For several years, Colegio de San Juan de Letran’s Institute of Communication has established itself as a breeding ground for values-oriented and award-winning productions regardless of whatever medium.
Leading the pack of recent winners from Letran is “Takip Sining,” a documentary directed by ICOMM alumnus Juan Fontanilla. The non-fiction work tells the story of Persons Deprived of Liberty or PDLs who use art as therapy at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), through their talent in painting.
“Takip Sining” won Best Documentary, Best in Directing, Best in Screenplay, Best in Editing, Best in Musical Score, and Audience Choice Award at Sine Abierto, a student film festival based at the University of Santo Tomas, and another Best Documentary award at the Singkuwento Film Festival.
Art as therapy for PDLs
Aside from its victories at Sine Abierto and Singkuwento, “Takip Sining” has also been recognized at the Sulyap Documentaries, DLSU’s Indie Un-Film Festival, FEU’s Sinepiyu, Cinestudyante, and Viddsee Juree.
“What inspired me to come up with this concept is to step up the game and take risks for us to show a better understanding on what’s happening inside the Bilibid. We focused on the Kulay group of artists which uses art as part of their reformation and rehabilitation,” Fontanilla said.
The filmmaker and the rest of Majica Productions also showed some of the common misconceptions about PDLs and how they face difficult challenges and harsh criticisms in their everyday life behind bars.
Fontanilla shared that it felt great to be able to share the story of people inside the NBP. “And that’s the main reason why we made it possible for us to finish this film even though we experienced and encountered a lot of problems while doing this film,” he added.
Bringing back the glory years of The MET
Meanwhile, “Entablado” (The Stage), directed by ICOMM alumnae Lie Clemente and Nori Isturis, topped the documentary category of last year’s Sinag Maynila Film Festival. The award-winning documentary takes the audience to a trip down memory lane, as it features the iconic Metropolitan Theater and its cultural impact as well as the esteemed people who once graced its stage.
Produced as a final requirement for their Writing for TV class, Isturis shared that the concept came from their groupmate and producer Sarah Misajon. “Her late father, Noel Cabahug, used to perform at the Met with his sister, Lisa Cabahug. But what really inspired the whole team is that, as Communication students, we know how the production works, the grueling ins and outs of pre-prod, prod and post-prod, but ultimately the only reason we stay in such a harsh industry is because of our love for the arts.”
On the other hand, Clemente, who also served as director of photography and editor, described as “surreal” the experience of showing it to an audience outside Letran. “Our whole team never expected it to reach an audience that big. We’re very proud and grateful for the experience.”
“Entablado” led the Letran charge at Solar Entertainment Corporation’s Sinag Maynila together with another documentary “Andap” (Flicker) and the short film “Dana Jung.”
Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease
“Andap” is about an estranged mother-daughter relationship, between 83-year-old Aling Tuding and Peachy Jimeño, which was rekindled by Alzheimer’s disease. It narrates the hardships, not only of people diagnosed with the brain disease that causes them to lose their memory, but also of individuals taking care of those with the disease, which progressively worsens as those suffering from it get older.
Calista Geronimo and Roma Mangahas, who also served as its editor, were inspired by “the unconditional and genuine love” of their parents in coming up with the documentary. “Our goal is to be an eye-opener to many, to appreciate and value our loved ones while they’re here and can still remember us,” Geronimo shared.
As a student filmmaker, she felt ecstatic enough when their work was shown in their school auditorium, “but the opportunity to witness it on cinemas and showcase it to the bigger audience is a dream come true for me and the whole production team. Hopefully, we can have the opportunity to show it again to a bigger audience to be able to bring them the goal and message of our documentary,” she added.
Explaining complicated things to a child
Aside from Sinag Maynila, “Dana Jung” was also nominated for Best Student Short Film at the 40th Catholic Mass Media Awards, which honors communication works that promote Christian values.
Director/writer John Rogers collaborated with the rest of the members of Estrella Productions to come up with a part-animated short film that tells the story of a father (Jal Galang) who tries to find the easiest way to explain to his six-year-old daughter (Xenia Barrameda) that she has brain cancer.
Rogers got the idea for the film when he was confined in a hospital for a week and shared a room with a kid. “The whole time I was there, the kid kept telling his mom that he wants to go home. But what the mom couldn’t tell her son was the gravity of the kid’s illness. Usually, if a parent could not explain to their child the situation of their illness, the doctors could do it for the parent. They’re trained to.”
“But, in this film, we wanted to somewhat explore that struggle. Having to explain something complex, like cancer or death, to a kid. And the fact that the father in the story doesn’t have to place that task on himself, but he feels compelled to tell his daughter for more reasons other than just explaining her illness. We think, as a father, there’s baggage there,” Rogers shared.
The young filmmaker was also able to inject humor despite the moribund state of things in the short film. “It is sort of rather difficult to explain certain things to a child. Such questions like where do babies come from? What is the meaning of life? How did Mocha Uson reach her current position? Or why do people die? Some questions need to be addressed sooner rather than later,” he wittily explained.
