Know the latest news, events and other happenings in Philippine art and culture scene! Here you can find updates on Filipino art exhibits, film festivals, cultural summit, Philippine art contests and other events. Announcements of forthcoming events may be sent to philippineartscene@yahoo.com. This site is dedicated for Filipino artists, art aficionados and the public at large in the Philippines and other parts of the world!

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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Pista ng Quiapo Photo Contest | Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation

FPPF “Pista ng Quiapo” Photo Contest

The Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation (FPPF) will be holding an on-the-spot photo contest to coincide with the celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene on January 9, 2007.

Dubbed as “Pista ng Quiapo”, the main competition theme will center on portraying the essence of the feast as thousands of devotees of the life-sized, dark-skinned Christ are drawn. For more than two hundred years since the tradition began, followers brave the rough and tumble rush to touch the statue, an illustration of a truly unique Filipino experience.

A special contest which dwells on the subject of the historical landmarks of Quiapo will also be held. One should be able to capture photographs of the church, the mosque, the old buildings and the old houses, as well as other familiar sights that are quintessentially Quiapo.

All photographers whether amateurs or professionals are encouraged to join this event. Interested parties can pre-register at the Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation (FPPF) office at Rm. 302A Femii Building A. Soriano Avenue, Intramuros Manila. Participants can also register on the day of the event at Acel Store in R. Hidalgo St., Quiapo. A P200 registration fee includes a roll of film.

For more information on contest rules and technicalities, you may contact Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation (FPPF) through telephone numbers (02)5247576, (02)5280371, and (02)5255792; or e-mail info@photoworldmanila.com or fotoatwork@gmail.com; or visit their website at www.photoworldmanila.com

George V. Cabig
“Pista ng Quiapo” Photo Contest Chairman
Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation (FPPF)
www.georgecabig.com
Read More »

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Cinekatipunan screens Lav Diaz's Batang West Side

CINEKATIPUNAN TO SCREEN LAV DIAZ EPIC - BATANG WEST
SIDE
Wednesday, 27 December, 2006
2:00 -7:00 PM
Mag:net Café (fronting Miriam and Ateneo)
www.magnet.com.ph

THE AESTHETIC CHALLENGE OF BATANG WEST SIDE*
Lav Diaz

Batang West Side is five hours long.

For many this is an issue. A huge issue, and a
headache for many here in the Philippines. But not an
issue if we remember that there are small and large
canvasses; brief ditties and lengthy arias; short
stories and multi-volume novels; the haiku and The
Iliad. This should be the end of the argument.

It’s too long, people can’t take it; it’s too heavy,
people can’t handle it; distributors won’t pick it up,
theaters won’t screen it. Wrong. There are theaters
that will accept this film. People will watch long
films. I believe the masses have the ability to
transcend the standards they normally use in
apprehending the arts. Allow works of proportion and
beauty to exist, and we will develop an audience with
philosophies lofty and profound enough to properly
appreciate the art of cinema. People will watch an
enjoy Batang West Side. Theaters will open with this
film.

This I firmly believe.

I never intended to make Batang West Side five hours
long. I simply followed the cutting and joining
together of various scenes according to the script I
shot. The original script entitled “West Side Avenue,
JC” (Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature winner,
1997) was 135 pages long, with 126 scenes. A revised
copy (year 2000) that I shot reached a hundred pages
and 208 scenes.

I thought the film would run three hours, but during
editing I saw that it would run longer and I didn’t
try to alter this condition; I allowed it to flow
naturally. I allowed it to become organic, to acquire
a life of its own; this is my philosophy when cutting,
when finishing a film. I don’t bend to the conventions
of editing, or of length; I refused to follow the
dictates of industry. There has been no manipulation
to force me to conform to tradition, to what has been
done before. I’ve studied the length many times in
order to change it. But the five-hour version remains
solid – according to the dictates of aesthetics, story
flow, and wholeness of vision. I refuse to compromise
the integrity of the work to please limiting,
emasculating “tradition”.

I explained my position to the producers. After many
discussions, discourses, and debates that at times led
to raised voices and heated arguments, they finally
relented, finally believed. They understood that they
must not give short shrift to our vision, to abandon
our responsibility; that after everything we’ve gone
through and struggled against to finish the film, it
would be a great wrong to compromise now. It would be
a betrayal to those who sacrificed so much, so long,
to compromise – a betrayal of the film, which has
acquired a life of its own.

Ever since the introduction of the film as the newest,
most popular medium of expression, Hollywood has been
a tremendous influence on Philippine cinema. Cinema
was one of the imperialist tools the Americans brought
with them when they bought the Philippines from the
Spaniards (or, conversely, when the Spaniards sold the
Philippines to them) back in 1898; it quickly became
an element of everyday Filipino life. Due to the
length of their stay here (they finally left, along
with their military bases in 1992), it may safely be
assumed that the Filipino sensibility has been
thoroughly colonnized by America.

And because of this, Filipinos lost the chance to rise
by their own bootstraps; colonization wrecked the
Filipinos’ dream of establishing a nation molded
according to the details in their own unique vision.
From the perspectives of politics and history, the
Filipinos lost the struggle for freedom – freedom of
nationhood, freedom of livelihood and sensibility,
freedom of the arts, psychological freedom and freedom
of any and every kind – when they were colonized,
bought and sold. Add to this the experience of
hegemony and war (Japan), dictatorship and terrorism
(Marcos) – after all has been said and done, the
Filipinos have developed a “loser’s culture,” the end
result of surviving their long and sadly complex
history.

It’s clear that what is needed is a profound cultural
movement to restore this injury.

Cinema can do a great deal towards accomplishing this.

In Hollywood culture, entertainment and profit are the
larger purpose of cinema. Entertainment for the
audience; profit for the many producers, directors,
actors, film workers and movie theater owners. The
same holds true in the Philippines. That is why the
Filipino’s appreciation of cinema is shallow and base.
In their eyes, cinema is no different from a carnival.
It will take a long and involved process to change
this perception, especially with Hollywood films still
dominating Filipino theaters.

(Once in a while in Hollywood though, there will
emerge someone different, an Orson Welles or John
Cassavetes that without fear or hesitation will move
against the flow of things. If ever there was a vivid
or incendiary flash of integrity in the art of
filmmaking in Hollywood from then until now, it was
Welles and Cassavetes.)

Most Hollywood films are ninety minutes or a hundred
minutes long, rarely more than two hours. We have
become used to this convention, this belief, that
cinema should be so long, and no more. This had become
the standard measurement of theater owners and
producers, so that more people can come and watch per
day, and the grosses can consequently be higher.

The Blockbuster Culture/
The Garbage Culture

Hollywood developed the blockbuster culture, the
profit culture.

It’s only right to admire a profitable film because
the cost of filmmaking is so high. It’s only right
that there are businessmen in film – they are an
important part of the industry.

No Illusions

The film has no illussions of heroism. We have no
intention of bragging that we are special. We simply
wish to contribute to the development and growth of
the long awaited new direction of Philippine Cinema.
We wish to help (even a little) in its overthrow, and
ultimate change.

At the same time, we are also unafraid to create a
different impression among people, it’s all part of
the process. The Philippines has been left too far
behind in world cinema (meaning not Hollywood but
WORLD CINEMA, where there can be found the startling
new works of Iranian and Taiwanese filmmakers). It is
the new age, and we need courage to innovate and
create. We need to begin developing a National Cinema,
a cinema that will create a responsible Filipino
people.

That is the vision that inspired Batang West Side.

It’s not just the length. Some will express surprise
(or express more fitting if less printable sentiments)
at various elements of this film, especially the use
of digital video reshot on a TV monitor to ‘dirty’ the
footage – to create lines, crudity, a roughened
apprearance. The damaged texture is a metaphor for
damaged illusions, a rebuke of long-held belief by the
Philippine movie industry that a film has to be clean
and polished to be fit for public screening. Not only
is this movie not clean or polished, eighty percent of
the film was shot with available light only.

Radical

A film this long is radical for Filipino
sensibilities, even down to the “damaged” texture and
story structure, “radical” because this is something
totally new to them. Only a radical sensibility can
provoke the longed-for change in Philippine Cinema.
Only through such a sensibility can Philippine Cinema
acquire a proper vision, be made whole. Only thus can
Philippine Cinema, long-pronounced “dead,” be
resurrected once more.

Culture

Batang West Side is hard to take at first glance, if
our basis for watching is the culture and rhetoric of
Philippine Cinema.

The habit or convention of watching films constitutes
a culture of its own, meaning there is an experience,
a whole tradition, a perspective of an entire
community or society, a sensibility created that has
become characteristic of individuals in that society.

This is the objective of Batang West Side – the
examination of the Filipino consciousness. Why are the
Philippines the way they are now? The Filipino people?
Philippine cinema? This aesthetic goal can be achieved
through analysis of the comprehensive form
(length/structure/ appearance) and context
(word/flesh/ vision) of this film, and of other films
to come. Let’s not be contained and limited to
convention and formula; we need to probe and probe, to
explode the wall of corruption. The perspective is
ever historical, and ever advancing.

Change

Ultimately, the objective of Batang West Side is
simple – change. Whoever wishes to hinder this film is
an enemy of change. Whoever is an enemy of change is
an enemy of Philippine Cinema.

Manila, December 2002
Translated from Tagalog to English by Noel Vera

* Reprinted from EKRAN revija film in televizijo (vol.
30, letnik XLII, 5-6 2005, 700 SIT)
Read More »

Neil Daza's Peripheries @ Blacksoup Project Artspace

"PERIPHERIES"
Photographs and video works by
Neil Daza
(December 20, 2006 - January 30,2007)
Blacksoup Project Artspace

It is difficult to be present in the present when mind travels to worrying of the future or doubting the past.

Or when humid air dulls the senses as I stand along Ermita's sidewalk, where jaded souls, like those of sexy females, bask on the salty glare of lamppost.

A tipsy one dares to pose teasingly, until she bares herself without ado. Revealing her true nature as transsexual, she walks casually away like a goddess who gives me the privilege to see the truth.

Seeing the little things that mean nothing or trash to most people is paying attention to life as it happens, when we live each moment at a time.

Like feeling a twinge of pity for a stray dog limping along Recto--the same pang one feels for an actress; blind stare after having sex, in a bold movie.

Or the spark of curiosity aroused by the smear of coffee from an upturned cup on the floor of a basement parking lot. What kind of person would leave without caring about
the spill?

Photography creates its own borders and space. It can either show nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, or something more beyond the picture. Photography may show how little our eyes permit us to see.

Or it can show us the peripheries: the fringes of life, the edges of reality, the unimportant yet essential to the consciousness of being in the present and living each moment like no other. These are my peripheries, hidden and seen.

Neil Daza
December 2006

PERIPHERIES
Photographs and video works by
Neil Daza

December 20, 2006- January 30,2007
Blacksoup Project Artspace
Shop 61, Marikina Shoe Expo
General Romulo Avenue, Araneta Center
Cubao, Quezon City
Gallery hours 4-9pm, Tue-Sat
Telefax: 439-8838
Read More »

Teatro Kolehiyo ng Miriam stages Ang Unang Aswang

TEATRO KOLEHIYO NG MIRIAM, the official organization of Miriam College, will be staging a play entitled "Ang Unang Aswang" by Rody Vera and directed by Tuxqs Rotaquio on January 12 and 13, 2007, 7pm at the Marian Auditorium, Miriam College.

