3 Pinoy Films at the 62nd Festival De Cannes

Three Filipino films have entered the prestigious list of the 62nd Festival de Cannes, May 13-24, 2009.

The Film Development Council of the Philippines commends this feat in an ad placement in the Hollywood Reporter.



Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay will compete in the Palme dÓr (Golden Palm) along 19 other films including Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock.

Adolfo Alix's Manila which is produced by Piolo Pascual and Raya Martin's Independencia have also entered the lineup. Manila was chosen for a special screening while Independencia is included in Prix Un Certain Regard, a category dedicated to "young talent, innovative and audicious works."

Life On Stilts

The sea went farther and farther as I see fisher folks relocate their bancas or fishing boats to the nearest point along the coast of Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite. With the ongoing construction of the extension of the Cavite-Manila Coastal Road, I may no longer see these intriguing colorful bancas on bamboo stilts again. So I thought of taking a few snapshots and preserved them as filtrographs.

Filtrographed Flowers

Flowers, leaves and trees have always been my fave subjects ever since I learned to draw and take photos. I may have been a bumble bee or an elf in my past life. Here are a few of these subjects captured as photos then manipulated into an art called Filtrographs.

Old Style,New Prints

I have always been fascinated by old prints and illustrations coming from a world without software technology. They reflect ingenuity and pure raw talent. Here are some of my experiments, my versions, that are products of such fascination.

First Philippine Film Catalogue

It is an honor to be a part of this project.

This is a landmark project of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) since this is the first time data on Filipino films (2007 and 2008) are published in a single publication. Included in this catalogue are one hundred twenty-four film titles : 102 mainstream and independent feature films, 4 short films and 18 projects in development or in progress.

This PHILIPPINE FILM CATALOGUE is an important step in FDCP’s objective to reach an international audience for Filipino films. The Catalogue will be distributed to international film festivals, film markets, conventions and trade missions. It was first introduced in the recently concluded 2009 Hong Kong Filmart where the FDCP reached out to worldwide buyers and distributors and festival directors and programmers.

Recent Filipino films have been called “some of the most exciting in Southeast Asia.” This catalogue demonstrates why this is so and why the diversity and dynamism of Philippine cinema deserve to be at the forefront of world cinema.

Frederick Agustin did the design concept and layout.

PADYAK : An Indie Film To Watch

PADYAK, a Breaking The Box production of a Palanca award-winning ScreenplayIn cooperation with the National Comission for Culture and the Arts A film by Aloy Adlawan opens March 4, 2009 at the Robinson's Galleria Indiesine.

Here is the synopsis: Noel inherits a pedicab vehicle after the sudden death of his father, a pedicab driver. Unable to pursue his dream of going to college, Noel takes up the job his father left. Everything and everyday then become a cycle of routine with the people he knows and the perfect strangers he takes into his vehicle to pedal them to their destinations.

In the middle of Noel’s story come three other vignettes that are totally unrelated to him. Or so it seems. A maid has an affair with her employer’s lover and is caught. A child wants to throw his father a birthday bash. A law graduate literally encounters another side of himself tempting him to do something.

A series of tragedy takes Noel’s life into its own spin. A beautiful woman he befriends is found dead, his best friend Baste is killed, there’s the tragedy of the woman he loves, Nadia, falling into the claws of prostitution, and lastly, his own mother succumbing into a diabetic coma. Noel is left questioning his own existence… Will the world be a different place without a pedicab driver like him? Does his life really matter?

(Watch the full Trailer on Youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muXN4twOOMQ

Handmade Cards; New Passion

It was a first for both Nimfa and I on selling our own crafts for an Artists Tiangge at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Nimfa had her paper collages and handmade cards on sale. Her cards were instant hits. All I could sell are handmade paper sheets and bags by Sonny Miranda since I had no time to produce my Filtrographs. Selling was such fun that Vic Ursabia, Nimfa's husband, thought of doing the cards on the spot to solicit people's curiousity. With a little prodding, I indulged into the pasting of those torn little pieces of colorful paper and juxtaposing them against each other to creat a somewhat surreal images. I never thought it would be fun that I even finished doing 10 cards and sold 4 of them.

Here are some of those cards Nimfa and i made for the Artists Tiangge: