President:
Vice-President:
Senator:
Partylist:
President - Duterte #3
Vice President - Cayetano #1
Senator - Colmenares #11
Partylist - Kabataan #55
Saturday, May 7, 2016
My Vote 2016
President:
Vice-President:
Senator:
Partylist:
President - Duterte #3
Vice President - Cayetano #1
Senator - Colmenares #11
Partylist - Kabataan #55
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
MMFF Reviews 2012 : El Presidente
Here's the thing: I didn't hate this movie.
It wasn't as bad as I expected, and not the type of bad I thought it would be.
Well, there were vestiges. Mark Meily's condescending treatment of the masses is sprinkled all throughout ( they're either victims, traitors, or background detail ), as is his historic contempt towards the Philippine Left. You may even sense that he doesn't believe in the Filipino's ability to win freedom, much less independence.
That is if one bothers to read into it. And I'm not sure it's worth the effort. It was done wiht such 'distance' and 'ambiguity' - a.k.a. indifference - that it can be taken in any which way. It might even seem like a provocation.
Same thing with his treatment of Aguinaldo. While ER Ejercito doesn't exactly bungle his job here, he doesn't shoot for the stars either. His performance is so uptight that it flatlines, with very little space for unintentional laughs. In fact he's so wrapped up in his own celebrity, that the filmmaking steps all over him. Meily puts in so much surrealisms in his story, that he starts to appear like an unreliable narrator; a delusional madman at worst, since a lot of those surrealisms aren't particularly successful. They are so atonal, and so out of place, they're a realm all their own. They look ridiculous that way, sticking like a sore thumb from the otherwise textbook approach of the film.
But at least he's not excessively glorified. He's not the military superman like some of his apologists would allege. Rather, a lot of his successes were achieved by an undue advantage : he was a part of the establishment already. You can see how Tikoy Aguiliz ( who was supposed to direct this ) could have taken off with that.
Plus, Andres Bonifacio looms like a titan in this picture. I don't remember any other Filipino film that gives him this level of stature ( well, besides 'Supremo', which I haven't seen ), other than a whiny nincompoop, or a laughingstock. Instead, he's treated with reverence here, even by ER's Aguinaldo, as the unequivocal leader of the Revolution, whose shadow the Katipuneros struggle against. So much so, that his fate feels like a bad omen that dooms their very enterprise. Even as it's never spoken of again, explained away like bad trapo PR.
In fact, if there are historical figures that come out of this clean, it's the Macapagals : both former president ( and father of jailed ex-president Gloria Arroyo ) Diosdado Macapagal, and the Macapagal who put the bullet in Bonifacio's head - who doesn't put the bullet in his head here. Not to draw conclusions, but Mark Meily did mock the anti-ZTE-NBN protests in his show 'Camera Cafe'. Make of that what you will.
And that's the thing : Some good, some bad. The Americans are frightening in this picture. The San Juan scene is harrowing in its simplicity, easily one of the best staged historical recreations in Philippine film. Christopher Deleon also gives I think his finest performance as the fascist Antonio Luna, where he's a character and not Christopher De Leon. There was a point where this could have really provoked debate, and made people discuss their revolutionary history.
But all that was undermined as soon as Nora Aunor shows up in the picture. Trust me when I say that her appearance is pointless, jarring, and unnecessary.
Still, we should be glad that films like this get made that isn't yet another Rizal movie.
I'm giving 'El Presidente' 2.25 out of 5.
MMFF Reviews 2012 : Student Shorts
1.) Kinse - Philbert Dy of Click The City is right; more a showreel of what
the
filmmakers will do, and where Filipino action could lead, in
terms
of the actual action. Story is a retreat to familiar
territory.
The goons look pretty badass, though. 2.5/5
2.) Tagad -
Good flick about skateboarding. Slick production values and
cinematography. Use of mounted cameras helped the
storytelling, and wasn't a stunt. It just didn't lead into much of
anything. Third act is missing, though the ending's
abruptness maybe the point of the whole thing. 3/5
3.) Ritwal -
Use of activist iconography is well...nice. Needs a rewatch,
but felt pleasant enough for a 3/5.
