Wednesday, January 21, 2009
My Favorite Quote from President Barack Obama's Inaugural Speech
"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
Monday, January 12, 2009
UPDATE on the Valley Golf Incident
This intro has been edited to reflect current events...
After investigation, the elder Dela Paz was judged to have instigated the fight at the Valley Golf Course, and was expelled from the golf club for disorderly conduct. Meanwhile, Sec. Pangandaman was suspended for two years, and his sons banned for life from ever entering Valley Golf Club.
Amazing how a very emotional posting can sway public opinion... and how important it is to get all the facts first before handing down judgment. Turns out the victim wasn't such a victim after all.
Now that this matter has been put to bed, we can all focus on other, more important things...
Saturday, January 10, 2009
In the interest of fair play...
Here's a link to 3 versions of the Valley Golf mauling incident:
It's now starting to dawn on me that perhaps there is much more to this than just one account, and I for one apologize for my part in fanning the flames without objectivity and the open ear to hear all sides of the story. Now my mind is mired in doubt. Since my own eyes didn't witness the crime, I'll have to depend on eyewitness accounts and results from whatever investigations are taking place on the matter.
It's very, very possible that everyone had a hand in the violence that took place in this, a presumably peaceful location of civility: the golf course. As one that has grown up around the sport (my brother himself was a junior golfer, participating in his share of tournaments back in the day), it's appalling that any sort of altercation would take place here. Golf is NOT a contact sport (save of course for a golf club coming into swift and strong smacking contact with a golf ball).
Now that all sides seem to be amply represented, read away.
Maybe everyone was a little right... and a little wrong. It's been said, there are 3 sides to every story: side A, side B, and the truth.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
By Armida Siguion-Reyna: Let us be afraid of thoughtless censorship
This is a piece written by Armida Siguion-Reyna... the link to the original column is at the end of this article (I got this from Girlie Rodis' site).
Read on...
------------------------------------------
NO HOLDS BARRED
Armida Siguion-Reyna
Regardless of the motive
10/14/08
Mulling over the possibility of watching as much could possibly be seen in one sitting of Lav Diaz's nine-hour "Kadaganan sa Banwaan Ning Mga Engkanto" (English title: "Death in the Land of Encantos")" I hear it's been rated "X" by the First Review Committee of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), courtesy of members Amalia Fuentes, Ros Olgado and Fr. Nick Cruz.
Apparently not caring about the rights of the Filipino movie-viewing public — the little that's left — to see what won the Special Mention prize in the 2007 Venice International Film Festival's Orizzonti (Horizons) section, the MTRCB banned it from screening because "The scene where the woman was shown in bed naked with her breasts and vagina (genitalia) are exposed is against the rules and regulations of the board — No exhibition of the genitals."
Seriously.
A worldwide recession is looming. The once-mighty American economy is struggling its way past a fractious presidential elections. China is trying to recover from the melamine milk-scandal. And here in the Philippines, we're still focused on breasts and vagina in a film that's clearly nothing close to pornography.
As former chairman of the MTRCB, I know that PD 1986, the law that created the board, requires that all movies, barring none, be viewed before a decision can be reached regarding approval or disapproval, before a screening permit is issued. Even so I am able to judge this particular Diaz piece sight unseen, based on Diaz's track record, his persona and the fact that there's no international buzz about how salacious it is. It cannot be malaswa.
I mean, come on. A porno flick running close to half-a-day is bound to get talked about by a global media increasingly on the look-out for news to cushion horrific stories of crashing stock markets, ineffective bailouts and bankruptcies. Imagine just how many shots of insertions and pumping and close-ups of ejaculations can fit into nine hours, pag hindi naman nagkagulo ang buong mundo diyan. Except, 'yon na nga, that's not what "Encantos" is all about, as can immediately be gleaned from the first two paragraphs of the Variety's International Film Festival review section last year, written by Ronnie Schieb:
"Lav Diaz's latest black-and-white digital marathon, 'Death in the Land of Encantos' (clocking in at nine hours), unfolds in the devastated landscape left in the wake of Super Typhoon 'Durian,' the worst storm to hit the Philippines in living memory. Placing a threesome of fictional characters amid the rubble, Diaz measures the aftermath of this natural disaster within the larger trauma of the islands' history. Plunging the viewer into an alternate time zone where distinctions between documentary and fiction, stasis and action slowly dissolve, pic confirms helmer's status as a brilliant but consummately non-commercial artist.
"Unlike Diaz's other works, which were carefully constructed over time ('Evolution of a Filipino Family' was nine years in the making — and 10 hours in the viewing), 'Death' sprang fully grown from the ravages of the typhoon in Bicol, where Diaz had lensed several previous films. Thus, the documentary elements could not be described as "interpolated," but rather form the very clay from which the drama (if such slight strands of narrative can be so termed) is molded."
