Spring Roll

"FESTING" IN OCTOBER

2018-10-30T10:44:00.001+08:00

We could rant or rave on the movies offered in Cinema One Originals Festival and QCinema Film Festival, which happened one after the other. Without a week, or even a day's intermission. But one thing for sure, October was surely a feast for the cineaste.

It requires a degree of tactical planning by the merit of a movie's synopsis alone. An amount of research would help, Google keyword "Movie Title" + "Review.' Just hope you get lucky that the review you'll see has no spoilers. Logistically impossible to hope I could see them all. I am one of the unfortunate ones who hasn't seen "Shoplifters" and "Burning," the two foreign films that got advance raves on my news feed. These two events filled in the gap, to be able to see world cinema, after Cinemanila stopped.

For the local films, the ones that stood out eventually won the Best Picture and the Jury Prize, so there's not much thrill on that. "Paglisan" by Carl Papa and "Never Tear Us Apart"(The Movie Formerly Known As "FISTING") by Whammy Alcazaren beat the normal way of filming narratives, and won. "Oda Sa Wala" by Dwein Baltazar, and "Dog Days" by Timmy Harn, also won on the merit of deviation, for their core stories alone are way beyond what could be offered or given a greenlight for commercial movie production or release. But in this case, "Oda" was a runaway winner, on the merit of two important things, its screenplay, and its craftsmanship, which was way better than all local films competing in the two festivals. On a happy note, both festivals' juries chose well.

It was also a display of the colors of the Rainbow. Both fests had a significant number of LGBT movies. Cinema One's foreign offerings, and QCinema's 6 Rainbow Competition entries raised the Pride Flag high. Not counting the fact that their competition films has a sampling of LGBT worlds as well. My fave was Paraguay's "The Heiresses," which had a reluctant lesbian who is "coming of age" again, except she is much much older than "Billie and Emma." With the loss of wealth and social status at its core, and a brilliant actress as its shining point, and my goodness, when have I seen ever a film from Paraguay? I missed this film while I was in Berlin, where it won Best Actress, and it's that little country's entry to the Foreign Language Film competition at the Oscars. So however distant QC was, with the EDSA traffic as a spoiler, this was worth the trip. And I loved "Never Tear Us Apart," even if it tore us apart, the ones who liked it or loathed it. To cap this Rainbow year, it was the year a transwoman won Best Actress for "Mamu And A Mother, Too."

This year's festival also displayed a writer's depth and human strength. After discovering screenwriter Fatrick Tabada because of these festivals, who had "Patay Na Si Hesus" and "Si Chedeng At Si Apple," this was the year of Carl Papa. He wrote the touching "Paglisan" and co-wrote the fun "Asuang."

There are unforgettable endings too. While we wait, sometimes painfully, where a film will lead us too, these movies showed us how to have great endings. The boy in the car hood scene of "Dog Days." The parody of a perfect family that behaved like a 50's ad for "Never Tear Us Apart." The solo dance with paint for "Hard Paint." The hole in the wall reveal of "Hintayan Ng Langit." Cinema One's opening film with Lady Gaga's final song, and a flashback that tore us apart, for "A Star Is Born." The death of Gideon in "All That Jazz." (One welcome and refreshing move was to show Remastered Dance Classics in a festival). It pays to wait, till then end. No matter how stretched a film could be.

In any festival, there are bad eggs as well. But let's not get into the movies that didn't work. The viewer is always at risk. But it's a joy to discover one that's good. We get one-time screenings too, like "MA" by Kenneth Lim Dagatan, which was made for the digital platform "IWantOriginals," but it was a bonus to see it playing on widescreen. If it was in competition, it would surely get some awards, too.

The festival pass system of QCinema is so helpful. You don't have to line up with the regular theater goers to convert the pass into a specific movie ticket. Assist from the QCFest Desk was a good addition. But Cinema One has an edge, it had Powerplant and Glorietta screenings to spare the Makati people from traffic to QC. Both had SM's CineLokal cinemas so the spread for venues are better this year. And this also means more screenings for the local movies.

And the partying, which reconnects the dreamers and the movie addicts. Venues such as "Don't Tell" for Cinema One and the unofficial "Today X Future" as a QCinema hangout after the movies, make Quezon City a welcome spot for unique bars. And there's Inumart, a convenience store-themed bar, where the Globe Studios party was held. But I can only stay up until 2am, my body isn't sustainable anymore for an all-nighter. Also, because I've got a job, too, I could only watch at the most 2 movies on a working day, or 3 on a weekend. I used to handle four. Three has become too much for me. And that Gateway Cinema aircon gets colder as one after the next movies happen. I rush to the 5th floor Sundeck for warmth, and of course, to smoke.

And so the end of this "festing" happens a night before Halloween, and in the middle of a storm up North. Yes, this is a cheerleader's post. I just want to see movies, from different perspectives, and for these two festivals, from different countries, too. So you bet, I am not complaining at all. I am not a torrents viewer. I belong to that sector that still believes movies are best seen inside a movie house. These are the movies that may not come our way for a regular run. So I do count my blessings. Thank you, Cinema One Originals and QCinema.

THE HOLE IN THE MIDDLE

2018-10-29T12:32:00.000+08:00

Like a middle child, or a midlife crisis, the movie's most difficult and troublesome part to write is the middle part. For viewers, this is the point of the movie that you've come to know a lot, and it's a long road ahead to the climax of the film and its ending. This is the part that I sometimes take a nap, being a notorious occasional sleeper, even if what I am watching is a horror or an action movie. This is the "OK, I get it. So what's the point or what's next?" part. In a live show, this is what emcees are told, to fill in the gap, "stretch it." The emcee, is left by himself to keep the crowds roaring, with improvised spiels, before moving on to the next highlight of the show.

So what do you do with this middle? It could be as long as 30 minutes or more. The problem of your lead character has been set. The obstacles that prevent him from solving his problem could swing to what we call The Ordeal, the lowest point of a character's journey before building up to the Climax could be a way, but you got to make sure if he gets out of it, if it is still possible.

This is the portion of the script that is tempted to do subplots, or introduce a new twist or detour to the story, or even a surprise character to enliven the arc of the movie. But the dangers of contrivances could happen. What I sometimes do is to provide more humanly insightful scenes, since I've laid down all the cards of the story. It is the moment, by moment, not to rely on plot, that could make the proceedings of a 90-minute film enriching, and engaging. Once the characters have become involved in the problems, it is how they behave or cope, or come up with options and decisions that make them more human. This part humanizes the film, it serves the people in it, rather than the people are just there to serve a twisting and winding plot-driven script.

For it is a human story after all. The vulnerabilities, the errors, the little joys, the flaws, the strengths of a person, are what make a script piece interesting. It could also provide the actor something worthy to chew on. So that he is not just a token of a plot. But a representation of someone who could be real as you and me. It's what other characters see too, as another angle of a human crisis, beyond what the protagonist sees. So that the journey of the story is 3-dimensional. And the clash of these perspectives will lead to an excitement to the Climax, whose view works and wins, or whose view made the character lose.

This middle could also be an opportunity to gradually up the theme, or the statement or the voice of the writer. It could up the milieu, or the social backdrop of where these humans belong to, that this is not just about a person, but a phenomenon, or rooted to a deeper but macro issue. When the micro-problems are justified by an unseen plot, or what we call the Bigger Picture, the middle could begin the meat of the story. It could also separate the men from the boys, that this is not just another love story, or a suspense thriller, but it says something more, about the human condition, or the quirkiness of life, or the ways of the world. At least when you get out of the theater, after being torn apart, for example, with an unfulfilled love story, you are enriched with another view on love, and its blinding effects, where mind is beaten by heart, and why mind is the one that figures out why the heart failed.

So the next time you see a movie, and feel, oh, it had a great start, and a fantastic ending, but it felt too long, or it kinda bored you at some parts, that's the hole in the middle. The writer dug this hole in the first place, how to get deeper into it or get out of it, with more minutes left for the movie, is always the writer's weak point. But like any battle, we keep on fighting, and figure out a way to make this weakness a strong part of the screenplay.

To be human is divine, at this point of the film, so it prevents the errors. To reveal that the story is actually, a thematic one, is glorious. This could be the ways out of a black hole. Rather than be swallowed by it, enjoy being stuck in it and embrace it and see what's there around the vacuum, and feel how it feels. See what it's saying. Explore what a person would be subjected to in that rut. And analyze why we got there in the first place. The hole in the middle could actually become the hole that made the whole better.

I am writing this to justify my writer's block. To give me hope, on the whole, on that hole, for we write by our lonesome selves. So as we fit in the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle, we talk aloud. This is a writer's rant that still sees hope. That everything will fall into place eventually. And a script will be finished to the end, finally.

2018-10-28T09:26:00.000+08:00

FAMBAM FURY.

It is surprisingly, a family story, in R18 magnitude. The scope and scintillation of Whammy Alcazaren’s “NEVER TEAR US APART,” are mindblowing. It speaks in episodes. And it displays a social media age videography in sensible randomness, the way we view content online.

The Son. Shot like a private file from a phone, faceless but filled with personal pleasures and pondering, brings us to the root of it all. A provocative and personal phone capture of a gay man’s affair and affectation introduces the Family Triad Film and the multimedia footage nature of the movie.

The Mom. A home-based heart-sinking wife in mental anguish and recalling the son’s innocence as a kid, then he transforms into individualism and detachment. She also converses with her husband like a game is set. But here lies the emotional damage that lingers in introspection, and later, turns into an unbearable pain that manifests in a figurative “rebirth.”

The Dad. In a fantasy world of fetish parallel to an ongoing crime coverage in the news, with a “fashion model dominatrix” as therapist, reflects a contrast or complement to the son’s perplexed passions. And it is shot in eerie sleekness.

