(from PEP)
Even though Brillante Mendoza's film Serbis did not win any awards during the 61st Cannes International Film Festival, it was able to impress the jury head for this year, Hollywood actor-director Sean Penn.
Ferdinand Lapuz of Ignatius Films told PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) via email about the experiences of the Philippine delegation while they were in France to represent Serbis. This Filipino film shows a day in the life of a family that operates and lives in a run-down adult moviehouse in Angeles City, Pampanga. It competed for the Palme d'Or Award, but the highest plum of the festival went to the French film The Class (Entre les Murs).
Brillante "Dante" Mendoza stayed in France with Coco Martin and Gina Pareño from May 16 to May 27. The second batch of actors—namely Jaclyn Jose, Mercedes Cabral, Julio Diaz, and Kristoffer King—where there from May 16 to 22. They toured around Nice, France; Ventimiglia, Italy; and Monaco.
Last May 25, Sunday, the cast of Serbis were picked up by two festival cars at around 5:45 p.m. to take them to the Grand Lumiere Theater where the awarding ceremony was to take place. From Martinez Hotel, Ms. Gina and her daughter Raquel, Coco Martin, and Direk Dante walked The Steps with the men wearing tuxedos. Cinematographer Odyssey Flores and his wife Sunshine, former actress Evelyn Vargas, French producer Didier Costet and Ferdy attended the gala ceremony.
The nine-member jury, headed by Sean Penn, along with Natalie Portman and director Alfonso Cuaron announced the list of winners this year. After the gala ceremony, guests were treated to a closing-night dinner and cocktail in the Palais Salon des Ambassadeurs.
Christian Jeune, scout for the Cannes Official Selection, told Ferdy that Sean Penn "loves the film [Serbis] very much." When Ferdy caught up with the Hollywood actor, Sean told him that he "wanted to show Serbis in the U.S. and help us in anyway he can."
Ferdy then introduced Coco as one of the actors of the film. Sean took Coco's hand and asked him jokingly, "How is your ass?" It seems that he remembered Coco's character in the movie because of the festering boil that was shown on Coco's butt.
When Sean was introduced to Direk Dante, he could hardly contain his excitement about the film Serbis. He said that he really fought for the film but mentioned that he has nine members and it just can't be his decision alone. He even told the Filipino director to contact his publicist and press agent Mara of ID Communications if he needs help in the United States. Sean offered to help the producers get a U.S. distributor in the future.
Direk Dante shot Serbis in a span of 12 days and spent a month in post-production. He sent a roughly edited copy to the selection committee late last month. Serbis was chosen out of a thousand films from almost a hundred countries to compete with 21 other films from 13 countries.
May 27, 2008
Kamaru, Infomax sign contract for co-prod of 'Kalam'
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO--Last May 27, Kalalangan Kamaru guested in Infomax-8's weekly morning talk show 'Personalan,' hosted by Rey Yumang and Mau Aquino. Set in the Henson-Hizon Mansion, the episode was about Kalalangan Kamaru, its advocacy, and 'Kalam,' its latest offering not only to the Kapampangan community but also to Philippine broadcasting history. It is the title of the upcoming Kapampanganovela (Kapampangan TV series) that Kamaru and Infomax will be co-producing.
'Kalam' will be the first ever TV series in the Kapampangan language, making it a milestone in Philippine mass media and a huge step in Kapampangan cultural preservation and development.
Making the Kapampangan youth as its target audience, 'Kalam' tackles the life and adventures of a new generation of witches and healers (gifted people, or in Kapampangan, ding ating kalam) born in urban Pampanga and how they struggle to fit in a skeptical, discriminating, and fearful society. It will be an exciting mix of urban fantasy, action, romantic comedy, drama, and social relevance, while using Kapampangan culture--both past and present, folk and modern, rural and urban--as canvass.
