At the start of the pandemic, cinemas were shut down and large group gatherings were banned, bringing the film industry to a screeching halt, and leading to the cancellation of festivals celebrating films and filmmaking. Now, several months into the pandemic and the “new normal,” film festivals have found a second life online and more are following suit.

In August the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival successfully went online, and in September, Daang Dokyu Documentary Film Festival followed suit (it is running until November). Now at the end of October, Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP) is pushing through with an impressive slate of more than 160 films.

“This year’s PPP is a solidarity event that aims to encourage support for Philippine Cinema in light of the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to propagate the love for Filipino films among audiences and help sustain the country’s film industry that is gravely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The FDCP (Film Development Council of the Philippines) is glad to announce that all proceeds will be given to producers involved in the festival through revenue sharing,” Mary Liza Diño, chairman and CEO of the FDCP, said in a digital conference on Oct. 9 via Zoom.

The festival will run from Oct. 31 to Nov. 15, with films screening on FDCPChannel.ph.

The Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino is the FDCP’s flagship film festival, and for its fourth installment, the festival presents films classified into 14 sections: Premium, Classics, PH Oscars Entries, Tributes, Romance, Youth and Family, Genre, Bahaghari, PPP Retro, Documentary, and From the Regions, along with Sine Kabataan and CineMarya. 

The Premium section will feature Lav Diaz’s Ang Lakaran ni Kabunyan: Kabunyan’s Journey to Liwanag (2018), Batch ‘81 (1982) by Mike de Leon, and the restored version of Brutal (1980) by Marilou Diaz-Abaya, among others.

Lav Diaz’s Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon (2014) will also have a special screening in the festival. 

The Classics section will feature restored films such as Anak Dalita (1956) by Lamberto V. Avellana and Banaue: Stairway to the Sky (1975) by Gerry de Leon, while the Romance section will screen films such as Una Kang Naging Akin (1991) by Laurice Guillen and Kailangan Ko’y Ikaw (2000) by Joyce Bernal.

The Youth and Family section will feature the restored version of Pare Ko (1995) by Jose Javier Reyes and Pepot Artista (2005) by Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr., while the Pang-Oscars section will feature films which had been submitted to the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film section including Signal Rock (2018) by Chito S. Rono and the restored version of Anak (2000) by Rory Quintos.

The Genre section will feature films such as Aswang (1992) by Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes and Alpha: The Right to Kill (2018) by Brillante Ma. Mendoza; the Bahaghari section focusing on LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, etc.) films will feature Huling Cha-cha ni Anita (2013) by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo and Akin ang Korona (2019) by Zig Madamba Dulay; while the Tribute section focuses on films serving as tribute to departed actors and directors and will feature Adela (2008) by Adolfo Alix, Jr., in honor of actress Anita Linda and Muro-Ami (1999) by Marilou Diaz-Abaya as a tribute to the director.

The From the Regions section will focus on films from outside the NCR such as Tu Pug Imatuy (2017) by Arbi Barbarona and Ari: My Life with a King (2015) by Carlo Catu; the Documentary section will feature Dahling Nick (2015) by Sari Dalena and Forbidden Memory (2016) by Teng Mangansakan; PPP Retro focuses on films which made their debut in the festival including Circa (2011) by Adolfo Alix, Jr. and Paglipay (2016) by Zig Dulay; while CineMarya focuses on films on women such as Super-Able (2018) by Arjanmar Rebeta and Hakab (2020)by Mel Aguilar-Maestro.

Several short films will be shown for free during the festival such as Bato Bato Pik (2018) by Lorys Plaza and Jaq Sanque and Kalakalaro (2019) by Rodson Suarez.