Intercut with wonderfully chosen video clips of vintage videos, strangely leaving a nostalgic pleasantness that has been lost. And other visually creative bits and pieces help to form a myriad of madness and melancholia, most images providing well-art-directed punctuations to a thematic trilogy.

It is brilliantly enhanced with the same myriad of sound and music and stingers amazingly crafted to seam together and accentuate an impressive whole.

Then it ends with a hyperbolic “pleasantville” summation of a family torn apart by the disparate parental couple who raised a son coping with individuality and gayness, whose bond or lack of bond to him has become the family’s detachment and collective disintegration. The punches and perversions have been thrown in varying degrees of pain, and pleasure, implosively, and explosively. The thematic “crime” has been made.

It is a splendid movie, shot with an iPhone, that will tear you apart, way after the assortment of audio-visual and artistic composition of attacks have been played.

This is the dynamic spirit of a true Original. It breaks ground, but is sewn with intelligence and a profoundly penetrating feeling.

This is Whammy’s best, a family in triple whammy, an outstanding ”i- phonography” indeed.

#IAmOriginal #C1Originals #NeverTearUsApart

2018-10-28T09:17:00.002+08:00

I WANT THIS KIND OF A HORROR MOVIE , from iWantOriginals.

Kenneth Lim Dagatan’s full length movie debut, after his celebrated short film “Sanctissima,” “MA,” provokes our notions on motherhood, love for family and sacrifices, in a competently executed dark and isolated world, with a series of riddles that build up to a brave finale.

It’s about a kid who is about to lose his Mom to mental degradation, and an expectant mother who mourns over her husband’s death brought about by her unwillingly committed sin.

Their lives intersect because of a demanding “talking bush,” or labeled as a “wishing well,” in a cave, and the creator plays around with this premise of indulging with that force’s conditions for loved ones to be saved in slowly progressed jigsaw pieces.

It is this unveiling of these puzzle pieces that could be a boon or a bane for this horror mystery. Sometimes it becomes too cloaked to have a clear path of progression, with the conscious hesitation to lay down its cards, it could lose its grip for sustaining its audience. Sometimes it effectively stimulates our appetite for the answers to the macabre and mystery it presents. But the imaginative staging and visualization of its scenes mark a directorial debut that is exciting and a welcome addition to contribute to this much commercialized and templated genre.

But it rewards us with a thump. Its final revelations push the limits of what sons and mothers and siblings are. The determined kid takes on a demented goal, at the expense of an expectant mother, caught unaware with his unwavering resolve. It is a courageous leap, justifying an alternative viewing platform such as iWantOriginals, directly to be released online, to accommodate new filmmaking voices and styles, and for viewers who want a channel to see not the same old thing.

It doesn’t hesitate to be unexpectedly meaner than its slow burn darkness. And its epilogue punctuates with a wickedly uneasy resolution on how far we would go for love and its losses. And it introduces us to a director with a powerful potential to awaken the untapped evil in the recesses of our minds.

#iWantOriginals #C1Originals #IAmOriginal

My Now On Its Way To The Next

2017-11-26T16:31:00.003+08:00

(Photo shows the cast of "Changing Partners," which I co-wrote/ adapted as screenplay with the original play's author, Vincent A. De Jesus. In its very limited number of screenings during its indie festival run, the movie was Trending, and created a lot of social media buzz.)

2012.

That's when I left the corporate world. The regular job. The 15th/30th of the month paydays. The assured regular pay. The boardroom meetings. Internally, and externally. The annual Christmas parties. The TGIF drinking sessions.

Year-Ender 2017.

December, I am returning. After 5 years. (Even this blog has returned. I haven't updated it with a new post for years!) Because the traditional landscape that made me leave then has totally changed. Swiftly. Everything, in the new Disorder, makes it ripe for explorations. Risks are welcome now. Solutions are becoming more creative. Innovate, or die, so they say.

Suddenly, my personal passion, cinema, which is basically human storytelling, has become financially viable as well. And has intersected into my former life, called advertising or in this complex world, brand communications. To advertise has taken on a different definition. Sometimes, if you are pushing (convincing) one to buy into your product or service, in the internet consumption world, you'll be shunned (by the nature of the right to click or hide).

Servicing has evolved into solving. As a business solution, the need for creative answers have become more diverse, and complicated. Than a 30-seconder, or a print ad, the media (TV and print), have become diversified as well. Or sometimes, less viable these days. The merger of my two worlds, advertising and cinema (and related fields), have been spelled out as Content. Not ads, but content. Every step I took turned out to be towards this convergence. I even dabbled into live musical theater, which is also a storytelling medium. And I survived, supported by doing, yes, the so called Brand Video Virals, closer to my advertising life then. Marketing meets storytelling, advertising meets entertainment. It used to be one is to interrupt the other, but aid each other financially, now it has become co-existent, interdependent, and seamless.

Photo shows, the cable TV series and also can be viewed on the web, "Single/Single," a branded series I wrote, for the millennials.

Discontent in the changing media landscape and its consumption has made content more necessary. It has become a most wanted commodity. The question is how. The dynamics are so dynamic.

Creativity is boundless. But we have dabbled in different areas. Luckily, I immersed myself in those areas, traditionally, and non-traditionally.

Storytelling is diverse. Long-form, 30-seconders, a 90-minute movie, a 13-episode TV season. Or even something as still as a meme.

But what never changed, and remains a necessity, is The Human Story. It's what people watch, to enjoy or be entertained, to laugh at it, or cry with it, or be scared of it, or aroused by it, aside from the need to be informed and updated, what people seeks to understand, what people question, they are searching for answers, or an escape. What people are drawn to.

In whatever format. In whatever length. For whatever purpose, it's all about reaching out to an audience, or a "target market." The only difference now is, it is not dictated to us. It is no longer an inescapable view, but a choice. Entertainment and content have now become like, window shopping, to just browse through it, or get it (or should we use Windows, as the Web?)

Photo shows my source of fulfillment, and joy, our little film called "Water Lemon."

People can skip things they don't like, yes, like ads. Or the same old story they see. Or the same old untruth they are fed with in the guise of truth. They could simply ignore those that don't interest them. Or worse, bash and post what could annoy them, which could spell death and damage. That is hard to recover from, whether it is a person, or worse, a brand.

Armed with the priceless essentials, that advertising taught me. Enhanced with the enjoyable experiences, the valuable skills and techniques I learned, with the best mentors and creators, that cinema and entertainment opened up to me, to share the Human Story. I am back.

Can't wait to reunite with my former advertising colleagues, and clients, integrate this world with my new found cinema and media and TV friends, and meet new people, including the younger creatives, and explore possibilities with them, in this ever-changing marketing and storytelling world.

I will still be writing full-length movies, it actually enhances my new tasks, and that cannot be taken away from me.

I have evolved, I have transformed, and I am returning.

This is "the Winter of my Content."

Let's do this!

#BrandedContent #BrandedEntertaiment #BrandedContentManila

Mid-Decade Crisis (The Nothingness of 10's - Circa 2010 and Beyond)

2014-05-25T16:22:00.000+08:00

2014, the second decade of the millennium at its midpoint. What seems to be the most exciting thing that has happened in our lives anyway? There's no romanticized revolt to speak of unlike 1986. Any discontent can now be posted instantly in the wide wide world of web. But whining individually doesn't automatically translate into change. It can only go as far as a "trending" issue. Sometimes I wonder what should we really be fighting for anyway? The last time that converged us, we considered Marcos a unifying villain. It was easier to know who the enemy was. The more names go into the Napolist, verified or not, transcending both political parties, but limited to Arroyo period of rule, corruption becomes the villain, but not necessarily a clear cut manifestation in one persona like Marcos. One thing that grabbed us and united us all was a clear-cut Destroyer in the form of a super storm. Maybe a future crusader for us to gravitate to also needs an enemy as obvious as Haiyan (Yolanda) or as an overstaying Authoritarian / Tyrant. Who's the newest star to make thousands scream for more? A youthful guy with bangs named Daniel? His crowd-drawing charisma and the hysteria he can command still remain puzzling to me or he could be really out of my generational taste. We had our icons before in our times that our parents can't figure out why. But c'mon, can't we go more surprising or much more innovative and imaginative than that and have someone shaking the medium, giving it a much needed splash of cold water the way the Beatles took the bubblegum away from the sweet, naive Pleasantville 50's? Anyway the Beatles started bubble gummy and learned seriousness along the way. Maybe Daniel will be an important artist in his latter years, after the decadence of fame's demands take its toll, and make him search the innermost recesses of his reason for being. But am not wishing for him to end up as another Club27 case. Scanning through the much touted independent cinema wave since Maximo Oliveros blossomed, until the latest bundles of film ideators' hopes for the 10th edition of Cinema One, one can only wish for what's the next WOW now that freedom of imagination is unleashed by the easy access to digital production. The premise is always fresh in some cases. But as execution comes into play, it's as if a sense of "ningas cogon," the initial spark you'd hope could create an exciting wildfire and ripple, dissipates. Put into play the low-budget limitations as one only hopes to craft more, for less. The look of the humble SLR's in 5D's can become tiring, one selection colleague pointed it out to me, or the license for available light as a reason for texture and untampered visual documentation. One thing I noticed with independent films now, is the lack of "imagination" in a scene. I hope for a moment (but not in the dramatic sense of it) where humanness shines, instead of the drudgery of slowness and emptiness in the cerebral "premise" an idea is based on. Perhaps the lack of face-to-face talk has removed the humanness of life, everything becomes observational, distant, or alienating as an outsider of life, than as a participant in it. Is this the effect of getting hooked on Facebook or other forms of social networks that has made us cyber than real? Or maybe, it's really the lack of jolt in our times, enough to stir our emotions once again. Now all those emotions are left to the soaps, in a contrived way that hasn't evolved since Flordeluna, Annaliza or Mara Clara made our primetime viewing melodramatic. Oh I remembered, we're way past the 20th century. But television will take longer to approximate the level of imagination and passion that has pushed American TV now to its exciting era. Music has remained clubbish, mash-up, that, pardon the oldie in me, seemed to have removed the musicality and melodiousness I grew up with, from the first instrumental bars of "Stairway to Heaven," now belatedly accused as copied, to the sweeping tunes and tones of Willy Cruz, Ryan Cayabyab, when someone minded what chords to put in the G and F clefs. I listen to what my younger friends sing at a videoke bar, and they all sound the same to me… except there are more words maybe to cloak the lack of melody. I don't wish for a cataclysm called war, or a national crisis of being doped and drugged, to shake the monotony and unexcitement of our times. The way people challenged norms and started asking questions they never dared to ask in the 60's. But can't we be innovative and playful once more, treading into the unexplored, and let's see where it will all take us. There's no need to converge at EDSA. In the comforts of our wired to the net worlds, let's make imagination and risk fashionable once again. We cannot expect a leader to be visionary, but we can have our own little visions to see the world differently once more. Make movies like movies once again. Make music sing once more. Make stars really stellar for a reason. And yes, solve our problems as well with more creativity, than sitting down saying traffic remains the same, our airport is still the worst, corruption is still there, and in spite of the rising GDP's and the declaration we're no longer the sick man of Asia, there's still poverty around us. (Interpret that as Greed is here to stay). It takes imagination and passion to get us out of this mid-decade flatline. And let excitement come back so our heart monitors will be pulsating once again.