Nothing there to foreshadow extreme close-ups of vulvas, arcs of semen spray and turgid penises, so why did it get an "X"? Just how completely awake the members of the Review Committee were when they "X-ed" it, is another factor to consider, but hala, sige, for the sake of the argument, I will presume they were wide awake and in full possession of their faculties
Fr. Cruz is a Jesuit, like Gerald Healy, SJ, Professor of Moral Theology Emeritus, who had forwarded to us the Vatican position on context, manner of presentation, (filmmaker's) intention and culture, as standards for film review and analysis, and which we forthrightly included in our Implementing Rules and Regulations during our tenure. Fr. Cruz was a member of the Estrada MTRCB. How could he have agreed to the "X-ing" of the Diaz movie?
Which brings me now to reminding all about the dangers of pending House Bill (HB) 3305, and known in the Senate as Senate Bill (SB) 2464: "An Act Prohibiting and Penalizing the Production, Printing, Publication, Importation, Sale, Distribution and Exhibition of Obscene and Pornographic Materials, and the Exhibition of Live Sexual Acts, Amending for the Purpose Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code, as Amended."
I saw Tarlac Rep. Nikki Prieto Teodoro and lawyer Eric Mallonga of the MTRCB on cable TV the other day, lauding the bill and supporting its passage into law, failing to see that while it purports to "protect women and children from the pernicious effects of pornography," it more dangerously seeks to strangle all forms of creativity with the operative phrase "regardless of the motive."
"'Obscene' refers to anything that is indecent or offensive or contrary to good customs or religious beliefs, principles or doctrines, or tends to corrupt or deprave the human mind, or is calculated to excite impure thoughts or arouse prurient interest, or violates the proprieties of language and human behavior, regardless of the motive of the producer, printer, publisher, writer, importer, seller, distributor or exhibitor.
"'Pornographic or pornography' refers to objects or subjects of film, television shows, photography, illustrations, music, games, paintings, drawings, illustrations, advertisements, writings, literature or narratives contained in any format, whether audio or visual, still or moving pictures, in all forms of film, print, electronic, outdoor or broadcast mass media, or whatever future technologies to be developed, which are calculated to excite, stimulate or arouse impure thoughts and prurient interest, regardless of the motive of the author thereof."
This bill becomes law and we completely slay the creative energies of the few remaining Lav Diazes. This bill gets passed, and gems where "…stark black-and-white digital compositions frame a landscape so bleak and boulder-strewn, so empty of habitation that it is hard to believe the land was not barren from time primordial. Painful flashbacks to the region's past resurrect a lost Eden. The only thing more shocking than the extent of the damage is the ages-deep acceptance in the eyes of the survivors…" is forever judged in terms of breast and genital exposure, and filmmaking be damned.
I wonder what Amalia Fuentes feels, helping kill the industry that made her? The sell-outs of the movie bill we were lobbying for in the Ramos and Estrada presidencies willfully dropped the provision on censorship exemption, believing that only monies earned from tax rebates mattered. I wonder what they feel, now that major films cannot be screened?
Death in the land of the encantos, indeed. HB 3305 and SB 2464 is murder, regardless of the motives of its sponsors. It cannot be allowed to pass.
(For comments, write to: armida114@yahoo.com)
http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20081014com5.html
Read on...
------------------------------------------
NO HOLDS BARRED
Armida Siguion-Reyna
Regardless of the motive
10/14/08
Mulling over the possibility of watching as much could possibly be seen in one sitting of Lav Diaz's nine-hour "Kadaganan sa Banwaan Ning Mga Engkanto" (English title: "Death in the Land of Encantos")" I hear it's been rated "X" by the First Review Committee of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), courtesy of members Amalia Fuentes, Ros Olgado and Fr. Nick Cruz.
Apparently not caring about the rights of the Filipino movie-viewing public — the little that's left — to see what won the Special Mention prize in the 2007 Venice International Film Festival's Orizzonti (Horizons) section, the MTRCB banned it from screening because "The scene where the woman was shown in bed naked with her breasts and vagina (genitalia) are exposed is against the rules and regulations of the board — No exhibition of the genitals."
Seriously.
A worldwide recession is looming. The once-mighty American economy is struggling its way past a fractious presidential elections. China is trying to recover from the melamine milk-scandal. And here in the Philippines, we're still focused on breasts and vagina in a film that's clearly nothing close to pornography.