4.) Rolyo -
Urian-Award Nominated 'Liyab'. Crappy version. 1/5
5.) Obsesyon
- Okay crime flick that was hampered by iffy acting and the
old ways. Could have edited out some parts, so it stuck
with the provocation of its premise. But the filmmakers
don't seem to be concerned with challenging perceptions
or changing minds, much as reducing everything to
police blotter. Though the procedural mindset is most
welcome, a clean break in this current era of 'ahrt'.
So, more of an
interesting artifact of where the Mowelfund
of Roxlee is now at, and that is sheltering the former
'mainstream' its alums ousted. That's a paradigm shift
there. 2.75/5
6.) Sonata - Drama
that was actually served by its technical
inadequacies, giving grit and unease to its pathos. 3.5/5
7.) Tsansa –
Bad sound. 2/5
8.) Manibela
- MNL 143 on drugs. Not sure if that's a compliment. But
Good God is this movie fucked up. 3/5
9.) Pukpok -
Highly recommended. 4.5/5
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Taking Back Our Geography
" To occupy mendiola is to assume our place in history-- to activate the space as political and to make it as a platform of our shared aspirations and collective imagination.It is not just all about being in/ at place. it is about the becoming of social change and political intervention. The paranoia and the anxiety of the 1% is to witness that we will once more gather because they know that we are right and they refuse to admit that neoliberal capitalist system have failed. to occupy mendiola necessitates the body as 'the technology of the weak' . The body afterall is tranformed by the dominant social order as obsolete and docile. What use of it, other than going beyond and making it as our technology towards social justice.
For the longest time, our collective aspirations are being dispersed and cracked down by the system. They make us individualists by offering a capitalist utopia of consumerism as personal freedom, spectacle and simulcra through corporatist mediagenics and experience economy. To occupy is the space clearing of the dominant system (a la kaingin system ba) and provide us, the 99% the breathing space for our collective aspirations and dreams.
By occupying mendiola on December 6, we become the cartographers of our collective destinies and destination-- registering our voice in the geographies of em-power-ment and struggle. 2 cents "
- Clod Winter Sun Yambao, Facebook Status, Dec. 2, 2011
For the longest time, our collective aspirations are being dispersed and cracked down by the system. They make us individualists by offering a capitalist utopia of consumerism as personal freedom, spectacle and simulcra through corporatist mediagenics and experience economy. To occupy is the space clearing of the dominant system (a la kaingin system ba) and provide us, the 99% the breathing space for our collective aspirations and dreams.
By occupying mendiola on December 6, we become the cartographers of our collective destinies and destination-- registering our voice in the geographies of em-power-ment and struggle. 2 cents "
- Clod Winter Sun Yambao, Facebook Status, Dec. 2, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
“ Unmaking Reality: On the Russian Montage and German Expressionism in ‘Battleship Potemkin’ & ‘Dr. Caligari’ ”
by Carlo Cielo
The ‘10s and ‘20s saw the rise of several epochs in world filmmaking; each representing a facet of invention that was sweeping the medium. Cinema was moving away from being a novelty, or a new configuration of a pre-existing tech. It wasn’t enough that it’s a camera that could capture action, or shoot trains as they appear. It wasn’t merely that of moving pictures; but that which is moving them. This was also immediately following the First World War, the most devastating event in history at that point. Countries were exhausted of their resources as much as their power, putting thousands upon thousands of people into the fray. Past securities have been put to the test, as the preexisting order have been found to be wanting,. Someone will surely have to go there in the field, and shoot the ensuing chaos.
No one of course was spared from the unraveling. Russia was virtually drained of all its forces and capabilities to such a point that both soldiers and civilians rebelled. The once formidable Tsarist regime was overthrown, and a new thinking and platform was elevated and put, front and center. Germany, meanwhile, was driven down to such astounding lengths, as the weight of guilt and culpability was brought upon it. Reparations were demanded, devaluing its economy into near starvation, while it struggles with its status as a diminishing empire. Thus, no other film scenes were as profoundly affected as the ones in these countries, as evident in the best of their material.