Lost and Found Blog

2014-05-24T16:51:00.000+08:00
I have missed updating my blog. It's like having a pen without a paper to write on. After attempts of remembering the email address I used for this blog, and even recovering passwords, finally it's back and running again. Soon, the insights and expressions will be flowing once more. Cheers, nice to be back home at blogspot.

What A Difference Live Theater Makes

2012-07-14T09:06:00.002+08:00

Photo with Migs Ayesa after the show. 3D won’t improve the way I look at “The Amazing Spiderman.” But live theater changed my perception of “Rock of Ages.” Good thing I saw the film first before its stage version. The nights and matinees at the RCBC Theater were sold out. A friend of mine who chanced upon Migs Ayesa in one bistro had a picture taken with him, and reported to him the “ticket situation” that deprived us of the chance to see the musical on stage. My friend’s wish was accommodated by Migs, and, finally, we could “come on and feel the noise!” I was expecting the crowd to be my age, living through the 80’s era. But it was an extreme mix of women and men aged like the leads of “Mamma Mia” and the “Twilight” younger generation. Our viewing was marred by this noisy Mamma Mia bunch who kept clapping and laughing at every moment. With Jett Pangan as the narrator, opening the show, for sure it won’t be a boring piece. He was having a fun time conversing with the audience while being in character. Then Nyoy Violante comes in as Drew/Wolfgang von Colton. I slightly tried to figure out, in a Los Angeles milieu, if he was coming in as a black guy or as a Latino. But nonetheless, with 80’s rock songs starting to roll, I forgot my Nyoy dilemma. Vina Morales entering the frame, with her perfect figure and beautiful face somehow validated my discomfort pairing him with Nyoy. Maybe a swooning eye candy of a guy will add more visual sparks to the main love angle of the story. But how could I complain when Aiza Seguerra as Regina and Migs Ayesa’s part begins as Stacey Jaxx. Nyoy was already out of my mind. But Nyoy had a fantastic vocal rock quality and a great dancer as well! Migs breathed into life a character with a “natural” fit evident with the way he looks and moves and sings. The Tom Cruise movie version was obviously a put-on and a conscious deviation for the Hollywood icon. Migs was Stacey and Stacey was Migs. His sexual mischiefs were less lascivious as Tom’s, but more relaxingly uncontrived. Mr. Ayesa was flawlessly performing a role that has become his second skin. Aiza’s costume was like a Filipina lola who would be good for a Mama Sita oyster sauce label. But her confidence and experience in theater worked well for her as she delivers the right comic punch, moves, expressions at the right time. She was such a delight. Good thing she had to let go of her Lola costume later on, which sent waves of laughter and cheers that rocked the Carlos P. Romulo auditorium. Calvin Millado was limited by his German-accented stiff father role that didn’t give him enough room to shine and stun the audience. But his son, in chubby pastel charming package is a discovery. The German son transformed from a nerdy doormat into a principled fighter combining gaiety and fascist follower in good cholesterol bounciness. I don’t know why the diva managing Vina at the Venus Club reminded me of the power singer Dulce, played on screen by Mary J. Blige. I guess she wasn’t “Californian hot momma” enough. And she behaved like knowing the spotlight was on her like a Miss Saigon moment. But her voice overpowered Vina’s, who suffered from a microphone that wasn’t loud enough to capture her Ms. Morales' wonderful voice. Vina was effective as a tweetums naïve girl and as a vavavoom sensual fantasy, but the drama part felt “soapish” than “stagey theater” to me. Her angst drama facial expression limits her. But her lollipop bubblegum behavior turning into a femme fatale 80’s porn fantasy was marvelous and brilliant. Mr. Wilson was like a Mike Hanopol Jeproks, which might have brought me back to the 70’s hippie than the 80’s leather punk rock. But we can’t blame him, he never grew up from Woodstock rock as a character. He didn’t try to be funny the way others were conscious they were delivering a punch line. He was naturally comic and endearing at the same time. The show is a riot and is a better experience than the film, not only because it’s live theater. But it was also a better plot and funnier story than what was adapted into a film screenplay. The ensemble appearing in various roles were highly competent and provided more texture to a limited stage space and theater company head count. The letdown was it was indeed a “Quiet Riot.” The music and vocals didn’t rock the house enough the way the 80’s glam rock numbs the eardrums with its power and volume. There was something muted in the sound engineering of it. The chorus parts felt disparate and disjointed, too with the leads having their mics on but the choir had to rely on unaided audio power. Kudos to Jett Pangan and the Venus Bar lady who managed to rise above this sound limits and showed us that vocal power make a big difference. If a live band can be noisy enough in a hotel bar set-up, I could only wish they could be as noisy as well in an auditorium habitat. As a kid who grew up in the 80’s, rock meant screaming electric guitars, ear numbing heart thumping loud beat, and synchronizer keyboard magic. But hands down, this is much better than watching its incarnation in multiplex movie screens! “Rock of Ages” really belongs to the stage.

My Annual Christmas Wish List

2011-12-12T14:45:00.005+08:00

Here I go again, well, this year, it may be more impossible since I am miles away from majority of my friends and family.

It never rang truer, the inclusion of Purefoods Corned Beef, which always make it to this list of gifts I do to spare you of the guessing game on what to give me this Christmas.

Being away from Filipino cuisine, and the deluge of everyday flavorful hawker dishes, aside from the corned beef, someone to just cook simple nilaga for me, or tinola will do, without the MSG please.

The OFW solitude makes this gift list less of a list of tangibles, or perishables, or consummables.

1. Visit Singapore, my friends. Persons are truly the best gifts God can give. Let's spend the after hours or weekends together.

2. I miss good massage and power stretches. Massage is quite pricey from this side of the earth. Power stretching, thanks
then to my gym trainer, have increased my flexibility. My joints' versatility and reach may have deteriorated now.

3. Singing Filipino songs but not on that MagicSing or WOW microphone with instrumentation that sounds Casiotonic.
RedBox and Centerstage, and my co-singing friends, come to the Lion City, now na!

4. Heavenly Alavar sauce, and curacha. Ahhhhhhhh, Zamboanga, make it your major export please.
Share it with Southeast Asia!

5. ANC. There's no ABS-CBN News Channel even if I have subscribed to TFC. I am a TV news watcher. Sadly, Pia Hontiveros
has said goodbye. I miss her "no-care" "she has to ask a question" "i need a direct answer" stance. And the live coverage
of Senate interrogations is one circus show I miss.

6. If only someone can send by courier, my old apartment, I miss its wide space and circa 70's design.

7. Filipino indie films. Thanks to the intermittent arrival influx of film friends, I usually get screener copies of their films, when
they arrive. And boy, do I miss my ka-pelikula adiks and the discussions.

8. A dog. I want a dog. I bought a cute stuffed toy dog from Ikea, fluffy and embraceable. But this is impossible since
I cannot leave a dog alone in the apartment while I am working. I don't have the heart to do that.

9. Chicharon Bulaklak. Crispy happiness. And Sisig. The bulaklak at Lucky Plaza is too salty. The Sisig along Tanjong
Pagar has the right flavor, but not as sizzlingly crispy. Sigh.

10. I miss Greenbelt 2 to 5. No matter how filled with malls this city is, I miss my "home mall," and comfort zone.
See, I am not really looking for gifts. But definitely, I am looking for the feeling of home, sweet, home, and friends,
priceless friends.

What I don't miss at all is the heavy Yuletide traffic of Metro Manila.
But sometimes, that I can bear, just to be with my comrades, kababayans, Kapusos, Kapatids, Kapamilya, Kaibigans.

Merry Christmas, to a country that's 3-and-a-half hours away by plane. (Sniff, sniff.)

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Browsing

2011-11-16T11:16:00.005+08:00

In between the breaking news that the Supreme Court of the Philippines has upheld ex-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's right to travel, I learn that now I can hear Mass as if I am still in Quiapo, Manila, with live streaming online.

The internet sites and news feeds on Facebook lead me to unexpected developments on a trivial but interesting scale such as that online Black Nazarene holy mass access.

