14th International Silent Film Festival Manila goes online

The International Silent Film Festival (ISFF) Manila, the first and oldest silent film festival in Asia has always been a unique movie viewing experience for the past 13 years. Screened during the festival are films from the silent era (with a few exceptions now and then) featuring a live score performed by different music acts from a wide variety of genres.

The ISFF’s 14th edition, presented by the Embassy of France to the Philippines, the Japan Foundation, Manila, the Philippine Italian Association, the Goethe Institut, and the Film Development Council of the Philippines, in partnership with iWatchMore.com, has also made the move to go online, a decision that surprises no one since the world is still under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic.

So on December 4-6, 2020, a selection of 10 silent films from Japan, Italy, France, and Germany with music scores by Filipino musicians will be streamed online for free at www.iwatchmore.com. And in keeping with the tradition of single screenings since the festival’s inception, the films will be available for viewing on the scheduled time only.

The Japan Foundation Manila opens the festival on December 4, 2020, 6:00 PM with six silent animated shorts from the Japanese Animation classics collection, digitized and subtitled in English by the National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ). Leading the selection is The Dull Sword (1917) by Junichi Kouchi which is the oldest existing Japanese animated film.

The other animated shorts include Burglars of “Baghdad” Castle (1926), The Animal Olympics (1928), Two Worlds (1929), Old Man Goichi (1931), and A Day after a Hundred Years (1933).

The music score for these animated classics will be by the HJH Composers Collective composed of Hiroko Nagai, Jordan Peralta, and Harold Andre Santos. The collective is made up of contemporary music composers with a diverse musical palette of pop, classical, folk, jazz, electronic music, and traditional Philippine and Japanese music.

On December 5, the films from Italy will be screened. First to be shown at 11:00 AM is The Silent Killer (2020), directed by Ruben Maria Soriquez and produced by See Thru Pictures. With a score by Franco Eco, this timely film narrates a mother’s journey back home admist the Covid-19 pandemic and is alternated with interviews with scientists, politicians, ordinary people, and Covid-19 chronicles from all over the world. 

The second Italian offering, presented by the Philippine Italian Association, in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, is Malombra (1917) by Carmine Gallone. The film, showing at 6:00 PM will feature music composed and performed by internationally renowned pianist Raul Sunico who for me is probably the most surprising music act in the festival’s 14 year history.

On December 6, 2020, 11:00 AM, the Embassy of France presents Le Manoir de la peur/The Manor of Fear (1927) by Alfred Machin. The silent noir film will be scored by Michael Mark Guevarra, one the country’s top saxophone players.

At 6:00 PM, the festival will be capped by a classic from Germany that is one of the major releases from the silent film era: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). Presented by the Goethe Institut, this monumental movie will be scored by Alyana Cabral aka Teenage Granny composed of Kent Pesito, Miguel Nuñez, Jon Olarte, Joee Mejias, Tristan Ortega, and Kiko Nuñez.

An educational component has always been part of the ISFF. For this year, a webinar about film and cultural preservation will be offered to film institutions, schools, and the general public.

Billed as Saving Memory: Making Silent Films Talk to Us, the webinar happening on December 4, 2020, 3:00 PM, will feature experts from Japan, Italy, France, Germany, and the Philippines discussing the practices and initiatives done to preserve film heritage like archiving and restoration.

Speakers at the webinar will include Don Gervin Arawan, lead officer Philippine Film Archive at the Film Development Council of the Philippines; Daibo Masaki, Head of Film Collections at the National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ); Andrea Meneghelli, Curator of the Film Collections at Cineteca di Bologna (Italy); Beatrice de Pastre, Photographic and Cinematographic Archive Specialist of France’s Centre National du Cinéma (CNC); and Luciano Palumbo, Filmrestaurator at FW Murnau Foundation (Germany). Filipino filmmaker Doy del Mundo serves as the webinar’s moderator. Interested participants can pre-register here.