The PPP4 runs from Oct. 31 to November on the FDCPchannel.ph. Passes to the festival are priced at P450 for the full 16-day pass for Early Birds (available until Oct. 25) while the regular price for the 16-day full-run pass is P599, half run passes are priced at P299 for eight days, and day passes are P99. Discounts will be given for persons with disabilities and senior citizens (20%) and students (30%). For updates and more information, visit FDCPchannel.ph or facebook.com/FDCPPPP. — Zsarlene B. Chua

Biobalance Webinar

On Oct. 24, 9 a.m., the Biobalance Wellness Institute will hold a webinar called “Trust Your Gut: What Symptoms Reveal About Your Health.” The webinar, hosted by Dr. Eca Lorenzo, is aimed at teaching people about the symptoms and risk factors that can damage their gut health and overall health, and what can be done to restore and maintain a healthy gut. The webinar is free and will be broadcast live via BioBalance Wellness Institute’s Facebook page. 

Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra concert series

The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) will be bringing classical music online on Oct. 30, 8 p.m., as part of its PPO Chamber Music concert series. Maestro Yoshikazu Fukumura, the PPO’s music director and principal conductor, has programmed a chamber concert series that highlights the different instruments of the orchestra while performing music composed for small ensembles. The October concert will focus on string instruments, while a Nov. 27 concert will focus on wind instruments. The concerts will be streamed on the CCP and PPO Facebook pages.

Fitness Dance-athon

Avon Philippines continues its efforts to raise funds for the Philippine Cancer Society for Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a Dance-athon featuring dance group The Manoeuvers on Oct. 24, 6 p.m., at the Avon Philippines Facebook page. The session will last for two hours.

KulturaSerye Webinar at Gateway Gallery

Gateway Gallery presents the fourth installment of the #KulturaSerye webinars on Oct. 24, 2 p.m., via its Facebook page. Entitled “Philippine History: Beyond the Classroom and Textbook,” the talk will be delivered by Ian Christopher Alfonso who will emphasize how history can be taught beyond the classroom and will present the various avenues by which Philippine history can be taught effectively. To view the webinar, like or follow Gateway Gallery Facebook page and ensure bell notification is set to on for online events. This is a free webinar and no pre-registration is needed. Viewers are encouraged to join the discussion and share the live webinar so that more people will benefit from the talk.  To know more about #KulturaSerye and the webinar, message the Gateway Gallery social media accounts — Facebook (GatewayGalleryPh), Instagram (gateway.gallery), Twitter (gateway_gallery), and You Tube (Gateway Gallery) — e-mail at gatewaygallery@aranetagroup.com, or call 8588-4000 local 8300.

Best of Spanish contemporary dance

Instituto Cervantes de Manila presents from Oct. 26 to 31, a selection from FIVER, an international festival of audiovisual dance support, exhibition and production created in Spain in 2012, for free on its Vimeo channel, https://vimeo.com/showcase/fiver. Curated by Samuel Retortillo, director of the FIVER festival, the selection is a current vision of audiovisual dance, based on five works that Fiver produced or have been finalists in their international competition.   This program is expanded with a series of videos that were created during confinement called: “Confined Bodies.” For further information please log on to Instituto Cervantes’ website (http://manila.cervantes.es), or Instituto Cervantes Facebook page www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila.  

HABI Fair goes online

The Likhang HABI Market Fair  — a showcase of handwoven items for the home and self using local fabrics, fibers, and textiles — is going online this week, from Oct. 21-27, via the website www.shophabifair.com. Over 30 merchants have joined this year, with their products sourced from and made in all corners of the country. For more information on Likhang HABI Online Market Fair, the series of webinars, and other HABI advocacies, visit www.habitextilecouncil.ph or follow www.facebook.com/HabiThePhilTextileCouncil and Instagram @habifair. 

BaiCon held this weekend

The CICP (Creator and Influencer Council of the Philippines) is holding its second BaiCon on Oct. 23-24, the largest gathering of creators and influencers in the Philippines, with this year’s theme being “BaiCon InFest 2020 The Space Invasion.” It will be attended by over 50 influencers and creators including Mikey Bustos, Erwan Heussaff, Inka Magnaye, Bogart the Explorer, and many more. It will also feature VisMin creators and influencers. To join BaiCon, register via www.baicon.ph or follow BaiCon InFest 2020 The Space Invasion’s Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @baicon.ph. 

