Category Archive for: arts and culture

kultura

A sense of cultural history #BriccioSantosAtTheFDCP

When they opened the Cinematheque Centre in Manila in December 2015, the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) headed by Chairperson Briccio Santos, thought it would go the way of the four other Cinematheques they’ve opened in the provinces. That is, it would slowly gain a following as the audience for film screenings gradually grows.

The slow but steady climb was a well-founded expectation. In Iloilo, Davao, Baguio and Zamboanga, the Cinematheques took time to take off, the public’s interest something that needed to be nurtured. (more…)

komentaryo

Media madness #DuterteSONA2016

It was hilarious actually, watching media make a mess of their SONA 2016 coverage — and we’re not even talking about those “power shots” of the President’s nostrils and hands.

In fact, I’m not even talking about the SONA itself — for how can media mess up that coverage when we were all stuck with video from Brillante Mendoza? I’m talking about the pre-event coverage, when our congressmen and senators arrive at the Batasang Pambansa. In the past, this was the time and place to talk about what the women of Congress and the Senate are wearing, an opportunity to talk designers, a veritable fashion show.

But with the directive that guests wear “business attire,” it seems the media got the red carpet pulled from under their feet. Because what do they now talk about? What questions do we ask? What stories can we spin, with no clothes, fashion, designers to talk about? (more…)

komentaryo

Dreaming of a People’s TV

There were two dominant reactions to the proposal of a People’s Television in the last column.

One was a belief that what was meant was Marcosian Martial Law television. The other was a yawn – it has been said before, planned before, imagined before, and nothing ever came of it.

What it is not: Marcosian TV
It bears repeating that nowhere in that column about a People’s TV did I assert that it should be similar to or go in the direction of Martial Law TV, which existed primarily on censorship and the repression of free speech, and the use of culture as a way to propagate government propaganda. (more…)

komentaryo

Possibilities for a (real) People’s Television (finally!)

It has gotten such a negative reaction, the statement of incoming Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar, that the Rodrigo Duterte government will print its own tabloid, build a website, and do a weekly presidential TV and radio talk show.

The naysayers in our midst with no sense of hope nor creativity, rebel rousers interested only in the cause of discrediting everything this new government plans to do, have laughed at the idea, not to mention raised fears by referencing Marcosian times – the better to sow distrust in our hearts. It would do us all well not to believe them. (more…)

kultura

House On Fire

On an unplanned trip to the Cultural Center of the Philippines that had little to do with art and everything to do with the cultural work of getting cheques so far away, ones that are about a government bureaucracy that does not make things easy for workers—cultural and otherwise—it was a relief to be drawn into “Casa Fuego,” an exhibit by Toym Imao. Because a display of larger-than-life toys renders one necessarily a kid, no matter how critical the stance you take relative to this magnitude.

Size and monuments 
The giddiness over the size of these installations does not last long, which is not a bad thing. The size and scale of artworks—how big something is, how detailed, how beautiful!—has become embroiled in the enterprise of art fairs that use these works as centerpieces of commerce. An artwork or two is chosen as showpiece, becoming the cornerstone of every press release and the most instagrammable attraction, which also makes it necessarily “representative” of all the other art that appears in the fair. Imao’s works for Casa Fuego could just as well fall perfectly within that context. (more…)