Top of Mind Top 3 Stuff
Posted: March 27, 2009 Filed under: Arkeofilms, Kano, movies, television | Tags: alternative career, american movies, Arkeofilms, asian movies, books, documentaries, drinks, dude, european movies, favorite sites, happy thoughts, Kano, Life Change, list, movies, pinoy movies, Reading list, television, top 3 1 Comment »It’s always so hard for me to think of my top 3 of anything. But this time, I’ll make it easier and think of the stuff that come to mind in order. This is also procrastination…as I progress, snail’s pace, to the finish line of our first rough cut.
BOOKS
- Shipping News by Annie Proulx
- A Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela’s autobiography
- A Once and Future King by TH White
DOCUMENTARIES
- Hoop Dreams by Steve James
- Grey Gardens by the Maysles Brothers
- Capturing the Friedmans by Andrew Jarecki
PINOY MOVIES (this is hard)
- Kakabakaba ka ba? / Dir by Mike de Leon
- Bagets / Mario J de los Reyes
- Salawahan / Ishmael Bernal
ASIAN MOVIES, but not Pinoy
- In the Mood for Love / Kar Wai Wong
- Chungking Express / Kar Wai Wong
- Raise the Red Lantern / Yimou Zhang
EUROPEAN MOVIES
- Amelie (I can’t help it…the commentary is the best part of it all) / Jeunet
- Jules et Jim / Francois Truffaut
- Butterfly and the Diving Bell / Schnabel
AMERICAN MOVIES
- Clueless / Amy Heckerling
- Groundhog Day / Ramis?
- Godfather (is this Hollywood? in a sense…very hollywood) / coppola
TELEVISION
- West Wing
- Six Feet Under
- Todas
DISHES BY THE DUDE
- Crispy Patalbog
- Key Lime Pie
- Poached egg with roasted tomato and basil, swimming in olive oil and other leafy goodies…resting on bread.
SITES
- www.cnn.com
- google reader (is that a site?) –it has all the blogs of people i follow, from chums to bourdain to perez hilton to inquirer.net
- www.mirandajuly.com
LIQUIDS
- Sunquick
- Coke Light avec Rhum
- Apple Juice
I WANT TO LEARN
- français
- how to drive
- CPR
I WANT TO SEE
- New York City
- Barcelona
- the Pyramids
ALTERNATIVE CAREERS (wishful thinking lang)
- investigative journalist
- lawyer
- back-up singer
*Not that you’d care, but I posted the pictures after the list. Just to make sure I don’t muck the train of thought.
The Law of Supply and Demand
Posted: June 5, 2008 Filed under: Arkeofilms, movies | Tags: Arkeofilms, cinemalaya, independent movies, indiesine, movies, pinoy movies Leave a comment »Let me tell you this. The sob story is over. It’s not dead.
They say there are no good Pinoy movies. The truth is, there are at least 15 good movies last year. So maybe we made about 65 (i’m just guessing here, i’m sure this is a conservative estimate). But that’s not such a bad percentage. We take a stab with the other popcorn movies out there and yet we never give up. We still watch Hollywood’s non-summer fillers and yet it’s seldom I hear you say “Hollywood stinks.”
There are good Pinoy movies. It’s just so hard to look for them. But you have to do your job. You have to take a stab as well. You can’t keep watching all that Star Cinema and Regal can give and then complain after. In fact, you have to keep watching these movies because ironically, the indies need a dose of mainstream too. I think it’s a good way to watch movies. You have to take a sampler of the whole pie.
You go to IndieSine and watch a movie. It’s in Robinsons Galleria. It might be out of the way but how are you supposed to know Pinoy movies suck in general? From July 11 to 20, go to CCP and watch the Cinemalaya movies. Watch out for the CinemaOne Originals that might be ready by third quarter of this year. You have to give it the same chance as you did say, Speed Racer.
You can’t blame filmmakers if they have to run to Europe and show their movies there because it’s where they’re given the time of day. Most of them have not given up. They just don’t have the venue that will hold them longer. Save for the lone independent theater franchise, Indiesine, it’s hard to find a venue. Sometimes SM will say yes, and sometimes they will say no to the indies. But they have their reasons. No one is giving up, and I see it.
My friends who liked Caregiver gave Ploning a chance and liked it too. They even watched Endo and Tribu and were also not disappointed. Of course they also watched a bunch of other movies but that didn’t work out so well. But if you’re real movie buffs, you have to keep giving filmmakers a reason to make more films.
