The Filipino Student's Guide on How To Be Invisible In London

I recently tweeted about the "TOUCH ME NOT" screening in the Cultural Center of the Philippines (a copy of which I've uploaded in my blog before, as featured in the National Gallery website). Most short film entries were around ten minutes in length, whereas mine was only a few seconds over 3 minutes. It put my term 2 film at a disadvantage from a competition perspective but that was alright cause what I was really after was the opportunity to have the screened in a public venue back home in the Philippines.

(Here's the link again: Touch Me Not in the National Gallery website)

I felt bad that I was going to miss its screening by a few days as I was scheduled to fly to Manila only three days after. I invited my good friend, Mahal, who composed the soundtrack along with her band Kireida, to watch at the CCP, but she had a previously set appointment. My lead actress and very close friend Nep was already in the Philippines for the Christmas holiday so I also told her to go and invite people whom she missed showing the film (she already saw it in the National Gallery last year).

I was therefore annoyed after finding out that the schedule was moved to two hours earlier without prior notice. My aunt and my assistant who went all the way to CCP missed it by an hour, and Nep, who braved the horrendous Christmas rush, missed it altogether.

Thankfully, it was balanced by some real good news.

I actually also submitted my Term 3 documentary, "THE FILIPINO STUDENT'S GUIDE ON HOW TO BE INVISIBLE IN LONDON," in the same competition. For those who might have seen it at LFS or whom I asked for feedback during its development stage, this was the film about three girls who came to London on student visas.

I'm very proud to share that it won third prize in the 21st CCP Independent Film and Video Competition held last December 8 to 11, 2009. The 'Gawad CCP' distinguishes itself as the longest-running film and video competition in the Philippines, open to works in 16mm and 35mm format for film and DVD and MiniDV formats for video.

Upon sending a copy of the film to the CCP Media Arts, I concurrently asked the three subjects if they were fine with the film getting screened in a huge venue. When I first asked them to be the focus of the documentary, I assured them that if they were not comfortable with it being showed beyond the privacy of the school, we would honor that. In response, one of the girls said she preferred that the documentary not be screened in the festival, so I emailed CCP to request that they not screen it anymore and they obliged.

I thought that meant they would pull it out of the competition as well since the Gawad CCP rules stipulate that CCP would acquire rights to screen the film upon its entry and include it in the CCP's film archives. Apparently, they still showed it to the judges even if it was not in exhibition during the festival week and even ended up winning 3rd place. The competition also reserves the right not to award recognition if it felt that none of the entries deserved it, so it had a very discriminating and exclusive profile to me.

The official announcement from the Cultural Center of the Philippines is posted in the CCP official website. Chrissy, the LFS Librarian-slash-festival coordinator triumphed the achievement by blogging about it in the London Film School's news blog. It was a little embarrassing to see news about our humble documentary above Duncan Jones's big win at the British Independent Film Awards for "MOON," but that was very much welcome. Seeing my name on the LFS blog... I can die now! Haha!

Mad props to 166/3D for their contributions, and to the three girls for generously sharing their time, insights and sentiments in this documentary film. Congratulations to us :)

Touch Me Not

This has been a long time coming. I stumbled upon it by accident and got a bit nostalgic. I can't believe I'm just one term away from my grad term!

(Watch it in full-screen mode!)





To read the accompanying blurb and put proper context to this film, go to the National Gallery website.

Marrakech

Africa had always been a place I wanted to visit (along with South America). I was never interested in going to the US or Australia, but I promised myself Africa. During the spring break before this current summer term, I decided to not go home and stay put in London to see more of the city. That, of course, didn't happen as I ended up spending half the time somewhere else. 

Duke and Carol had mentioned their plan to go to Morocco to me sometime before. With no definite plans for my holiday, I decided to invite myself to their vacation. Buti na lang, mabait ang Bajentings :) Aside from buying myself roundtrip tickets to Marrakech, I left everything up to Duke & Carol. Tisay, another close Pinay friend here in London, told me how much she loved Morocco and shared insights on what we could do on our trip. She suggested that we stay in a riyadh and even offered me her contacts (which I then forwarded to Carol, the lazy oaf that I am).

We flew to Morocco during the Easter holiday. Duke and Carol took the early flight to Marrakech while I decided to take the afternoon flight so I'd have time to submit my make-or-break paper requirement in school. As usual, I was sleepless the night before I flying. Nevertheless, I couldn't get a wink of sleep on the plane ride to Marrakech. It was just too exciting, and I didn't even know why. I knew so little about Morocco that I couldn't help but ask the man sitting beside me on the plane what Morocco was like. He was an English businessman who's been there a couple of times before. He simply said the country was 'something.'