Spiced up by absurd antes, like this guy Topacio who's willing to castrate one of his balls if Arroyo doesn't come back to Manila, the weird wild world unfurls in humor no playwright can match, because it this funny line was blurted out spontaneously and for real.

The prospect of Mrs. Arroyo landing in Singapore gave me wild thoughts on what would happen if I see her down Orchard Road or stepping inside the wonderfully designed "Glass Island Store" of Louis Vuitton on Marina Bay, where the finest skyline in the world could be.

Of course I would take a snap shot and nothing more. But I see a woman who allegedly changed the course of history by depriving Fernando Poe, Jr. his seat at the Presidential Palace.

Then I learn amidst this Executive Branch - Judiciary Branch debacle that a Singaporean family has made flight reservations for Virgin's trip to space. Cool, wealth has its boundless possibilities and could take your family on an orbiting tour beyond what usual planes can reach.

If indeed ex-president GMA squandered on Philippine taxpayers' money or used her position to amass wealth, then this Virgin space flight is one ride she can afford, and hold the distinction of the first President or National Leader to reach outer space. It's a space where no Laws in the Universe could bar her from traveling, and no extradition treaties exist so she could be sent back to Manila to face trial, and most possibly, a guilty verdict.

Too bad, the APEC leaders didn't do a Raul Roco number and decided not to wear Hawaiian shirts for the Leaders' Family Picture. But I am sure they had their fill of pineapples and macadamia nuts.

Hillary Clinton must be in Manila as of this writing. Maybe this has got something to do with the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement allowing military "practice exercises" between American and Philippine soldiers in Mindanao.

One Facebook user's status hilariously wonders if she can ask ex-President GMA to bring to Singapore the authentic Purefoods Corned beef in can that eludes us here. If ever it is available, it is not the real thing.

Currently, I am enjoying the new supply of Purefoods' Chorizo de Bilbao courtesy of my current house guests, Chuck and Ruth Gutierrez, who is now enjoying a well-deserved break here in Singapore.

Buying Sizzling Sisig (grilled and diced pork cheeks) from a Filipino restaurant called Kamayan, not as toasted as I wished it to be, requires further frying. I added the sliced chorizos and topped it with egg, and voila, it was an instant gastronomic feast and a taste of home cuisine I've missed. And what makes it best, is it is shared with friends from Manila I've been missing terribly as well.

The Gutierrez couple highly enjoyed the Titanic exhibit at the Arts & Science Museum at the Marina Bay. This I got to see. For S$28, it gives you a lifesize experience of being in the hallways of the tragic luxury cruise ship. You receive a boarding pass with a name on it, and at the end of the exhibit, you'll know if your "passenger name" survived or died in this mega-James Cameron popularized journey.

Work flows continously, and deviations like these, in the middle of Arroyo's Escape from Manila keep me in good spirits.

If GMA finally arrives, we'll have a heyday doing "Arroyospotting" and taking that iPhone photo proving she's is really here, away from legal dangers.

The Triumph of the Middle-Class Indies

2011-10-31T09:10:00.006+08:00

As "The Woman in Septic Tank" delectably, wickedly and deliciously parodied the proliferation of poverty-themed festival-touring independent films, two "middle-class" themed movies finally brought home the Asian top bacon from two prestigious competitions, the Busan and Tokyo film festivals.

"Niño" and "Trespassers (Bisperas)" were named the Best Asian films for this year, a feat no Filipino creation has accomplished in the high-profile movie events of Korea and Japan.

Both feature dysfunctional Filipino families which are tangentially affected by the economic and social decadence of today's Stagnant Global Economy phase. Indirectly, the pressures of coping with dwindling middle class incomes take its toll on both families and the quality of their relationships.

Poverty, as spoofed by "Septic Tank," well-reviewed as well in its foreign festival tours, and not dominantly featured in the recent triumphant "mid-class" movies mentioned doesn't necessarily mean it's becoming passe.

A comment by a festival programmer in Korea noted an X-factor among Filipino independent films, in contrast to the high-concept art films of Europe and the USA. I thought he would mean the ultra-low production budget our films can only muster, which is a feat in itself, how the Filipino filmmaker can complete a picture and still be found noteworthy with the impossible financial conditions he is faced with.

The programmer says it's the "sincerity and lack of hypocrisy" of the films he saw coming from the Philippines which make us shine against the artsy output of the rest of the world to wow the most discriminating international juries and film experts.

At first, I didn't get it. Does that make the ultra-high concept art films of the West hypocritical?

He mentioned for example, a technically flawed film as "Cuchera" compared to "Maria Full of Grace," which both dealt with drug trafficking and its human couriers, and simply told me, "now you see what I mean by what's sincerity versus hypocrisy?"

I knew it wasn't about production rawness. Maybe he meant the integrity of the film and its filmmaker is dealing with the issue?
I am just assuming. But this was his analogy between two similary-themed movies from opposite ends of the movie planet.

The triumph of "Niño" and "Trespassers" lies in its mingling of characters as a family unit, whether it's "dirty poor," or "filthy rich" is not a part of the winning equation. Both stories had an authentic heart, and an outstanding grasp of human behavior and interrelationships. And both films were able to weave the social issues that were universal in nature, but also, locally nuanced, which only a Filipino can tell from his own world and experience, and point of view.

Even "Septic Tank" was refreshing and different, even if a film-within-a-film may sound like a filmmaker's conscious design, what made these three movies good is its capability to connect to the viewer and not just please themselves for artistic splendor.

And they were all a product of Cinemalaya, the festival credited by Philip Cheah, in his speech before announcing the win of "Bisperas" in Tokyo as the Asian competition head of jury, which he thanked for bringing good Filipino movies to the world.

Sincerity and integrity in telling a story through film will never go out of style. That's not bounded by class. It is the power of the filmmakers' heart and soul and why he wants to tell his story in the first place, and how well he can tell it as a movie.

Who knows? Maybe the richest of rich and the human struggles they face in the Philippines may become a movie theme, too, and stand a chance as to duplicate, if not, beat the highest triumph "poverty" film maker Brillante Mendoza has achieved in Cannes?

Just do that movie in your mind, heart, and soul, whether it's about the poor, the middle class, the wealthy, or something even that doesn't exist in real life but only in your mind. Let your burning passion make it shine. And let your true heart speak, so it makes sense to the snobbiest of judges, or even to the most mainstream, popcorn movie viewer. Films are not just about artistry, films capture the state of humanity and point of view at a certain point in time, in one's life, in one's class, and in one's country.

.

Rissent Before the Big Dissent

2011-10-24T15:53:00.005+08:00

It smells so Imelda Marcos’ “City of Man” to me. The blind eye of a dying regime sustaining the bourgeoisie when a socio-political powder keg is about to transform into an explosion is captured on film, “Cinq Et La Peau” (Five and the Skin).

Sadly, with our lost film history for lack of a true-blue film archive then, we have to rely on this rare 35-mm film print, borrowed from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to get a glimpse of this French film entirely shot in Manila.

Pierre Rissent, the film’s director, and the godfather of Cannes-bound Philippine Cinema of the 1970’s, introduced the film in the very well designed Singapore National Museum, with a screening room that’s bigger than the usual multiplex movie houses along Orchard Road.

It is unfortunate that Filipino cineastes can’t get the same privilege of seeing a profoundly interesting movie like this. Its impact for us, where the milieu is set, have a different effect, remembering the cusp of Marcos’ Martial Law and the assassination of Ninoy Aquino which immediately follows the timeline of Rissent’s story.

Luckily for me, being based in this ultra-modern city exposes me to special film screenings. Last week, through the courtesy of Singapore Film Society’s programming, I was also able to catch a documentary called “My Perestroika” which sweepingly narrates the Russian transformation from an empire into a state where the Union’s other members have declared their sovereignty.

In Rissent’s film, his lead character’s journey to find meaning in his life as he discovers exotically Third World Manila combines with his explorations with the city’s “finest” women. He walks into a maze of five-star hotel hallways for the tourist or business traveler to walk comfortably through in carpeted floorings, like it’s another world compared to the unpaved small streets of the slums.

The contrast of the struggle for survival of the majority of the citizens becomes all the more glaring with the protagonist’s quest to find his soul and redefine his existence. The ladies he goes to bed with living in luxury and fine clothes, and definitely, uncaring of the poverty that surrounds their fellow countrymen.

It mirrors the apathy of the ruling class and the people they rule. While they bask in personal problems like affairs of the heart or desires of the flesh, the rest of Manila cope to be able to eat three meals a day. No wonder the privileged few can think in prose, while the majority of the inhabitants are presented without a voice of their own except for the hopeless, passive stares that says more than what can be spoken.

I had a nostalgic feeling seeing my city in the 1980’s when I was young, aware and unaware of the evolving democracy around me. The energy of my youth and its optimism overruled the implications of the changing society.

The memories of yellow cabs in box-type shapes, like the old Mitsubishi Lancers somehow gave me my lingering of youth when life had less responsibilities. The look of the five-star hotels then by the Bay, considered posh and luxuriously tasteful then, gave me Philippine Plaza reminiscing and the now non-existent Regent of Manila look, or even the old Hyatt, too.

I had a heyday identifying models and actors of the 80’s, beauty queens and Lino Brocka protégés. Beauty queen and modelspotting gave me a fine viewing experience from Chat Silayan, Bessie Badilla (who became an arthouse film producer herself with the internationally acclaimed “Baseco Bakal Boys), Emma Yuhico and Gloria Diaz. On the Brocka camp side, theater colleague Joel Lamangan and his finest actors Phillip Salvador and Bembol Roco played cameo roles as well.

This was an added bonus aside from watching a socio-esoteric rarity on a different but rewarding cinematic plane.

