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THE COVID-19 pandemic limited people’s access to social gatherings and opportunities to explore their interests. While it did open up possibilities to do more things online, it exacerbated issues of isolation among adults.

Though the world’s economies have restarted, bringing a resurgence of arts and entertainment events, the social struggle to immerse in various passions led the De los Reyes family to establish STUDIOM — an intimate arts, activities, and experiences center in the heart of Makati.

STUDIOM, a play on the Latin word studium meaning “study,” “zeal,” or “purpose,” offers a plethora of classes, workshops and other activities, like zumba and yoga classes, painting sessions, board and video game nights, vocal coaching, karaoke nights, salsa dance parties, chocolate-making classes, dumpling folding lunches, and nature conservation panels, among others.

“We don’t really offer a menu of activities. We just keep it open and invite people to tell us what their interests are so that we can create new experiences that are not usually routine or typical of what you find in the city,” business analyst Matti de los Reyes, STUDIOM’s chief executive officer, told BusinessWorld in a brief visit to the space.

His father, Ricardo de los Reyes, said that while the idea germinated as a way to provide creative support for a family member diagnosed with autism, it is a place that is open to everybody under the sun.

“It’s designed for all adults because it’s our belief that adults want to continue to learn, but there is a dearth of places where they can do that. Many of the learning places are built for children and young people at the prime of their life, like music schools and gyms. We really focus on creating this environment for adults, from the young to the geriatric,” The senior Mr. De los Reyes added.

A THIRD PLACE
The center is inspired by the urban sociology concept of the “third place.”

While the home is described as the first place and the workplace as the second place, venues where people connect with others in the community — public parks, churches, restaurants, theaters, gyms — are the third place. This is what STUDIOM aspires to be, explained the younger Mr. De los Reyes.

“We aim to be a new type of third place — an interesting place for interesting people with interesting interests,” he said.

Recently opened at the Lorraine Tower in Proscenium at Rockwell, the 140-square meter space is located there so that “the center could feed from the dynamism, playfulness, and diversity of the city.” It is reconfigurable to take the form of various settings, be it a gym, a dance hall, an art studio, a kitchen, a lecture hall, a lounge, or a nightclub.

STUDIOM’s programs are just as malleable. Case managers and activity specialists address all requests to learn, no matter how specific.

“If you have a particular interest in music and want to learn more, we could match you up with a master instructor or create a program to teach you, for you to pursue that interest. Maybe you won’t want to start from scratch with the fundamentals, but with a few songs that you actually want to learn on the piano or the guitar,” explained the senior Mr. De los Reyes.

A recent example is Broadway karaoke, which was one session where a group of interested individuals learned to sing Broadway songs with proper voicing and projection — culminating in a fun night of karaoke.

“People can demonstrate what they’ve learned in a safe environment. Ultimately, we bring people together and they form friendships; they become part of a social club built around that common interest,” he said.

INCLUSIVITY
While the participants of that karaoke session were in their 20s and 30s, STUDIOM has had clients as old as 90 taking part in activities like painting and board games. There are also those on the autism spectrum and those with limited physical mobility.

“We break it down so that it becomes accessible. At STUDIOM, anyone of any age or skill level can access activities and experiences that are available to typical people,” said Matti de los Reyes.

Many sessions start at P1,000 for a one-off class, but the fee may go up depending on the needs of a particular interest. A live band or a cast of professional actors will require a larger fee, for instance.

Though STUDIOM’s ideals are to welcome those with special needs, it is simply open to all adults who want to learn something new, be it in a one-on-one session, an intimate group, or a crowd of new faces.

“[The group size] varies from activity to activity,” he added. “If it’s a chocolate making class, it might be 12 people. For a one-day choir, there could be more.”

“What’s important is that we cater to the desire to learn. We give people a creative space to explore and to share.”

STUDIOM is located in Lorraine Tower, Proscenium at Rockwell, Makati City. For more information on its activities, visit STUDIOM’s social media pages on Facebook and Instagram. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

THE FILM industry in the Philippines is hoping to revive its cultural exchanges with Germany, which have influenced Filipino alternative cinema and film studies over the years. This according to filmmakers and researchers at an Aug. 29 forum organized by the German Embassy at Sine Pop, Quezon City.