In addition, the “Dana Jung” director narrated that his Sinag Maynila experience wasn’t that different from showing it in Letran. “Both are scary. It was fun to read the short reviews by people outside Letran. For the most part, they appreciated it for what it is and we’re thankful they took the time to watch it.”
Coming to terms with reality
Another Cinema Knights product and festival favorite is “Lila,” which shows the drama in the life of a retired beauty queen named Lila Santos. As it turns out, all the glamour and success come at a cost.
The film was also shown at Sinepiyu, Mapua University’s CineMapua and De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s One La Salle Film Festival, making director Sherine Nicole Dimadura proud. “I was very happy I saw Lila got nominated for Best Director and Editing (awards we’ve gotten in our own alma mater’s film fest). It felt surreal to have other people outside my school talk to me about it. It always made me feel like I did something special there, reaching other people with a story we made for the screen.”
“What inspired me was my own pageant experience in high school and the huge fad surrounding beauty pageants here in the Philippines. I wanted to show the other side that women go through to reach the industry’s standards. And at the same time, make the storyline relatable to everyone else,” she shared.
Dimadura entered “Lila” in bigger film festivals outside Letran to reach even more people, not just those who have seen it in their school. “Because Lila isn’t a moral story. It’s somewhat a cautionary tale of what happens when people lose sight of what’s important in the pursuit of their ambitions,” she said.
From Letran and beyond
One of the recent short films to come out of Letran is “Sto. Entierro,” a coming-of-age story about a law student (Jervin Marquez) and his estranged childhood friend (Kych Minemoto). Set during San Selino’s Good Friday procession, they meet again after five years. While reminiscing the past, old feelings resurface. Supporting Marquez and Minemoto are Dang Torio, Jaepheth Cortez and Erlinda Villalobos.
Writer-producer Jerome San Miguel explained that it was based on a short story by his friend Joshua John dela Peña, entitled “Procesion del Santo Entierro,” which he rewrote and submitted for their film class. He shared that what got him interested to turn the project into a short film is “how there is a certain environment and at the same time there is a contradicting issue in it. At first, I was problematic and anxious about the sensitivity of the topic, but my team and my director really helped me a lot.”
Director-cinematographer Marinella Datuin shared the same sentiment with San Miguel. “Sto. Entierro’s theme, perspective on love and how society’s conception of how taboo it is, compelled our production team to execute it. Personally, I love to work on films with universal themes that people can resonate with or can transcend human connection or understanding.”
The short film recently became a CMMA finalist, surprising not only the filmmakers, but those who have already seen the film as well. San Miguel explained that it is “a scenario which we did not expect because our short film, for some people, is a controversial one, but maybe what I see in this is the irony of it. That there is irony in our lives—not just in films or any other stories.”
“‘Sto. Entierro,’ will continue to join film festivals and continue to be a voice to break societal conventions and norms that can become a spark of hope and inspire people and filmmakers,” Datuin vowed.
Values filmmaking from award-winning directors
Meanwhile, Letran, in celebration of its quadricentennial anniversary and Philippine Cinema centennial, also hosted the first Moving Images Film Conference in November. The event, which was supported by the Film Development Council of the Philippines, focused on values in filmmaking, in true Letran fashion.
GBert Tongo, one of the event organizers, revealed that they were inspired to hold MIFC “since many alumni have been leading activities in celebration of the Colegio’s Quadricentennial anniversary. We thought we can also contribute in our way. We are actually three in the group—together with RC Delos Reyes and Darika Roquero—and we’re AB-Communication Arts graduates from Batch 2009. Since I and RC are both in the film industry, we have a fair share of networks and contacts.”
Blockbuster and award-winning filmmakers Antoinette Jadaone and Paul Soriano talked about values integration in their works. They were joined by Letran alumni, led by acclaimed director-scriptwriter Dwein Baltazar, Star Cinema creative head Jancy Nicolas, “Nuuk” and “Kita Kita” producer Erwin Blanco, Ten17p creative head and director-producer delos Reyes, director Barry Gonzales and Tongo. Star Cinema, Black Sheep, Viva Films, Ten17p and MAVX Productions also interacted with the participants.
Tongo shared that MIFC aims to educate students, film practitioners and enthusiasts on the art of filmmaking while instilling the importance of values integration in every film. “Our advocacy is to inspire future filmmaker at a young age with values filmmaking. We plan to organize MIFC annually and we want to target bigger student audience next year 2020 as well as tap bigger names in the industry.”
From values filmmaking to values advertising
Letran, in partnership with the Advertising Foundation of the Philippines, will convene delegates from various schools when it hosts the 19th AdSpeak Students’ Convention on Values Advertising on April 3.
Officially spearheaded by ICOMM and the Blank Canvas Advertising House, the event aims to encourage participants to practice and promote values and worthwhile advocacies in advertisements. It is a venue for students from different schools and colleges to come together with the common goal to drive culture and behavioral change while still upholding values uniquely important to the Filipino consumer.
AdSpeak serves as a link to industry experts and features presentations by advertising bigwigs. The culminating event is a values-based advertising competition where schools participate by submitting their entries in various categories, namely Radio, TV, Campaign, Digital and Brand Communications.