I first stepped on African soil late afternoon of April 7. It only took a whiff of Moroccan air to experience for myself the enigma of this country. It truly was something.

Labada @ Cinekatipunan

This is rather late in the offing, but I'm posting it anyway.

LABADA ("The Laundry"), the first short film I made outside school, is going to be screened this week on Cinekatipunan with Dang Bagas's PARA SA KABATAAN ("For The Youth"). It will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, June 5, 5PM at Mag:net Cafe along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.

Mag:net has regular screenings and the good thing about it is it's free. They have a website that is regularly updated with their schedules, not just for Cinekatipunan, but for poetry readings, musical performances and even stand-up comic acts.

http://www.magnet.com.ph/#katip

It'll be like an anniversary for my little film. Almost exactly a year ago (in July), LABADA was screened in the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. I'm back to the old times when I was running around, contacting all my friends to go watch it. Interestingly, tomorrow will be the first time some of LABADA's cast and crew members will be seeing the film.

Seasons Of Love

It's been five years since I attended the SIF-ASEAN Student Fellowship. Along with 56 other participants from all over Southeast Asia, we spent five months studying, attending seminars, organizing activities, bonding, fighting, having fun together. Mostly having fun together. Writing about it will require a new entry altogether.

This is the video I edited using footage I took during the entire fellowship. I set it against the musical backdrop of "Seasons of Love" from RENT, one of my all-time favorite musicals. I premiered the video during the fellowship's send off program.

I unearthed the footage and recaptured it in honor of our pact to have a reunion on 20/07/2007. Hopefully, these guys will be inspired to make good on that promise.



Looking forward to seeing these guys again.

See Me Malaya

Today is officially the start of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

I used to dread the length of time I was made to wait for the results to come out, and now, it's actually here, and I'm part of it.

During the Sinetaktakan last week, when all the film makers involved were asked to discuss their films and the peripheral issues attached to independent filmmaking, I mentioned how nervous (nerbyous, ika nga, to better underscore my emotions) I felt about the coming week. We were asked to rate our films. I gave my own film a 9, saying that I subtracted a point because I was forced to edit out some of the scenes and sequences in order to meet the 20-minute maximum running time the competition rules imposed.

However, I clarified that how I rated "Labada" shouldn't be confused with an objective evaluation of my film. Most people would agree that any creative work can never be evaluated objectively. It's just not possible to quantify the merits of a creative output. I told the audience that with only a week left before the festival, the jitters are worse than ever.

The moderator told us first-timers that based on last year's festival, we'd probably be on automatic pilot mode once the festival starts. The deluge of emotions and the flurry of the events almost guarantee we won't even know what hit us.

It was a welcome thought.

Now that the day has come, I'm not sure how to describe what I'm feeling. There's a part of me that's excited about the good things that may be in store for me and my film. And there's another part that can't wait to see all of this over and done with.

Cinemalaya seems to imply a liberation of sorts. I've yet to see what it will do for me.

Wash And Learn

Watch the trailer of
Raz de la Torre's "LABADA"

The Cinemalaya 2006 Schedule for the Short Feature Finalists

SHORTS PROGRAM A:
1. 10:25 ng Gabi
2. Gee-Gee at Waterina
3. Kwarto
4. Labada by Raz de la Torre
5. No Passport Needed

SCHEDULE FOR PROGRAM A: (which includes Labada)

Tues, July 18 – 12:45pm (CCP Main Theater)
Weds, July 19 – 9:00pm (CCP Main Theater)
Thurs, July 20 – 9:00pm (Multi-Purpose Hall)
Fri, July 21 – 6:15pm (CCP Little Theater)
Sat, July 22 – 12:45pm (CCP Little Theater)


SHORTS PROGRAM B:
1. Orasyon
2. Parang Pelikula
3. Putot
4. Puwang by Anna Isabelle Matutina
5. Sa Silaw

SCHEDULE FOR SHORTS PROGRAM B: (which includes Puwang)

Tues, July 18 – 3:30pm (CCP Main Theatre)
Weds, July 19 – 6:15pm (CCP Little Theatre)
Fri, July 21 – 9:00pm (Multi-Purpose Hall)
Sat, July 22 – 9:00pm (CCP Main Theatre)
Sun, July 23 – 12:45pm (CCP Little Theatre)