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Cesar Apolinario

Filipino Prisoners Dance Their Way To The Big Screen
In 2007, a YouTube video featuring a horde of Filipino inmates who perform a well-choreographed version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' music video became one of the year's biggest viral hits. It has scored more than 50 million views to date and has received extensive news coverage. Almost six years after that video, its incarcerated stars are making their big screen debut in Dance of the Steel Bars, a film loosely based on their proclivity for dance. Dance of the Steel Bars is actually a fictional movie about a wrongly imprisoned American and the bond he forms with a fellow inmate based around their shared love of dancing. I'm thinking it's somewhere between The Shawshank Redemption and Step Up. Director Cesar Apolinario shot the film at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, home of the dancing inmates. "This film talks about redemption, about brotherhood," he said. "I did not...
See full article at Tubefilter.com
  • 6/13/2013
  • by Sam Gutelle
  • Tubefilter.com
"Thriller" Filipino Prisoners to Thrill You with Big Screen Movie! Yup!
Remember this YouTube sensation? The group of Filipino inmates dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" inside a prison courtyard? Well, they are bound to be movie stars!

According to the Huffington Post, the movie will be called "Dance of the Steel Bars" and was shot in the Cebu provincial prison, the same place where more than one thousand inmates danced to "Thriller." Some of the inmates will appear in the movie as well.

This B-movie extravaganza stars Patrick Bergin (remember him?), the mean husband of Julia Roberts in "Sleeping with the Enemy." Filipino heartthrob, Dingdong Dantes, co-stars.

The melodramatic plot? Bergin is Frank Parish, a retired U.S. firefighter and philanthropist wrongly jailed for murder in the Philippines. Ala "The Fugitive" no?

In prison, Parish befriends Mando, played by Dantes, a murdered who doesn't want to embrace his penchant for dancing because it's too gay! And then, there's Allona (Joey Paras...
See full article at Manny the Movie Guy
  • 4/3/2013
  • by Manny
  • Manny the Movie Guy
Dance of the Steel Bars (2013)
From Dancing In Prison To The Big Screen
Dance of the Steel Bars (2013)
Manila, Philippines — Six years and 52 million YouTube hits later, Filipino inmates who danced to "Thriller" inside a prison courtyard are getting their stories told in a movie drama about redemption and corruption behind bars.

"Dance of the Steel Bars" was shot in the Cebu provincial prison, the same place where up to 1,500 inmates dressed in orange uniforms danced to global fame in 2007. Their choreographed act still attracts thousands of tourists who troop to the prison to watch the performance, which recently included "Gangnam Style." Some of the dancing inmates appear in the movie too.

It stars Irish actor Patrick Bergin, who played Julia Roberts' husband in "Sleeping With the Enemy," and Filipino heartthrob Dingdong Dantes.

The Dubai-based producer, Portfolio Films International, said the story follows Bergin's character, Frank Parish, a retired U.S. firefighter and philanthropist wrongly jailed for murder in the Philippines.

He befriends Mando, played by 32-year-old Dantes,...
See full article at Huffington Post
  • 4/3/2013
  • by AP
  • Huffington Post
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