After the interview, Kalalangan Kamaru, represented by Jason Paul Laxamana and Diego Marx Dobles, signed a one-season (13 episodes) co-production contract with Infomax-8, represented by Mau Aquino, General Manager of the station, and Jomel Cruz (Marketing). The 'Personalan' episode will air on the 22nd of June.
Laxamana, Dobles, Jon Tanganco, Alex Tiotuico, Grace Dayrit, and Nhoel Austria are the core members of Kalalangan Kamaru, the most recent project of which was the successful RocKapampangan album.
Production design of 'Personalan' by Jon Tanganco and Nhoel Austria.
Kamaru is still looking for Kapampangan-speaking actors (no age limit) to star in 'Kalam.' Interested people must submit their biodata and pictures (1 close up, 1 full body) to kamaruproductions@yahoo.com on or before the 4th of June.
'Kalam' will be the first ever TV series in the Kapampangan language, making it a milestone in Philippine mass media and a huge step in Kapampangan cultural preservation and development.
Making the Kapampangan youth as its target audience, 'Kalam' tackles the life and adventures of a new generation of witches and healers (gifted people, or in Kapampangan, ding ating kalam) born in urban Pampanga and how they struggle to fit in a skeptical, discriminating, and fearful society. It will be an exciting mix of urban fantasy, action, romantic comedy, drama, and social relevance, while using Kapampangan culture--both past and present, folk and modern, rural and urban--as canvass.
After the interview, Kalalangan Kamaru, represented by Jason Paul Laxamana and Diego Marx Dobles, signed a one-season (13 episodes) co-production contract with Infomax-8, represented by Mau Aquino, General Manager of the station, and Jomel Cruz (Marketing). The 'Personalan' episode will air on the 22nd of June.
Laxamana, Dobles, Jon Tanganco, Alex Tiotuico, Grace Dayrit, and Nhoel Austria are the core members of Kalalangan Kamaru, the most recent project of which was the successful RocKapampangan album.
Production design of 'Personalan' by Jon Tanganco and Nhoel Austria.
Kamaru is still looking for Kapampangan-speaking actors (no age limit) to star in 'Kalam.' Interested people must submit their biodata and pictures (1 close up, 1 full body) to kamaruproductions@yahoo.com on or before the 4th of June.
May 25, 2008
Infomax and Kamaru announce call for actors
Here is a special news clipping from Infomax-8's I-Max News announcing the arrival of Kalam, the first ever Kapampanganovela in the country. We are still looking for interested actors. Please see previous entry for details.
May 21, 2008
Imported Entertainment: A Sign of Imperialization
By Jason Paul Laxamana
When a commodity is branded an IMPORT, it means it was created—with raw materials not necessarily acquired within the territory—by foreign producers and was brought into the perimeters of a certain community for its members to purchase and/or consume. Whether something is imported depends on perspective, however, as one community's import is another community's export.
For example, a desktop computer made in Japan was brought to the Philippines for citizens, in general, to buy. In the perspective of a Filipino residing within the archipelago, the computer is a product imported from Japan, hence, making it an IMPORT. In the perspective of a Japanese residing within the territory of the Land of the Rising Sun, on the other hand, it is an EXPORT. Such scenario makes Japan the EXPORTER and the Philippines the IMPORTER.
Usually, if not absolutely, the exporter possesses the necessary forces and means of production, sufficient capital, and appropriate intelligence and skills that allow it to manufacture commodities to sell not only to the members of its immediate community, but also to people belonging to other communities, or, as we have labeled, the importers. Because a community doesn't have the essential ingredients to make its own desired product to sell to its own people, it has to import the camera from a manufacturer abroad.
Who earns? If we are to talk national (e.g. Philippines), it is the region (e.g. Manila) who did the importing upon selling the imports to the weaker regions (e.g. the provinces). But if we are to talk global, it is the exporting nation (e.g. Japan).