Podcast on Joey Ayala

THE FILIPINAS Heritage Library and the OPM Archive will release MUNI-MUNI STORIES: A Podcast on Filipino Music Episode 3: Joey Ayala | Karaniwang Tao on Oct. 23, 6 p.m., on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. In this episode, the podcast host talks with Joey Ayala about his beginnings, the importance of music spaces, his song-writing process, and the need to tell stories through writing. For updates regarding the episode upload schedules, visit Filipinas Heritage Library and the OPM Archive on Facebook.

Mitch & Mel Online ‘Ohayo’

Comedian Mitch Valdez and musical director Mel Villena star in a half hour of stories and music delivered into your homes via Zoom on Oct. 24, 6 p.m. (Philippine time) and 7 p.m. (UTC-7). “Ohayo” is the title of the first episode with Valdez sharing stories of growing up in Japan and the culture shock of re-entry to life in the Philippines. This is the first of many episodes providing an antidote for our times. Get access (P600 advanced, P750 on the day of the show) via TicketWorld.

Animation Film Festival online

FOR the 10th year in a row, the Institut Français, in partnership with the AFCA (Association Française du Cinéma d’Animation), is bringing the Fête du cinéma de l’animation (Animation Film Festival) to an international audience. From Oct. 14 to 31, two animated feature films and 11 French and African animated short films will be available online and for free. The films can be seen here; https://ifcinema.institutfrancais.com/fr/streaming/animation . All the films are in French with English subtitles.

Glass Art Workshop

The BGC (Bonifacio Global City) Arts Center will be holding a glass art workshop with artist Fchel Estanislao of Glassicology on Oct. 24, 10 a.m. to noon. The session will be about turning glass into wood art. The session is recommended for children aged 7 and up. Donations are needed to access the workshops which will be conducted via Zoom. The center requests a minimum donation of P500. For more information and how to register, visit https://www.bgcartscenter.org/whats-on/219/online-yana-workshops.

Film screening on mental health

THE CULTURAL Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the Quisumbing-Escandor Film Festival for Health partner to bring awareness to mental health and health-related issues in the country through Balik Tanaw, a free film online screening. From Oct. 23 to 30, films on autism spectrum disorder, depression, and dementia will be screened on the CCP Vimeo channel for free. The featured films — Oh, Aking Katoto by Kelvin Aguilar, Rekuwerdo by Kristoffer Brugada, and Wish by Sheen Irerick Seekts — were part of the 3rd Quisumbing-Escandor Film Festival. There will also be a live talkback and Q&A with the film directors, to be moderated by actress Meryll Soriano, on Oct. 30. Catch it on the CCP Media Arts and CCP Facebook pages.

Museum conference 

THE METROPOLITAN Museum of Manila and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), in collaboration with the Alliance of Greater Metro Manila Museums and with the support of De La Salle University Publishing House, invite museum professionals to participate in the exchange of ideas on the issues, challenges, and opportunities concerning the museum community. A Call to Transform: Manila Museums Summit 2020 — which will be held from Oct. 27 to 30, 9 a.m. to noon —  envisions to cultivate a critical understanding of the directions museums are moving towards and the strategies implemented by different institutions in adapting to these precarious times. The summit will be hosted via Zoom with livestreaming on Facebook. Click “going” on the Facebook event page (https://web.facebook.com/events/1493740850824053 ) to be notified once it goes live.

Freestyle, Robert Seña to headline free online concert

POP and R&B band Freestyle and indie alternative band She’s Only Sixteen’s frontman and rhythm guitarist Robert Seña will headline the nostalgia-themed UNITE 2020, an online concert that is free and open to the public. It will showcase performances by homegrown talents and indie musical acts Kyla and Jam, The Strays, Why July, Nobody’s Home, Tala and Matt Murillo. The affair will feature numbers from the internationally acclaimed Saint Benilde Romançon Dance Company and hit mixes by DJ Mohit and DJ Rammy. UNITE 2020 will go live on Oct. 30, 6 p.m., on the official Facebook page of the Benildean Student Trainers at: https://www.facebook.com/StudentTrainers/.

