John Denver Trending(HKAFF 2022)

The acclaimed debut feature of Arden Rod Condez resonates exceptionally in our current age of social media addiction and thin-skinned moral outrage. 14-year-old John Denver’s life disintegrates when a video of him physically attacking a classmate goes viral. The clip is misleading — John was reacting to a false accusation of theft — but the more he protests, the more the situation spins out of control, escalating into a national news story that incenses the quick-to-judgment netizens of the Philippines. Despite its rural setting, the film unfolds at a quickening pace, as John is inexorably drawn into a waking nightmare where his innocence and intentions are rendered irrelevant by the baying of the bloodthirsty mob.