1, 7, 14 for the ask meme!
1. favourite place in your country?
not to be Biased, but i gotta say my parents’ province of samar. tourists sleep on it so much and it’s not as well-represented as other provinces are in media. there’s a lot of absolutely gorgeous undiscovered territory (e.g. beaches that only certain locals will help get you there bc not v many people know about them) that i think deserves more attention but also i kinda feel like, maybe this is for the best since the more populated and commercialized an area is, the uglier and dirtier it gets ¯\_(ツ)_/
7. three words from your native language that you like the most?
pagkakataon - tagalog, meaning opportunity
sandali - tagalog, depending on the context means ‘wait’ (as in, calling out to someone wait! / sandali!) or ‘a/the moment’
humot - waray/bisaya, meaning fragrance. when used to describe something that smells good, it becomes (ma)humot.
14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?
ABSOLUTELY. altho, growing up, i was not allowed to watch filipino movies and teleseryes (soap operas) bc there’s a huge misconception among filipinos about philippine media that equates it as a lesser form of art compared to western media, particularly hollywood. i’d only get to watch filipino movies and tv shows whenever my yaya (nanny) would watch her afternoon seryes.
BUT THEN i got older and recognized how Real colonial mentality is in our country and how that still reflects in our generation. also, high school teachers and college professors introducing me to a world of filipino masterpieces, not just in tv and film, but also in literature, really helped me appreciate my own culture a lot more and value the importance of Supporting Local especially since i’m working towards a career in my local film industry.
AND ALSO OKAY LEMME JUST SHARE: it’s so so so so difficult to get access to old local films (particularly those we consider ‘canon’ in the history of philippine cinema) bc we barely get funding for film restoration and our archiving is shit. did you know that a lot of the great film masterpieces in our country are only accessible in platforms in the US or the UK (i.e. amazon)??? THAT’S WHACK.
