Alpas: Short Film and Website Featuring My Poems

The following is a revision of my LinkedIn post earlier today:

First, congratulations to InnTechGreat, a group of Bachelor in Multimedia Arts students at FEU Institute of Technology for their successful final thesis defense recently. Secondly, thanks to them for choosing my poems as material for their thesis on how to promote Philippine poetry via multi-media arts.

And their thesis is Alpas, a 1) "live-action and hybrid animated short film showcasing the art of poetry" (again, "incidentally," my poems) and 2) an accompanying website of a collection of (more) poems from the same poet (and, again "incidentally," it's yours truly).

The film's current version, November 2022.

The film’s story is about “a young adult writer trying to overcome his past trauma through writing poems,” and weaves through my three previously published poems. Below are the poems and the respective times when each appears in the film, with links to the original pages where they were first published):

• 04:39: First Shot of the Philippine-American War - Unlikely Stories Mark V, July 18, 2019 (This poem, for this film, was slightly revised from the original for historical accuracy and posterity.),
• 08:01: Because fighting was his element - I am not a silent poet, August 21, 2016, and
• 10:28: The Insignificant Other - Small Orange poetry journal and its first anthology, 2020.

Screenshot of website's homepage.

The website features my politically-oriented poems – all previously published, with the exception of one, in literary magazines and/or my first full-length poetry collection, "Metro Manila Mammal" (Soma Publishing, 2018). Here's the link to the sole exception, Atty. Hermon C. Lagman:, a rhyming quatrain in Filipino that I wrote last September in time for the 50th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines. It is about a prominent human rights abuse/enforced disappearance victim during that dark era under the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The film can also be accessed through the website’s homepage.

And previously, I talked about this project in part 1 of my interview (October 3, 2022) with Thomas White for his poetry mini interviews blog.

Note: Both the film and the website are still works in progress. The panelists advised the students to make a few revisions on the film, and the website is still incomplete (a few credits are still missing, among others). Thank you and ever onwards for humanity – and poetry!

 

Si Voltes V at Ako: 1978 at 1983

Ituring natin na pagpapatuloy ito ng huling post ko na Voltes V: Ipinasiya kong italaga angaking buhay sa pakikibaka . . :

Anekdota 1

Kasabay ng kasikatan ng Voltes V ay ang pagsikat din ng theme song nito. Natatandaan ko noong nasa nursery ako noong 1978, ay mismo ang orihinal na Hapong bersyon nito ay kabisado at madalas awitin ng mga kaklase ko. At natatandaan ko rin na di ako nakakasabay sa kanila dahil malamang noon pa man ay makakalimutin na ako at mahinang magkabisado ng lyrics at iba pang mga bagay. At, maliban sa orihinal an bersyon nito, ay meron din itong English at Filipino na mga bersyon. (At ang huli ay nagtatapos sa, Walang biro, lagot kayo/ Pati na lolo n'yo!)

Isang hapon, pinaghiwahiwalay ang klase ng aming titser sa tatlong pangkat, at bawat isang grupo ay aawit ng kantang pambata – kanya-kanyang pili:

Unang grupo: Tatoe arashi ga hukou tomo . . . (Voltes V original version).

Pagkatapos, tinawag ni titser yung pangalawang grupo:

Pangalawang grupo: Though the storm should blow . . . (Voltes V English version).

Noong grupo na namin: Tatoe arashi . . .

Inawat na kami agad ni titser: Voltes V na naman?! Iba naman!

Grupo namin: The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout . . .

 

Anekdota 2

Noong grade 2, unang bahagi ng 1983, isang umaga sinabi sa akin ni Mama na susunduin niya ako sa hapon pagkatapos ng school (UPIS - Katipunan Avenue) dahil manonood kami ng sine: Voltes V The Movie. Pero, noong bihis na ako at naghihintay sa school bus, binawi ni Mama; di na raw kami tuloy. Nagtampo ako at in denial. Pinilit kong paniwalain ang sarili na tuloy ang lakad namin ni Mama.

Noong sinundo ako ng school bus sa bahay namin sa Lagro, nagbilin ako sa drayber na huwag na akong sunduin mamayang hapon kasi nga susunduin ako ni Mama at may lakad kami. Pagkatapos ng school, hindi nga ako sumabay sa school bus at hinintay ko si Mama sa parking lot. Dumilim na, lagpas 6:00 PM na at ako na lang ang estudyante sa eskwelahan. Napansin ako ng school nurse at tinanong. Matigas pa rin ulo ko, “Susunduin po kasi ako ni Mama, eh.” Nag-alala na yung nurse at dinala ako sa klinik kung saan may telepono. Buti na lang, alam ko landline no. ni Mama sa NCBA – Aurora Blvd. kung saan siya nagtuturo noon. Yung nurse ang tumawag at pinasa sa akin ang telepono. Alalang-alala si Mama at galit nang kinausap ako, “Akala ko naman kung ano na ang nangyari sa iyo! Di ba sabi ko nga sa iyo na di na tayo tuloy ngayong araw?!”

Wala pang kalahating oras ay nasundo na ako ni Mama, na may kasamang sermon palabas ng school premises, “Akala ko malinaw na kanina?!”

Yun naman pala, kaya niya binawi ang unang usapan naming ay napagpasyahan nila ni Papa na mag-date. Pero dahil andoon na ako, eh di kumain na kaming tatlo sa Tropical Hut – Cubao, pinanood ang Voltes V The Movie sa Ali Mall, at bumili pa ng souvenir na manga version ng Voltes V The Movie. Sa madaling salita, ako ang nagwagi.

(Ang tawag sa ginawa ko ay, "positive visualization.")