Ticket prices range at 200 pesos each.

For more details on "Ang Unang Aswang" to be presented by the Teatro Kolehiyo ng Miriam, please contact Anna Padua at 09273748735.
Read More »

Saturday, December 23, 2006

National Artist Ramon Obusan dies

National Artist Ramon Obusan dies

National Artist for Dance Ramon Obusan passed away last Thursday, December 21, at the Makati Medical Center in Makati City. He was 68 years old.

The cause of his death was cardio-pulmonary arrest.

Obusan was named National Artist last May 23, 2006, under Proclamation No. 1066. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo conferred the award on Obusan and six other new National Artists, namely Bienvenido L. Lumbera (Literature) , Benedicto R. Cabrera (Visual Arts), Ildefonso P. Santos, Jr. (Architecture) , Ronald Allan K. Poe a.k.a. Fernando Poe Jr. (Film-Posthumous) , Ramon Valera (Fashion Design-Posthumous) and Abdulmari Asia Imao (Sculpture), last June 9 at the Malacanan Ceremonial Hall.

Obusan was the founder of the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group (ROFG) which earned fame and distinction for its fidelity and authenticity in presenting Filipino traditional dances. Obusan established the ROFG in 1972. Up to the time of his death, Obusan was overseeing the ROFG’s annual Christmas program Vamos A Belen at the CCP. He was also in the midst of preparations for the ROFG cultural presentation for the state dinner to be hosted by President Arroyo for the forthcoming ASEAN Summit.

Obusan began his career in dance with the Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company, first as an instrumentalist, and then later as a dancer.

Obusan’s National Artist citation reads: “Ramon Arevalo Obusan, dancer, choreographer, stage designer and artistic director, has achieved phenomenal success in Philippine dance and cultural work. Also as researcher, archivist and documentary filmmaker, Obusan has broadened and deepened our understanding of our cultural life and expressions…. Through the ROFG, he has effected cultural and diplomatic exchanges utilizing the multifarious aspects and dimensions of the art of dance. Obusan’s obsession in harnessing the potentials of dance in Philippine society today is unparalleled as he unreservedly and incessantly creates a living reflection of ourselves, showing us who we are.”

Cultural Center of the Philippines President Nestor O. Jardin said, “The sudden demise of National Artist for Dance Ramon Obusan saddens us because he was a pillar in Philippine traditional dance. Ramon has worked very closely with us on many dance projects in the past and his death will create a void in Philippine dance. We join the countless young folk dancers, teachers and researchers he trained and worked with in mourning his passing away.”

Josie Guillen, head of the CCP Dance Division, said, “Ramon Obusan was a man and an artist of the masses. Everything he did was for the Filipino.”

Obusan’s remains will lie in state at his home in No. 4 Chapel Street, MIA Road, Pasay City.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines are currently preparing for a state funeral for Obusan. The Necrological Ceremony will be on December 28, 2006 – 9:00a.m. at the CCP Main Theater.

Artists, cultural workers, indigenous communities, art patrons, friends, colleagues and everyone else who have been touched and inspired by our dear Kuya Mon, please come and join us on December 28 in paying our last tribute to a great man and a great artist!

For more information about the necro. service, contact the CCP at 832-3669 / 832-3875 / 832-3877 / 832-5094.
Read More »

Friday, December 22, 2006

Metro Manila Film Festival 2006

32nd Metro Manila Film Festival
(MMFF)
2006

The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 2006 will be held in Metro Manila, Philippines from December 25, 2006 up to the second week of January 2007. This year’s Metro Manila Film Festival features nine entertaining movies. These include horror films, “Matakot Ka Sa Karma” and “Shake, Rattle & Roll 8”; fantasy movies, “Enteng Kabisote 3”, “Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah”, and “Super Noypi”; drama and love stories, “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo” and “Mano Po 5”; and action movies, “Tatlong Baraha” and “Ligalig."

Metro Manila Film Festival 2006 Entries:
1. Kasal Kasali Kasalo
2. Ligalig
3. Matakot Ka Sa Karma
4. Enteng Kabisote 3: The Legend goes on and on
5. Tatlong Baraha
6. Super Noypi
7. Shake, Rattle and Roll 8
8. Mano Po 5: Gua Ai Di
9. ZsaZsa Zaturnnah: Zhe Moveeh

Information about the nine (9) official entries to the 32nd Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 2006:

Kasal Kasali Kasalo
Genre: Drama, Romance
Cast: Judy Ann Santos, Ryan Agoncillo, Gloria Diaz, Gina Pareño, and Ariel Ureta
Writer & Director: Jose Javier Reyes
Studio: Star Cinema

Ligalig

Genre: Action, Thriller
Cast: Cesar Montano, Sunshine Cruz, Celia Rodriguez, Johnny Delgado, John Regala, Rebecca Lusterio, Gwen Garci, Katya Santos, Monsour del Rosario, Bayani Agbayani, Nonie Buencamino, Rommel Montano, and Alvin Anson.
Writer & Director: Cesar Montano
Production: CM Films

Matakot Ka Sa Karma
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Cast: Gretchen Barretto, Angelica Panganiban, Rica Peralejo, Tanya Garcia, Bianca King, Derek Ramsey, John Wayne Sace, Rafael Rosell, Nash Aguas, and Paul Salas
Writer and Director: Jose Javier Reyes
Production: Canary Films

Enteng Kabisote 3: The Legend goes on and on
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Cast: Vic Sotto, Kristine Hermosa, G Tongi, Oyo Boy Sotto, Aiza Seguerra, Bing Loyzaga, Antonio Aquitania, Allan K., BJ Forbes, Paul Salas, Isabella de Leon, and Pia Guanio
Director: Tony Y. Reyes
Writers: Tony Y. Reyes and Isabel da Rosa
Production: M-ZET Productions/OctoArts Films

Tatlong Baraha
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Cast: Lito Lapid, Mark Lapid, Maynard Lapid, Phoemela Baranda, Jackie Rice, Bearwin Meily, Monsour del Rosario
Director: Toto Natividad
Writer: Ely Matawaran
Production: Violett Films

Super Noypi
Genre: Action, Adventure
Cast: Jennylyn Mercado, Mark Herras, Sandara Park, Katrina Halili, John Prats, Polo Ravales, Victor Neri, Aubrey Miles, Monsour del Rosario, and Andrew Muhlach
Director: Quark Henares
Writers: Quark Henares, Fairlane Raymundo and Lorenzo Valdez
Production: Regal Entertainment

Shake, Rattle and Roll 8
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Cast: Bearwin Meily, Keana Reeves, Roxanne Guinoo, Joseph Bitangcol, Iza Calzado, Sheryl Cruz, TJ Trinidad, Keempee de Leon, Manilyn Reynes, Eugene Domingo, and Cass Ponti
Directors: Rahyan Carlos, Topel Lee and Mike Tuviera
Writers: Edzon Rapisora and Fairlane Raymundo ("13/F"); Iris Saldavia-Aniban Ben Cho and Fairlane Raymundo ("Yaya"); Lorenzo Valdez and Fairlane Raymundo ("LRT").
Production: Regal Entertainment

Mano Po 5: Gua Ai Di
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Cast: Richard Gutierrez, Angel Locsin, Lorna Tolentino, Christian Bautista, Gina Alajar, Jaclyn Jose, Tirso Cruz III, Boots Anson Roa, Ketchup Eusebio, and Ella Guevarra.
Director: Joel Lamangan
Writers: Jun Lana, Dode Cruz, Andrew Paredes, and Abigail Lam
Production: Regal Entertainment

ZsaZsa Zaturnnah: The Movie
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Cast: Zsa Zsa Padilla, Pops Fernandez, Rustom Padilla, Alfred Vargas, Chokoleit, Say Alonzo, Pauleen Luna, Christian Vasquez, Giselle Sanchez, and Glaiza de Castro
Director: Joel Lamangan
Writer: Dinno Erece
Production: Regal Entertainment

Metro Manila Film Festival 2006
Awards to be given:
Best Film
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Sound Recording
Best Visual Effects
Best Movie Theme Song
Best Musical Score
Best Child Performer
Best Production Design
Best Story
Best Editor
Best Make-Up
Audience Award- Best Film
Audience Award- Best Actor
Audience Award- Best Actress
Audience Award- Best Director
Most Gender-Sensitive film
Gatpuno Antonio J. Villegas Cultural Award

Established in 1975, the Metro Manila Film Festival is an annual film festival, held in Metro Manila, Philippines. The focus of the festival is on locally-produced films.

Support the Filipino movie industry! Support the 2006 Metro Manila Film Festival!
Read More »

Thursday, December 21, 2006

1st Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals Media Awards

The 1st Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals Media Awards, which
honor outstanding reporting/writing on the MDGs in print, radio and TV
accept entries in English and in the local languages.

The 1st Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals Media Awards
is open to all radio and TV producers/journalis ts from
public service broadcasting organizations, private networks and
free-lance producers covering the Asia and the Pacific. For the print
category, journalists whether freelance or affiliated or regularly
employed in a newspaper or magazine company covering the Asia-Pacific
region can participate in the Awards. The Awards carry a prize of
USD 7,000 for first prize winners in each category, and a USD 2,000 prize
for runners up

Entries in the local language must be accompanied by a typewritten
English translation and a written certification from the chief editor of
the newspaper/magazine, which published the article that the translation
truly reflects the content of the article in the local language.

For radio, they must be accompanied by a typewritten English
translation, and for TV, they must have English subtitles. The same
requirement of a written certification on the translation from the
executive producer/chief editor applies for broadcast entries.

UNESCAP, UNDP and ADB launched the MDGs Media Awards during the South Asia MDG Forum held from 11-12 October 2006 in Kathmandu Nepal.

Entries to the 1st Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals Media Awards
by participating broadcast producers and journalists should
cover the contest year from 1 January 2006 through 30 June 2007.
Deadline for entries is 25 March 2007. Winners will be announced during
the 63rd UNESCAP Commission Session scheduled for April 2007. Deadline
for submission is 25 March 2007.

For radio and TV producers, their entries could include a special
report, public affairs programme, or a documentary with a length of
between 15 and 60 minutes. For print journalists, their entries could
include a special report, investigative piece and explanatory reporting
with a minimum length of one thousand (1,000) words.

The MDGs – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the
spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the
target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's
countries and all the world's leading development institutions.

The 1st Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals Media Awards
aim to generate better awareness and understanding of the
MDGs, and motivate journalists from the region to cover stories on how
MDGs are being pursued in the region. It is also hoped that media will
be stimulated, through the Awards, to become a driving force in
accelerating national action toward achieving the MDGs.

1st Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals Media Awards
Entries in the three categories should focus on one or all of the
following aspects in their reports:

* Tracking progress on the MDGs: How are countries in the region
performing? Which countries are 'on track" to achieve and which aren't?
Why are some countries performing well and not others?

* Human Face of MDGs: What does MDGs mean in people's daily lives? What
is the role of civil society? What are the success stories heading
towards 2015? Who are the key players driving forward change and that
are they doing?

* Changes needed in achieving the MDGs: – What changes are needed to
meet the 2015 target? Eg. improving public service delivery (including
education, health, water and sanitation); engaging communities;
empowering women; fostering public-private partnership; etc.

