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September 13, 2012

Birthday bi Arjohn. Had fun with Theresians yet again! :) There were no pictures. No one brought their cameras. -_- Fml. But t'was great. We ate a lot. Mango Sago was the best! :bd

#Happy Birthday!#Arjohn #Thrs #:)

Editor's Note: Working As A Team

As a kid, I used to hear the saying that, “Two heads are better than one.” That it’s better to rely on another person in accomplishing things. Because by doing things together, more will be attained, taking in for consideration that everything is times two: the effort, inspiration and action. At a young age, my mom inculcated in me the value of teamwork and how it amazingly brings best results in any endeavor.

As I grew older, the more I appreciated the idea of sharing your abilities and gifts with others. Not only does it shorten the way to achieving your goal but also tests your capacity to adjust with various human behaviors. Let’s face it, no matter how noble or sincere our intentions are, there will still be oppositions that sometimes makes us blow our top. That’s life. But the essential lesson here is learning how to blend well with other people who share the same goal with you.

Again the cliché, “No man is an island.” True. Life is too short not to realize our need to co-exist with our fellow human beings. Sometimes, it’s our pride that hinders us from giving our share in the game. Especially if we know we have the ability to solve things alone. But we ought to remember that not all the time it works. There will always be an instance when we’ll need assistance from other people.

It’s not really hard to cooperate. Yes, that’s the magic word! Cooperation like faith can really move mountains. Especially these days when everything is fast-paced and everyone’s living a rat race whether you’re a student, employee or even plain housewife, sharing our best gifts makes things done easier. It will surely be heart-warming to attain success knowing that everyone in the team did his or her own part.

Genuine success can’t be totally credited to just one person. In this temporal world, everyone and everything contributes to all the good things happening around. Everything follows the rule of symbiosis. One more thing, isn’t it fun and enriching to work with someone towards the fulfillment of the same dream? One of the worst feelings is to be alone and definitely, no sane person will like to be in such state.

In this requirement for Media and Literacy Studies subject, the unifying theme is teamwork. This is completely mirrored in the cover story involving the uintessential writer Ricky Lee. Even if he’s the celebrated scriptwriter who worked for Himala, Moral, Jose Rizal or the Natatanging Gawad Urian for 2003, he was unpretentious to say about his hardships before when he willingly lent us time to interview him at Loyola Heights, Quezon City. He didn’t try to upstage his answers. The result is just overwhelming.

The same can also be said of the other two great interviews (and a rare chance also) we have: Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino member Rolando Tolentino and Rappler.com chief editor Marites Vitug. After all these years, they’re being looked up to in the industry as respected critics. Tolentino, being also the current dean of the UP- College of Mass Communication, and Vitug, who wrote the controversial book Shadow of Doubt: Probing the Supreme Court, proved that my thesis in making these interviews possible explored new material for next Journalism seniors who will soon make this final requirement.

Lee, Tolentino, and Vitug. When these three luminaries merge forces, what can be expected but only the best? As a team, we feel we have the finest topics to offer. Turning through the pages is the sole proof.

Enjoy reading folks!

#arjohn #editornote #arjohn de guzman

TATLO, DALAWA, ISA

What the distinguished Lino Brocka made in the significant era of Philippine Cinema

Midweek contributor Star Elamparo once wrote “There are quality movies and there are quality movies. In the country’s movie industry, which churns about 150 films a year, quality films are few and far in between. Still, they do exist.” And a lot of them were made by Lino Brocka.

The decades of 70s to 90s saw the rise and fall of the most highly acclaimed director of the local cinema, National Artist for Film of 1997 Lino Brocka. He thrived in its so-called Second Golden Age when his peers were making their own masterpieces, like Ishmael Bernal, Mike de Leon, Celso Ad Castillo, Laurice Guillen, Marilou Diaz- Abaya, and renowned veteran from the 50's Eddie Romero. Many of today's stars owe their rise in showbiz and acting trophies to Lino Brocka. At the peak of his career in the 70's and 80's, he made films that won critical acclaim and awards for their social and artistic impact.

Brocka made his first movie in 1970 under Lea Productions' Wanted: Perfect Mother with the cast of Boots Anson-Roa, Dante Rivero, Eddie Mercado, and Gina Alajar. He also wrote this melodrama, which won Best Screenplay in the 1970 Manila Film Festival. That same year, he directed Santiago, winning his second award, this time as Best Director from the Citizen's Council for Mass Media. This action drama starred Fernando Poe, Jr. (FAMAS nomination for Best Actor), Hilda Koronel (Best Supporting Actress), and others in a powerhouse cast.

In 1971, he made Tubog sa Ginto, which was controversial for its homosexual theme, and Stardoom, a dark, tragic view of movie showbiz, garnered FAMAS nominations for Lolita Rodriguez (Best Actress) and Caridad Sanchez (Best Supporting Actress). The cast included Walter Navarro, Hilda Koronel, Mario O'Hara, Eddie Garcia and several other seasoned actors.

His early works appealed to mass audiences and made money, endearing Brocka to producers of the movie industry. But after nine movies with Lea Productions he became disgruntled with commercialism and fell silent in the first two years of Ferdinand Marcos's martial law regime.

Brocka set up his independent outfit, CineManila, and began to make films after his own heart. His landmark movie, Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang (1974), an indictment of religious prejudice against social outcasts in a local village, won six FAMAS awards and two nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director; Best Actor (for Brocka's protégé Christopher de Leon) and Best Actress (Lolita Rodriguez as the madwoman Kuala). Brocka wrote the screenplay together with actor-director Mario O'Hara, who played a leper in the film.

Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag, topbilled by another Brocka protégé, Bembol Roco, portrayed a young probinsyano's search for his sweetheart Ligaya Paraiso (Hilda Koronel) in the violence-ridden city. For his role as a tragic hero, Bembol bagged the FAMAS Best Actor award. Equally respected director Mike de Leon did the exquisite cinematography.

Insiang, a story of rape and revenge set in Manila's Tondo slums, starred Hilda Koronel in the title role, for which she earned a FAMAS nomination as Best Actress. Mona Lisa won as Best Supporting Actress. The film also reaped several nominations from the Gawad Urian. This was the first of Brocka's films to be shown and acclaimed at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France.

He was nobody’s man but his own. In 1979, when Jaguar won the Urian awards for Best Picture, he spurned the critics’ attention. During the Urian awards night, he ascended the stage not to receive his directorial award but to reject it, saying that “under the guise of impartiality, they [the Manunuris] practice their prejudices anyway.” He then refused all further awards and nominations from the MPP.

He was a man known for passions that ran high and ideals that never dimmed. Two of his last films, Gumapang Ka sa Lusak and Sa Kabila ng Lahat, were studies of corruption in politics. The man was relentless. Before he died, he was about to make a contemporary film version of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere. Just talking about it generated so much excitement. But this one project he will never do. On May 22, 1991, at 1:30am, he died in a car accident on East Ave. in Quezon City. The car, which smashed into a concrete lamppost, was being driven by his latest protégé, William Lorenzo, who was seriously injured.

Lino Brocka was 52, and he could do even more quality films in modern cinema than any other directors. He is the resolute artist in the dark screen we know as the Philippine cinema. We mourn his passing.

Arjohn de Guzman

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