In a macro-economic view, a nation that is able to sustain the exportation of several of its locally manufactured commodities, including cultural products, becomes what we call an IMPERIALIST. A nation that keeps on importing, on the other hand, becomes the IMPERIALIZED. Because it is the exporting nation that is able to send its products outwards, it is no surprise then it soon is able to affect the culture of the receiving communities, to the extent of causing several members of the importing nations to suffer from neocolonialism and extreme patronage of foreign products.
Imports and exports often come in the form of a corporeal object—tangible commodities such as food, devices, spare parts, fuel, clothes, vehicles, etc. However, there are those commodities that stimulate us not physically, such as information and entertainment. Because these products are psychologically and/or intellectually consumed, not physically, they give members of the importing community the illusion that they are not consumers of foreign products. If a closer look will be given to the scenario, however, importation and continued patronage of these non-physical commodities contribute to the imperialization of the importing community.
Imported Entertainment
Filipino entertainment thrives in the Philippines side by side with foreign entertainment. Songs played on radio are either OPM (Original Pilipino Music) songs or songs exported by capable foreigners like Americans (e.g. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Guns N Roses), Japanese (e.g. anime soundtracks, Utada Hikaru), and Englishmen (e.g. The Beatles, Westlife). A great number of locally made TV shows have a fair number of local consumers as well amidst the penetration of canned shows from abroad (e.g. Korean dramas, American cartoons, Spanish and Mexican soaps). Movie houses also screen both local and foreign flicks.
Even though Filipino entertainment is able to occasionally compete with imported entertainment, it is made possible only within the Filipino turf. And even though some Filipino dramas (e.g. ABS-CBN’s “Pangako Sa ‘Yo,” GMA-7’s “Boys Nxt Door”), movies (e.g. “The Masseur,” “Kubrador”) and musical records (e.g. Christian Bautista, Billy Crawford) have been distributed to other countries for the consumption of non-Filipinos, it still fails to export its entertainment to foreign lands in a frequency high enough to make the Philippines an IMPERIALIST when it comes to entertainment, unlike what the Koreans have achieved in the past decade.
Such poor general condition of Filipino entertainment has failed to make Filipino culture globally appreciated, i.e., appreciated by a throng of non-Pinoys—a far cry from the achievement, again, of the Koreans.
All of these hold theoretically true, if we are to imagine ourselves as members of this community called the Philippines. Within the Philippines, however, if we are to discontinue imagining the Philippines as one nation and instead imagine Filipino ethnic groups separately from one another as distinct nations (Tagalog nation, Kapampangan nation, Cebuano nation, Ilocano nation, Bikol nation, etc.), we will see one region—the Tagalog-dominated Manila—as a powerful exporter of entertainment to non-Tagalog regions, making these non-Tagalog areas reliant on what they may now call “imported entertainment.”
Let’s consider two setups based on the concept of nation as “imagined community.”
First setup: a person who imagines the whole Philippines as his immediate community, despite being, for example, a Kapampangan residing in Central Luzon will not perceive a musical record manufactured and brought to his place by Manila as imported entertainment because he sees not Tagalogs nor Kapampangans, but racially similar Pinoys. What would count then as imported entertainment for him would be products from outside the Philippines like “American Idol,” “The Powerpuff Girls,” “Maria La Del Barrio,” “Jewel In The Palace,” “Britney Spears,” “Ironman,” “Eminem,” “Pokemon,” and “Meteor Garden.”
Second setup: on the other hand, if a Kapampangan sees himself unique from other ethnic groups, say, for example, the Tagalogs, he will consider entertainment made in and distributed by Manila (e.g. “Wowowee,” “Rivermaya,” “Eat Bulaga,” “Mano Po,” and “Sexbomb Dancers”) as entertainment imported by the Kapampangan nation and entertainment exported by Imperial Manila.