1st Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals Media Awards
Entry forms and contest rules are available on the AIBD download site:
http://download.aibd.org.my/papers/MDG_Media_Awards_07/

The AIBD acts as the secretariat for the Awards and for more details on
the MDG Media Awards, please contact:
Mr. Jose Ma. G. Carlos, AIBD Programme Manager
Tel: (+60) 3 22822761 / 22823719
E-mail: joecarlos@aibd.org.my

For further queries regarding the UNESCAP/UNDP/ ADB MDG Project, please
contact:
Mr. Ravi Ratnayake, Director
Poverty and Development Division, UNESCAP
Tel: (+66) 2288 1902
E-mail: ratnayaker@un.org
Read More »

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Studio Brainstorming | The Science & Art Workshop

Want to know how a commercial production outfit develops projects? Master the principles crucial to make a certified box-office hit movie. Learn how to integrate into your story concept aspects that affect the production of a script. Know anything from market viability to star system to studio jargons and doctrines.

STUDIO BRAINSTORMING… The Science & Art
Seminar Workshop
January 13 & 20, 2007 (10am-2pm)

Workshop Fee: P 3,000
For Registration & Inquiries Contact: +639208793237
For more details click: http://the-chips1.tripod.com
Email: irish_patatas_entertainment@yahoo.com

Facilitators: JL Caiña [former Member, ABS-CBN/Star Cinema-Creative Development Group (CDG), former, ABS-CBN, TV Analyst] Melchor Escarcha [former Member, ABS-CBN/Star Cinema-Creative Development Group (CDG), Creative Consultant, THUNDERPUNCH Animation and Comics Studio USA]
Read More »

Ofelia Gelveson-Tequi's Still @ Hiraya Gallery

Still
"Still"
by Ofelia Gelveson-Tequi
Hiraya Gallery
December 9, 2006 to December 30, 2006

Continuing a series of works begun after her move from Paris to Limeuil in the countryside, Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi presents her latest still life paintings at the Hiraya Gallery on a limited engagement from December 9 to 30.

Born in Iloilo, Ofelia studied at the Pratt Institute in New York on a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in the late ‘60s. She gained public renown as a printmaker, winning the top prize at the second annual exhibition of the Printmakers Association of the Philippines. She also won the gold medal for printmaking on the 35th annual competition of the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP). Since 1970, she has had more than 30 one-man exhibitions in Manila, Paris, New York, Monaco, and group shows in other art capitals.

The eight still lifes in the exhibition depict ceramic containers and urns with gourds on a plain wooden table. The artist follows a northern European tradition that began in Flanders and the Netherlands. The French painter Jean Chardin (1699-1769), who painted everyday items—kettles, vegetables, earthenware vessels—is universally admired for excellence in this genre. Ofelia’s works, with their superb colouring, light and texture are worthy additions.
The sombre shades of greys and muted blues that form the background of the paintings are poignant counterpoints to the vibrant yellows, reds and greens of the gourds, and the rich tones of the earthenware vessels. The plain wooden boards of the simple kitchen table underline the day-to-day ordinariness of the scenes before us—scenes that we probably pay little attention to in our daily encounters. Ofelia shares a story regarding the table: “it is a table I found in the house that has been sent by the house’s former owners from the Ivry train station to the next village. The label is still pasted on one of the sides. These are traces of unknown past lives.”

The artist has juxtaposed well-worn ceramic containers used for centuries to preserve walnut oil and food in the Perigord region, with the colourful but inedible gourds that come out at the end of summer and early autumn—yet another reminder of the passage of time—the ephemeral with the lasting, the natural with the man-made.
There is a tradition in still life painting that seeks to draw attention to the drab details of everyday life, and underscore the fleeting nature of human life. Called vanitas, derived from Ecclesiastes 1:2 (vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas), these paintings “remind us of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the certainty of death.” While Ofelia’s works do not fall strictly under vanitas conventions (which would normally have decaying fruits and skulls to stress the obvious), there is a sense of introspection in the paintings—stressing the artist’s strong philosophical bent and mature world view.

Ofelia Gelveson-Tequi's "Still" @ Hiraya Gallery
December 9, 2006 to December 30, 2006

Hiraya Gallery is located at 530 United Nations Avenue, Ermita, Manila, Philippines.
Tel/Fax Number (632) 523.3331
hiraya@info.com.ph

Hiraya Gallery is open Mondays thru Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Read More »

Sa Ilalim ng Cogon Extended in Robinsons Galleria

SA ILALIM NG COGON
EXTENDED UNTIL DECEMBER 24, 2006
EXCLUSIVELY AT ROBINSONS GALLERIA

Sa Ilalim ng Cogon (Rico Maria Ilarde, 2005)
English Title: Beneath the Cogon
Movie Review by: Oggs Cruz

Rico Maria Ilarde's Sa Ilalim ng Cogon (Beneath the Cogon) feels like
four films feverishly stitched together into one. It starts out as a
heist pic. The film's hero ex-soldier Sam (Yul Servo) is the
designated driver for the film's initial heist sequence. While his
partners in crime are gathering their loot, he waits patiently in the
getaway car unaware that his prison pal Pepito (Raul Morit) (frequent
flashbacks make us aware that Sam was imprisoned for vagrancy --- the
prison pal explains the deficiencies of the law giving way to a
possible lifetime in prison) has shot his comrade in greed. The two
escape from the crime scene; makes a turn to a deserted road where
Pepito tries to shoot him unsuccessfully as Sam's military training
gives him the upper edge in gunslinging (Pepito dies; his final words
are as empty as his motivations) . Sam wanders aimlessly until he
reaches an estate (ominously gated with cement gargoyles adorning
such to keep out visitors).

Sam takes refuge in the abandoned manor of the estate. The manor by
itself looks ordinary; but as Sam explores the interiors of the
residence, the place slowly gathers a mysterious atmosphere and a
distinct personality. The unkept swimming pool has gathered several
years' crop of dead leaves and has become shelter for toads and other
aquatic lifeforms. The master bedroom reveals several pictures that
arouse further mysteries and questions; he also uncovers a laboratory
wherein forgotten experimentations are kept hidden. He notices
mysterious girl Katia (Julia Clarete) drop packages wrapped in banana
leaves just outside the fields covered with cogon grass --- doubling
the film's already very pregnant premise. While the nightmare-ish
storyline of barrio lass-in-distress mixed with science-gone- wrong
horror milieu is being developed by Ilarde and co-screenwriter Mammu
Chua, the heist/crime angle hasn't been forgotten and is kept
breathing for a combo climax that mixes the juggled genres in a not-
so-clean completion.

The genre-twisting done by Ilarde is actually a fascinating feat by
itself. Ilarde doesn't opt for seamless fusion but instead piles the
genre conventions upon each other; experimenting how characters and
situations delegated towards specific genres will survive in settings
and atmospheres of a botched experiment/horror plot. There's no
careful transformation; Sam starts out as misunderstood hero; his
entrance to the cogon forested estate doesn't change his status; he
is still the loveless ex-soldier who is ready to kick ass but is
bared by the arresting charms of Katia (a character who clearly does
not belong to the heist); his staying in the haunted estate forces
the genre-enclosed villains to invade the horror setting. These
uncomfortable genre meetings of these features are exhilerating:
muscle-for-hire suddenly makes an appearance after a fairy-tale
lovemaking conclusion; Ilarde exercises his action filmmaking
muscles; Katia interrupts the sudden savory kung-fu hiccup with a
mini-climax of sorts.

Ilarde directs like a mad scientist. Given twelve days of shooting,
with an almost non-existent budget, he creates scenes with a
seemingly undisciplined abandon and sews them together with perfect
timing and editing expertise. The careless direction (just in the
first actual scene, a supposed dead security guard suddenly moves),
the apt and instructed use of the digital medium, the well-entrenched
understanding of genre conventions turn Sa Ilalim ng Cogon into a
feature that quietly boggles yet surprisingly entertains. If Ilarde
has a directing style that is comparable to the rabid excitement of a
mad scientist, then Sa Ilalim ng Cogon may very well be his
Frankenstein' s monster. You can evidently see the stitches, the
hideous imperfections, the bumps and creases of an underperformed
surgery and the finished product is as unwieldly as the famed
monster. But with all its mistakes and misfires, one can't deny that
the film is indeed "alive" as compared to more polished features that
scare and shock, but drop dead when the gimmicks have run out.

Sa Ilalim ng Cogon
read this online at:
http://oggsmoggs.blogspot.com/

Sa Ilalim ng Cogon
view the trailer at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfcER5rYjdk
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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Baguio Mountain Provinces Museum

THE BAGUIO MOUNTAIN PROVINCES MUSEUM EXHIBITION SPACE
AN OPEN INVITATION

Dear Art Community,

The Baguio Mountain Provinces Museum Exhibition Space will be starting a new series of exhibitions beginning in January 2007. Thus, we are now accepting exhibition proposals/applicati ons/letters of intent in its exhibition space at the ground floor of the museum. Artists and curators are welcomed to submit proposals by email. This exhibit program operates under a rolling submission policy.

We are looking for works in the mediums of Painting, Installation, Digital Arts, Film, Video and Sound. The Exhibition Space is designed for promotion of the arts, and supports exchange and collaboration among artists and audiences from diverse cultures and artistic backgrounds.

We offer a fairly large area for major exhibitions of 30 moderately large pieces or 60 moderately medium pieces. We are also interested in durational pieces that last for a certain number of hours.

The exhibition area is located at the:

BAGUIO MOUNTAIN PROVINCES MUSEUM
Department of Tourism Compound
Governor Pack Road, 2600 Baguio City
E-mail: baguiomuseum@yahoo.com
info@jcrmartinez.tk
Or at cordiartistscentral@yahoo.com.ph

Applications/ proposals will be accepted throughout the year. Applicants must be working artists with a series of professional works. They must be full-time practicing artists.

Applications which have been considered shall promptly receive an email detailing the exhibit requirements of the museum.

Please visit the Cordillera Artists Central website for more information.

Thank you very much, and we are looking forward to seeing your ideas!

* * *

THE BAGUIO MOUNTAIN PROVINCES MUSEUM
Experience A Unique Blend Of
Authentic Arts And Craftamanship From The Cordillera
http://asia.groups.yahoo.com/group/cordiartistscentral/
Mobile: +63.922.331. 41.08
E-mail: info@cordiartistscentral.tk
Website: http://cordiartistscentral.tk
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Luz in Ateneo Exhibit @ Ateneo Art Gallery

Arturo Luz

"Luz in Ateneo" Exhibition at the Ateneo Art Gallery
November 21, 2006 to January 21, 2007

The Ateneo Art Gallery is inviting the public to view "Luz in Ateneo," at the Inner Gallery of the Ateneo Art Gallery. "Luz in Ateneo" exhibition runs until January 21, 2007.

"Luz in Ateneo" is part of "In Light of Luz," a joint project between the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), National Museum, Met Museum, Design Center of the Philippines, Ayala Museum, and the Ateneo Art Gallery to give tribute to Arturo Luz, National Artist, in celebration of his 80th birthday.

The exhibit is an essay of Luz's paintings and drawings from the 1950s. It showcases the early works of Arturo Luz collected by his friend and colleague Fernando Zobel, all of which formed part of the Zobel bequest which established the Ateneo Art Gallery in 1961. They are presented in the university art museum's Inner Gallery, which is reserved for works from the Zobel donation. "Luz in Ateneo" features nine paintings, six drawings, and one sculpture.

