CineKatipunan screenings

THIS WEEK AT CINEKATIPUNAN
March 19-24, 2007

Mervin Espina opens this week with the Malaysian
Mondays program of AsiaLunes, featuring a documentary
by Lam Li. Other exciting highlights for this week’s
Cinekatipunan program are animated shorts by
multi-awarded graphics artists and art educators Ramon
del Prado, Edwin Guillermo, ArtFarm, Avid Liongoren,
Vivian Limpin, Brendan Goco and Roxlee on Friday,
March 23, and Lav Diaz’s 10-hour opus Ebolusyon ng
Isang Pamilyang Pilipino (Evolution of a Filipino
Family) for the whole of Saturday.

For our painter’s pick this Wednesday, independent
curator and conceptual artist Roberto Chabet
recommends Francois Girard’s 32 vignettes on the life
of Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould. This is
followed on Thursday by Sigfried Sanchez’s
mockumentary on the protracted search for the late
Lino Brocka’s purported progeny. S-Express continues
with its selections on Tuesday.

Held Mondays to Saturdays at Mag:net Café Katipunan,
Cinekatipunan screenings start at 5:30 PM.

While the film screenings are free, viewers are
encouraged to make voluntary contributions for the
honoraria of the featured filmmakers. For questions or
comments aboutCinekatipunan write to
sinag_haraya@ yahoo.com.

Cinekatipunan programs precede Mag:net Café's nightly
holding of Live Performances by well-known and
emerging bands and musicians. Mag:net Café is located
along Katipunan Avenue (fronting Miriam and Ateneo) in
Quezon City. For more inquiries please call 9293191
or?visit www.magnet.com. ph.

PROGRAM

March 19 (Monday)
ASIALunes: East Asian and South East Asian Program
(Curated by Mervin Espina)
A documentary by Lam Li
SURVIVING BEIJING
(Lam Li | 2005 | Documentary | Malaysia-China |
85mins)
+ NAO

March 20 (Tuesday)
Alexis Tioseco: S-Express

Alexis Tiosco presents selections from S-Express, an
active Southeast Asian network for short film
exchange. Initiated in 2001 by programmers Yuni Hadi
(Substation, Singapore), Chalida Uabumrungjit (Thai
Film Foundation), and Amir Muhammad (Malaysian
Shorts), the group has expanded to involve Indonesia
(Minikino) since 2004, plus the Philippines, and China
(Maggie Lee) since 2005.

March 21 (Wednesday)
Chabet's Choice: Francois Girard: 23 SHORT FILMS ABOUT
GLENN GOULD (1993)

A collection of vignettes highlighting different
aspects of the life, work, and character of the
acclaimed Canadian classical pianist, Glenn Gould.
Directed by Quebec native Francois Girard, it won
multiple Genie awards--including best picture, and
best director for Girard--for its sensitive treatment
of Gould's life and considerable legacy.

François Girard originally conceived 32 Short Films
About Glenn Gould as a biography to try to explain the
bizarre genius of the master pianist who stopped
touring in 1963 at the height of his success.

March 22 (Thursday)
CINEMA ONE ORIGINALS PROGRAM
Sigfreid Sanchez: ANAK NI BROCKA
A motley group of television journalists stumble upon
a possible scoop: that the Philippines' national
cinema hero, Lino Brocka, actually sired a son. Video
cameras in hand, the journalists set off in search for
clues about the National Artist's life, discovering
much more aspects to the late filmmaker's than what
they initially expected. This eye-opening digital
feature and mockumentary includes interviews with many
of Brocka's protégés and colleagues, including Nonie
Buencamino, Jacklyn Jose, Gina Alajar, Bembol Roco,
Angie Ferro, Jeffrey Quizon, Joonee Gamboa, Chanda
Romero, Soxy Topacio, Menggie Cobarrubias, Geoff
Eigenmann, Nanding Josef, Allan Paule, Timothy Diwa,
Francis Magalona, Behn Cervantes, and Philip Salvador.

Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez directed Ang "Anak Ni Brocka"
and the black comedy Lasponggols (Last Take, Last
Shot) via film grants from Cinemalaya and Cinema One
Originals, respectively. "Ang Anak ni Brocka" was
screened at the Pesaro Film Festival in Italy and at
the San Pedro, California Film Festival and the Hawaii
Film Festival. As a music video director, Sanchez won
the Best Director plum for the 2006 Awit Awards for
Sugarfree's "Hari Ng Sablay". His next video, Hale's
"The Day You Said Goodnight" was nominated at the 2005
NU Rock Awards for Best Music Video, the 2006 MYX
Awards, and the 2006 Awit Awards.

March 23 (Friday)
ANIMATION PROGRAM: Works by Ramon del Prado, Edwin
Guillermo, ArtFarm, Avid Liongoren, Vivian Limpin,
Brendan Goco and Roxlee

Ramon del Prado is a self taught 2d animator/
filmmaker / graphic designer. Born on May 1, 1982 in
Dumaguete City Negros Oriental, where he grew up. He
moved to Manila at age 17 and graduated from De La
Salle University - Manila at 2003 under the
Communication Arts Program where he received his
Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis award for his first
major film, "EGG". He is currently doing freelance
graphic design and tries to find time to do more
animated films on his own.

Edwin Guillermo showcases the following recent short
works done in Claymation:

Karaniwang Tae: Originally set in Ortigas, this
Claymation short tells the story of an anthropomorphic
piece of shit who gains the ability to turn into human
form in order to woo the prettiest woman he has ever
seen. She turns out to be a call center agent.
Guillermo's first narrative animation short, the final
project from UPFI's Art and Animation workshop
facilitated by Roxlee.