The first setup is often experienced by Filipino nationalists who believe share common experiences with fellow Pinoys from whatever region of the archipelago. Such mentality is hazardous for the provinces, as province dwellers are made to believe that the experiences—including the production of entertainment—of the National Capital Region are also their experiences. Hence, people from the provinces are subtly discouraged to establish their own entertainment industries. They are disheartened to compete with Manila-made entertainment because they feel they also own the entertainment industry of the capital of the country. The provinces don’t see the imperialism of Tagalog entertainment, because, as mentioned, they feel that Tagalog entertainment, which is promoted as “Pinoy entertainment” for further confusion, is also their entertainment. Thus, the provinces also don’t sense local brain drain; they don’t mind if the talent of their people—local human resources—are wielded and exploited by the capital.
The second setup is experienced by what are demonized today as regionalists or fools suffering from crab mentality, but considered by an intellectual cult as the enlightened protesters of Manila/Tagalog centrism. These people are theoretically the hope of provincial development just because of the fact that they don’t automatically consider the success of the capital as likewise the success of their province. They may consider themselves and other ethnic groups as both Filipinos, but only because they belong to the same state called the Republic of the Philippines, but not belonging to the same nation or race. They don’t perceive the entertainment industry of the Tagalogs as theirs, motivating them to establish their own entertainment industry—their own showbiz, celebrities, superstars, hits, and blockbusters—and hopefully, to stop or just even lessen the importation of Tagalog entertainment in the long run.
In the province of Pampanga, entertainment is still highly imported. Pampanga-based FM radio stations such as GVFM 99.1 and RW 95.1, despite being run in general by Kapampangans, are still dominated by songs imported from Manila and other countries. The radio announcers may be locals, but they are discouraged to speak their native language due to the imperial influence of Tagalog. Kapampangan entertainment through television is also highly imported. While TV stations and cable networks that produce their own shows (some in Kapampangan and some in Tagalog) are beginning to sprout, many Kapampangans still patronize imported productions such as shows from GMA-7, Studio 23, QTV 11, ABS-CBN, and MYX for several reasons, one of which probably is the large quality difference between locally made and imported shows.
The challenge then to every competitive province is, first, to aggressively and passionately propagate among local media practitioners, especially the station owners and managers, the ambition of establishing their own competent entertainment industries that can give Manila-made productions a run for their money on their respective territories, and also the ambition of exporting their productions someday; second, of course, to work on those ambitions.
As for Kapampangans, the power players in their local mass media play a great role in preventing Manila or other non-Kapampangan regions from exploiting Kapampangan human resources, like actors and writers. How? By showing to Kapampangans that they don’t need to go outside the province to pursue a media- or entertainment-related career; they can do it in their Indung Tibuan.
Please view this news item featuring our project that aims to make the first step for Kapampangans to reach the abovementioned ambitions:
When a commodity is branded an IMPORT, it means it was created—with raw materials not necessarily acquired within the territory—by foreign producers and was brought into the perimeters of a certain community for its members to purchase and/or consume. Whether something is imported depends on perspective, however, as one community's import is another community's export.
For example, a desktop computer made in Japan was brought to the Philippines for citizens, in general, to buy. In the perspective of a Filipino residing within the archipelago, the computer is a product imported from Japan, hence, making it an IMPORT. In the perspective of a Japanese residing within the territory of the Land of the Rising Sun, on the other hand, it is an EXPORT. Such scenario makes Japan the EXPORTER and the Philippines the IMPORTER.
Usually, if not absolutely, the exporter possesses the necessary forces and means of production, sufficient capital, and appropriate intelligence and skills that allow it to manufacture commodities to sell not only to the members of its immediate community, but also to people belonging to other communities, or, as we have labeled, the importers. Because a community doesn't have the essential ingredients to make its own desired product to sell to its own people, it has to import the camera from a manufacturer abroad.
Who earns? If we are to talk national (e.g. Philippines), it is the region (e.g. Manila) who did the importing upon selling the imports to the weaker regions (e.g. the provinces). But if we are to talk global, it is the exporting nation (e.g. Japan).
