioned in the screenplay written by the director himself.

Here is a backgrounder on the movie: “Jay, a gay school teacher, is brutally murdered in an apparent sex-crime. Even before his family hears about it, a TV producer—also named Jay—and his camera crew are inside their house to document their shock and grief. The TV producer convinces the family to let him shoot the dead man’s wake and funeral for a “reality show”. This will help them ferret out the truth about the crime, find the killer, and bring him to justice, he says. However, it soon becomes clear that this concept of “truth” owes much to the entertainment value of the material being shot, and the expectations of the television audience. Skillfully orchestrating this “reality show” is the dead man’s namesake—a “journalist” who knows that the “truth” is whatever works on camera.

The writer-director’s insider knowledge of broadcasting informs his incisive satire, which hits home by making fun of journalistic practices that are too outrageous and shameless not to be true. But Jay, with its mise-en-abyme of reality dissolving into infinite layers of media images and vice-versa, is also a meditation on the ways in which the third world is produced everyday—as a spectacle—and audiences who prefer their entertainment to be as crazy as their lived reality.”

Find out why “Jay” earned the Best Picture award, Best Actor award (for Baron Geisler) and the Best Editing award (for Kats Serraon, Chuch Gutierrez and its director Francis Xavier E. Pasion) at the 2008 Cinemalaya International Film Festival; the Best Picture award, Best Director award, Best Screenplay award and Best Actor award (for Baron Geisler) at the Gawad Tanglaw Awards; and Special Mention Awards at the International Film Festivals in Bangkok and Bahamas as the movie runs in SM Cinemas on February 4, 2009, “uncut” (yes, the MTRCB allowed Baron’s daring frontal scene but gave the movie an R-13 rating).

And as a special treat from the director, all those who are named “Jay” will be be given a SINGLE ADMISSION TICKET to see the movie once for FREE. All they have to do is present their photo IDs. This is the director’s way of giving back to the name that has brought luck to the film.