FOR all the claims about the prospect of a “new normal,” it seems it will take some more days before we start doing again the things that we were doing before Luzon was closed.
Be that as it may, there are signs of life in the world of culture and arts. For those who feel they are barely existing now, they may get this sense that to talk about the arts and that huge thing called culture when people are getting infected—and many dying—is irrelevant. To that position, I am in agreement, but to a certain degree, I’d like to feel buoyant at least. And to talk about poetry, cinema, dance, paintings with the horizon gray and fading is good enough. It means we are alive, or we are keeping our spirit alive. If only for that, it is good to know the endeavors and initiatives active around us.
Let us start off with the government arm on cultures and the arts—the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Weeks after the quarantine has been declared, many artists raised their concern—and fists—with the officials of the NCCA. The question was: What does NCCA aim to do in order to help or assist a great sector of artists and allied professions now that that there are no jobs available? The main justified worry of this huge group of artists who stormed the Internet with their queries were those contractual workers or daily wage earners.
From the NCCA comes this news of the agency approving P63 million in funding for arts and culture programs amid Covid-19 crisis.
Let us read on and understand what the communication dated April 23 says:
In a referendum conducted from April 17 to April 22, 2020, the NCCA Board of Commissioners approved a cumulative budget amounting to P63.8 million for the
“NCCA Assistance Program in Response to the Call for Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.” This assistance program will augment NCCA’s initial P4 million quick response cash assistance program.
Currently, the initial cash assistance under the “NCCA Assistance Program for Artists and Cultural Workers Under the State of Calamity” provides the amount of P5,000 to artists and cultural workers who are not under an employer-employee relationship, without regular income, are working freelance, and whose source of income are gone due to the ECQ. This was charged to NCCA Board Resolution 2020-311, the “Arts Program as Quick Response for Natural and Human Induced Disaster,” approved by the Board of Commissioners during its February 20, 2020 meeting. Under this program, the NCCA is able to assist around 1,005 beneficiaries.
While the first batch of NCCA assistance focuses on immediate cash aid, the second batch of NCCA assistance shall be implemented with two primary components. The first component will be the continuation of the Cash Assistance Program to cover an additional of 1,250 beneficiaries from the NCCA-TUPAD registry and those endorsed by the Artists Welfare of the Philippines Inc. (AWPI) and Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP). This component will take up around P6.4 million from the approved budget.
The remaining P57.4 million will be allocated to the second component, which allows for support to committee-driven grants, subsidy programs, or online projects and activities relevant to each committee’s mandate and/or an option to continue with the cash assistance program. The budget for the second component will be distributed to NCCA’s 19 national committees which covers various art forms and cultural disciplines including architecture and the allied arts, cinema, dance, dramatic arts, literary arts, music, visual arts, archives, art galleries, historical research, libraries and information service, monuments and sites, museums, communication, language and translation, cultural education, and cultural communities in the north, central, and southern Philippines.
Moreover, each committee will decide on the mode through which their respective budget will be utilized. However, if the committees deem that cash assistance program is the best response for the needs of their sector, the budget may so be allotted with a maximum amount of PhP5,000.00, net of tax, endorsed and approved beneficiaries.
Our duty now—whether you are a member of a committee or not—is to examine this document, make clarifications, and suggest ways to make the program sustainable and cost-efficient in the light of the pandemic.
The creatives in other areas persist.
Online forums continue. Adolf Alix has his own #ExtendtheLove Cinema Series. It is a series of online engagement called “Actors’ Cue,” with actors discussing their craft. On May 4, it was already on its third series, focusing on Asian Actors. The listed participants were Ananda Everingham (Thailand), Nicholas Saputra (Indonesia), Rhydian Vaughan (Taiwan) and our very own Piolo Pascual. Everingham was not able to make it.
For May 6, Series 4 of the “Actors’ Cue” listed the following: Angeli Bayani, Iza Calzado, Sylvia Sanchez, Jodi Sta. Maria and Meryll Soriano.
I notice other online activities, some of them announcing lectures on specific elements or technologies in filmmaking. This is laudable. There are some with new filmmakers discussing their craft. This is fine but we have to be careful that we should get resource speakers whose skills are vetted. Integrity is also important. Given the unusual free time available to our otherwise busy film veterans, it is best to secure the wisdom of these tested filmmakers, if our idea is to learn. If it is for mere sharing, it does not matter whether you are a fresh graduate or a one-film filmmaker.
Unusual times indeed…
From the posts of Jay Altarejos, we learn about 2076Kolektib and its efforts to uphold all arts, and use it not as vain décor but an active weapon to push agenda and fight for social reforms. It is the kind of artistic initiative that the mainstream society marginalizes as “dangerous” and “subversive.” Was it Picasso who said all art is subversive?
In its latest offering, 2076Kolektib pays tribute to GA Villafuerte who died on April 29. GA was an actor and director who did almost 100 films that were exhibited at the stand-alone cinemas in the country. For the fete, the group screens Censored Dreams, a film that shows the seamier and grittier side of indie cinema. These films may have escaped the curator’s eye when the nation was celebrating the centenary of Philippine cinema, but history and critical times do allow recrimination. Was it Luis Buñuel who said: “But that the white eye-lid of the screen reflect its proper light, the universe would go up in flames”?