LFC opens Isapelikula to public, guest speakers no show

LFC opens Isapelikula to public, guest speakers no show
by Bernard Manalac

Loyola Film Circle (LFC), Ateneo de Manila’s premiere film organization, opened its filmmaking seminar series Isapelikula to non-members and non-Ateneans alike Wednesday, August 29 but produced a no show from its guest speakers.

According to LFC Human Resources Executive Xela Avilla, screenwriters Michiko Yamamoto (“Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros”) and Raymond Lee backed out at the last minute due to miscommunication between LFC’s public relations department and the two screenwriters.

Director Jade Castro (“Endo”) on the other hand got stuck in traffic and never made it to the venue.

“LFC failed not in securing the connection but it failed in a sense because it wasn’t able to make the filmmakers feel the urgency and the need to be there,” said Avilla. “We are targeting the event to be rescheduled this weekend.”

Isapelikula is a seminar series dedicated to filmmaking which began earlier this month. Conducted once a week, it immerses participants to a wide variety of films and provides workshops on the different techniques and processes involved in the production of films such as directing, screenwriting, production design and cinematography.

Initially planned as an LFC members-only project, it is now being opened to non-members one Wednesday a month. Even if the first attempt was a failure, if the upcoming sessions turn out to be successful, the organization will completely open it to the public according to LFC Production Executive Ayo Supangco.

If this pushes through, non-members will have the opportunity to meet and have classes under the big names in the roster that LFC has prepared.

Aside from Yamamoto, Lee and Castro, the list includes Quark Henares (“Keka” and “Super Noypi”), Sherad Sanchez (“Huling Balyan ng Buhi”) and cinematographer Nap Jamir (“Tuli”, “Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros”, and “Rizal”).

Although the workshops are conducted by group, Isapelikula aims to discover the potential individual capabilities of each participant and to develop this potential.

“We really focus on individual development,” adds Supangco. “Tutok talaga kami sa development of the talents of our future filmmakers.”

The primary participants, composed only of the organization’s members, were screened and tested in order to measure their knowledge and skills in the various aspects of filmmaking and monitor their progress through the course of the seminars.

Isapelikula will culminate in December in an event entitled “Under the Stars” wherein films produced by the participants will be shown and judged.

(L to R) LFC President Benedict Olgado and Production Executive Ayo Supangco

conducting the workshop in place of the no show Jade Castro

Experimentation of natural lifestyle in the rice terraces

Experimentation of natural lifestyle in the rice terraces

by Camille LE TALLEC

BANAUE- Philippines- Ten hours away from Manila stretch out Banaue rice terraces, drawing flours in the slopes of the mountains. Arriving at 7 a.m. last Friday, August 24, a friend and I decide to set off for a three-day trek, following a guide we just met at the bus station.

In the narrow path, the only people we meet are Pilipino young men carrying wood boards. Talking with them, we learn these students spend their free time in this exhausting activity to finance their studies. Coming from their village, two hours away from Banaue, they usually manage to make the round trip three times a day, earning about 3,000 pesos.

After a day walking, we finally meet a family of farmers. The seven year-old boy, his thirteen year-old brother and their sister, aged of ten, are taking a rest with their father before going down from the fields to their village with bags full of potatoes on their backs. “After going to school in the morning, these children climb up the stairs recently constructed to link the village to the fields, and work the whole afternoon”, our guide Jordan tells us.

Farmer and his son coming back from the fields to Pula, on Friday evening (CLT)

We travel with them to Pula. Walking is the only way to go there, and everything around is nothing but the nature. Here life seems to keep up the pace of the harvests. Corn, potatoes, and above all rice, are the condition of this village self sufficiency.

We share dinner with a native family. Around the table, lighted thanks to solar energy, few words are exchanged. But while wondering what happiness is, I observe the faces and notice that they express both tiredness and serenity.

Old man having a rest after dinner in Pula, Friday evening (CLT)

These thoughts remain in my mind on Saturday morning, when I notice old people strangely sat on their feet along the fields. Hurt by a life of work in the rice terraces, their bodies do not enable them to stand up anymore. “They must stay bent”, our guide says.

Farmers working in the rice terraces, Saturday morning (CLT)

Maybe, the harshness of this life is one of the reasons why people have dreams of succeeding elsewhere, as do the owner of Batad guest house we reach at nightfall. Proudly, this wood artist, named Joseph, tells us in English his project for the following months. “Two Americans offer me a job in Palawan, to make woodcarving; I will be paid 2500 pesos a month.” I ask him how he feels before leaving his family. “No choice to pay my children’s studies”, he answers.