Russia’s ‘Battleship Potemkin’ was, in fact, a postscript to a victory; in the same way that ‘Les Miserables’ was an ode to an eventual upheaval. Albeit beleaguered, the stories still carry a euphoric vibe about them, served by the author's position of being able to write about these things after the fact. The imposing former order was surmounted. The need then was to integrate this development into one’s being from here on, and to keep on propelling its dynamic everyday.To pack in the comprehensiveness of this fervor, and to configure it such that it could stoke a continuity of action across generations. Much as there is an imperative to account for the several agents and moments that has contributed to such geopolitical result. Certainly, there wasn't a single protagonist in the thing. Hence, the portrayal of the travails of the disaffected, the detailing of their conditions, the key factors that stoked their reply, only precluding the possibility of such insurrections, as much as their inevitability. So, the tragedies served more as object lessons to past mistakes.
For example, the navy men of ‘Battleship Potemkin’ were deprived and humiliated day by day, with rotten meat and rancid environs, their inhuman exploitation to the level of indenture. And for what ? An empire that is brutal and simply doesn’t care, and doesn’t hesitate to pit brother against brother, and shoots its own people. An empire which exists only for itself, and away from culpability, wielding power that should be in the hands of the many, who ought to be ruling their own lives. To articulate all this properly would demand the rethinking of editing a reel, and the selections and arrangements of scenes, to show not just a single moment or narrative in a linear sort of way, but a whole spectrum of events, of actions and reactions, leading up to this point, with their respective protagonists and actors, most of which are from the ordinary tier, the masses who truly forge a reality.
This is what necessitates the sequencing of the Odessa Steps scene, with the Tsarist soldiers marching on and conducting its massacre. A thing like this doesn’t inconvenience a single person, or a lead, but devastates an entire population, a plethora of peoples, from a baby rolling down a stairs, and a nurse who loses her eye, each of which are equally as significant in the larger scheme of things, and the ensuing response which would take these on a whole another level. These ‘cutaway’ moments should thus be integrated into the flow of the scene reel. Which aren’t the stops and starts that they would often seem, but are only a given in the kinesics of upheaval. Something the Soviet montage makes people acknowledge as a possibility.
The German Expressionism in Dr. Caligari, meanwhile, evokes a kind of inevitability in stasis; even a primal thirst for it. But it is not a happy stasis. The film shows this in both in its aesthetic and narrative. The story is told through the flashbacks of our lead Frank, who in turn tells of a show runner who is possibly involved in psychopathic acts. An old man goes in fairs displaying a somnambulist who foretells other people’s fates, yet one he in fact commands to put decisive ends on them. It was only a matter of time ‘til this ends up in a string of murders. The investigation leads into an asylum, revealing not only its director as suspect, but also his obsession with a similar myth in the 18th century about the same bunch of characters, the same modus operandi. The somnambulist is found, and the director is soon arrested and confined to a room in his own asylum, and everything in the world seems to have finally been made right. Then, the flashback ends. We have then borne witness to a lie of an insane man, who only has trepidations about the director of his asylum.
There is a palpable need for an order in this movie, for it to stay right and true this once, to keep things together. To not fall into the same instability and uncertainty of the barely constituted, of those who have not in any way kept right, and have hopelessly strayed into the far edge. Yet this soon proves to be very futile, as there will always be factors that will unsettle it, and bend and twist its modularity, which may seem to be beyond one’s control and have not been evident earlier. Such has been epitomized by the distorted geographies of the film’s scenes, the jagged edges of its structural improbabilities, and the mangled trait of its nature. One should put in mind the fact that the same things remain past the flashback’s sequence, into the so-called real world part of the proceedings, and even with the dissidents holed up together in a room, and put into ‘study’ like they apparently should be.
*****
These film movements are interesting for what they say about humanity, yet more about how fading empires respond and react to a consuming cataclysm, and the world being twisted from underneath them. Which calls upon, of course, a set of new questions. Namely, should one stay, or should one go ? Should one strive to keep the status quo, in all the stresses this inflicts to oneself, or should they junk a status quo instead, expunging all its madness, instead of succumbing to it ?
The point in these questions is not to simply explore the modes of a reality. The point, as always, is to change it.