In a macro-economic view, a nation that is able to sustain the exportation of several of its locally manufactured commodities, including cultural products, becomes what we call an IMPERIALIST. A nation that keeps on importing, on the other hand, becomes the IMPERIALIZED. Because it is the exporting nation that is able to send its products outwards, it is no surprise then it soon is able to affect the culture of the receiving communities, to the extent of causing several members of the importing nations to suffer from neocolonialism and extreme patronage of foreign products.
Imports and exports often come in the form of a corporeal object—tangible commodities such as food, devices, spare parts, fuel, clothes, vehicles, etc. However, there are those commodities that stimulate us not physically, such as information and entertainment. Because these products are psychologically and/or intellectually consumed, not physically, they give members of the importing community the illusion that they are not consumers of foreign products. If a closer look will be given to the scenario, however, importation and continued patronage of these non-physical commodities contribute to the imperialization of the importing community.
Imported Entertainment
Filipino entertainment thrives in the Philippines side by side with foreign entertainment. Songs played on radio are either OPM (Original Pilipino Music) songs or songs exported by capable foreigners like Americans (e.g. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Guns N Roses), Japanese (e.g. anime soundtracks, Utada Hikaru), and Englishmen (e.g. The Beatles, Westlife). A great number of locally made TV shows have a fair number of local consumers as well amidst the penetration of canned shows from abroad (e.g. Korean dramas, American cartoons, Spanish and Mexican soaps). Movie houses also screen both local and foreign flicks.
Even though Filipino entertainment is able to occasionally compete with imported entertainment, it is made possible only within the Filipino turf. And even though some Filipino dramas (e.g. ABS-CBN’s “Pangako Sa ‘Yo,” GMA-7’s “Boys Nxt Door”), movies (e.g. “The Masseur,” “Kubrador”) and musical records (e.g. Christian Bautista, Billy Crawford) have been distributed to other countries for the consumption of non-Filipinos, it still fails to export its entertainment to foreign lands in a frequency high enough to make the Philippines an IMPERIALIST when it comes to entertainment, unlike what the Koreans have achieved in the past decade.
Such poor general condition of Filipino entertainment has failed to make Filipino culture globally appreciated, i.e., appreciated by a throng of non-Pinoys—a far cry from the achievement, again, of the Koreans.
All of these hold theoretically true, if we are to imagine ourselves as members of this community called the Philippines. Within the Philippines, however, if we are to discontinue imagining the Philippines as one nation and instead imagine Filipino ethnic groups separately from one another as distinct nations (Tagalog nation, Kapampangan nation, Cebuano nation, Ilocano nation, Bikol nation, etc.), we will see one region—the Tagalog-dominated Manila—as a powerful exporter of entertainment to non-Tagalog regions, making these non-Tagalog areas reliant on what they may now call “imported entertainment.”
Let’s consider two setups based on the concept of nation as “imagined community.”
First setup: a person who imagines the whole Philippines as his immediate community, despite being, for example, a Kapampangan residing in Central Luzon will not perceive a musical record manufactured and brought to his place by Manila as imported entertainment because he sees not Tagalogs nor Kapampangans, but racially similar Pinoys. What would count then as imported entertainment for him would be products from outside the Philippines like “American Idol,” “The Powerpuff Girls,” “Maria La Del Barrio,” “Jewel In The Palace,” “Britney Spears,” “Ironman,” “Eminem,” “Pokemon,” and “Meteor Garden.”
Second setup: on the other hand, if a Kapampangan sees himself unique from other ethnic groups, say, for example, the Tagalogs, he will consider entertainment made in and distributed by Manila (e.g. “Wowowee,” “Rivermaya,” “Eat Bulaga,” “Mano Po,” and “Sexbomb Dancers”) as entertainment imported by the Kapampangan nation and entertainment exported by Imperial Manila.