Rush Hour Concerts: The Best of OPM with MSO

IN the midst of the pandemic, the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO) continues with its popular Rush Hour series of concerts, this time online. On Oct. 30, 6-7 p.m., via Zoom, the MSO will perform symphonic renditions of the Best of OPM (Original Pilipino Music) from the 1970s to the 1990s, from the hits of Ryan Cayabyab up to the Eraserheads. Proceeds from the online event will support Ayala Foundation’s student scholars online access allowance for one school year. Get access (regular tickets are P1,200, while discounted tickets for seniors, PWD, and students is P850) via TicketWorld.

Award-winning screenwriter and playwright Ricardo “Ricky” Lee is sharing his tips on how to write and tell stories on iWant’s Trip to Quiapo, a five-part reality show/masterclass.

“All of us, writers or not, have the ability to tell stories. We’re just afraid,” Mr. Lee said in the trailer for the show.

Based on his book, Trip to Quiapo: Scriptwriting Manual, published in 1998, Trip to Quiapo the series is like a crash course masterclass on how to tell stories and how there’s no wrong way to tell them.

Quiapo, a district in Manila known for being a bustling commerce center and for the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene or Quiapo Church, is the symbol of Mr. Lee’s dreams as he used to read a lot about the place when he was a child.

“For a child like me, Quiapo was the pinnacle, that’s why when I was writing, Quiapo became the symbol of me achieving my dream of writing a great and successful script,” he explained in a press release.

In a testament to all his years as a writer, Mr. Lee pointed out that this generation’s writers have some sort of “restlessness.”

“They already want to break out and create screenplays and direct. There’s a certain impatience that I try my best to understand. And you can see it in their scripts, there’s a kind of rush and a rhythm of urgency,” he explained.

While he may dole out lessons on how to write, he stresses that there is no wrong way to write.

“There’s no wrong or right way to write, you just have to make it right. If that’s the nature of your time and who you are as a person, turn it around and make it work…They say a movie shouldn’t be too talkative but if that’s how you write, make me admire it,” Mr. Lee said in the vernacular during a media conference on Oct. 19 held over Zoom.

And the pandemic should not stop writers from writing. In fact, Mr. Lee said that writing is a way of “making sense of what is happening around us and with other people.”

Through his four decade-long career writing screenplays for some of the most celebrated Filipino films — Lino Brocka’s Jaguar (1979), Cain at Abel (1982), and Himala (1982), to name a very few — Mr. Lee reflected that he still continues to learn and uses his writing workshops, usually held in his basement, as a way to teach people and learn for himself.

“I’m only one person and sometimes my workshop class numbers 30 people, and I learn a lot from them,” he explained before adding that since he continues to learn and he continues to write, he doesn’t have any intention of retiring.

His workshops, which he started in 1982, have produced some of the country’s celebrated filmmakers including Lav Diaz, Jerry L. Sineneng, and Jeffrey Jeturian.

And now he’s bringing those workshops on screen with Trip to Quiapo, directed by Alberto “Treb” Monteras II, the director of Cinemalaya Best Picture Respeto (2017) and starring Enchong Dee as a struggling writer.

Trip to Quiapo is regarded by many screenwriters as the quintessential storytelling manual despite being published three decades ago, but the show, according to Mr. Lee, showed him a different perspective on Quiapo.

“I saw in a new and fresh perspective the manual I wrote so many years ago,” he said in both the conference and the show’s trailer.

“Have you tried having your friends read your work? Are they still friends with you?” he joked with a workshopper played by actor Arjo Atayde in the show’s trailer.

And in such a short sentence, Mr. Lee condensed what is probably the overarching lesson of his workshops: “There’s nothing else you need to do other than be brave, make your passion your inspiration, and start writing.”

“That’s why it’s called Trip to Quiapo, the journey is more important than Quiapo (the destination),” Mr. Lee explained.