Life, even though it was democratically tumultuous, seemed simpler then. Rissent reminded me of not only my awakening of the troubles in my country back then, but also, the colors around me during my college years and my entry into early adulthood.

Oh, sweet memories. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, to Singapore’s great film programmers, and yes to Mr. Rissent for sharing your interesting piece of work to us. It is always enlightening to see my country through someone’s eyes from the outside looking in, for a wider perspective.

It Hurts So (Quite A Bit) Good

2011-05-29T10:05:00.003+08:00

Much has been done about minority groups and illegal migrants in America from Mexico. But Mexico itself has its share of workers from poorer-than-Mexico countries, too. And so goes the backdrop of Inaritu's "Biutiful," whose beauty lies in the ugliness of this coping world.

There's not much new in its style, but its power is definitely too hard to ignore. Combining mortality's realism with afterlife's surrealism in a bookend manner where the beginning is the end may not be surprising.

But the ugliness of the underbelly, the sweatshops, a ruined marriage, no thanks to survival and bi-polarism provide a tapestry worth sitting through, aside from the long-haired presence of Javier Bardem.

The Mexican emotionalism is still there, tears, shouting bouts and wrist-slashing melancholia and helplessness, but put together, Inaritu still manages to strike our mind and our hearts' vulnerabilities.

The generosity of close-ups turn into distant shots, as we begin with character sketches and personal involvements. Then towards the latter act, the shots consciously zoom out to consciously provide the big picture, while speaking of near-death and actual death as though we are now spirits looking at tragic mortals.

Its handheld camera beginnings stabilize to the main thematic conflicts, when its chaotic worlds burst, ironic to its camera movements, and become more controlled against its uncontrollable issues and aftermath. Imminent death may have provided an anchor to the madness of living in this kind of world.

The issues are too many to handle, and they're wide and encompassing. Yet, the character binds them together, as a helpless protagonist hoping to change the course, or correct the wrongs, in spite of his wronged acts and goals.

It's a good downer. But the techniques and overall directorial style somehow get in the way of an explosive story. It dingdongs from one tone to another, and fails to be cohesive.

But there were brilliant moments like ghosts in the ceilings and yes, the unexpected "instant basement graveyard."

The sound engagingly, interestingly, provides a combination of din and deafening noise. What is made obvious by the visual treatment that appear literal at times to make us comprehend its stylized intent, is magically compensated by an eerie mix of music, sound and stingers, providing a rewarding audio impact to an otherwise conscious auteur's imprint.

But the sadness feels good, suicidally hopeless, but good. It's a stimulating depressant after all.

It's a welcome multiple stab case, whose lacerations, have become too deep a pain, with no healing in sight, so it has become a masochistic stimulation of the Mexican kind.

You are pained by Javier's plight, and you are further tortured by its social sharpnels flying everywhere to hit you in your face.

At the very least, It's more rewarding to see it on film, rather than reading through the postcript analyses of current Third World issues from an American Time Magazine's context.

*Caught this movie exclusively showing at Shaw Lido Cinema, Singapore.

Dreaming Of, And Doing The Impossible

2011-05-09T08:53:00.004+08:00

Keep on dreaming, or should I quote Leo Burnett's famous line, "When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either."

So goes the story of attempting to make it to Sundance, home of American avant-garde cinema.

When Sheron Dayoc, director of Halaw, a film which I co-produced, brought up the idea, "Lilit, we need to do a screenplay, fast." I initially reacted as "oh no, not another conceptual project that might lead to nowhere," I thought Sheron was just into one of his future theoretical movies in his mind.

When is the deadline, will be the first question I have in mind, and for what?

Sheron simply said, "Sundance, in two weeks' time."

Sundance? Yeah right. And two weeks to write a script? Yeah right.

So I looked at the website, there was this deadline for March, and another one for August. It was a real deadline, and a real opportunity.

I tried to haggle, "we're so busy," (actually I am between jobs so I am officially, a bum), "why don't we try the September deadline instead?"

Little did I realize that he was invited to apply, with a March deadline, unlike the Sundance August deadline which was free for all, open for anyone and everyone who dreams of Sundance.

But invitation isn't enough, it doesn't mean automatic admission to the Sundance Institute's Script Lab. They will still choose from the many they sent invitations to.

OK then, since the deadline is too tight, let's bring in John Paul Bedia, writer of "Amok", a Cinemalaya 2011 entry, to help us out in the laborious task of detailing the scenes we have in mind, and a sounding board as well, when we're stuck and we're in doubt.

Originally, Sheron wanted us to develop a mining story, also set in Mindanao. But, due to time's constraints, it felt impossible, since research is intensive for this kind of material. But this story was powerful as well.

Then, out of panic, we gave our minds more thinking on a material that is familiar already, so we'll make it to the deadline.

We remembered Sheron's documentary, "A Weaver's Tale," which was commissioned by NHK Japan, and even won a prize in one of those American documentary competitions. We saw its promise, in a feature, narrative form. It will definitely be different. There are many unexplored powerful imagery and messages in it. So we're still starting from zero. But at least we have all the research needed to complete a screenplay.

The feature narrative screenplay is now titled, "Satra."

The rest is brainstorming history, filled with creative differences and epiphanies, and yes, sleepless nights typing the script away. I can't stay up all night, so while I slept, John kept his fingers on the computer keyboard, while Sheron continues to imagine scenes. I was the morning shifter, while both their minds were still unproductive, or they were still asleep from the graveyard shift.

What made it easier is that we realized, the Found Story Sessions we've had with Bing Lao came in so handy, because it's different when we listen to it as a theory. But when we are already in the actual writing process, little did we know we have imbibed it and automatically, it aides us in knowing what's lacking in our script, and how we move it forward, or keep still, and give it more thought.

So we made it on time, and we were able to send all the necessary requirements to be considered by Sundance Institute.

So that's been put on hold, as we await if we successfully made it. If not, we move on and prepare for the other festivals "Halaw" is still embarking on.

Sundance is too big a word, so we weren't really expecting anything.

But by merit of "Halaw," which they saw and they liked a lot, and the colorfulness and power of the material we submitted, the Sundance people said they'll be calling 2AM Manila time.

It was a make or break call, we were expecting maybe they need other requirements that's why they will be calling, or to simply thank us, and better luck next time, submit another script for the August deadline, instead.

But the perkiness of the voice at the other end of the line had an excitement to it.

YES! The voice said it, we're in! Well, in a nutshell, that was the gist of the almost one-hour call. It was a teleconference call and all we had was an old iPhone that manifests its quick depreciation.

For more of this story, check out Philippine Daily Inquirer's feature on this today, by getting a copy of the newspaper, and go to section E, page one, of the broadsheet, or visit this link :

http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/entertainment/entertainment/view/20110508-335340/Pinoy-filmmaker-makes-it-to-Sundance-Script-Lab .

I can't make it to Sundance, for reality reasons, like waiting for a new job assignment, so I can't go on leave. But Sheron will.

And I know, by the time he comes back, with the renowned mentors he'll be having in Utah, it will be a gem of a screenplay. It marks the beginning of new journey after the other unxepected dream's success, "Halaw" (Ways of the Sea), has proven to us, we can dream. We can aim on something big. And yes, by dreaming, we can reach for the stars.

Sheron, please bring my Blu-Ray copy of "The Natural", and have Butch Cassidy's partner, Sundance Kid Himself, Robert Redford sign on it! Oh I also have Brothers and Sisters, the TV series on DVD, have one of the Sundance advisers, sign on it too, no less than "Norma Rae" herself, "The Flying Nun", Sally Field!

And yes, finally, I am a co-writer, and not a co-producer! Yahoo!!!

The Best Lenten Sacrifice Is Not By Abstaining from Meat

2011-04-20T17:44:00.003+08:00

It's hard to let go when there are unclosed wounds, and unexpectedly new and fresh ones from the most unexpected people and even from those dearest to you. The dearer they are to you, the deeper the pain.

There's no amount of abstinence from meat that can be as greater a sacrifice than the courage and strength to forgive.

The wrongdoers, may actually be right after all, for they may have wronged us for the right reasons, reasons that God only knows to bring us closer to Him.

Instruments sent by the Lord are not only those, who, like angels, bring good news. Even those who bring the bad, or have pained us, or misunderstood us, are messengers as well. They may not be necessarily be bringers of bad fortune. They actually strengthen our discernment, and test our limits to forgive, and make us more whole.

But there are truly mean ones, too, strangers or distant relationships, like business, or anything else, beyond circle of family, of friends, who do us harm, for their self-interests' sake. They are the ones who we simply say, "let go, let God." It's easier for in fairy tales, we classify them as the villains, out to grab power or simply to sustain their beauty.

It's been proven that villains get their justice, not necessarily in this world, but maybe, in the next. Or setting afterlife aside, in stages, and phases in our lifetimes.

But for the Lord's bottomless capacity to love and forgive, we are made in God's image and likeness, then we have to forgive, too.

We don't have to skip eating beef. That's easy. For a Lenten sacrifice, in fact, there's luscious seafoods to eat in lieu of pork and beef, so it's so easy.

What's hard, is to forgive, yes, and to forget.

"Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing." (Sometimes, actually I think the wrongdoers actually KNOW what they are doing.) But, we forgive. It's painful to accept those who've given us pain. Those who, at times, nail us at our own crosses, spit on our faces, pierce us beneath our ribs, and ridicule us or judge us without basis. But if the Lord can, in a more extreme manner, and in a more excruciating level of pain, for the forgiveness of our sins, why can't we?

It's hard to say, I forgive you Arroyo administration, (but that macro case should be accompanied with justice), or I forgive you my ex-lover, or I forgive you my betraying friend.

But, it's the real essence of Good Friday, forgiveness, and don't forget to say sorry as well to those you might have wronged.

