Cellist Kyong-Min Nam, pianist Dingdong Fiel team up for online concert

Tune in for a night of Nostalgia as the Manila Pianos Artist Series presents cellist Kyong-Min Nam and pianist Dingdong Fiel in an online performance premiering on January 30, 2021, 7:30 PM at the Manila Pianos Artist Series’ Facebook page.

The program for this performance includes cello and piano duo transcriptions of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 and Salut d’Amour Op. 12, Nicanor Abelardo's Cavatina, Op. 7, and George Canseco’s Gaano Kadalas ang Minsan.

CCP Intertextual launches e-book on Filipino mothers’ experiences in time of Covid-19

With the year 2020 clearly defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is inevitable that literature coming out from this period will have the health crisis as its primary focus.

The Cultural Center of the Philippines through its Intertextual Division, is set to launch one such work, an e-book collection of pieces by Filipino mothers about their respective experiences during the pandemic.

Entitled In Certain Seasons: Mothers Write In The Time of COVID, this e-book will be launched on January 23, 2021, 2:00 PM, via the official Facebook pages of the CCP, CCP Intertextual Division, and the Philippine PEN.

The Filipino mother writers whose work are collected in the e-book are:

Kora Dandan Albano (Nanay)

Nikki Alfar (Surviving Ourselves)

Merlie Alunan (Pilgrim Heart)

Alma Anonas-Carpio (Pandemic Kitchen)

Lualhati Bautista (Usapang Rape)

Adelle Chua (Nest Never Empty)

Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz (Some Terms of Reference for a Pandemic)

J. G. Dimaranan (Sa Wakas)

May Dolis (Ang Iyong Ama)

Heidi Emily Eusebio-Abad (Isang Panalangin)

Rowena P. Festin (Tanawin Mula sa Aking Bintana)

Geraldine Flores-Ingco (Braso ni Mercedes)

Christine V. Lao (Violin Practice)

Babeth Lolarga (Dreaming of When It's Over)

Maricel Padua Lopez (Sabay: Buhay-Guro, Buhay-Nanay)

Gina Lumauig (When Kindness Becomes Contagious)

Ruth Elynia Mabanglo (Pamamaalam)

Liwliwa Malabed (Mahal Kong Sampinit)

Princess Malonzo (Linggo)

Alma Cruz Miclat (Lola Love in the Pandemic)

Banaue Miclat-Janssen (Learning in the Time of Covid-19)

Aimee Morales (Mother Panawagan)

Reina Mae Nasino (Mensahe ng Pasasalamat at Panawagan)

Marot Nelmida-Flores (Life-Changing)

Eunice Barbara Novio (Yet, We Had Each Other)

Rica Paloma-Espiritu (Chicken Soup)

Mae Ann Reginaldo (Mga Lalaki sa Cubao sa Panahon ng Lockdown)

Rae Rival (Paliligo sa Bakuran)

Hope Sabanpan-Yu (The Garden is Always There)

Adelma Salvador (Bisikleta)

Anna Felicia C. Sanchez (Snapshots from the Pandemic Summer)

Aida F. Santos (Being a Mother in the Underground)

Heidi B. Sarno (Ponx Not Dead)

Lee Sepe (Sa Bawat Bukas)

Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz (Cocooning with No Complaints)

Eleanor Strata (Shelved)

Angela Stuart Santiago (Way to Live)

Almayrah A. Tiburon (Pagluluwal)

Mia Tijam (Directing Grace)

Winnie Velasquez (Takipsilim ni Granny Google)

Lalaine F. Yanilla-Aquino (Roller Coaster of Emotions, Blessings in Disguise, at Reversal of Roles).

Together with the Philippine PEN, the book project aims to understand the importance and the role of women, specifically mothers, and their literature during the global crisis, and promote the narratives of women who are mothers, highlighting that women can be both child-raisers and artists amid the struggles of being a parent.

In Certain Seasons: Mothers Write In The Time of COVID is edited by Che Sarigumba and Jenny Ortuoste and features a cover by Imelda Cajipe Endaya. The book also includes artworks by Imelda Morales, Jenny Ortuoste, Kora Dandan Albano and Chua Keng Keng – Lua.

A copy of the e-book can be availed for free by visiting the CCP Intertextual Division Facebook page, by sending an e-mail to ccpintertextualdivision@gmail.com, or by texting 0919-317-5708.

Cinemalaya 2021 opens submissions for Short Film Category

The Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival 2021 has recently announced that it is now accepting submissions for its Short Film Category.

Allowed only are short films by Filipino filmmakers, produced between February 29, 2020 and March 5, 2021, and with a running time not exceeding 20 minutes.

Getting more technical, submissions should be in MP4 format, with violator/watermark, properly labeled with title, production company, address and contact numbers, production date, director’s name, and running time. A duly completed entry form, synopsis in English, a brief résumé and two (2) recent 2x2 photos of the filmmaker/s must accompany the submitted film.

Entries can be submitted online through the portal bit.ly/CinemalayaShorts2021Form where one can fill out the entry form and upload the film and filmmaker’s profile.

As for offline submissions, film entries must be in a USB enclosed in a long brown envelope properly labeled with the proponent’s name, title of film, and contact details submitted to the Film, Broadcast, and New Media Division (FBNMD), 4F Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Roxas Blvd., Pasay City.

Deadline of submission of entries will be on March 5, 2021, 6:00 PM.

The entries will be whittled down to ten (10) finalists that will be screened online during the 2021 Cinemalaya Film Festival happening on August 6-15, 2021.

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.