The ‘10s and ‘20s saw the rise of several epochs in world filmmaking; each representing a facet of invention that was sweeping the medium. Cinema was moving away from being a novelty, or a new configuration of a pre-existing tech. It wasn’t enough that it’s a camera that could capture action, or shoot trains as they appear. It wasn’t merely that of moving pictures; but that which is moving them. This was also immediately following the First World War, the most devastating event in history at that point. Countries were exhausted of their resources as much as their power, putting thousands upon thousands of people into the fray. Past securities have been put to the test, as the preexisting order have been found to be wanting,. Someone will surely have to go there in the field, and shoot the ensuing chaos.
No one of course was spared from the unraveling. Russia was virtually drained of all its forces and capabilities to such a point that both soldiers and civilians rebelled. The once formidable Tsarist regime was overthrown, and a new thinking and platform was elevated and put, front and center. Germany, meanwhile, was driven down to such astounding lengths, as the weight of guilt and culpability was brought upon it. Reparations were demanded, devaluing its economy into near starvation, while it struggles with its status as a diminishing empire. Thus, no other film scenes were as profoundly affected as the ones in these countries, as evident in the best of their material.
Russia’s ‘Battleship Potemkin’ was, in fact, a postscript to a victory; in the same way that ‘Les Miserables’ was an ode to an eventual upheaval. Albeit beleaguered, the stories still carry a euphoric vibe about them, served by the author's position of being able to write about these things after the fact. The imposing former order was surmounted. The need then was to integrate this development into one’s being from here on, and to keep on propelling its dynamic everyday.To pack in the comprehensiveness of this fervor, and to configure it such that it could stoke a continuity of action across generations. Much as there is an imperative to account for the several agents and moments that has contributed to such geopolitical result. Certainly, there wasn't a single protagonist in the thing. Hence, the portrayal of the travails of the disaffected, the detailing of their conditions, the key factors that stoked their reply, only precluding the possibility of such insurrections, as much as their inevitability. So, the tragedies served more as object lessons to past mistakes.
For example, the navy men of ‘Battleship Potemkin’ were deprived and humiliated day by day, with rotten meat and rancid environs, their inhuman exploitation to the level of indenture. And for what ? An empire that is brutal and simply doesn’t care, and doesn’t hesitate to pit brother against brother, and shoots its own people. An empire which exists only for itself, and away from culpability, wielding power that should be in the hands of the many, who ought to be ruling their own lives. To articulate all this properly would demand the rethinking of editing a reel, and the selections and arrangements of scenes, to show not just a single moment or narrative in a linear sort of way, but a whole spectrum of events, of actions and reactions, leading up to this point, with their respective protagonists and actors, most of which are from the ordinary tier, the masses who truly forge a reality.
This is what necessitates the sequencing of the Odessa Steps scene, with the Tsarist soldiers marching on and conducting its massacre. A thing like this doesn’t inconvenience a single person, or a lead, but devastates an entire population, a plethora of peoples, from a baby rolling down a stairs, and a nurse who loses her eye, each of which are equally as significant in the larger scheme of things, and the ensuing response which would take these on a whole another level. These ‘cutaway’ moments should thus be integrated into the flow of the scene reel. Which aren’t the stops and starts that they would often seem, but are only a given in the kinesics of upheaval. Something the Soviet montage makes people acknowledge as a possibility.
The German Expressionism in Dr. Caligari, meanwhile, evokes a kind of inevitability in stasis; even a primal thirst for it. But it is not a happy stasis. The film shows this in both in its aesthetic and narrative. The story is told through the flashbacks of our lead Frank, who in turn tells of a show runner who is possibly involved in psychopathic acts. An old man goes in fairs displaying a somnambulist who foretells other people’s fates, yet one he in fact commands to put decisive ends on them. It was only a matter of time ‘til this ends up in a string of murders. The investigation leads into an asylum, revealing not only its director as suspect, but also his obsession with a similar myth in the 18th century about the same bunch of characters, the same modus operandi. The somnambulist is found, and the director is soon arrested and confined to a room in his own asylum, and everything in the world seems to have finally been made right. Then, the flashback ends. We have then borne witness to a lie of an insane man, who only has trepidations about the director of his asylum.