“My personal history with Germany started at the Berlin Film Festival in 1982, when I met my producer Hagmut Brockmann, who supplied Super8 films for me to make Oliver,” said Nick Deocampo, a filmmaker and film historian, at the event.

He then cited the films of Raymond Red, also present at the talk, as products of workshops that occurred under the Mowelfund Film Institute (MFI), a hub for filmmakers to learn and practice their art in the 1980s with the help of many German partners.

These included mentors like filmmakers Ingo Petzke and Christoph Janetzko and then-Goethe Institut director, Uwe Schmelter. They had worked closely with Mr. Deocampo when he was the director of MFI and put up film screenings, lectures, and workshops.

“We really blossomed as a film movement in the ’80s, coming from the People Power Revolution and thinking deeply about social change. We related with German abstract and experimental filmmakers, who showed us the medium’s potential to be a revolutionary cinema,” he explained.

Ricky Orellana, the current director of MFI, agreed that the partnerships were essential to establishing “a very strong alternative movement in the Philippines,” now called independent or indie.

It was in 1985 that Mr. Orellana got involved in the alternative scene, when he started enrolling in filmmaking workshops conducted by Mr. Petzke and Mr. Janetzko. His batchmates included Lav Diaz, Larry Mando, Vicky Donato, Rox Lee, and Eli Guieb.

“Those workshops were so successful that Goethe Institut tried to duplicate it in other countries like Thailand, Brazil, and South Korea. The formula was established here,” he said.

Sa Maynila, his own film with Mike Alcazaren and Josephine Atienza made in 1988, is one of many products of these cultural exchanges. MFI will be reintroducing the archived films that came from these workshops and festivals to a new generation, with screenings set for World Heritage Day in October.

SHARED FILM LANGUAGE
For Munich-born, Baguio-based cultural researcher Katrin De Guia, exploring Filipino psychology was a must when she first moved here in 1979. As a student of renowned scholar Virgilio Enriquez, she came to understand local culture through the lens of kapwa psychology.

With this, parallels can be drawn between the Philippines’ and Germany’s filmic languages, oriented towards sharing stories over commercial benefit.

“Kapwa means that everyone learns from each other. Individualism is not as necessary as the things that combine us. In Germany, there is a similar word, mitmenschlichkeit, which means that we are all human,” said Ms. De Guia.

However, she added that Germany has lots of artists and intellectuals mainly because of funding and effort in enhancing arts and culture. Her husband, National Artist for Film Kidlat Tahimik (a.k.a. Eric De Guia), managed to make his first film thanks to producers in Berlin, much like Mr. Deocampo.

At the talk, Mr. De Guia explained that alternative cinema aims to peel back the colonial layer from the face of the people.

“The protocols of blockbuster filmmaking that we got from Hollywood are now gospel here, too. We have to remember we are a kapwa culture. Rather than copying successful films, we can put out more Filipino-oriented stories and not lose kapwa in the search for profit,” he said.

MFI’s Mr. Orellana added that archiving is another realm of cinema that has been positively affected by German-Philippine relations. National Artist Gerardo De Leon’s 1961 film Noli Me Tangere, based on the novel by Jose Rizal, was once considered a lost film — until the late archivist Teddy Co found the print and had it restored by the German Federal Archive in 1989.

In relation to that tidbit, Mr. Deocampo posited that the filmmaking workshops and archiving initiatives are but a natural progression of the German-Philippine connection first established by Mr. Rizal himself with scholar Ferdinand Blumentritt (although he was Czech-born).

“That was a partnership in literature, and now we have it in a modern communication medium, cinema, which has a larger audience,” he said. For the upcoming Frankfurt Buchmesse, his books on Philippine film history will be translated into German and published in Germany.

“We can galvanize this relationship with books and with films. We’ve had very rich relations in the past 40 years, since the ’80s. We’re going strong and we’re making it more tangible through this intellectual work.” — Brontë H. Lacsamana