To those who made us feel, "My God, My God, why hath thou forsaken me?" We say, "thanks for making me learn and making me stronger, and testing my capacity to love and forgive."

Try forgiving. Then we have observed a truly meaty Lenten season and will truly be a brother of Christ crucified, and Christ who rose from the dead, the Christ Triumphant.

Lots of love, to those who have done me wrong, misunderstood me, and caused pain in my life.

Sorry to those I have wronged , misunderstood, and caused pain in their lives, as well.

Peace, I leave with you my friends, and non-friends. Shalom, my peace, in all you do.

Destinations And Destiny

2011-04-12T07:32:00.002+08:00

In a series of good news where the "Adjustment Bureau" finally reveals what the true plan is, it's nice to sit back and absorb the surprising and overwhelming NEXTS, while forgiving the soon-to-be-forgotten PASTS.

The pasts and all its present effects might have been the wrong path, therefore the clash to what one needs and wants were actually not the fate and the destined destination.

Sometimes, we who cope with our lives have immediate financial needs and dreams, but there are more priceless rewards that come along. The farthest and unseen things from our minds, unplanned, but a different, unexplainable yearning will be addressed.

The Higher Being envelopes our existence and reason to live, therefore the plan has a Higher Order we mortals don't think about. It's a deeper need that will be addressed if we only let the will be done, without question or pause, and more importantly, without fighting it. Let it be. Let it be.

Then, we come to realize, the rest of our worldly and survival needs will fall into place because of that Higher Order.

In a nutshell, a dream has been given its concrete chance.

It will affect positively not just the talented, gifted, proponent himself, but those involved with him, for a common passion, brought about by a supportive Team Who Dreams and other truest friends.

Our dreams become real while we sleep, for the good news came our way before the break of dawn, literally, when we were supposed to be asleep.

And as this happened, my other friends' creations were validated as well, in a major way. One's fruit of passion is going to a world beyond our expectations, the WORLD among worlds. Another one of my friends even found love, finally, along the way. (Mushy! I won't say who.)

Good things happen to those who wait. Those who were humbled will be lifted up. (Sadly, those who feel so exalted don't have to fall, I hope not, but will learn what is right, by realizing what is wrong. I don't want to sound self-righteous now. If you only knew what we all went through, individually, with other people.)

Trust the Plan. It may seem vague, or realities become worse, but, cliche as it may sound, "everything will be alright," for we are never forsaken like the sparrows all over the sky.

"In His Time, He makes all things beautiful in His time."

All I can say for now, is, Lord, thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

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Precious Truths

2011-04-02T13:24:00.002+08:00

*Photo: Coreen Jimenez, director of "Kano" takes a break from the Milan Film Festival and check out the Duomo's rooftop.

Sadly, in this film-viewing world, the documentaries take a backseat to the gala-premiere, red carpet, and celebrity dazzle of feature films.

But after Ditsi Carolino and Coreen Jimenez's groundbreaking works, fueled with passion and patience, and spending more time than what a feature film maker has to spend to complete his work, there's life, real life, and real power in the documentary feature.

These two women quietly wowed the world, while not betraying what their films were all about, the societal side of this very colorful yet troubled nation, in all honesty, which no feature film can match. For what they really see around them, is what we get.

Most recently, I was bowled over by "KANO, An American And His Harem." On first sight, it seemed like a subject's storyline, the philandering and polygamous American whose life after the Vietnam War is occupied with collecting women and making them all live under one or two roofs, at his convenience.

But the psyche of the women who agreed to this arrangement makes the picture bigger. Lack of money, lack of education, colonial mentality, and perhaps even boredom in their lives at a non-eventful barrio in Negros make us helplessly cringe in anger. It's the state of the nation, in spite of all the high-profile feminist militant crusades.

The film maker never actually imposed on us what she thought of her subject matter, or what her stand is. She just let the characters come to life, and let us weigh what we should think or feel.

It may be polarizing for some, for instantly, in a Catholically-correct country, it's easy to accuse, and condemn,

And in a politically correct world, it's easy to loathe a film which just tells it like it is, for it is not the filmmaker who made the story but she just captured it on film.

But I never felt anything for the American, I neither liked nor hated him. I was more overwhelmed by the submission and dependence of his women, in spite of that arrangement, and started to think how survival has possessed us, and dictated our mores. And why blame the women as well?

It's a societal study. It exists. That's the power of a documentary film. It is not manufactured. But it can also engage, and its crafting can also be a proud testimony to a worthy film maker.

There are a thousand and one more quirky, or socially disturbing situations in a country like ours. And it doesn't only encompass the disenfranchised members of our society, but even the other side of the economic gap, as well, the luckier ones.

It takes a brain, to spot one. And an eye, to capture it. And the passion and patience to let the subject come alive, and most of the time, the need to be with them, and live with them is required, to capture the whole picture, and its more revealing sketches and details.

Two women leads the way, Ditsi (Riles, Bunso, etc.) and Coreen (KANO). Their films are capsules of the unsaid, the unexplored, or what other people don't want to see, but we have to see, as a nation in order to understand what troubles us, really.

And the golden opportunity, along the way, is, the world applauded them and saw them. It's just a bonus.

What matters is, it was made, and told. And it will make open our minds, whether its effect is analytical, or prods us into action, or yes, make us sad and hate the honesty and the fact that they are TRUE, there's no denying that they EXIST in our world.

And yes, documentaries are as important, if not, more important than most of the feature films we see.

The red carpet will be more bloody and more meaningful if we really put documentaries under the spotlight, for they are not just film makers, they are the historians and sociologists of our times, who just happened to use FILM as medium, and who just happened to do it so well, with a capital R for RELEVANCE or a capital S for SUBSTANCE.

Start shooting your real subjects, film makers, and put your "gifts" and "observant minds and eyes" and consider making a documentary. I know it's more tempting to always do the feature film of your dreams. But let Carolino and Jimenez be your inspiration. But be warned, a documentary is very hard to do. Once you start it, there's no stopping and you wouldn't know when it will be done. But it's the least you could do to liberate this nation with the numerous, unspoken and unseen truths that not even TV news will tell us or will be patient enough to cover.

The World Is Going Through An Adjustment By The Bureau

2011-03-14T07:10:00.004+08:00

Master Plan, the invisible path no human can reverse, is rearing its manifestations oh so loudly in a world clinging to unreliable normalcy.

While despots fight or give in to change crusaders, and a zen-filled nation is rocked by a mammoth earthquake, with so many inflections happening in a month, it was timely for me to see "The Adjustment Bureau."

The world, after watching the movie, and seeing all these events unfold on my TV, seems to be adjusted, why and leading to where? I don't know.

The constancy of change has elevated into intensity.

Who would think Egypt will change its leadership?

Who would expect one the century's most powerful quakes will rock one of the most tranquil nations on Earth?

If I go by the philosophy of "The Adjustment Bureau," someone is rewriting the history of our lives, and correcting it, because it is moving to a direction that wasn't part of the "Plan."

"Plan" as viewed by a Catholic can only mean God's plan. In fact, "free will" was often mentioned in the film so obviously, it had spiritual connotations.

Personally, I have been readjusted too, so suddenly. I didn't plan for this. Neither did the persons responsible for the adjustment planned for it. I have been inflected the way the world is being inflected now.

Therefore, I go as planned, by the Unseen Force, and ride with the winds of change.

Change is irreversible and unstoppable like an approaching tsunami.

It's how we react to change and cope with it, that will be personal, and beyond what fate dictates.

When someone counters change, it leads to turmoil, look at what's happening in Libya now.

"Free will and fighting for it, might counter Fate and what has been written to happen, beyond human control," so says the preachy conclusion of the film.

Gadhafi is fighting the Fate.

While the Japanese was overrun by fate, through Natural diversions, and no one can fight Nature.

I am rebooting. I've always been ruled by unexpected inflections, and I simply embrace it, for I believe that there's a Master Plan that only seeks to move all of us to better lives, or better meanings, or more purposeful missions.

However, the world has become one village, what happens in one area, ripples to another. It's like an earthquake which can unleash ripples in the sea, that doesn't only affect where it comes from, but can travel like a tsunami in 50 countries around the Pacific Rim.

I am an instrument of change. I don't mind being its puppet.

I am only another token to make this world change, and I can only change that, and make waves, if I was born not as a person, but as a tsunami.

For now, change, let it happen. I'm all for it.

But to whoever is the Captain of Change, please, let it happen with less casualties.

Master Planner, please be gentler on us.

What This Woman Wants

2011-02-27T11:23:00.004+08:00

It's a bit perplexing to go through "Brownian Movement", a Dutch film, with sparse dialogue to go with a woman's absurd escapades. It's one of the films I was able to see at the Berlinale Forum.

But the tension and seduction and sexual gratification combined with eye contact and body gestures, make them powerful and somehow, interactive, for the viewer to see through them and read their verbal connotations.

This woman is happily married, with a kid, and is doing a good job as a doctor, yet, for no reason at all, seems to be wanting men, impulsively, in all shapes, textures, and sizes, to the point of renting her own apartment, aside from her marital abode, to accommodate her special needs.

The imagery is antiseptic, clinically white, and with bare proppings and furnishings. Perhaps it's the way a doctor should be, or her case is actually, a clinical case, or a lab experiment.

She is aware of what she wants. Yet, when the forces collide with her normal world, she goes into a crisis, unable to handle the problem, and clueless for the right solution.

Her love towards her husband in unquestionable. When the husband learns about her dark ways, their marriage doesn't collapse immediately.

A counselor can be the key, they did that.

They left their country as the husband is reassigned to another, to forget the past.

Brownian Movement is a chemical term on random reactions of particles, as to what it is exactly, I vaguely remember my Chemistry days.