The 14th International Silent Film Festival Manila is presented by the Embassy of France to the Philippines, the Japan Foundation Manila, the Philippine Italian Association, the Goethe Institut, and the Film Development Council of the Philippines, in partnership with iWatchMore.com. 

Japanese Film Festival migrates online, offers 28 films

The Philippines was all set to give a warm welcome to the Japanese Film Festival, the rebranding of the Eiga Sai, one of the country's most popular and longest running foreign language film festivals presented by the Japan Foundation, Manila. Not surprisingly, the festival could not escape the mess that the ongoing pandemic has wreaked upon the film industry and to the arts and culture scene worldwide.

In response to the situation, the film festival migrates online as JFF Plus: Online Festival happening this November 20-29, 2020 at the newly launched JFF Plus website. A selection of 28 films are available for viewing for free, accessible from a variety of devices like desktops laptops, mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs etc.

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Leading this year’s selection is Project Dreams - How to Build Mazinger Z's Hangar 前田建設ファンタジー営業部 (2020) which will also have limited 3 day screening on November 20-22, 6:00 PM at the SM Cinema Drive-in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City with tickets retailing for P100 each.

Directed by Hanabusa Tsumotu, this ode to the anime/manga classic follows the journey of Maeda Corporation's fantasy marketing department on a mission to make the impossible possible and challenge the boundaries between reality and fiction.

The other feature films included in the lineup are Our 30-Minute Sessions (2020) by Hagiwara Kentaro, Little Nights, Little Love (2019) by Imaizumi Rikiya, The Great Passage (2013) by Ishii Yuya, Café Funiculi Funicula (2018) by Tsukahara Ayuko, 0.5mm (2014) by Ando Momoko, Ecotherapy Getaway Holiday (2014) and A Story of Yonosuke (2013) both by Okita Shuichi, Railways (2010) by Nishikori Yoshinari, Lady Maiko (2014) by Suo Masayuki, Stolen Identity (2018) by Nakata Hideo, Key of Life (2012) by Uchida Kenji, and Dance with Me (2019) by Yaguchi Shinobu.

The festival also boasts of a wide lineup of animated films that anime fans can enjoy. These include Sumikkogurashi: Good to be in the Corner (2019) by Mankyu and Production I.G Animation’s Tokyo Marble Chocolate (2007) by Shiotani Naoyoshi. Also included are the stop motion animation shorts by Yashiro Takeshi namely Gon, The Little Fox (2015), Moon of a Sleepless Night (2015), Norman the Snowman - The Northern Light (2013), and Norman the Snowman - On a Night of Shooting Stars (2016). Other shorts include Production I.G Short Animations' Pigtails (2015) by Itazu Yoshimi, Kick-Heart (2013) by Yuasa Masaaki, Li'l Spider Girl (2012) by Kaiya Toshihisa, Drawer Hobs (2011) by Kise Kazuchika, and The Girl from the Other Side (2019) by Kubo Yutaro.

Wrapping up the film selection are the documentaries Peace (2010) by Soda Kazuhiro and Tora-san in Goto (2016) by Oura Masaru, Tsukiji Wonderland (2016) by Endo Naotaro, and the 1952 classic The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice by Ozu Yasujiro.

Access to the films online are for free through the JFF Plus website. One just have to visit the website, create an account, check the schedule for the Philippines, and pick the film(s) one wants to watch. Schedule listing and detailed film synopses can be seen by visiting the website. Films can be viewed on demand for 24 hours after the scheduled start time. Tickets to the SM Cinema Drive-in screenings are available at the SM Tickets website.

When asked during an online press conference about how film festivals such as this have been altered by the surge in popularity of various online streaming platforms offering a wide selections of films, current and returning JFM Director Ben Suzuki answered that film festivals have responded by providing an added value that the streaming platforms do not offer like talkbacks with directors. And the JFF Plus: Online Festival will have just that with interviews with various directors namely Imaizumi Rikiya, Okita Shuichi, Soda Kazuhiro, Yashiro Takeshi, and Shiraishi Kazuya, conducted by film critic Mark Schilling. The interviews can be seen at the JFF Plus website or at its YouTube channel for the duration of the festival.