"Luz in Ateneo" was formally opened on November 21, 2006 by Fr. Rene Javellana, SJ, director of the Fine Arts Program and acting curator of the gallery, with luminaries from the local arts and culture scene in attendance.
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Philippine entry competes in Bilbao filmfest for the first time

MICROZINEBI
click on image to enlarge

Philippine entry competes in Bilbao filmfest for the first time

After existing for close to half a century now, the 48th Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films (ZINEBI) in Spain finally selected a Filipino short film in its international competition. With 2,615 film submissions, "Lababo" (Kitchen Sink), co-directed by Seymour Barros Sanchez and Ginalyn Dulla, made it to the 93 finalists chosen from 42 countries, 53 of which are fiction, 20 documentaries, and 20 animations. Sanchez, an advocacy filmmaker, attended the event.

Jon Ibarluzea Sanchez (no relation to one of the directors), City Councilor for Arts and Culture of Bilbao, noted that "ZINEBI has been playing its dual role in an exemplary way, on one hand as an observatory enabling us to explore other cinema, cultural, social, and political realities. In this context, some countries are taking part for the first time this year, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Malaysia, and the Philippines. On the other hand, it has been a shop window allowing us to show our own realities to the outside world."

"Lababo" covers significant dates concerning the Philippines' relationship with the United States. Parallel to these events are the lives of two Filipinas (Nerissa Icot and Virnie Tolentino) who fall for the same American soldier (Stephen Patrick Moore).

The short film comes at a time when the Philippines is taking a closer look at the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement in the wake of the conviction of US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith for the rape of a Filipina at the Subic Bay Freeport last November 2005.

Bilbao City Hall, in cooperation with the Bizkaia Provincial Council, the Basque Government Department of Culture and the Ministry of Culture (ICAA) and the Foreign Ministery (AECI) hosted the 48th Bilbao Film Festival from November 27 to December 2. The International Federation of Associations of Film Producers (FIAPF) recognizes ZINEBI as an international event of a competitive nature.

Radu Jude's Lampa Cu Caciula, a 22-minute Rumanian road-movie about the relationship between a father and his son and the importance of the small things of life, won the grand prize of the Bilbao Festival. Tsivia Barkai's Vika (Israel) and Victoria Gamburg's Twilight (United States/Russia) have been awarded with the Silver Mikeldi and Golden Mikeldi, respectively, in the fiction category.

American independent filmmaker James Benning chaired ZINEBI's international jury, with Cuban director and scriptwriter Manuel Pérez Paredes, Israeli animator Gili Dolev, and Spanish filmmaker Chus Gutiérrez as members.

ZINEBI provided a wide range of screen venues for the festival with the Arriaga Theatre being the main venue, followed by the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts, Bilborock Concert Hall, Barrainkua Civic Centre, El Ensanche Cultural Centre, Plaza del Teatro Arriaga, Bidarte Civic Centre, Getxo Cultural Centre, Orozko Cultural Centre, Guridi Theatre (Vitoria-Gasteiz) , and Universidad del Pais Vasco.
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Film Screening @ Alliance Française de Manille

Alliance Française de Manille
209, Nicanor Garcia St.
Bel-Air II,
Makati City

Tel: 895 7585 / 895 7441
www.alliance.ph

* Alliance Française de Manille's Cine Club *
*Le Père Noël est une ordure*
*a film by Jean-Marie Poiré
(French version with English subtitles)
1982, 88 minutes *

*Le Coude Rouge Restaurant is open before and after the film screening *
*Alliance Ondeo Auditorium
Wednesday, December 20, 2006, 8:30 PM
(Free Admission)

*Genre:* Comedy / (more)

*Cast overview:
*Anémone .... Thérèse
Josiane Balasko .... Madame Musquin
Marie-Anne Chazel .... Zézette
Christian Clavier .... Katia
Gérard Jugnot .... Félix
Thierry Lhermitte .... Pierre Mortez
Bruno Moynot .... Zadko Preskovic
Martin Lamotte .... Mr. Leble
Jacques François .... the pharmacist
Claire Magnin .... Madame Leble
Michel Blanc .... the voice on the telephone; ... and more

*Synopsis:*
On Christmas Eve, a bunch of freaky types break into a Parisian lonelyhearts
call-center to cause outrage and mayhem.

After years of repeated TV airings, the film's cult status is stronger than
ever. It was adapted from the play of the same name.

* * *

The AF Cine Club will continue its film screenings on January 10, 2007,
Wednesday.

Alliance Française de Manille would like to wish you all the very best this
Holiday Season and the merriest New Year.

For more information, please contact:
*Alliance Française de Manille*
209 Nicanor Garcia Street (formerly Reposo Street),
Bel-Air 2, Makati City. 1209 Philippines.
Tels: 895-7585 / 895-7441
Fax: 899-3654
e-mail: info@alliance.ph
website: www.alliance.ph
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UP Singing Ambassador's One Voice, One Heart @ PhilAm Life Auditorium

One Voice, One Heart
"One Voice, One Heart"
P.J. Lhuillier Foundation
University of the Philippines Singing Ambassadors (UPSA)
PhilAm Life Auditorium (U.N Avenue)
Dec 19, 2006 - 7:00pm

The P.J. Lhuillier Foundation will hold a fundraising concert entitled: One Voice, One Heart December 19, 2006, 7:00pm at the PhilAm Life Auditorium.

Proceeds of the concert will go to the beneficiaries of the Foundation such as the Scholars of The Ambassador Philippe Lhuillier Nationwide Scholarship Program, Señorita Edna D. Lhuillier Scholarship Program, and other Special Scholarship Programs of the P.J. Lhuillier Foundation and the Cancer Institute of PGH. In addition to these beneficiaries, proceeds will also be used to fund the ongoing projects of the Foundation like the Adopt-A-Barangay Water, Food and Medical Assistance Project, Adopt-A-Barangay Sanitation and Information Project and Nationwide Create-A-Business Contest. These projects are geared towards strengthening the Foundation's advocacy on Health, Education, Entrepreneurship and Direct Intervention in Selected Cases.

As the social arm of the PJ Lhuillier Group of Companies, PJL Foundation, now on its sixth year, has remained faithful to its Vision of Poverty-Alleviation through its various cause-oriented projects. With Founder, Ambassador Philippe Lhuillier and President Jean Henri Lhuillier, the Foundation has continuously supported various charities and has led its own poverty-alleviating activities.

Featured performer for this fund raising concert is the University of the Philippines Singing Ambassadors (UPSA), the first and only Asian choir that has won the Grand Prize in the AREZZO 2001 Competitions - considered the toughest of the world's top six (6) European Choral Competitions. The 2002 ALIW Awardee for Best University Choir, the UPSA also garnered the Top Entertainer Award as the most Outstanding University Choir in the 2004 Who's Who in the Philippines Consumer's Choice Awards. UPSA recently concluded its 5th European Tours and Competitions 2005, where they again brought home a Grand Prize, 3 First Prizes and other special awards.

UPSA engages itself in performances of major choral works, interpretation of all types of music from the Classicals, international songs, spiritual, gospel and inspirational songs, kundiman and ethnic - to Broadway, old English favorites, and Filipino pop and even rock music. Cultural dances from the ethnic North and South form part of its international repertoire. These they have performed internationally in Europe, Africa, USA and Asia.

The UPSA Outreach Program forms part of its worthy endeavors by sharing its music through choral workshops throughout the country, helping in fund-raising activities for the less privileged, and visits to institutions like hospital wards, homes for the aged and orphanages.

With One Voice and One Heart, the P.J. Lhuillier Foundation and the UP Singing Ambassadors aim to fulfill the essence of this fundraising concert: to help not only the materially destitute but to also uplift those who are poor in spirit.

For more details, please call 895-0753 or email: pj_lhuillier.foundation@yahoo.com
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Monday, December 18, 2006

Vamos A Belen 2006 | Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group

"Vamos A Belen 2006"
Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group
Cultural Center of the Philippines
Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo
(CCP Main Theater)
December 21, 22, 23, 2006

The Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group presents Vamos a Belen 2006 on December 21-23, 2006 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

For the past nine years the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group has been presenting the Vamos a Belen! at the Cultural Center of the Philippines as part of the company’s contribution to the institution’s yearly Christmas celebration.

"Vamos a Belen" is a two-hour production showing a collection of pastores (shepherds) traditions that include versions from the Bicol region, Leyte and Samar, Pampanga, Cagayan Valley, Cebu, Bohol and Negros Oriental; the retelling of the Christmas story in varying ways with excerpts from the Maytinis of Kawit, Cavite; Panarit of Samar; Kagharong of Albay and Ensayo of Libagon, Southern Leyte.

These are interspersed with vignettes of Filipino beliefs and practices that are observed during Christmas and the celebration of the New Year. Western influences like the Christmas tree, Santa Claus and gift-giving. Among others are included in a repertoire of adapted Filipino Christmas traditions.

Vamos A Belen 2006 will be staged by the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) on the following dates:

December 21, 2006
8:00:PM
Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo
(CCP Main Theater)

December 22, 2006
3:00:PM
Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo
(CCP Main Theater)

December 23, 2006
3:00:PM
Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo
(CCP Main Theater)

For more details on Vamos A Belen 2006, please call the CCP Complex at 832-3704, 832-1125 loc. 1409 - 1410.

"Vamos A Belen 2006"
Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group
Ticket prices: P500, P400, P300

* * *

RAMON OBUSAN FOLKLORIC GROUP

The Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group (ROFG) celebrates 32 years of preservation and perpetuation of Philippine traditions with special emphasis on music and dance.

Founded in 1972, the ROFG started as a fledging folk dance company, composed of some thirty performers. Leaning on the vast amount of data and artifacts that he has accumulated while he was doing researches, Ramon A. Obusan thought of starting a dance company that will mirror the traditional culture of the Filipinos through dance and music.

For thirty-two years, the ROFG has created a niche in the world of dance as forerunner of Philippine folk dance performed closest to the original. Boasting of over a thousand performances in the Philippines and abroad, the ROFG is one of the Cultural Center of the Philippines' leading resident companies since 1986.

Though steep with international recognition, the ROFG has never forgotten the people who are the very source of its pride. For the past two decades it has documented and performed the rituals of more than 50 ethno-linguistic groups in the country. With more than twenty outstanding full-length Filipino dance works, among which are the memorable suites from the Cordillera, Bagobo, T'boli, Tausug, Maranao, the Aetas and the Talaandig among others - the ROFG has served to highlight the authenticity of the movements and costumes of these people.

Contact ROFG at 8310894.

Reposted from http://www.culturalcenter.gov.ph/res-ROFG.htm
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Sunday, December 17, 2006

ALTERNATIVE : X By Gina Fairley

EYELINE
ALTERNATIVE : X By Gina Fairley


One of the most over-used terms is ‘the alternative art space’. Alternative to what we might ask? Furthermore, how do we define ‘alternative’ today where a proliferation of blogs, zines and virtual spaces present the new ‘alternative’? Surely the sustained presence of the alternative space has become such a fixture of the contemporary art scene that it has become mainstream. This is the case in the Philippines.

