PRESS RELEASE
24 July 2020, 3-5 pm
Online Event | General Public
How has the Philippine moving image evolved. In light of the Philippine cinema’s 100th year, MCAD invites all to an online panel discussion with local artists, filmmakers and industry professionals to explore critical junctions in the development of moving image in the Philippines, and its impact on the conversation on the medium’s form and function.
The event will be moderated by writer and film critic Richard Bolisay, with panel members that include film archivist and film curator Teddy Co; independent filmmaker, musician and writer John Torres; director, cinematographer and independent filmmaker Raymond Red; Tudla Productions’ Board Member Brother Ciriaco Santiago III and Director for Video Karen Serada.
Speakers will be sharing about their works, elaborating on the histories and process, revealing their philosophies and practices as film practitioners. Coming from film archiving, film programming, independent and alternative cinema, they will look into contextualizing the role of the image today.
Speakers and Moderator
Teddy Co
Teddy Co has been a film curator and film archivist for more than thirty years, organizing various film programs and retrospectives. He was instrumental in the recovery and repatriation of the “lost films” of Gerardo de Leon, Manuel Conde, and Nonoy Marcelo, among others. He is a regular member of the selection committees of Cinema One Originals, Quezon City International Film Festival, and Cinemalaya short films section. He co-founded and continues to curate Cinema Rehiyon, the biggest gathering of filmmakers from all around the Philippines. He served as a Commissioner of the Arts for the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and was appointed Chair of NCCA’s Cinema Committee from 2017 to 2019.
Source: http://www.plarideljournal.org/may-akda/3664/
John Torres
John Torres is an independent filmmaker, musician and writer. He co-runs Los Otros, a Manila-based space, film lab, and platform committed to the intersections of film and art, with a focus on process over product. He directed and produced five feature films, including Todo Todo Teros (Dragons & Tigers Award, Vancouver IFF 2006; NETPAC/FICRESCI awards, Singapore IFF 2006), Years When I was a Child Outside (Berlinale Forum Expanded 2008), and Lukas The Strange (Art of the Real, Film at Lincoln Center, 2013). He has made more than a dozen short films, including, We Still Have to Close Our Eyes (Wavelengths, Toronto IFF 2019). His work fictionalizes and reworks personal and found documentations of love, family relations, and memory in relation to current events, hearsays, myth, and folklore. He produced Shireen Seno’s Nervous Translation (NETPAC award, Tiger Competition, Rotterdam 2018), a project that was developed through Venice’s Biennale College Cinema, Bangkok Produire au Sud, IFP, and Cinemart. A special focus of his works was shown at the Viennale in 2013.
Raymond Red
Raymond Red is one of the pioneering figures of modern Filipino alternative cinema, and has the distinction of being the first Filipino to have won the prestigious Palme D’Or Award at the Cannes International Film Festival for his short film ANINO. With a background in visual arts and photography, he established himself with ground-breaking experimental and narrative short films in the 1980s, and soon moved on to independent full-length features in the ‘90s making the now classic historical films Bayani and Sakay. He had by then begun to mentor, inspire and usher in a new generation of filmmakers into the alternative cinema scene. Red has won awards and citations for his more recent films Manila Skies (2010), Kamera Obskura (2012), and Rebels with a Case (2015). Red regularly serves as juror in numerous local and international film events, has been a regular instructor at the MOWELFUND Film Institute, is a senior lecturer at the U.P. Film Institute, and an industry fellow at the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde’s School of Design and Arts. He also works in the TV commercials production industry. He is one of the honorees of the Sandaan Philippine Cinema Centennial celebration as an icon of Philippine independent and alternative cinema.
Tudla Productions
Tudla Productions, represented by Bro Ciriaco “Jun” Santiago and Karen Serada, is an alternative, non-profit group of filmmakers, students and cultural workers that utilizes different media in drawing attention to the plight and struggle of marginalized sectors in the urban center and to issues of national significance.
Since its inception in 2003, Tudla (in English, ‘to target’) has been mainly producing social documentaries and newsreels. The organization also explores other means of maximizing media in providing alternative channels and modes of artistic production, distribution and popularization that have a clear intent of serving underrepresented and disfavored sectors in society. To this end, the organization has conducted film showings, workshops and forums in schools and communities. Among its flagship projects is Pitik-Mulat in 2007, a documentary photography program; Pandayang Lino Brocka Political Film and New Media Festival in 2009, a film fest on socially-relevant and political films; and Citizen Patrol, a citizen journalism and reporting program.
The Board of Incorporators of Tudla Productions Group, Inc. include Joel Lamangan (Film/TV Director); Roland Tolentino (Film Critic, Professor and Writer); Julie Po (visual artist); Jim Libiran (filmmaker) and Bonifacio Ilagan (film and theater writer and director) among others.
Bro. Ciriaco “Jun” Santiago III, CSsR is a Redemptorist Missionary who’s first assignment as a religious worker was to invite young men to be part of the religious Congregation. In 2012, he became part of Tudla Productions, documenting natural and man-made disasters in Metro Manila and in the provinces. Today, he sits at the board of the organization.
His field of attention are subjects concerning social issues. For more than 3 years, he has documented the war on drugs in the Philippines and hitherto, has participated in many national and international exhibitions.
Karen Serada is the Director for Video at Tudla Productions Group Incorporated. She finished with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina (PLMar) with Latin Honors (Cum Laude) in 2019. She was Editor-In-Chief at Mambugan National High School publication and received the Writer of the Year Award in her senior year. She has a passion for creating political and socially relevant films.
Richard Bolisay (Moderator)
Richard Bolisay was born in Sta. Cruz, Manila, in 1987. As a writer and film critic, he has participated in film festivals in Berlin, Locarno, Hong Kong, Jeonju, Berwick, Edinburgh, Brighton, Cebu, and Manila. He teaches film at the University of the Philippines and is one of the artistic directors of the collective Cinema Is Incomplete. His book, Break It to Me Gently: Essays on Filipino Film, was released in 2019.
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This event is free and open to the public on a first-come-first-served basis. To register, accomplish and send the form below on or before 3 July 2020. Confirmed registrants will receive an email with instructions on how to join online before 17 July 2020.
For queries, click here.
To read on the exhibition, click here.
