popnews.digital

  BINI Jhoanna Puregold drops the curtain on its Sari-Sari Stories series with its most emotional episode yet — “Pangalan,” a short film that doubles as a love letter to the sari-sari stores woven into the fabric of Filipino life. The fourth and final chapter in the series, “Pangalan,” follows “Ways,” “The Sign,” and “The Witness,” and like any great finale, it goes deeper. Where earlier films leaned into nostalgia, this one widens the lens, telling a richer story about identity, community, and the quiet economic power of the neighborhood store. The sari-sari store, it turns out, makes for compelling cinema. Familiar yet full of story, it’s the kind of setting that needs no introduction — a place every Filipino has a memory tied to. “Pangalan” leans into that intimacy, using the corner store as a window into something far more universal: the search for belonging and the ties that hold a community together. SB19 Stell At its core, the film explores what a name really means — and why...