In a country where there is no public institution committed solely to contemporary art, this alternative scene has shaped a generation of artists. It has become so ‘acceptable’ that a third of the exhibitions nominated for the prestigious Ateneo Art Awards since its inception have been drawn from ‘fringe’ venues. Just look at the 2006 line-up: Blacksoup Project Artspace with Wawi Navarroza’s photographs, Yason Banal’s digital prints at Silver Lens Gallery, and Jay Ticar and Bembol dela Cruz’s installations at Mag:Net. Similarly, Big Sky Mind Artist Project Foundation (BSM) and Green Papaya Art Projects (GP) have collaborated with foreign organisations like Australia’s Asialink, The Japan Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council, and have played host to a swathe of visiting curators over the years, most recently GP’s introductions resulting in Yason Banal and Jose Legaspi inclusion in Singapore Biennale 2006 and Nona Garcia for The 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (2005) – endorsements that clearly legitimise their position.

One could argue that the modus operandi of these spaces - rejection of the institutional structure and art market – has indeed slipped into the same stream; alternative as ‘counter’ has been replaced by alternative as ‘extension’.

The X pedigree
Now in their second generation, these ‘Art Projects’ (the preferred Filipino term) are run by 25+ year-old artists who have a sense of responsibility to provide similar venues to those that ushered them into the exhibiting environment. These are typically X-U.P. artists (University of the Philippines) who grew-up with Third Space Art Laboratory, Surrounded by Water and BSM in the late 1990s. Today they are loosely referred to as Cubao X – a gulch of projects near the grinding heart of Manila’s suburb of Cubao, a five-layer intersection where streets swarm with ukay ukay (second hand clothing shops) in a fusion of fashion, graphic design, indie music and art. What may appear at first glance to be a disjunctive collection of subcultures scattered across Metro Manila, is so interwoven it is tighter than a French tapestry!

Simply draw a line from the mid-1970s and the activities of Roberto Chabet - artist, curator and teacher who nurtured the emergence of conceptual art in the Philippines - catapult to 1999 and the opening of BSM with the exhibition “Roberto Chabet: 300 Drawings”; to 2006 and Chabet curating projects for Future Prospects. It is a thread of connection over three decades that still has the contemporary art scene stitched up.

This ode to Chabet is just one tenet that has shaped contemporary Filipino art practice. In the post-Marcos era there was a desire to present a different voice from the high modernism promoted by The Luz Gallery (curiously now the site of alternative café+art venue Lumiere), which launched the careers of many artists under the patronage of Madam Marcos. The environment was pre-determined and it became necessary to create a fissure in the art scene. It occurred with Malate’s bohemian set centered around the bar+art venue Penguin, laying the path with artistic anarchy for the next generation.

Dilettantism and incubation

The artist-run space was embraced with the frenzy of a trend and attitude of “just go out and do it”, not fully cogniscent of the ripple. We saw The Junk Shop, Third Space Art Laboratory, Twisted Sun Gallery, Surrounded by Water, Big Sky Mind and Lupon open within the space of a few years. None of them exist today, however the artists that initiated these spaces, Lena Cobangbang, Geraldine Javier, Wire Tuazon, Katya Guerrero, Ringo Bunoan, Yason Banal, Eng and Russ Chan have graduated to fertilize a new crop to pick up where they left off. The crazy part is that at the ripe age of 30-something these artists are ‘burnt-out’, saturated by the activities of their own spaces. If you are lucky, that interest will be picked up and carried off-shore; if not, it is a tough task to reinvent yourself ‘post-art space’ and maintain that buzz in the local mainstream.

If we trace the lineage of one of the founders of Surrounded by Water (SBW), artist Geraldine Javier, we start to understand how interwoven the scene is. Opening in 1998, SBW moved to EDSA (1.) in 2000, the same year Javier made her regional debut in the exhibition ‘Faith + the City’ curated by Malaysia’s Valentine Willie Fine Art, a connection made through SBW. Javier went on to win the 2003 CCP 13 Artists Award (which Chabet started during his tenure at the Cultural Centre of the Philippines) and was awarded the 2004 Ateneo Art Award (awarded also to Luisito Cordero who went on to start Future Prospects). In 2006 she was included in Taksu’s “Emerging Fires” (Kuala Lumpur / Singapore) and had her first international solo with Valentine Willie. What’s apparent is that these alternative spaces act as the incubator for a vital contemporary art scene and provide the launching pad for young Filipino artists abroad.

This pacey-evolution however, is dangerously more about splash than professional development. Founder of Green Papaya, Norberto Roldan explains, “being alternative doesn't mean maintaining a shabby space and mounting sloppy exhibitions… the ‘alternative’ is really in our program. We did not establish GP to run counter with the established and commercial gallery system. We are more interested in looking at how we can work with the few professionally run galleries as partners in the development of a new paradigm for arts and culture management in this country... We subscribe to the more accurate definition of ‘alternative’ spaces [used] in Canada as ‘parallel initiatives’ to the existing structure.” (2.)

Roldan’s position raises an important point. Many younger Filipino artists are unable to contextualise their work or understand the complexity of the art historical references they use and, more often, the venues lack the maturity to expand upon that dialogue. It is a problem concurrent in many Asian centres where educational institutions err on the parochial, and artists don’t have access to reference material, or a culture of reading.

Spaces such as GP and Mag:net, which are managed by senior artists, provide an important balance to this independent scene. Here the whiff of dilettantism that we usually associate with artist-run spaces is replaced with slick presentation, professionalism, and in the case of GP, a probing international presence through exchange and forums. This is not a new concept. BSM’s “18th Avenue Artists Compound” provided a venue for dialogue and residencies, housing artists from Singapore, Australia, Jogjakarta and Koyoto, however GP delivers beyond the ‘back-shed’ approach, cognisant of museum practice.

Cubao X
Over the last two years, this alternative scene has become fractured. There’s a push/pull as the gulch of galleries at Marikina Shoe Expo - a historic strip-mall and home to shoe vendors - is expanding beyond this precinct, the sweep stretching as wide as Pasig with Cubicle, The Blue Room in Bangkal, The Theo Gallery, Lumiere and a.r.i.a.s. (artist run independent art space) in Makati, Barewall in Greenhills, The Living Room in Malate, and Mag:net in Quezon City, Katipunan and Makati. Significantly, the dialogue has moved beyond the UP-ring.

The downside is that Manila’s sprawling geography makes these spaces relatively impenetrable to outsiders. Coupled with a culture of SMS messaging - the main vehicle for disseminating event information – it encourages a kind of clubish clique, fuelling their unsustainablity.

What is interesting about Marikina Shoe Expo is that it presents a left wing version of ‘cultural malling’, the phenomenon that has taken over Asia placing the gallery in the mall. In the neighbouring suburb of Mandaluyong is Manila’s veteran Art Walk located at Megamall, and with impinging new developments in Cubao, the Marikina Shoe Expo stands as a defiant curiosity. In this one location we have Future Projects, Blacksoup Art Projects, Pablo Gallery, Chunky Farflung and Vintage Pop.

One of the more interesting spaces here is Future Prospects (opened 2005). Initiated by Luisito Cordero (a resident at BSM for two years), Gary-Ross Pastrana, visiting Japanese curator Mizuki Endo, Cocoy Lumbao and Lena Cobangbang (earlier involved with SBW), it shows quarterly exhibitions and is essentially an intersection between experimental music, performance, film and mix media – the usual suspects.

Having heard the hype surrounding this space, I wondered what made it so exceptional – was it just another alternative art space excited by its own re-invention of the wheel? At the time of writing, the exhibition showing “two packs of cigarettes & four cups of coffee” by Bembol dela Cruz and Ranelle Dial did have legs in a ‘grunge-banwagon- kind-of-way’. But then, these spaces don’t profess to be anything other than what they are. Like most Filipino art is was technically adroit, but it didn’t subscribe to the usual histories. It was about being urban, not Filipino, conditioned by a grunge culture.

Mix-media + MacDonalds
Today’s hybrid of alternatives has developed to a level not foreseen in the late 90s, and perhaps offers the most interesting intersection of contemporanities. Hybridity in this context doesn’t refer to the barrage of exhibitions as entertainment / incidental décor in a café experience, but offers a more conceptual link, fusing art + design shop, editing suite or magazine kiosk which fuel them financially and creatively. The most interesting case is Mag:net, a chain of galleries incorporated into magazine shops. As the first tenants in Makati’s Paseo Centre, along with MacDonalds, founder Rock Drilon was presented with the tension of these two readings of ‘pop’. It takes the historic précis of alternative spaces and updates it with a 21st c. slickness, blatantly placing hip culture within a quasi-franchised outlet. Alfredo Aquilizan hit it perfectly with his 2004 exhibition, where he removed the contents of the shop, arranged them as an installation in the gallery space and left the shop as a white cube. We also see an amusing version of this redefinition at Mag:net Katipunan, where the CR (the toilet) has become a gallery complete with a monthly program.

Pablo Gallery (opened 2005), run by architects Yo Garcia and Osie Tiangco, similarly explore these intersections. Many artists in this region work as graphic artists and, as a result, their work has a strong design element. We just need to look at the recent paintings of Kiko Escora and their urban chic reminiscence of an ipod advertisement. Pablo makes no excuse for these intersections and presents them with a refreshing honesty.

Raffy Iggnacio’s The Blue Room in Bangkal (opened 2005) chose the intersection of a thrift shop selling vinyl record and players; The Theo Gallery (opened 2004), like Future Prospects and also curated by Gary-Ross Pastrana, is a bar and alternative music venue. Alongside Mag:net, other interesting ‘alternatives’ that enter this conversation are: Carlos Celdran’s The Living Room, a ‘venue’ offered entirely as a blog and series of forums in his living room; Judy Freyha Sibaya, who as a performance artist uses her own body as an exhibition site, and ‘Manila Envelope’, a publication independently produced by advertising guru David Guerrero. It is a blatant intersection between accidental art, digital media and design, and has the immediacy of a blog or virtual gallery.

More than a fruit
From the furthest point left of field provided by Celdran, Guerrero and Sibaya, the place that allows such bold extrapolation is Green Papaya Art Projects. Founded in 2000 by Norberto Roldan and contemporary dancer Donna Miranda, GP’s history is complex like all these space, shifting curatorial direction, and locations. It is initiatives such as their Art Market (a laboratory confronting issues concerning art as commodity), Shoptalk (informal conversations among artists, writers, curators and collectors) and Amplified Assemblage, (regular music-spoken word-video screening events) which have yielded some of the most engaging experimental works in Manila today.

It has also provided a portal for visiting curators to engage with contemporary Filipino art. Between 2001 and 2005, GP was visited by curators Hilda Rodriguez (Havana Biennale), Valentine Willie (Valentine Willie Fine Arts), Holly Block (Art in General NY), Tomomichi Nakao (Fukuoka Asian Art Museum), Jorg Loschmann (Henrich Boell Foundation), Binghui Huangfu (formerly Asia-Australia Art Centre/Substation) , Roger McDonald (Arts Initiative Tokyo/Singapore Art Biennale), Ricardo Mosquera (New Museum of Contemporary Art NY), Paige Moud (Queensland Art Gallery), Low Kee Hong (Singapore Art Biennale), Masanobu Ishii, (Sezon Museum of Modern Art) and Ark Fongsmut (Bangkok University Gallery), and in 2003 was commissioned to produce an exhibition for the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. (3.)