Random encounters, in the defense of it just happens, scientifically, may explain the woman's penchant for more. But it somehow creates the statement that monogamy and love isn't enough. There are needs that not one person can fulfill. Or it can be her source of power and liberation.

One of the most powerful scenes in the movie was the marriage counselling scene, where she was asked why she behaves that way. Her answers were incomplete sentences, for she doesn't know the reason at all.

In the third act, when they have left everything behind to start anew, the husband is still paranoid when the woman leaves home for her usual "morning walks." He followed her, only to find out that she's not going for other men, but feeling herself, and the cemented floor of a construction site. Her need for texture and other sensations continue. But it's not with an actual man this time around.

It's the unspoken that makes this film so elegant yet at the same time, subtly revolting.

The scientific title of the film, counters what science can actually explain.

The needs of a human being cannot be collapsed under one principle. And the needs of a woman, can never be explained by a husband, and by the wife herself. It doesn't just randomly happen. But no one can ever put logic or science to why these things happen.

It's this inner complexity and outward manifestations brought to life, on film, that makes "Brownian Movement" an odd wonder to behold, and a hard sex habit to break.

How The Sweet Berlinale Surprise Came Our Way

2011-02-21T08:48:00.002+08:00

The night before Saturday, there was a message in our hotel inbox that we were supposed to go to the Berlinale Forum Guest Office at 1115 am the next day.

So I asked Sheron, why the exact time?

Both of us knew it's odd, and at the back of our minds, there must be some good news waiting.

But we didn't want to raise our hopes.

Theories ranged from, "maybe, a film distributor got in touch with them, and wanted to meet with us." If this was the case, we will be more than happy, so we can recover our financial expenditures to make this dream film a reality.

Or, maybe "they might give us tickets for the main competition awards night."

So I wondered, why does it have to be exactly at 1115 am?

There was excitement about the mysterious appointment, but also, we don't want to expect anything.

I was restless, and even slept for only three hours. I was still imagining scenarios for the reason for the meeting. The first we had to let go, was to watch another film in the morning.

Exactly at 1115, we were already accounted for, and went to the person who sent the message.

I told her " good morning." She was all smiles. To probe, I said, "we didn't win the Cinema Fairbindet Award." We were nominated for it, but, they sent an email saying, they had a hard time deliberating on which film deserves the prize. But sadly, it wasn't us.

Then her smile got bigger. And she wrote something on a post it note, and handed it to us. She told us to keep quiet about it.

The note said, "you won, a special mention for the NETPAC PRIZE."

I wish I kept the note for souvenir!

She was excited as well. Sheron and I had to quietly exchange high-fives, and tried to hide our ecstatic feelings in a silent "shout for joy."

Isabel Lopez, our actress, was with us, to get her movie tickets for the day. We whispered the news to her.

She was so happy, and said, "our film was really suited for Europe!"

We only had to keep mum about it for the next two hours, since we had to go straight to a place, a 10-minute walk, for the official announcement ceremonies of all Independent Juries' Prizes.

This is the awards morning before the main awards night for the Main Competition Films.

It ranged from Ecumenical Jury Prize, to German Kino awards, to acronyms like CICAE award, and a newspaper's Readers' Award, and a whole lot more.

Then our moment came, after over an hour of the other awards' announcements.

The NETPAC Award went to a Japanese film.

We got the Special Mention complete with a certificate from the NETPAC Jury.

This is an award specifically for the Best Asian Film which was part of the Forum Section.

The head of jury said, they were really debating between two films, ours, and the Japanese Film.

The power of our movie, and its cinematic execution of a timely issue, in its honesty, pleased the jury so much, they can't resist not to give something to our film.

The reason for the Special Mention are my words, the Jury Head read the thought before calling us, so I just got the gist for the citation. I wished at that time I had a pen and a notebook to accurately report what was said and done.

The German judge I got to talk with told me she was really rooting for our film to win. And they were unanimous in saying it will be the Japanese film and our movie which will fight it out for the NETPAC Prize.

So, there, that was how the moment went before and during the awarding rites.

I am so happy, and proud, to bring home at least something honorable for our country.

So far, the film is on its way to compete in two more European film festivals.

And it is also screening again, at its birthplace, Zamboanga City on the last week of February.

To the NETPAC Jury, and the Forum's Festival programmer, Christophe Terhecte, our deepest thanks for discovering our small film, and bringing it, and us, to Europe.

Thanks to Oggs Cruz, as well, the respected Manila critic who is also a part of the Berlin Talent Campus, for taking time out to take our picture during the Awarding Ceremonies.

And special thanks to Paolo Bertolin and Pepe Diokno, the Venetians, for believing in our movie.

And to everyone involved in the making of this film, and to those who supported it, merci!

And most of all, to Armando Lao, our creative consultant, and the people behind Cinemalaya, you rock! Without you, this film wouldn't have seen the light of day.

Chilling at -3 degrees, and cheers from Berlin,

Lilit

Pre-Departure Notes

2011-02-09T08:47:00.004+08:00

Rooted on the ground, remembering the miles I've traveled and the highs and lows of my life, I write this as I am on the verge of my groundbreaking first.

Europe has always been a dream. There's a different charm to medieval castles, as though knights continue to battle dragons, while Mona Lisa's Smile represents the pinnacle of arts and culture, and yes, in the more modern times, this cluster of countries has produced the finest of films outside the moneymaking Hollywood machine.

This weekend, I shall set my foot on this part of the world, finally.

I have flown through different phases of my life unplanned, my destinations were mapped by the proverbial will of the wind and the stroke of luck.

My first ever disembarkation was a very close proximate, Hong Kong. All I needed to do was to accompany our fatherly producer, to color grade an ad that has been shot, and simply put the slogan text on the ad. There were more hours to taste the cuisine, and enjoy the first alien milieu I ever landed on. It was a paid, official junket.

The rest was so ASEAN, where visas are not required. One will get tired of seeing rice fields and temples at a certain point.

The struggle to see Broadway and the Big Apple took years and many visa denials until, at the time I wasn't so eager anymore to see it, I saw the neon lights hovering above me at Times Square. New York was my first taste of a truly global city.

It was also my first taste of winter, for climate is an obvious sign that I am not in my sun-dried homeland.

Once the visa jinx was lifted, it was easier to get other license-to-enter seals like Japan, Korea, and now, Europe. It gives me a feeling that I am allowed to be a part of this world, and a legitimate global citizen.

Travel is priceless. It becomes a treasure all the more that for my virgin European tour, aside from the castles, the museums, the galleries, and the cafes, it reunites me with my advertising mentor on the side.

And as a main course, it brings me to the temple of my passion, a major major film festival. This is it, this is the world screening of our film, the final and biggest test for what we have done. And yes, I expect to see snow. Only when you grew up in the tropical latitudes will you understand why snow is a big thing for us.

I hope I get the chance to have a picture with Isabella Rosellini or Ralph Fiennes. They will be there! Forgive me, I am a humble movie fan.

I don't mind the tightest budget I've ever had for such an expensive currency and destination. This is a lifetime first.

Excited is too tame a word to describe my current emoticon.

Two weeks may be too short a duration for a major destination. A thousand euros may be too small, but there will always be a next time, and a next destination. I consider this a dry run, for the next embarkation points in my life.

I dream of Latin America, specifically, Buenos Aires, Argentina. I never thought I'd ever make it to New York, not even to Berlin nor Paris, but, look Ma, I'm getting there. So the dream to get to the land of Tango and Peron may become a reality, someday.

Wish our film, "Ways of the Sea (HALAW)," lots of luck, and promise, I will be updating you with photos and notes, as soon as I can land on a free-Wi-Fi zone. Together with "Sampaguita" and Francis Pasion, we will proudly carry our flag in Berlin and our warmest tropical smiles in the land of freezing temperatures.

I can't even concentrate now on my tropical tasks and duties. I am now practicing my nasal "bonjour, monsieur!," and my heartfelt "danke schoen's."

Euro-struck, and Euro-bound,

Lilit.

Look! Up In The Sky!

2011-02-05T08:46:00.002+08:00

When was the last time I ever looked at the stars in the sky? Not in the middle of a business center can I do that. The domed sky would never be completed as blocked by buildings, and yes, blurry smog or clouds.

And when was the last time did I ever mention the word, Planetarium? It's so grade school to do so, when, as kids, we were brought to that kind of structure by the Roxas Boulevard, in batches, by sections. That would also include a tour of the Rizal Park on the side.

Yesterday, we did have a chance to go to a planetarium once more. Cosmos mesmerized me again. Of course, the technology has advanced a lot, since I was in primary school.

This was at the Science Discovery Center at the SM Mall of Asia. Yes, kids, by groups, with the same t-shirt uniforms, aided by their teachers, some accompanied by their parents, all converged to have an indoor view of the night sky.

The planetarium looks like a cinema, the seats are so comfortable. The viewing dome screen feels bigger, than what I used to remember when I was a child. I always thought everything looked bigger when I was a kid.

The lighting inside the planetarium before the program begins feels like a dance club. It turns bright red all around, to bright blue, then green.

I can sense the excitement of the students. When the dome screen turned black, and the house lights were switched off, the kids started clapping.

The intro alone was not actually a sky, but a sea dome, so we all felt we were underwater. This was just an intro for the planetarium, which became an aquarium for a while. The shark hovered around the 360-degree dome, as if looking for its prey among us. Then it started cracking the dome! The glasss was breaking. Oh, my! Am I now in Steven Spielberg's "Jaws?" When the glass broke, the dome screen fades to black, to introduce the credits of what we were there for, "Passport to the Universe."

The stars lit, and twinkled, enveloping the theater. And wow, a voice started to speak as the narrator. It sounded so familiar, yes, it was the voice of Tom Hanks.