On the way from Banga-an, the last village of our trek, to the road, we meet more people than in three days. Thanks to what Jordan taught us the day before, we guess they are relatives coming from the whole country to take part in an old man death ceremony in this village, and that the pigs carried by the men are fated to sacrifice.

Men carrying a pig for the death ceremony in Banga-an, Sunday

Indeed, during our break in Maggor Saturday afternoon, Jordan told us about popular believes, and we understood how such a culture can keep a community alive. Ceremonies celebrating the rice god or other meaningful divinities, give rhythm to the life. It led my friend wondering in which extent the threat of being punished prevents people from behaving badly, contributing to peaceful human relationships.

After such an experiment, we cannot refrain from thinking about the Philippines as a heterogeneous society. Away from the modern life of Manila, we have become aware of the social complexity of this country. Helping people is all the more difficult as the needs vary: while the government should supply these villagers with materials to build stairs, it should rather give subsidies to business owners. As a result, the development process is much more complicated.

The old man and the Bay

The old man and the Bay

It was a drizzly Monday morning when Manong Doc Bautista went fishing. Wearing a sweater over a T-shirt, he did not mind the chilly winds along Manila Bay.

Mang Doc is from Boracay and went to Manila to work in the recent years. Now at the age of 73, he admitted that he can’t still go home to his hometown. “Ang layo, eh. Dito na lang muna ako.”

He loves fishing in the Manila Bay. “Naglalaro lang kami eh. Hanggang mamaya pa kaming alas-dose dito. Wala namang ginagawa eh. Wala nang trabaho,” he said as he smiled.

He caught two fishes from the bay: A Kanduli (the bigger fish) and a Pigaon.

(Mary Anne Po Lonto)

First oceanarium in RP to open soon

[UPDATE] RP’s first Oceanarium to rise in Rizal Park

by Mary Anne Po Lonto

MANILA, Philippines -- Patrons of Rizal Park will now have something to look forward to as the construction of the Manila Ocean Park, the country’s first oceanarium, is underway.

Located near the Quirino Grandstand, the construction site was once the Luneta Boardwalk platform. According to a Manila Times report, the 1.2-hectare Manila Ocean Park will consist of an oceanarium, a landscaped pavilion, a marine discovery park, shops, a mall, a boardwalk and a food court featuring Southeast Asian cuisines.

Construction Site (once the Luneta Boardwalk platform) Mary Anne Po Lonto

Facing the Manila Bay, the project started in the latter months of former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza's term and continues today under Mayor Alfredo Lim. This three-storey Ocean Park aims to strengthen the country’s tourism industry with its state-of-the-art complex and facilities.

The project was proposed by China Oceanis Philippines Inc. with Singaporean, Malaysian, Chinese and Australian investors.

Some construction workers said Korean contractors also assist in the construction, specifically the tunnel that is supposed to simulate the experience of walking underwater. This construct is similar to the one found in Sentosa Park in Singapore.

Underwater tunnel in Sentosa Singapore that will be similar to the one being constructed in the site (Sentosa Golf Club website)

One of the site’s construction workers said the project is targeted for completion in December. When asked about who owns the construction site, he said in Filipino: “It is near completion. A private company heads the construction. Maybe after some years they will hand it (the Ocean Park) to the government.”

The Manila Ocean Park is targeted for opening in February 2008.

“Many children will be glad about this park. I also heard that there is an entrance fee. I just hope that it will not be too expensive,” the worker said.

The father of a family of four walking around the Rizal Park agreed that the ocean park would be a great project.

“My family comes here every weekend to jog and when we heard about it, we became excited,” he said. “It would definitely be something new to us. We won’t just have to come here to just exercise anymore, my children can also learn about marine life.”

Ici Manille - Staff

Ici Manille - Staff

Justin S. Gatuslao is a junior Communication student at the Ateneo de Manila. Pursuing a Minor in History, he has a flair for the good old days and finds reason to believe he was born in the wrong era. Ever the Negrense, he firmly believes gentility is what remains even when the money is gone.

Camille Le Tallec is a French exchange student who will study in the Philippines for the whole academic year. Anxious to enter a journalism school when she goes back to France, she decided to study this topic in Ateneo. Aware of the unique experience this year is, she tries to travel as much as possible to discover and understand the Philippines society and culture.

For Mary Anne Po Lonto, a junior Communication student at the Ateneo de Manila Universty, experiencing new things is the most exciting. A book lover, she believes Sidney Sheldon is one of the greatest story-tellers in the history of mankind. She loves Time Magazine and if fate would be really kind to her, she would be very ecstatic if she would have the chance to work in it.

Bernard S. Manalac is a junior Communication student at the Ateneo de Manila University, always in search of new things and never settling for the ordinary. He is a no nonsense individual who likes to get straight to the point.