This year executive director Manuel Chaves moved on and GP set up its first board, ushering it towards its next vision. Its residency + exchange program hosted the ‘Chasing the Whale’ project which included artists from Denmark, Turkey, Brazil, Thailand, Afghanistan, Japan and the Philippines, and it plans to collaborate with SLOT, an alternative venue in Sydney, with an exhibition-exchange series in 2008.

GP has proven that an ‘alternative’ space can be both professional and experimental. It is a model we can witness globally, from Singapore’s Plastique Kinetic Worms, to Hong Kong’s Para/site, to Indonesia’s established Cemeti Art House, where the ‘independent’ is feeding contemporary art practice, curatorial selection and biennale buzz.

Maybe it is premature to draw assessments of the ‘real’ impact these independent spaces are having in re-defining contemporary Filipino art, however they have clearly moved beyond a local engagement, and their absorption into off-shore programming, indiscriminately places them within a global mainstream.

NOTES:
1. Surrounded by Water was first located in Angolo, Rizal, EDSA is the infamous Edifanio De Los Santos Avenue where the People Power Revolution took place and slices Metro Manila from the bay to Quezon City.

2. & 3. Email interview with Norberto Roldan, Founder Green Papaya Art Projects, August 2006
Read More »

19th Gawad CCP Independent Film & Video Competition

19th GAWAD CCP for Indie Shorts Now Accepting Entries!

Call for Entries to 19th CCP Indie Film & Video Tilt

Entries to the Ika-19 Gawad CCP Para Sa Alternatibong
Pelikula at Video (The 19th CCP Independent Film &
Video Competition) are now being accepted at the
Cultural Center of the Philippines Media Arts
Division. Deadline of submission is on January 12, 6
PM.

There are four categories each for Film and Video,
namely, Short Feature, Experimental, Documentary and
Animation. Special Awards will be given for Best
Regional Entry, Best Full-length Digital Feature, Best
Entry based on or inspired by the works of a Filipino
National Artist and Best Work Based on Filipino
Children's Books. All entries, which may be in 16mm,
35mm film or VHS, VCD, DVD and mini-DV for video must
be strictly independent works and not produced for
commercial screenings.

The Ika-19 Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at
Video is slated on February 13-16, 2007 at the CCP.
Winners will be announced in awarding rites on
February 16.

The Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video
is the longest running indie film and video
competition in the Philippines. It seeks to promote
Filipino independent filmmaking by giving recognition
to the year's most outstanding film and video artists.

Many of today's leading contemporary filmmakers have
participated in the Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong
Pelikula at Video, either in competition or as judges.

Ika-19 Gawad CCP Para Sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video
(The 19th CCP Independent Film and Video Competition)
For details, please call CCP Media Arts Division at
telephone 832-1125 local 1704/05;
mobile 0917 958 3652;
email rickd@philonline.com.ph;
or visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph
Read More »

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Magic Flute | Philippine Theater Company | CCP's Little Theater

"The Magic Flute"
Philippine Theater Company
Cultural Center of the Philippines
Little Theater
December 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 2006

In celebration of Mozart 250th anniversary, Philippine Opera Company will present a fantasy adaptation of the fairy-tale world of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

This simplified, English translated version of Mozart's Magic Flute follows a young girl who got lost, as her imagination journeys from Queen of the Night's realm to Saratro's Castle. With magic bells and flute, she and her friend, the dragon, help prince Tamino find Princess Pamina, and the bird-man Papageno find his Papagena.

Kokoy Jimenez, director of Batibot creates a fantasy version using animation, timeless designs and puppetry interacting with live artists. The audience will have the chance to meet the dragon live in action and listen to the famous Queen of the Night aria.

The Magic Flute stars Jay Barrameda, Bea Garcia, Raul Montesa, Patrice Pasis, Eladio Pamaran, Bodji Pascua, Nomer Son and Arlynne Lupas-Tecson with the special participation of Joy Abalon and Ana Feleo.

Philippine Opera Company will present The Magic Flute at the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Little Theater on the following dates:

December 16, 2006
3:30:PM

December 17, 2006
3:30:PM

December 19, 2006
8:00:PM

December 20, 2006
8:00:PM

December 21, 2006
8:00:PM

December 22, 2006
8:00:PM

For inquiries and reservations about The Magic Flute by the Philippine Opera Company, please call the CCP Complex at 832-1125 to 39 or the Ticketworld at 891-9999
Read More »

Hentai, Gothic Lolita, Revenge & Mystery

Hentai, Gothic Lolita, Revenge & Mystery
IN GENERAL, HENTAI IS NOT PORNOGRAPHY PART 2
A Series of Articles by Forbidden [Art]elier

FIRST ACT: THE CASE STUDY
(1st Beat)
Fade in, a group of men, who are members of a Yakuza Organization,
attacks the household of a senior police officer. In front of the
said police officer, they systematically rape all the women in the
household. After that, they killed everyone. Cut to the next beat.

(2nd Beat)
The next day, a neighbor discovers the unfortunate crime and
immediately calls the police. The police immediately arrive and
check the scene of the crime. The daughters of the senior police
officer are still wearing their school uniforms. Then suddenly, they
hear a faint moan and to their surprise, the youngest daughter (14
years old) of the senior police officer has a faint pulse. They
immediately rush the said girl to the hospital. Cut to the next beat.

(3rd Beat)
The girl recovers in the hospital after two days. She finds out that
her sisters and parents are dead. She begins to cry, dissolve to
opening billboard.

(4th Beat)
A middle-aged man enters a bar. He sees a girl wearing a gothic
lolita outfit sitting at the other end of the bar. The said man
approaches the said girl and offers her money for sex. The girl is
about to turn her head to face the man, cut to the next beat.

(5th Beat)
In a small room, the girl and the man are having sex. The man is
screaming but the girl is quiet. The man gets irritated and pushes
the girl. The girl falls to the floor. The man curses the girl.
The girl begins to laugh in a haunting manner. The girl removes her
wig and the man recognizes her. He immediately makes his move to get
his gun. As he is about to point the gun at the girl, the girl
disappears. The man sits at the end of the bed. As he is about to
light a cigarette, the bed explodes. Body parts all over the room,
cut to the next beat.

(6th Beat)
The police receive a call regarding the bomb blast. Police cars dart
through the streets headed to the scene of the crime. The innocent
girl watches at a corner. It begins to rain. The girl gets a folding
black umbrella in her bag. She opens the umbrella and begins to walk
away. Then suddenly, she hears a faint cat like moan. She sees a
frail, skinny, filthy and wet cat hiding besides a rusty trash can.
She immediately picks up the cat and looks at it. She smiles and
gives the cat a name, "wet pussy". Dissolve to the next beat.

ANALYSIS: THE PLOT SUPERSTRUCTURE

These are the initial six beats of the Hentai that I saw three years
ago. Unfortunately, I forgot the title and I do not have a copy.
Nevertheless, any animation story editor who knows his stuff will
immediately recognize that this creation uses two plot structures at
the same time. This is often called the "plot fusion" or "super-plot
structure".

In any revenge plot, there is always a horrible action, event,
situation, character, moment in time or a matter that occupies a
space attached to it. This horrible entity is called the crime. A
good "crime", pardon for the irony, exhibits long term traumatic
effect that lingers in the unconscious of the victim or the survivor.
But there are times that short term effects are necessary, if and
only if, the said effects belong to a series.

The crime is defined by the punishment. The core principle is "an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". Thus, crime and punishment should
always be in equilibrium. Now, if the balance is deliberately
manipulated to a state of non-equilibrium, then that is a different
plot structure.

Our gothic Lolita exacts revenge by planting bombs and blowing up her
enemies into several pieces. Do you think this is an appropriate
punishment for the crime committed? Or is this too much? In any
revenge plot, the means of exacting revenge is always connected with
the emotional effect of the crime. Meaning, when the Yakuza killed
her family, there was what I call emotional dismemberment of the
family as a unit. A component of the family is forcibly separated
from the collective. Furthermore, the act of raping someone is
usually equated to an individual's feeling of dismemberment
emotionally. Thus, the dismemberment of the people who did the crime
is not just a physical desire to terminate lives but also an
unconscious manifestation of exacting emotional revenge.

The equilibrium is then sustained. The core value of the crime is
emotional dismemberment. Thus, the punishment struggles to satisfy
the core value. And one way to do so is to blow-up the said enemies
into several pieces. This is the interplay of the conscious and the
unconscious. Exacting justice is permitted by the conscious but this
notion of justice is always within legal boundaries. But the
unconscious operates in a different way. Psychological materials that
are not permitted by the conscious eventually make its way to the
unconscious. It is this incubation period that transforms this
material into an acceptable provision for the conscious as it
transits through the preconscious. So when, the desire or want
becomes acceptable to the conscious, it begins to manifest itself
through a specified behavior that motivates an action or activity.

At this point, the material is slowly creating its layers as a
revenge plot. We begin to understand the dynamics of the story and
the character as it moves towards horizontal storytelling. But the
creator of the material, apparently, wanted to make his life
miserable and so he employs a second plot in the material called
mystery plot.

In the first beat, we see an innocent schoolgirl but in the sixth
beat we see a Gothic Lolita. So what happened to her? How did she
hook up with such haunting physical features? How did she acquire
the knowledge of bomb making? Why did the Yakuza attack her family?
These questions are general events that are sometimes enigmatic and
mysterious. But eventually, such general events are ironed out by
specifics that create connections. Thus, as the material unfolds and
transits from crime to punishment, the mysteries behind the crime and
the punishment are revealed.

Whoa! There are a lot of things about this material that are so
interesting. It has solid narrative threads in terms of story and a
well-constructed principal character. The combination is jarring. The
way she uses her sex and sexuality in achieving her end is always
deliberate. The smile, the look, how she plays with her body are all
directed towards an end. Each action is a part of a bigger action.
And as the audience begins to realize how diabolical this girl is,
the more she becomes unique.

The sexual expressions in this material are not gimmicks but devices
that make the material logical and consistent. The girl knows what
her enemies want and she is willing to provide this want in order to
satisfy her thirst for revenge. In a way, it is an irony. I mean,
revenge seeks to heal a person's wounded psyche but in the process he
or she distorts reality. In the end, we know that exacting revenge
will never turn back the hands of time. But when reality is
distorted, anything is possible.
Read More »

UP Film Institute Souvenir Item Winners

UP Film Institute
Souvenir Item Winners

The UP Film Institute would like to call on the following names to claim the UP Film Institute souvenir items they’ve won on the occasion of the screening of the Argentine film Extraño by director in attendance Santiago Loza last November 22 Wednesday:

Peniel S. Abalos
Teddy Abueva
Gretel L. Acibar
Waise Aeimi
Krista Mae Arenillo
Jay Bordon
Rosarie Fule
Dorrie Ann Lampa
Dan Rowen R. Leal
Rodolf Karlmark Malaluan
Ali Loraine Manrique
Peter Jules Prieto
Marco Darrel Ruben Reyes
Al Saguinsin
Paul B. Velasco

Kindly drop by the UP Film Institute; look for Mr. Nap Angat, UP Film Institute Building Administrator, and present proper identification to get your prize on workdays of December 18 Mon through December 20 Wed or January 30 Wed through January 16 Tue of New Year 2007.