As former chairman of the MTRCB, I know that PD 1986, the law that created the board, requires that all movies, barring none, be viewed before a decision can be reached regarding approval or disapproval, before a screening permit is issued. Even so I am able to judge this particular Diaz piece sight unseen, based on Diaz's track record, his persona and the fact that there's no international buzz about how salacious it is. It cannot be malaswa.
I mean, come on. A porno flick running close to half-a-day is bound to get talked about by a global media increasingly on the look-out for news to cushion horrific stories of crashing stock markets, ineffective bailouts and bankruptcies. Imagine just how many shots of insertions and pumping and close-ups of ejaculations can fit into nine hours, pag hindi naman nagkagulo ang buong mundo diyan. Except, 'yon na nga, that's not what "Encantos" is all about, as can immediately be gleaned from the first two paragraphs of the Variety's International Film Festival review section last year, written by Ronnie Schieb:
"Lav Diaz's latest black-and-white digital marathon, 'Death in the Land of Encantos' (clocking in at nine hours), unfolds in the devastated landscape left in the wake of Super Typhoon 'Durian,' the worst storm to hit the Philippines in living memory. Placing a threesome of fictional characters amid the rubble, Diaz measures the aftermath of this natural disaster within the larger trauma of the islands' history. Plunging the viewer into an alternate time zone where distinctions between documentary and fiction, stasis and action slowly dissolve, pic confirms helmer's status as a brilliant but consummately non-commercial artist.
"Unlike Diaz's other works, which were carefully constructed over time ('Evolution of a Filipino Family' was nine years in the making — and 10 hours in the viewing), 'Death' sprang fully grown from the ravages of the typhoon in Bicol, where Diaz had lensed several previous films. Thus, the documentary elements could not be described as "interpolated," but rather form the very clay from which the drama (if such slight strands of narrative can be so termed) is molded."
Nothing there to foreshadow extreme close-ups of vulvas, arcs of semen spray and turgid penises, so why did it get an "X"? Just how completely awake the members of the Review Committee were when they "X-ed" it, is another factor to consider, but hala, sige, for the sake of the argument, I will presume they were wide awake and in full possession of their faculties
Fr. Cruz is a Jesuit, like Gerald Healy, SJ, Professor of Moral Theology Emeritus, who had forwarded to us the Vatican position on context, manner of presentation, (filmmaker's) intention and culture, as standards for film review and analysis, and which we forthrightly included in our Implementing Rules and Regulations during our tenure. Fr. Cruz was a member of the Estrada MTRCB. How could he have agreed to the "X-ing" of the Diaz movie?
Which brings me now to reminding all about the dangers of pending House Bill (HB) 3305, and known in the Senate as Senate Bill (SB) 2464: "An Act Prohibiting and Penalizing the Production, Printing, Publication, Importation, Sale, Distribution and Exhibition of Obscene and Pornographic Materials, and the Exhibition of Live Sexual Acts, Amending for the Purpose Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code, as Amended."
I saw Tarlac Rep. Nikki Prieto Teodoro and lawyer Eric Mallonga of the MTRCB on cable TV the other day, lauding the bill and supporting its passage into law, failing to see that while it purports to "protect women and children from the pernicious effects of pornography," it more dangerously seeks to strangle all forms of creativity with the operative phrase "regardless of the motive."
"'Obscene' refers to anything that is indecent or offensive or contrary to good customs or religious beliefs, principles or doctrines, or tends to corrupt or deprave the human mind, or is calculated to excite impure thoughts or arouse prurient interest, or violates the proprieties of language and human behavior, regardless of the motive of the producer, printer, publisher, writer, importer, seller, distributor or exhibitor.
"'Pornographic or pornography' refers to objects or subjects of film, television shows, photography, illustrations, music, games, paintings, drawings, illustrations, advertisements, writings, literature or narratives contained in any format, whether audio or visual, still or moving pictures, in all forms of film, print, electronic, outdoor or broadcast mass media, or whatever future technologies to be developed, which are calculated to excite, stimulate or arouse impure thoughts and prurient interest, regardless of the motive of the author thereof."
This bill becomes law and we completely slay the creative energies of the few remaining Lav Diazes. This bill gets passed, and gems where "…stark black-and-white digital compositions frame a landscape so bleak and boulder-strewn, so empty of habitation that it is hard to believe the land was not barren from time primordial. Painful flashbacks to the region's past resurrect a lost Eden. The only thing more shocking than the extent of the damage is the ages-deep acceptance in the eyes of the survivors…" is forever judged in terms of breast and genital exposure, and filmmaking be damned.