Trip to Quiapo is now streaming for free on the iWant streaming platform. — Z.B. Chua

Rebecca proves to be the novel that keeps on giving

LOS ANGELES — Daphne du Maurier’s beloved novel Rebecca has seen multiple screen adaptations but the director of the latest film version believes his may be the closest to the 1938 book.

The thriller about a young, naive woman who marries an older aristocrat but finds herself in the shadow of his late wife, Rebecca, was an Oscar best picture winner for director Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. But the ending of the book was changed.

The new film, directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Lily James, Armie Hammer and Kristin Scott Thomas, will be released on Netflix on Wednesday.

“I went back to it and kind of re-read it and realized that this is the first script for a feature version of the book that had all the plot in it. Before, there had been things taken out and major story points which had been removed,” Wheatley said.

James, who plays the young woman, said the novel was packed with themes including male-female power dynamics as well as “obsession and jealousy and the patriarchy and everything within a very addictive, commercial, gothic horror thriller romance.”

Scott Thomas, a longtime fan of the book, said she was thrilled to be cast as the manipulative housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, played in the 1940 version by Judith Anderson.

“I reveled in creating her, in creating the image and in the sort of construction of her. But actually doing it, actually being her when they say ‘Action’ and having to be so beastly, it’s actually quite hard,” she said.

“I think people love those sort of stories where something suddenly appears incredibly realistic and true and you can really identify with it and then suddenly it sort of slips into something a bit more of a fantasy,” Scott Thomas said.  — Reuters

Borat bounces back just ahead of US elections

LOS ANGELES — In 2006, he shocked the world with his scathing cultural satire of the United States in Borat. Now British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is back with a mockumentary sequel that is garnering mixed reviews two weeks ahead of the US elections.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, available on Amazon Prime from Friday, sees Baron Cohen back in character as racist, sexist Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev who once again travels to America.

This time, the plot revolves around his attempts to marry off his 15 year-old-daughter to Vice-President Mike Pence or, failing that, Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York now best known as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.

“Sequels don’t come more triumphant, or well-timed, than this,” said the Daily Beast in its review on Wednesday.

Variety said the film delivers a “consistent, coherent feature-length narrative, punctuated with outrageous, unpredictable set pieces.”

Few of the film’s pranks were revealed ahead of the release, but reviewers said they include Cohen gate-crashing a political conference dressed as Trump, a coronavirus quarantine stay with supporters of QAnon conspiracy theories, and visits to an abortion clinic and a debutante ball.

“My aim here was not to expose racism and anti-Semitism,” Cohen told the New York Times last weekend in his only major print interview around the film. “The aim is to make people laugh, but we reveal the dangerous slide to authoritarianism.”

Cohen said he wanted the movie released before the Nov. 3 election because “we wanted it to be a reminder to women of who they’re voting for — or who they’re not voting for.”

While most of the reviews were positive, some found the movie tasteless.

“This joke isn’t funny anymore,” the Hollywood Reporter said, adding that “the Trump years make him (Borat) painfully redundant.” — Reuters

Paul McCartney to release solo album in December

LONDON — Paul McCartney will release McCartney III in December, a new collection of stripped-back songs all written, performed and produced by the ex-Beatle, 50 years after his first solo album.

Recorded this year in Sussex in southern England, McCartney III is mostly built from McCartney’s live takes on vocals and guitar or piano, overlaying his bass playing and drumming.

It joins two other albums — McCartney and McCartney II — created single-handedly by the 78-year-old at critical times in his life, in 1970 and 1980, when he was seeking a creative rebirth.

“I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day. I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track and then when it was done I thought what will I do next?” said McCartney.

He turned to half-finished fragments he’d created over the years.

“Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up, it was a lot of fun. It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”

McCartney’s most recent album is 2018’s Egypt Station, and the musician was still touring last year.

McCartney III is described as offering a vast and intimate range of modes and moods, from soul searching to wistful, from playful to raucous and all points between. — Reuters