The JFF Plus: Online Festival is presented by the Japan Foundation, Manila and made possible with the Japan Foundation Asian Center, in partnership with JT International (Philippines), the Film Development Council of the Philippines, the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines and SM Cinema.

Rachelle Gerodias, Byeong-In Park online fundraising concert returns online

The online fundraising concert Build My Church on a Song featuring soprano Rachelle Gerodias and baritone Byeong-In Park returns for an encore viewing from October 25, 2020, 8:00 PM until November 8, 2020, 11:00 PM at the Santuario de San Antonio Parish's Facebook page and YouTube channel.

This concert, first available to view online last October 4, 2020 up to October 11, 2020 is a part of this year's FrancisFest celebrations that aims to raise funds for the construction of the St. Clare de Assisi Parish in Dagat-dagatan that will service the neighboring cities of Malabon and Navotas and for other outreach programs as well.

Soprano Rachelle Gerodias and baritone Byeong-In Park

The concert features the real life couple of Rachelle and Byeong-In performing opera arias, musical theater showstoppers, Filipino tunes and sacred music.

Donations are still welcome via bank deposit to:

SSAP Foundation Inc.

BPI 0291-0395-96

Or through Paypal:

http://tinyurl.com/paypalssap

For inquiries or more details, please send a message to ssap_info@yahoo.com.

PPO launches chamber music concert series

As live performances (including concerts) still prohibited due to the ongoing pandemic, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra launches a new series devoted to chamber music and small ensemble performances.

Billed as the PPO Chamber Concert Series, the first concert will stream online on October 30, 2020, 8:00 PM at the Facebook page of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the Facebook page and YouTube channel of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This upcoming series, to be shot on location at the CCP, will feature a selection of chamber music curated by the PPO's music director/principal conductor Yoshikazu Fukumura to be performed by members of the PPO.

The inaugural concert on  October 30, 2020, will focus on string instruments with PPO concertmaster and violinist Dino Akira Decena and cellist Giancarlo Gonzales performing Franz Anton Hoffmeister’s Duet for Violin and Cello in C Major, Op. 6 No. 1. The program will also consist of Gioachino Rossini’s Sonata for 2 Violins, Cello, and Double Bass No. 2 in A Major to be performed by violinists Jose Carlo Tuazon and Berny Dulce Payte, cellist Giuseppe Diestro, and double bassist Ariston Payte III.

The next installment of the series, streaming online on November 27, 2020, switches its focus towards the wind instruments. Program will include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Serenade for 3 Clarinets No. 1 K. Anh. 229/KV 439b performed by clarinettists Ariel Sta. Ana, Jayson Rivera, and Hernan Manalastas. It will be followed by Georgina Sánchez's Pregón de Danza for Clarinet and Cello to be performed by clarinettist Jayson Rivera and cellist Gerry Graham Gonzales.

The rest of the program includes Gioachino Rossini's Woodwind Quartet No. 4 in B flat Major featuring flutist Rosemarie Poblete, clarinettist Ariel Sta. Ana, bassoonist Frenvee Andra, and French horn player Ernani Pascual and will conclude with a performance of Ney Rosauro's Two Pieces for Flute and Marimba Op. 39 with flutist Hercules Santiago and marimba player Aimee De la Cruz.

As the series will be shot at the CCP, the change in scenery is a welcome change from all the housebound, lockdown/quarantine performances that has flooded the web ever since the pandemic began.

Lastly, chamber music performances have been overshadowed by full orchestra concerts for years now. It is a bitter pill to swallow that it has taken a pandemic and its subsequent restrictions to turn the spotlight on smaller ensembles. May this upcoming series provide the jump start, however unconventional it might be, for more chamber music performances once things go back to normal.