Then the magical graphics and renditions of the galaxies and planets, as close as to what has been seen by the roaming space voyagers and the Hubble Telescope were mesmerizing.

It brought out the geeky child in all of us, as if, yes, we were part of the touring school, and we were Science students once again. Except in reality, they can mistake us now as the School Dean or principal, or their teacher, or worse, the students' accompanying parents, hopefully not as their nannies.

Cosmic and magical, and of course, educational, even the script of the show was written in a witty manner, befitting of a Tom Hanks interpretation.

It's a far cry from my kiddie days and how a planetarium looked like. There are more mini "dome movies" screened at the SM Discovery Planetarium, and I can't wait to go back.

It's nice to feel like a kid once more, and it's nice to remember we're just but a tiny speck in the whole universe, all humankind combined.

And yes, I think this is a perfect venue to bring a date, than the usual movie or dinner date, for a change.

I also thought, if someone had a joint, he would have the time of his life seeing the cosmic fantastic while he's under a spell.

Astronomically awed,

Lilit

Miss TwoFace

2011-02-01T12:48:00.005+08:00

No, she's not a new Batman character, ( she'd play the Catwoman though, as the Dark Knight returns), but rather, a darling of my film viewing fare, Anne Hathaway.

She can be an every man's All-American princess with the very British Julie Andrews, wasted and a party ruiner in "Rachel Getting Married," a fashion transformer in "The Devil Wears Prada," an aristocratic victim in "Brokeback Mountain," and now, a Parkinson's victim in the confused "Love and Other Drugs."

She's the representative icon of a film industry that has two faces, to go the blockbuster route, or to go for the awards.

And my, how she can be a great guest emcee like in the past Oscar Awards show with that classy musical act with Hugh Jackman, and soon she's the main co-emcee in Tinseltown's biggest night this February.

She's the next versatile actress after Amy Adams, and she's definitely more exciting than the consistently smug and bland Scarlet Johansson. But she has the face that's more Hollywood like an icon than Amy, but both have the big, expressive, and eager eyes, which could be a handy pair for movie acting.

How can someone so pretty, with eager and prominent eyes, switch from cute land to a psychological case, with the gamut of roles she has so far, played.

Her two sides merged in "Love and Other Drugs." It's a film that tried to be Oscar-worthy yet wanted to be a rom-com blockbuster at the same time, therefore confusing my latest favorite into a schizophrenic lead.

By schizophrenic, she tried to be the chick flick heart warmer, and at times even a breast exhibitionist, yet, muddled within the film is her more serious side of acting, shaking as a stage 1 Parkinson's disease sufferer, and denying the need to need.

The use of Anne with Two Faces are maximized in her latest Hollywood movie. Being obedient to a producer's wish or maybe, a director and a writer who wanted a more serious film, she shifted from girlfriend to actress throughout the film. She behaved like a chick-flick rib tickler and heart warmer like Katharine Heigl in some moments, and getting her Rachel Getting Married groove back in other scenes.

I felt she was robbed of her Rachel Oscar for being too new and young, on the cusp of being a major actress yet, she's too lucky to be promoted to the elite circle of true, acknowledged thespians, so the Academy members felt, she'll win someday, but let's not give it to her now, or that was then.

She was more in her element as a true actress, being in the moment and in her character than Kate Winslet, whose role was manufactured for an Oscar.

I hope she makes up her mind, the way I felt "Love and Other Drugs" could have been better if it made up its mind to be Sundance-like or simply a Box-Office Mojo success story to ring the Hollywood cash register.

If Anne Hathaway had her way, if she was more Parkinson's than America's current sweetheart in this film, she could've given Natalie Portman the paranoia if she'll certainly grab the plum Oscar Actress statuette or not.

But for now, I am happy seeing her in the movies, and looking forward to her hosting in this year's Oscars.

Anne, can you be my Valentine, or, better yet, won't you be my number two?

Starstruck,

Lilit

The Late 40's Checklist

2011-01-27T10:12:00.003+08:00

It's an odd stage to be in. I am neither golden in my 50's but I am way past where life should begin, at 40.

I assume by this time some dreams I had in college, our most ideal phase to dream, has been realized.

I should've been rich by now. But wealth isn't everything.

This is the age of the Body Tune-Up. I've been away from the gym for the past three months or so, so the belly girth has increased its hugging circumference.

I've been alcohol-free since the year began.

I've had an oral overhaul, the teeth, the gum, the mouth and the throat, dictated by setbacks brought about by smoking.

I should have my first Executive Check-Up before the first semester of 2011 is over. I have never had it. Colonoscopy should be high on my executive checklist, and I have to have an image of my lungs captured again.

The European dream, to get to the land of history and civilization, was earlier realized than forecast or declared. Although I am not that financially prepared, it's happening mid-February. Thanks to my passion for films. Who would think a film would force me to advance this wish?

It's the same film that placed Northeast Asia in my travel map, Japan and Korea, which were not in my dreams. But Japan was oh so worth it.

The dream to have my own dwelling is hanging. I think I've missed on the first two months to catch up on its payments. I hope this hasn't been jeopardized, yet.

Stability is also a concern of the late-40-something worker. And this doesn't necessarily mean financial, but more of for mental health and peace. Am I at peace? Hmmmm... all I know is I am too old for ambition, or be a recipient of people who want bigger things in life. The corporate climb is for the young. I've had enough of that for I was never known to aspire and become a top honcho. To the young and the restless, the V.I.P, very important position, is all yours. I have moved on to a higher self-fulfilling path, that is not necessarily for fame or fortune, but more for stability, consistency, deeper selfless fulfillment, and peace.

An employee will never be stable, while to aspire to become a self-made employer requires talent and it should actually have been destined in the palm of anyone's hands.

But the question is, who is more at peace, the employer, or the employed? Now that depends on what one desires. I don't have kids, to require such shift, from hired to hirer, or be an entrepreneur.

The realization of personal happiness, or what makes me happy, simplicity and true passion, gets top priority before my age goes closer to the graveyard geriatric phase.

Happiness is fleeting. But peace can be planned, and built.

A life of happiness, for man is never satiated by nature, is elusive. But a life of simplicity and peace, can compensate for the lack or impossibility of true joy.

The late 40's is about inner peace, inner health, and the definition of wealth changes from tangibles to intangibles.

But what is most certain is, I have the right to be me, to be the captain of my soul, and to be the master of my fate.

I will never allow myself to become a slave for money, neither for love, nor for others.

But the late life, in terms of others, mean working for the happiness of others, as well.

As I preserve myself, I also want the people I value to be happy, and do what I can to help them become happier, or be more at peace, or at the very least, realize their dreams, or at the very least, be consoled.

That's what being older is all about.

Live, and let live, to a life that's fit for me, and to let others who matter to me, live well, too.

The Truest Independent Filipino Movie Audience

2011-01-23T13:12:00.004+08:00

There's a notion, some may actually be guilty of it, that indie filmmakers make films to win awards and make it to foreign film festivals.

Sineng Pambansa, "Filipino films for Filipinos" , conceived by the new leadership of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) disproves that notion or maybe, even reorients the filmmaker himself on who should see his film.

The throves of people lining up to catch the 11 Filipino indie films brought to Iloilo, for Sineng Pambansa's maiden voyage, was astounding.

It was also perfectly timed as a pre-event to the peak of the Dinagyang Festival, Iloilo's famous fiesta in honor of the Santo Nino.

Of course, part of the reason is there is no need to buy a ticket, it's free admission. But then again, the audience stayed on, completed the films, and were reacting to some scenes accordingly.

It also helps that today's provincial or city Plaza, the SM City, is a highly visible and accessible venue for moviegoers to have a taste of independent cinema.

The Iloilo government went all out to make the festival big, and well-promoted. They even treated the film makers to welcome dinners, lunches, and day tours to showcase what Iloilo can offer and what true hospitality really means.

The FDCP staff were also very helpful and accommodating to make sure every film is screened properly, and the film makers are doing fine, from transportation service to accommodation!

True, Metro Manila has always been lucky to be the venue of Cinemalaya, Cinemanila, Cinema One Festival, Euro Film Festival, Spanish Film Festival and more. What about the other city centers of the Philippines who might want the chance to watch culturally, artistically, and socially significant films?

Good thing this "centralized" mentality is gradually demonopolized with the rise of regional cinema, and of course, the thrust of Sineng Pambansa to "bring Filipino films to the Filipinos."

The relevance of the films matter more for us, Filipinos, because it is about us, and it is not simply a postcard or sad tales for foreigners to marvel at. The impact will be different for us, because these films are about US.

The issues regular movies don't dare dwell on make us, Filipinos, think deeper on our social, economic, religious, political, and yes, ethnicity problems. The power of cinema to transform lives, and maybe, policies can never be understimated. A picture is more worth a thousand words than a grandstanding politico's speech or a lobbying "vested interest" lawmaker.

This was evident in the question and answer sessions, where Ilonggos enthusiastically discuss the issues presented by a film, and also its artistic merits.

The best part about this is, the response of Iloilo to film makers make the producers, actors, and directors feel well-respected and welcome.

We envy the support of governments to their country's films, now, the FDCP presents a tool for the Filipino film to be seen by more people, and meaningfully, to people outside Metro Manila.

The goal is daring, to build an audience for independent cinema. It's like sampling a product. Once they get a taste of it, they might like it and make it a staple.

There's nothing wrong in aiming high, as one famous ad man says, "When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either."

Kudos to the vision of FDCP. Zamboanga, you're next. Iloilo was such a gracious host and a responsive audience. It's a challenge, for the pilot city where Sineng Pambansa went to was such an encouraging debut.

We enjoyed the molo, and the la paz batchoy. I am sure they will fall in love with Zamboanga's Curacha in its deliciously indulgent Alavar Sauce. Ready, get set, Chavacanos!