The Cinemalaya 2006 feature-length and short films will be having its run at the UP Film Institute’s Cine Adarna next week. Be sure to catch these films before you lose the chance!

Out of the eight feature-length films, I’ve only seen Donsol, which I really liked. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the films, including this year’s best picture, Tulad ng Dati.

Tickets will be sold at Cine Adarna’s box office for just 50 pesos each.

Something got me upset last Friday afternoon. As a result, I was sort of aloof during our applicants orientation in UP CAST, as much as I tried to keep a pleasant smile on my face for the apps. It was also raining and I didn’t have an umbrella. I asked my mom to pick me up from UP that night.

You see a lot of these in pineapple plantations all across Cavite’s southern hills, in towns like Amadeo, Silang and also in Tagaytay City.

Here are a few stills from the short film we in UP CAST shot last weekend.

Violins is a bowed string instrument with four strings. It is the smallest and highest-pitched family member of the string musical instruments.

After two straight days of class suspensions and staying at home almost the entire four-day weekend, it can get a little disorienting to be back in school. We had writing exercises during scriptwriting class, then I spent lunch time with my UP MCO orgmates. After lunch, we from the student council had a meeting with the college dean and the secretary. It’s nice that communication lines are open and well between the admin and the student council. My only reservations come when we talked about tuition fee increases. The admin is pushing for it because they say the government is bankrupt and it can not fully subsidize the university. I don’t see it that way.

That pretty much sums up this ordinary day. [This is Patti and me, lounging at the Film department lobby before I went home this afternoon].

I spent almost the entire weekend with my orgmates from UP CAST (UP Cinema Arts Society) for the shoot of a short film project. We shot on location at some remote farm in Silang, Cavite.

As always, shoots are stressful and tiring but really fun. Despite the bad weather and other unfavorable circumstances, we were able to pull it off.

I refuse to imagine what sort of organic matter compose the mud we were walking on all day. What were we expecting anyway, we were in a farm and it was raining all day. I pity my friends who were wearing Havaianas that day. ‘Yan kasi eh. Alam namang bukid ang location, nagha-Havaianas pa. Hehe.

[That’s Joma inside a crowded coach of LRT 1 in Manila. We were on our way back to U.P. from attending the Cinemalaya 2006 Film Congress at the Cultural Center of the Philippines]

I don’t usually ride the MRT and LRT since I live just a jeepney ride away from the university. Last week though, I commuted almost everyday on both.

I wouldn’t usually have any problem with women having their own exclusive coach. It’s true that they are susceptible to sexual harrassment in a crowded train. But it doesn’t feel right whenever everyone else gets really cramped up inside the other coaches and other commuters can’t get into the train anymore, while the female-exclusive first car is half empty while there is considerable space for commuters left in the first coach. Hell, everyone pays for the same fare, I don’t see why the ladies should have an added privelege over everyone else. It rests on the assumption that only women get harrassed inside crowded trains–which is absolutely untrue!! The MRT and LRT should charge women more for their added comfort. Or better yet, charge the guys less for the inconvenience we are forced to bear.

Aside from watching the gala premiere of Donsol last Wednesday night, I also attended the first day of the 2nd Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival’s Film Congress last Thursday. I went there with my orgmates from UP MCO.

Much was talked about the potentials of independent digital filmmaking. Can filmmaking really be independent? Filmmaking is a public art. You make films for other people to see. It can’t really be a totally “I will make movies regardless of what other people say” kind of thing because filmmaking, I believe, will always rely on audiences to thrive, it will always rely on funds to be produced, it will always rely on team effort of a crew. You can’t make films by yourself for yourself. The discussion about a truly independent, no-holds-barred filmmaking for me is an irrelevant discussion. This is simply about the decentralization of filmmaking in the Philippines from the traditional cliques of producers and directors to newer batches of filmmakers. It will still always rely on a lot of other factors, a lot of are beyond the control of any filmmaker.