I wonder what Amalia Fuentes feels, helping kill the industry that made her? The sell-outs of the movie bill we were lobbying for in the Ramos and Estrada presidencies willfully dropped the provision on censorship exemption, believing that only monies earned from tax rebates mattered. I wonder what they feel, now that major films cannot be screened?
Death in the land of the encantos, indeed. HB 3305 and SB 2464 is murder, regardless of the motives of its sponsors. It cannot be allowed to pass.
(For comments, write to: armida114@yahoo.com)
http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20081014com5.html
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Back to work...
My time of rest in Manila is over... time for me to head back on
tour. May I say, with utmost happiness, that I can't wait to return!
It's always bittersweet every time I leave home though... my daughter
will remain here, as will my husband, mother, brother, and dear, dear
friends. However, I do have another home with my family on tour, and
am looking forward to seeing them and working with them again.
It's funny... it's a rare and beautiful thing when you have a cast
that just gels together in a great way, both on stage and off. That
camaraderie does translate and is obvious in performance. I am very,
very transparent, and when I don't like someone, it's painfully
obvious. Not fun at all.
So... here's to more late night poker games (in the name of Aaron
Galligan-Stierle)... more leg pain from those blasted heels and
stairs... to the hunt for a Starbucks that's actually walking distance
from the hotel and/or theater... to more culinary and gustatory
adventures... to doing a show with people I have the pleasure and
honor of calling my friends.
Here's to more fun! I have only 6 months left on this Asian tour...
if you think about it, it's really not a very long time. Yeehaaaaaaah!
tour. May I say, with utmost happiness, that I can't wait to return!
It's always bittersweet every time I leave home though... my daughter
will remain here, as will my husband, mother, brother, and dear, dear
friends. However, I do have another home with my family on tour, and
am looking forward to seeing them and working with them again.
It's funny... it's a rare and beautiful thing when you have a cast
that just gels together in a great way, both on stage and off. That
camaraderie does translate and is obvious in performance. I am very,
very transparent, and when I don't like someone, it's painfully
obvious. Not fun at all.
So... here's to more late night poker games (in the name of Aaron
Galligan-Stierle)... more leg pain from those blasted heels and
stairs... to the hunt for a Starbucks that's actually walking distance
from the hotel and/or theater... to more culinary and gustatory
adventures... to doing a show with people I have the pleasure and
honor of calling my friends.
Here's to more fun! I have only 6 months left on this Asian tour...
if you think about it, it's really not a very long time. Yeehaaaaaaah!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
THE THEATRICAL SOCIAL EVENT OF THE SEASON IS HERE!!!
ARE YOU IN?!
Tickets are at 250 pesos on a first come first serve basis.
Please email us at friendsofrep@gmail.com, text TOFF at 09178908633 or
reply to this post.
DATE: Friday, October 17, 2008
TIME: 730 to 10 PM
LOCATION: OnStage Theatre, Greenbelt 1
STREET: Paseo de Roxas
CITY/TOWN: Makati, Philippines
This showcase features actors Tara Tambunting, Christine Escudero,
Marisse Borlaza, Farida Kabayao,Dingdong Rosales, Gabs Santos, and
Kenneth Keng.
forArtists is a showcase of original, raw and innovative works by
fresh Filipino playwrights Ino Habana (Stiletto Club) Recipient of
Ateneo's Loyola Schools Awards for the Arts for Fiction and Joshua So
(Portraits) fromDe LaSalle University (Batch 2007).
This ONE NIGHT ONLY event will be a collaboration of theatre artists
and aims to provide them with the opportunity to develop and exhibit
their material on the REP stage.
This year Friends of Repertory or simply F.O.R was re-launched as a
partner of Repertory Philippines (REP), comprised of theater
performers and aficionados from various backgrounds and orientations.
The group holds together for the love of REP and the long-term goal of
instilling within the Filipino a key appreciation of theater and the
performing arts.
With the aim of raising theater awareness and bringing the experience
of theater to a broader audience, F.O.R.'s forArtists will highlight
Repertory Philippines' thrust in building a theater industry that can
provide actors, directors, designers, choreographers, musicians,
dancers, and all those who would like to work in theater the
opportunity to do so.
forArtists will continue F.O.R.'s mission to open up avenues in which
all theater and non-theater- oriented members of the community may
interact and collectively recognize the importance of theatre in
society today.
Directing the plays are first time directors Jejie Esguerra for
Stiletto Club and Jenny Jamora for Portraits.
For play synopsis click the following link: Stilleto Club and
Portraits or go to http://bubblebathbo i.multiply. com/journal/ item/191
Visit our facebook page and sign up through the guest list: forArtists
at Facebook or go to http://www.new. facebook. com/event. php?
eid=26173884 428&ref=share
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