There is a palpable need for an order in this movie, for it to stay right and true this once, to keep things together. To not fall into the same instability and uncertainty of the barely constituted, of those who have not in any way kept right, and have hopelessly strayed into the far edge. Yet this soon proves to be very futile, as there will always be factors that will unsettle it, and bend and twist its modularity, which may seem to be beyond one’s control and have not been evident earlier. Such has been epitomized by the distorted geographies of the film’s scenes, the jagged edges of its structural improbabilities, and the mangled trait of its nature. One should put in mind the fact that the same things remain past the flashback’s sequence, into the so-called real world part of the proceedings, and even with the dissidents holed up together in a room, and put into ‘study’ like they apparently should be.
*****
These film movements are interesting for what they say about humanity, yet more about how fading empires respond and react to a consuming cataclysm, and the world being twisted from underneath them. Which calls upon, of course, a set of new questions. Namely, should one stay, or should one go ? Should one strive to keep the status quo, in all the stresses this inflicts to oneself, or should they junk a status quo instead, expunging all its madness, instead of succumbing to it ?
The point in these questions is not to simply explore the modes of a reality. The point, as always, is to change it.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
On Proxy Students and Puppet Parties :
" The Agency also began to form alternative youth and student organizations at local and international level. The two international bodies constructed to rival those sponsored by the Soviet Union were the Coordinating Secretariat of National Unions of Students ( COSEC, later known as the International Student Conference or ISC ), with headquarters in Leyden, and the World Assembly of Youth ( WAY ) situated in Brussels. Headquarters' planning, guidance and operational functions in the CIA youth and student organizations are centralized in the International Organizations Division of the DDP.
Both COSEC and WAY promote travel, cultural activities, and welfare, but both also work as propaganda agencies for the CIA - particularly in underdeveloped countries. They also have consultative status as non-governmental institutions with United Nations agencies such as UNESCO and they participate in the U.N. special agencies' programs.
One very important function of the CIA youth and student operations is the spotting, assessing and recruiting of student and youth leaders as long-term agents, both in the FI and PP fields. The organizations sponsored or affected by the Agency are obvious recruiting grounds for these and, indeed, for other CIA operations. It is particularly the case in the underdeveloped world that both COSEC and WAY programs lead to the recruitment of young agents who can be relied on to continue CIA policies and remain under CIA control long after they have moved up their political or professional ladders.
Apart from working through COSEC and WAY the Agency is also able to mount specific operations through Catholic national and international student and youth bodies ( Pax Romana and the International Catholic Youth Federation ) and through the Christian democratic and non-communist socialist organizations as well. In some countries, particularly those in which there are groups with strong communist or radical leadership, the Catholic or Christian Democratic student and youth organizations are the main forces guided by the Agency."
- Youth and Student Operations, Camp Peary, Virginia - April 1960
From Inside The Company : CIA Diary by Philip Agee.
Both COSEC and WAY promote travel, cultural activities, and welfare, but both also work as propaganda agencies for the CIA - particularly in underdeveloped countries. They also have consultative status as non-governmental institutions with United Nations agencies such as UNESCO and they participate in the U.N. special agencies' programs.
One very important function of the CIA youth and student operations is the spotting, assessing and recruiting of student and youth leaders as long-term agents, both in the FI and PP fields. The organizations sponsored or affected by the Agency are obvious recruiting grounds for these and, indeed, for other CIA operations. It is particularly the case in the underdeveloped world that both COSEC and WAY programs lead to the recruitment of young agents who can be relied on to continue CIA policies and remain under CIA control long after they have moved up their political or professional ladders.
Apart from working through COSEC and WAY the Agency is also able to mount specific operations through Catholic national and international student and youth bodies ( Pax Romana and the International Catholic Youth Federation ) and through the Christian democratic and non-communist socialist organizations as well. In some countries, particularly those in which there are groups with strong communist or radical leadership, the Catholic or Christian Democratic student and youth organizations are the main forces guided by the Agency."
- Youth and Student Operations, Camp Peary, Virginia - April 1960
From Inside The Company : CIA Diary by Philip Agee.
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