The first setup is often experienced by Filipino nationalists who believe share common experiences with fellow Pinoys from whatever region of the archipelago. Such mentality is hazardous for the provinces, as province dwellers are made to believe that the experiences—including the production of entertainment—of the National Capital Region are also their experiences. Hence, people from the provinces are subtly discouraged to establish their own entertainment industries. They are disheartened to compete with Manila-made entertainment because they feel they also own the entertainment industry of the capital of the country. The provinces don’t see the imperialism of Tagalog entertainment, because, as mentioned, they feel that Tagalog entertainment, which is promoted as “Pinoy entertainment” for further confusion, is also their entertainment. Thus, the provinces also don’t sense local brain drain; they don’t mind if the talent of their people—local human resources—are wielded and exploited by the capital.
The second setup is experienced by what are demonized today as regionalists or fools suffering from crab mentality, but considered by an intellectual cult as the enlightened protesters of Manila/Tagalog centrism. These people are theoretically the hope of provincial development just because of the fact that they don’t automatically consider the success of the capital as likewise the success of their province. They may consider themselves and other ethnic groups as both Filipinos, but only because they belong to the same state called the Republic of the Philippines, but not belonging to the same nation or race. They don’t perceive the entertainment industry of the Tagalogs as theirs, motivating them to establish their own entertainment industry—their own showbiz, celebrities, superstars, hits, and blockbusters—and hopefully, to stop or just even lessen the importation of Tagalog entertainment in the long run.
In the province of Pampanga, entertainment is still highly imported. Pampanga-based FM radio stations such as GVFM 99.1 and RW 95.1, despite being run in general by Kapampangans, are still dominated by songs imported from Manila and other countries. The radio announcers may be locals, but they are discouraged to speak their native language due to the imperial influence of Tagalog. Kapampangan entertainment through television is also highly imported. While TV stations and cable networks that produce their own shows (some in Kapampangan and some in Tagalog) are beginning to sprout, many Kapampangans still patronize imported productions such as shows from GMA-7, Studio 23, QTV 11, ABS-CBN, and MYX for several reasons, one of which probably is the large quality difference between locally made and imported shows.
The challenge then to every competitive province is, first, to aggressively and passionately propagate among local media practitioners, especially the station owners and managers, the ambition of establishing their own competent entertainment industries that can give Manila-made productions a run for their money on their respective territories, and also the ambition of exporting their productions someday; second, of course, to work on those ambitions.
As for Kapampangans, the power players in their local mass media play a great role in preventing Manila or other non-Kapampangan regions from exploiting Kapampangan human resources, like actors and writers. How? By showing to Kapampangans that they don’t need to go outside the province to pursue a media- or entertainment-related career; they can do it in their Indung Tibuan.
Please view this news item featuring our project that aims to make the first step for Kapampangans to reach the abovementioned ambitions:
May 20, 2008
Looking for Kapampangan-speaking actors
Kapabaluan! Infomax 8 and Kalalangan Kamaru are looking for Kapampangan-speaking actors to star in the first ever Kapampanganovela (Kapampangan TV series) to grace Philippine television.
Makiabe na ka! If you are interested in becoming part of this milestone in Philippine broadcasting history, email your 1) biodata/resume and 2) photos (close up and full body) to kamaruproductions@yahoo.com . Deadline of submission is on the 4th of June.
For inquiries, contact Jason @ 0918 699 2459 or Grace @ 0916 390 2074. For news and updates regarding the series, keep visiting this blog.
Makiabe na ka! If you are interested in becoming part of this milestone in Philippine broadcasting history, email your 1) biodata/resume and 2) photos (close up and full body) to kamaruproductions@yahoo.com . Deadline of submission is on the 4th of June.
For inquiries, contact Jason @ 0918 699 2459 or Grace @ 0916 390 2074. For news and updates regarding the series, keep visiting this blog.
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