Poring Glory: This Claymation short narrates about the
friendship between a teardrop-like Poring and a
catterpillar- like Fabre. These two fantasy creatures
were taken from Ragnarok Online, a popular online game
in the Philippines. Poring Glory has won 3rd place in
the Level-Up LIVE! 2006 Filmfest.

Moral Lesson: Another Claymation short based on
another online game. Based on the sci-fi game RF
Online, this is the story of a young human clone being
taught the fundamentals of their robotic Accretian
race - science and logic, before she sheds her flesh
for a sturdier metallic body. Offical entry to the
Level-Up LIVE! 2006 Filmfest.
Mutationpermutation : A Claymation short designed to
introduce Math and Science week for a certain high
school. Exposed to nuclear radiation, a primitive
creature starts to mutate and evolve into higher and
mathematical forms.

ArtFarm Asia, the first animation school in the
Philippines, has produced the all-Filipino animated
feature called "Kuwentong Kayumanggi" that was aired
on GMA-7. The company also did two feature films for
Roger Corman, a Hollywood-based movie producer.

Avid Liongoren is an illustrator, graphic designer,
commercial and music video director and more. A
graduate of the University of the Philippines College
of Fine Arts (UP-CFA), he combines free-hand art and
digital technology, contemporary quirk and
individualist expression in his digital art works and
'drawings' and multi-awarded music videos. Avid is all
set to release his first independent motion picture
entitled "Saving Sally."

Vivian N. Limpin is a graduate of B.A. Malikhaing
Pagsulat sa Filipino (Creative Writing in Filipino)
from the University of the Philippines in 1995. She
has published poems, essays, short stories, feature
articles and scripts in various magazines, newspapers,
comics, and books for NGO’s, written and translated
plays and vignettes for TROPA (Teatro, Pelikula, Arte)
and other production groups. She has also expanded her
poetry readings into performance poetry. She was a
Writing Fellow for Drama in the 22nd UP National
Writers Workshop in 1994, and for Poetry in Filipino
in the 19th Cornelio Faigao Writers Workshop in 2002.

Brendan Goco is a prolific animator, illustrator and
photographer. A dedicated art educator, he has
facilitated animation workshops at the Mowelfund Film
Institute and the UP Film Institute and is currently a
part-time instructor (teaching illustration) at the
Ateneo de Manila University.

Roxlee is an advocate of independent and underground
cinema in the Philippines. Apart from making animated
and collage films, he is also a comic strip artist,
drawing such strips as 'Cesar Asar' and 'Santingwar' .
He started as a cartoonist and began making animation
and short films in 1983 up to the present. He made
around six short super 8 films, six short films in
16mm, one short 35mm film, and a full length 35mm
feature film entitled "Cesar Asar," based in his
popular comic strip. One of the founders of a group of
Filipino animators called "Animagination, " Roxlee is
also a staff of the Yamagata Documentary Film
Festival, held every two years in Japan.

March 24 (Saturday)
Lav Diaz: Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino
(Evolution of a Filipino Family)

(10 1/2 hours):
The story of "Eboluyson ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino"
spans the years 1971 to 1987, the period that defines
the problems of the present Filipino psyche-why is it
so brutalized, so troubled, so apathetic and complex.
The years 1971 and 1972 were the height of radicalism
by the Philippine Left, the onset of the
Muslim-Christian strife in the island of Mindanao and
the eventual declaration of Martial Law by dictator
Ferdinand Marcos. From 1964 up to 1985, the Marcos
regime trampled on human rights, institutionalized
graft and corruption in the bureaucracy, and looted
the national coffers. In 1986, a peaceful uprising
called The People's Power Revolution forced Marcos out
of the country ending his dictatorial rule and
installing Corazon Aquino, widow of the murdered Ninoy
Aquino- Marcos' top political foe, as President.

Against this backdrop is the farming family Gallardo,
whose struggle and condition mirrors the marginalized
population of the Philippines; the sector trapped in a
situation not of their own doing, but born from a
system that could not provide proper social services,
and of a feudal culture that only protected and
empowered the status quo. Central to the story are the
disintegration, displacement and dysfunction caused by
poverty, not just to the family unit but, also, to the
individual members. These and other characters form
the cycle of lives that intertwine and interact as the
nation struggles to survive economically, politically,
sociologically and spiritually.

For those who are familiar with Diaz’s works,
"Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino" is "Batang
West Side I". "Batang West Side" tackled the very same
premise, subject and theme but explored it in a very
different time and milieu-the need to critique the
Filipino, examine his condition, confront his past.
"Batang West Side" dealt with our scars, "Ebolusyon…"
explores the infliction of the wound.

"Ebolusyon…" is eleven years in the making.
Pre-production started in December of 1993 in Jersey
City, and began photography on March 8, 1994 in
Lexington, New Jersey. Production was protracted and
independent; shot only when there was money, and if
the crew and actors were available. The Philippine
shoot started in early 1997 in Gerona, Tarlac, and
culminated early April of 2003 in the majestic
mountains of Itogon, Benguet. More scenes were added
last October and November of 2004.

Post production started February of 2004 and finally
stopped January 31, 2005. Different versions of the
film was already shown in various festivals-The Asian
American International Film Festival of New York 2004
(8 hours rough cut on vhs), The Toronto International
Film Festival 2004 (10 hours on digital beta), The
Rotterdam International Film Festival 2005 and
Goteberg Film Festival 2005 (10 hours 43 minutes).