University of the Philippines Film Institute
(Member, CILECT/International Association of Film and Television
Schools)
Plaridel Hall, Ylanan Road, UP Diliman, Quezon City
Tel: 9818500 (UP Trunkline) local 2669, 2670; 9206863 (Telefax)
Cine Adarna, Magsaysay and Osmena Avenues , UP Diliman, Quezon City
Tel: 9818500 (UP Trunkline) local 4286, 4289; 9262722 (Telefax)
Read More »

The Cincodelic BISTRO by Benilde Artists @ OWG

The Cincodelic BISTRO- Open 24hrs by Benilde Artists @ One Workshop Gallery (OWG)

Care for Fries and Sketchup? French Photoast? GraphicShake? Vid and Mushroom? Or 3Decaf?

Karen Abarca, Anna Del Carmen, Chat Del Rosario, Gail Feliciano, and Alexandra Lapa of the College of Saint Benilde showcases their works in Illustration, photography, graphic design, video, and 3D.

Taste and see a different kind of art!

The Cincodelic BISTRO- Open 24hrs by Benilde Artists @ OWG
Cocktail opening on December 18, Monday at 630pm. Exhibit will run until December 19, 2006.

One Workshop Gallery (OWG) is located at 2241 Ground Floor, La Fuerza Plaza II Don Chino Roces Ave., corner Sabio St , Makati City.

For details about the The Cincodelic BISTRO- Open 24hrs by Benilde Artists @ OWG, contact tel # 8192074.
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Full Run for Kaleldo 2007 | UP Film Institute

Special Full Run for Kaleldo

To usher in New Year 2007, the UP Film Institute holds a special full
run for one of the year’s most significant Filipino films, Kaleldo (Summer Heat),
directed by Brillante Mendoza and starring Cherry Pie Picache, Angel Aquino, Juliana Palermo and Johnny Delgado. The acclaimed film that had its world premiere in the first ever Rome International Film Festival last October screens on Jan 4 Thu, Jan 5 Fri, Jan 6 Sat, and Jan 8 Mon to Jan 10 Wed thrice each day at 2, 5 and 7 p.m. Its internationally exhibited full integral version (Director’s Cut) will be shown exclusively for the country’s premier state university community as a truly rare occasion not to be missed.

The saga of a domineering father and his three grownup daughters in a town devastated by volcanic eruption ten years earlier, Kaleldo sustains the expanding line of local titles prominently placing the Philippines in the world map of cinema.
After serving as Opening Film at the Extra Section of the 1st Rome IFF (13-21 October 2006), Kaleldo made more world stops, namely, 43rd Vienna IFF (13-25 October
2006); 26th Hawaii IFF (Filipino Focus, 19-29 October 2006); 30th Cairo IFF (Festival of Festivals, 28 November-8 December 2006).

The UP Film Institute’s series of screenings for Kaleldo seeks to provide the needed push for Filipino quality films that indeed make a difference for the general good
of Philippine cinema.

Kaleldo (Summer Heat)
A Centerstage Productions
Three grownup sisters with a domineering father in a town devastated by volcaniceruption ten years earlier contend with the difficulties of a motherless family.

Official Selection—2006 Rome IFF/Vienna IFF/Hawaii IFF/Cairo IFF
Direction: Brillante Mendoza. Screenplay: Boots Agbayani Pastor.
Cast: Johnny Delgado, Cherry Pie Picache, Angel Aquino, Juliana
Palermo, Alan Paule, Lauren Novero.
2006 90 minutes 35mm color English subtitles

University of the Philippines Film Institute
(Member, CILECT/International Association of Film and Television
Schools)
Plaridel Hall, Ylanan Road, UP Diliman, Quezon City
Tel: 9818500 (UP Trunkline) local 2669, 2670; 9206863 (Telefax)
Cine Adarna, Magsaysay and Osmena Avenues, UP Diliman, Quezon City
Tel: 9818500 (UP Trunkline) local 4286, 4289; 9262722 (Telefax)
Read More »

Forever/Call Me Flory | Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero | Gantimpala Theater Foundation

GANTIMPALA' S FOREVER - love amidst hate. CALL ME FLORY - the truth
covered with lies!"

From Gantimpala Theater Foundation (GTF), the theater company that staged
the 2006 ALIW Awards Best Play (non-musical category) F. Sionil Jose's The
God Stealer/ Nick Joaquin's The Queen's Jewel, comes Forever/Call Me Flory,
another twin-bill of Filipino plays in English written by National Artist
for Theater Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero under the direction of ALIW Awards Best
Director Tony S. Espejo.

FOREVER, is an old-fashioned melodrama set in the 1950's. This play is about
love, maturity, and self-sacrifice. It is also about closure and healing,
listening and accepting. It is a play about people who realize that letting
go is greater, more sublime, than holding on.

The other production is CALL ME FLORY, which is a satire that pokes on
social climbing and social climbers during the time when Manila's 400
espouse 'the true, the good and the beautiful'. It shows that pretense is a
cheap trick. It is fun, wacky, and hard-hitting piece on our secret desire
to belong to the high society.

"These Guerrero plays continue to mirror our modern times. Forever speaks of
emotional deception and pride. How many relationships could have been saved
if we just give true love a chance and allow what is in our hearts do the
talking. On the other hand. Call Me Flory is about societal deception. Here,
we get a glimpse on the lifestyle of the rich and famous, their many slices
of hypocrisy and the weapons they use in order to perpetuate their version
of the truth," enlightens Espejo on why the two are GTF's 29th season
enders.

He says further: "This is the 4th season presentation of the GTF National
Artist Production Series. We make it a point to include in our production
lineup literary and dramatic works created by the country's National Artists
for Literature and Theater come alive on stage. It is GTF's way of paying
tribute to these Philippine literature and theater icons. We want to create
a sense of appreciation for the artistic legacies of our literary and
dramatic arts masters among our student audiences."

The cast from the Actors Company includes Roeder Camañag (Ernesto/Federico) ; Monica Llamas (Maria Teresa/Matilde) ; Kimberly Diaz (Consuelo/Osang) ; Wilma Doesnt and Lailanie Ann Tejuco (alternately portraying Florencia Aragon de Caracoles also known as Flory); Billy Parjan and Vincent Reyes Kuipers (alternately portraying Oscar); Abner Delina (Ernesting); Troy De Guzman (Gordon) and Jude Sypongco (Capote).

Helping Espejo bring the 50's glamour of Forever and the psychedelic feel of
Call Me Flory are J. Dennis Teodosio (playwright for additional dialogues
and characters); Joey Nombres (Lights Designer); Roobak Valle (Set Designer); Albert Figueras (Costumes Designer); Glenda Alday (stage manager)and Pamela Hundana (production manager).

The production is a collaborative artistic venture with the National Parks
Development Committee (NPDC). Color Care and Everbilena support the 29th
production season of Gantimpala.

Performances are slated on December 9-10, 16-17(10am/2pm) , SM South Mall
Cinema 3 in Las Piñas; and it resumes in 2007 starting Jan 25, (10am/2pm);
January 26 (9am/12nn/3pm) ; January 28(10am/2pm) ; and February 3-4 (10am/2pm) at the AFP Camp Aguinaldo Theater in Quezon City.

For tickets and booking information, call 899-5745/896- 3503; for outreach tours/ sponsorships, call 528-0603/536- 5860.

J. Dennis C. Teodosio
0921-2818248 / 6560314

"Papa'no kung hanapan nila ng lesson ang buhay ko?"
- Gee-Gee At Waterina
(TP's Comedy Twinbill,2006/ Virgin Labfest,2005)
http://www.philippineplaywrights.org

"Pagkuha niya ng barya sa pitaka, makikita niya mga mata ng anak --- bilog
na bilog ang mga iyon katulad ng itinuturong alkans'ya."
- Tonyong Turo
(PBBY-Salanga Writers Prize,2006)
http://www.adarnahouse.com

"Sa mga gabing mapanglaw at pilit kong pinalalakas ang aking loob, natitiyak
kong may nakikinig sa dilim."
- Terminal
(Gawad Ka Amado para sa Maikling Kuwento,2005)
Read More »

Friday, December 15, 2006

Louie Cordero's Neogativland @ Mag:net Gallery Paseo

"Neogativland"
Louie Cordero
Mag:net Gallery Paseo
December 9, 2006 to December 30, 2006

Louie Cordero's exhibit entitled Neogativland is now on view at the Mag:net Gallery Paseo. Neogativland is his own reaction to the overwhelming whiteness of Mag:net gallery's walls.

Louie Cordero directly painted on the wall a parade of zombies, like summoning his own horror vacui to invade the walls with his idiosyncratic figures conceived from an amalgamation of his id fed by B-movies, jeepney art, underground comix and the immediate schlock of his everyday life. This invasion is doubly fleshed out by objects and assorted geegaws found from his own studio.

For more details about Louie Cordero's Neogativland at the Mag:net Gallery (Paseo Center), please call 817-7895 or email: magnetplus@gmail.com.
Read More »

Khavn's "Rugby Boyz" wins @ Toronto Asian Filmfest

KHAVN'S "RUGBY BOYZ" WINS AT TORONTO ASIAN FILMFEST

Khavn's "Rugby Boyz" (Philippines) has just won in the
10th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
held last November 15-19, 2006. Khavn received the
Special Mention Award for Documentary, presented by
the National Film Board (NFB) of Canada. The jury was
composed of Cameron Bailey (writer, broadcaster and
film programmer), Ann Marie Fleming (filmmaker, writer
and artist), and Brenda Longfellow (filmmaker, writer
and film theorist).

"Rugby Boyz" begins with Filipino boys playing a game
of rugby football in the slums. Running, laughing and
tackling, these boys demonstrate that even in the most
desperate of conditions, youth will find the will to
live. Taking us through their day, the filmmaker
reveals more of their adventures. Watching them at the
karaoke bar and swimming hole, we can only begin to
realize the complexity of their situations.

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is
a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and
work from the Asian diaspora. Works include films and
videos by East and Southeast Asian artist in Canada,
the U.S., Asia and all over the world. Reel Asian has
been named Toronto’s Best Small Festival by NOW
Magazine: “(Reel Asian) strikes the best balance
between cutting edge and community. Strong programming
and deep roots attract a super-hyphenated tribe.”

The other award winners are:
@Wallace Most Innovative Film or Video Production
Award
Winner: LAST BOY LAST GIRL, by Yuki Hayashi (Japan)
Special Mention: PORTRAITS ON A BLUSTERY DAY, by Howie
Shia (Canada)

TSV Artistic Vision Award for Best Local Short Film
Winner: DAN CARTER, by Alison S.M. Kobayashi (Canada)

NFB Best Documentary Award
Winner: UMMA, by Hohyun Joung (Canada/Korea)

NOW magazine's AUDIENCE FAVOURITE Award
Winner: JOURNEY FROM THE FALL, by Ham Tran (USA)

Links:
http://reelasian.com/awards.php
http://www.reelasian.com/film-preview.php?film_id=153
www.kamiasroad.com/khavn
Read More »

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Trumpets Musicademy | Philippine Idol Finalist @ Dish

`PI' FINALIST AT DISH

TRUMPETS Musicademy, Trumpets' school for voice, language and speech, welcomes "Philippine Idol" finalist and Hamilton, Canada Talent Hunt Grand Prize winner Reymond Sajor as one of the music center's imagemodels through a Christmas show at Dish ABS-CBN on December 22, 2006 at 9 p.m.

