The main reason I transferred is that I feel tumblr is simpler and easier to update. There are times that I can not open the blogger dashboard and I can not blog. Plus it is better I think that I do not use my "blogger" alter ego and use my real name instead. It is much fun that way. anyway. Here is the link of my new blog. Please do follow it. Thanks.
Inang Yaya Directed by Pablo Biglang-awa, Veronica Velasco. 2006
This movie remains up to this day, one of the most honest, real, and heartfelt movies ever put to Filipino big screen, and it is sort of a shame that not that much saw it. This is my favorite Maricel Soriano performance of the decade as well. I think I have not said it but Maricel Soriano has got to be my favorite Filipino actress of all time. Now if she would just be given more roles to excel at. I love how her performance felt so natural, underplayed and subdued, but it is in her silent moments, and tiny smiles that she shone the most. Brilliant.
Midway this year, I saw some of my co-workers doing a list. It got me curious. I had to see it. They were making a list of things that they oughta do before the year ends. Or at least do some of those in the list before the year ends. I was jealous. I had to make one for myself. It was kinda cute, setting short term, difficult but attainable goals. They may not be big but it gives you a sense of fulfillment or accomplishment, because at the very least, you have accomplished something that you normally would not be doing.
So I made my own list. It is shorter because I have only like six months left before the year ends. Here is what my list looked like, it is very FILM driven...
Submit a short film for Titus Brandsma (I submitted my work "Bahay-Bahayan")
Submit a FEATURE film for Cinemanila (I submitted my work "Hatid")
Submit a short film for Cinemanila (I submitted my work "Baby")
Make a poverty porn film (Baby)
Submit films to 22nd Gawad CCP (eMo, Bahay-Bahayan)
Make a video of me singing and post in youtube.
The biggest accomplishment for me here was that I was able to make a feature film with a very minimal budget. I made my first feature films, a cheat animation film, titled "Hatid", which chronicles the last day of a girl as her uncle made money of her. I only spent less than three thousand pesos just to get it done, but I had a really hard time editing it. With all my works, it for me was very personal, and also it for me I think was the film that it is really SO not like me at all, or it is something that I would not do. In a way, I think I stepped up. But I could not get it out of my head that the movie was kinda lazy. Anyway. At least I got to experience making a longer film. And a very serious one at that.
I am very happy to say though that I am able to finish everything that I promised to do. However, it got me looking like I was just making films for festivals sake. Honestly no. I got this advise from a really good adviser that I should not be making films just to please film festivals and that got stuck in my head and that is what I have been doing ever since. I make films because I love doing them. I do. And I will be doing it, hopefully, for a very long time.
Anyway. Here is the last video. I just recently finished the last entry. I do not know if I sounded good or anything. I think that there was a very sharp part in it. I don't care. Bucket List done!
I have been very bad at keeping promises this year. I constantly promise and promise that I will be back to normal blogging gear for the past months but have been breaking my promises ever since. It has been a very rough months this past few months. I just quit my work, my work that I was in for more than three years already to pursue my dreams, something which I think was pretty vocal already on this blog. More so, lately I do not have the urge to blog about reviews. I just want to bitch about things, it may become annoying to my little audience/readers, but that was what was going in my head for months, which fully incapacitated me to write reviews or even finish my decade long canon.
And now I am blogging once again. I plan to change the blog up a bit. Make it more personal. Also, to make it more Filipino, which I am very proud to be. But then if I write things in Filipino, some readers may fail to understand what the hell I am saying. So I am sticking with English language but more Filipino in taste.
Quite recently, I have been very busy making my own short films and getting them seen. I will be blogging about those, since that is what made me really busy for the past few months. It was hard, making the films. But it is even harder getting your works across to be seen by people. But never the hardships, film makes me happy. Making films, watching films or whatever. Film for me is equal to happiness. And just being around it, day in day out, makes my day. Film is my passion and I do not wish to not do it or at least partake in it. I enjoy writing about films. Even though I am not much of a writer. I enjoy watching films and could not survive a day without watching one, or survive a week without buying a DVD/VCD for my collection. But what I LOVE the most is making my own films. Be it something that people would hate or love, I really don't care. Every work I do, I love, and it makes me really happy. So I guess, even if film people here in the Philippines hate me, I will still be around, haunting.. hehe.
Anyway. Here is my very recent work.
It is my longest short film to date and it is also the most talky. It was shot using a relatively old Sony hdd Camera. It was shot in Sta. Ana Manila, where the mother of the baby in the film (who played the vendor) lives.
Some directors have their muses or their favorite actors to work with mine has got to be working with my colleague Irene Dare. She is very natural at what she does and I never have a hard time working with her. And you guys will be seeing more of her in my works to come.
Well, that's all for now. I will not make any promises this time. But I sure do hope to blog more soon.
No one makes movies like Claire Denis does. She who draws out beauty from the things that you often see anywhere. This time she drew beauty from barren landscapes and she also put emotions to rugged men. Thing about the film, despite the glaring beauty, is that it is not everyone's cup of tea, but no one can deny the fact that it is very expertly made, and methinks that there is no movie around that is quite like "Beau Travail". It is a definite must see.
This is one of those movies that I am extremely envious about, I wish I could have made it. "Nymph" is very intriguing, mind boggling at times. I love the balanced fusion of Lynchian oddity. culture and local mythology all enough to bring intrigue, questions. It was a mystery, but not really a mindfuck, everything was answered however in the end. "Nymph" is a silent beauty, scant words but a superb story to tell.
Sa North Diversion Road Directed by Dennis Marasigan 2005
If there is one movie that would make Irma Adlawan a star, "Sa North Diversion Road" would be it (if only more people got the chance to see it). With a resume of superb performances, Adlawan's best performance to date has got to be in this movie, she was just divinely perfect. The same could be said to John Arcilla as Adlawan's cheating husband. But this is Adlawan's show, there is no denying that. Dennis Marasigan sure does know how to bring the best out of his actors and created one of the best indie Filipino ever put to screen in the last decade.
Dancer in the Dark Directed by Lars Von Trier 2000
You have got to be made of stone if you have not at least teared after watching "Dacner in the Dark". This movie is one of those big time pulse raising movies that I have seen, not because there were any big action or thrills or whatever but because of the emotion and the somber that you feel coming from the actors and whatever is transpiring in the movie. Who would have thought that Bjork could act, and methinks now that her work is one of the best acting performances of the decade.