Reymond joins the roster of some of the most outstanding graduates of Trumpets Musicademy that include Asian pop star Christian Bautista and sing and dance kiddie group The Playshop Kids.

For the avid followers of the first-ever "Philippine Idol" talent search, Reymond has been one of the crowd and judges' favorites primarily because of his boyish Pinoy charm and excellent singing ability, which he greatly attributes to his trainings in Trumpets and the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music.

Although Reymond was booted out from "Idol" quite prematurely, Reymond has been able to leave an indelible mark on the viewers with his sweeping and fresh attack to Martin Nievera-original "Be My Lady." It was his swan song in the talent contest, which saw the audience on their feet, giving a well-deserved standing ovation to this 27-year-old balikbayan from Canada. Interestingly, he has since been fondly referred to as the "Be My Lady Boy" wherever he goes.

Reymond auditioned for "Philippine Idol" some five months ago, along with a thousand other singing hopefuls all over the Philippines, and eventually landed a spot in the Top 12. He has won the hearts of hopeless romantic Pinoys with his heartfelt renditions of Randy Santiago's "Hindi Magbabago," Luther Vandross' "I'd Rather," and of course, Martin Nievera's "Be My Lady."

Reymond's early ouster from "Idol" earned the resident judges' outright disapproval, which even prompted the organizers to rethink about the text voting procedures being implemented in the show. Text voting period got shortened from nearly 24 hours to only about two hours, patterned to the voting system in "American Idol," a week after Reymond's elimination. This drastic change in the voting mechanics did not save Reymond from prematurely leaving "Idol," though.

"Our Christmas show at Dish ABS-CBN will be the perfect avenue to wrap up my "Philippine Idol" journey. Christmas is the season to celebrate God's abundant blessings. It is the best time to thank all the supporters and friends I've gained throughout the `Idol' experience," says Reymond. His repertoire for his Christmas show will include '70s and '80s hits, OPM favorites and Christmas medleys. IJ Garcia is musical director.

Entrance to the show is free. For further information, contact Dish ABS- CBN (with new name Club O by Jan. 2007) at 413-0615 or email stages_pr@i-manila.com.ph.
Read More »

Short Film Festival @ PWU

The 3rd Art Film Festival of the Philippne Women's University (PWU)
Independent Film Group happens on December 14 & 15, 2006,
1pm at the PWU AVR.

This annual event features an inter-collegiate short film
competition, film screenings, and forum.

EVERYONE is invited to attend.

Schedule of events is as follows:

DAY 1, December 14

1PM - Registration

1:30PM - Introduction of the IFG

1:45PM - Screening of IFG Production, "Parang Pelikula"
Written/Directed by IFG Founder, Hubert Tibi

Best Screenplay Winner, Short Feature Category,
Cinemalaya 2006

Official Selection, 29th LV Hawaii Int'l. Film Festival

2:15PM - Break

2:30PM - "How to Watch and Appreciate Films",

a talk by Mr. Ed Cabagnot, Film Scholar/Chief Director,
Media Arts Division of the CCP

3:30PM - Open Forum

DAY 2, December 15

1PM - Screening of Ten Finalists

4:30PM - Awarding of Winners

*In encouraging and preserving the art of filmmaking.
Email: pilak4president@yahoo.com
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Casting Call for Short Film | God Only Knows

Casting call for "God Only Knows" by San Francisco based filmmaker Mark V. Reyes.
To be shot on 35mm film early January.
Neil Daza

CASTING CALL
for short film "God Only Knows"

Saturday, December 16 2006

9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Mowelfund Film Institute
Nepomuceno Hall

Female Lead, mid 30's-40's
Young Male Child Lead, 8-12 years old
Support Female, late 30's-mid 60's
Support Foreigner looking male mid 30's- and up

Contact Ria de Guzman at
09158507111
email: godonlyknows2007@yahoo.com
Read More »

UP Cinema's Piling Obrang Vidyo 2006 Winners

The UP Cineadarna was again packed last Tuesday, December 12, 2006, for the third staging of UP Cinema's Piling Obrang Vidyo (POV) interschool video festival. The thirteen short videos in competition were screened in front of an appreciative SRO crowd, duplicating the festival's success the past two years. The competition was even stiffer this time around as the participating schools all had good entries in the festival.

Here is the list of this year’s winners.

Viewers’ Choice Award: ROSAS
New Era University

Best Performance: MULAT
Lovely Aranzanso
Centro Escolar University

Best Sound: WHAT IF?
Lawrence Neri
Colegio de San Juan de Letran

Best Musical Score: OZ
Julian Cañero, Julius Garrido
UP-Diliman

Best Production Design: DOBLE VISTA
Nisha Alicer, Caren Crisologo, Nix Lañas
De La Salle University

Best Editing: DOBLE VISTA
Caren Crisologo
De La Salle University

Best Cinematography: PAG-AGOS
Maria Ramona Isabelle Lomotan
Miriam College

Best Screenplay: OZ
Adrian Ellis Alarilla
UP-Diliman

PAG-AGOS
Ma. Pacita Policarpio, Karen Dupalco,
Ma. Ramona Isabelle Lomotan, Xyza Montaner
Miriam College

Best Direction: DOBLE VISTA
Nisha Alicer, Nix Lañas
De La Salle University

2nd Best Vidyo: WHAT IF?
Colegio de San Juan de Letran

Piling Obrang Vidyo 2006: DOBLE VISTA
De La Salle University

* * *
"Doble Vista" from DLSU joins the festival's previous winners.
"Pirouette" (2005) by Alina Co & Ma. Lyn Punay
and "Sugat" (2004) by David Diuco, both from UP-Diliman.
Read More »

LGBT Films @ Cinekatipunan | Mag:net Cafe

CineKatipunan @ Mag:net Café
Thursday, 14 December
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Night
5:30 - 6:30 PM

Mark dela Cruz: MISTERYO NG HAPIS
(2006/Narrative/ 15 mins)

A father waiting for forgiveness…
A son asking for acceptance…
… And a past that binds them two.

Filming your own life is a very hard thing to do. It
takes a lot of courage and determination in doing such
a film. For me, I see it as reel versus real: inside
the reel is the reality of life. And I am very much
afraid on the question of how will I be able to
convince my audience that what is inside the reel is
actually real. Sometimes there could be painful past
that can never be easily forgotten due to the big scar
it had left. And only time knows when it would totally
heal. Packed with much courage and determination, here
it is… an emotional story about a person going on a
dilemma in trying to heal his never forgotten past.
Forgiveness and Acceptance. Matriarchy and Patriarchy.
Sorrows and Joys.

Official entry to the 8th Cinemanila International
Film Festival - Short film Competition
Official selection in the Jakarta Slingshort Film
Festival in Jakarta
Official entry in the PBO DIGITALES Short film
Competition
2nd Place in PBO DIGITALES Short film Competition
Viewers Choice award in PBO DIGITALES Short filom
Competition

Mark dela Cruz is a theater actor, writer and an
independent film maker. He studied Film and Audio
Visual Communication at the University of the
Philippines Film Institute. His experimental short
film “Garapon,” about the insanity of choice of a
woman over abortion, won the first prize in the
experimental category at the UP Film and Video
Festival in 2004. His latest short film is “Misteryo
ng Hapis / Sorrowful Mystery,” and was done in one of
the Filipinos native dialect which is Kapampangan. He
is now into pre production in his next short film
entitled “Misteryo ng Lualhati / Glorious Mystery.” He
is working right now as an assistant director to US
Based American director Redd Ochoa who is making his
independent film "Baliw" that stars Joel Torre, Jaime
Fabregas, and Ryan Eigenmann.

Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo: BABAE
(2004/Digital/ Narrative/ 20 mins)

BABAE is a coming of age story of two women who grew
up together in the city slum community beside railroad
tracks. They become best friends during childhood,
shared dreams during teenage years and eventually
started a family during adulthood when a child
accidentally entered their lives. Real Stories of
Women and a Man were added to give this color to this
black and white film A mixture of Drama, Comedy,
Musical and Fantasy that will surely touch the Pinoy
Heart in You.

Best Direction, Short film category, Cinemalaya
Independent Film Festival 2005.

Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo received her Certificate
course in Theater Arts at the University of the
Philippines, Diliman QC. She did many films,
commercials, and theater works as a director,
promotion manager and an actor. She took up advanced
directing in UP Diliman and had work for a year as a
storyteller for "Adarna" books, and Japan Foundation.
She is a member of Dulaang UP, Tanghalang Pilipino and
other prestigious theater companies in Metro Manila.

Reposted from
http://www.culturalcenter.gov.ph/cinemalaya-babae.htm

Paolo Villaluna: PALUGID
(2000/16 mm/Documentary/ 18 mins)

A striking sequence of shiny white urinals in a public
toilet opens the film. The filmmaker’s monologue tells
the personal story of his first sexual experience with
a stranger at 14, and the loneliness of looking for
sex in the margins of society as a gay man. Shot on
16mm, the film uses optical effects and a gliding
camera to convey emotional images of rushing clouds in
the wind and passing night traffic.

Best Short Film, 24th Gawad Urian; 2nd Prize for
Documentary (Film) at the 2000 Gawad CCP Para sa
Alternatibong Pelikula at Video; Audience Award
EKsperimento International Film Festival; 1st runner
up in the 2001 Kodak International Short Film
Competition.

Paolo Villaluna started his roots in theater, acting
and directing several theater productions before
joining Mowelfund's Animation workshop in 1996 and
Documentary Workshop in 2000. He has worked as
assistant director in Nick Deocampo's "Mother Ignacia"
(1998,) "Pedrong Palad" (2000,) "Edades" (2004) and
National Artist Eddie Romero's "Faces of Love" (2006.)
His first documentary, "Palugid" (Margin) won the Best
Short Film plum in the 24th Gawad Urian, Prize for
Documentary at the 2000 Gawad CCP Para sa
Alternatibong Pelikula at Video, the Audience at
eKsperimento International Film Festival and the 1st
runner up in the 2001 Kodak International Short Film
Competition and has been screened/competed in several
international competitions.

Ms. You Porny: BEHIND THE APPEARANCE
(Cambodia/2006/ Digital/Document ary/7 mins)

Pich Sokchea, 39 years old, is a man, but his
appearance and attitude are that of a woman, and he
carries the identification card with the gender of a
female. Sokchea has long hair, painted nails, wears
women’s clothes and walks like a girl. Because of his
behavior and appearance, Sokchea finds difficulty in
getting a job in Cambodian society. Most Cambodians
discriminate on gays especially like Sokchea.

Ms. You Porny is a female year IV student at
Department of Media and Communication (DMC) at the
Cambodia Communication Institute in Cambodia and will
graduate with a Bachelor’s degree of media management
in May 2006. During her Media management course at DMC
she learned certain subjects such as Research
Methodology, Online Media Research, Interview
Technique, TV and radio script writing. She used to
work for media campaigns at the Women Media Center,
and has worked for Support Children and Young People
Organization (SCY) as a producer and reporter in the
field of Tele magazine that produces stories and
documentaries sponsored by the UNICEF.

(Behind the Appearance synopsis and screening copy
along with Ms. You Porny’s profile courtesy of Libay
Linsangan Cantor)

To be followed by ANG LADLAD Program (6:30-8PM). Free
Admission. Visit www.magnet.com.ph for the complete
December schedule.
Read More »

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