CINEMATON 3 - MEGATON (Khavn + MMFF)

Adrian here:

Haloooo! For this year's Christmas season, Philippine Cinema is blessed with multiple film festivals, film gatherings, film premieres, events and recognition showcasing different kinds of films from different directors, different nations and different parts of the Philippines with an extensive variety in aesthetics, ideologies, political thoughts and levels of reception. From Khavn dela Cruz's exploits in Mondomanila Festival Motherfuckers to the successful 12th Cinemanila International Film Festival to the premiers of Jerrold Tarog's Senior Year (2010) and many other indie films to the tribute of the Philippine Inquirer magazine to local independent filmmakers to the opening of Metro Manila Film Festival 2010, anyone can proudly say that Philippine Cinema is on the verge of redemption.

Cinematon! Cinematon! closes the circle by paying tribute to the first and last events of December: to Khavn dela Cruz, for starting the season with a bang, and to Metro Manila Film Festival 2010 for making a grand exit this year. Khavn's explosive entry, his dirt-gore masterpiece, Mondomanila (2010) exposes a different kind of Philippine Cinema, a radical type that can be considered as one of most memorable benchmarks in experimental filmmaking in the Philippines for its originality in form and style and for its radical thoughts about the Philippine government. His film sits in total opposite to Philippine Cinema's grand finale this year, the star-studded, illusionist cinema of the Metro Manila Film Festival where moviemaking, fame and money mingle at their best. Cinematon 3 entitled MEGATON (Khavn +MMFF) explores this polarity in terms of its effect to Philippine Cinema's possible track next year.

Without further ado, we welcome you all to another of our monthly blogathons (a year-end special, mind you!) CINEMATON 3: MEGATON (Khavn +MMFF)!

INDEX OF POSTS

Day 1

Adrian's Wasak na MEGATON Crossword Puzzle - Khavn + MMFF

Day 2

Fidan's MMFF 2010 reviews: Ang Tanging Ina Mo (Last Na 'To), Dalaw, and Slow Fade

Day 3

Carl Joseph Papa's Paalam Aking Bulalakaw

Day 4

Will's Film Review of RPG: Metanoia (2010)

Day 5

Epoy: ang mana ng mano? - Amen (a film by Khavn, 2003)

Day 6

Sani's A Decade of Metro Manila Film Festival

Day 7

Dodo Dayao's review of Khavn's Paalam Aking Bulalakaw (2006) and Tatlong Araw ng Kadiliman (2007)

Day 8

Oggs Cruz' review of Khavn's Son of God (2010) The Gospel According to a Weng Weng-Wannabe: A Confession as to How Son of God has Restored My Faith on Faith
[cross published at Twitch]

Ciao!
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CINEMATON 2 - STAR CINEMA

PAIRED UP: Anne Curtis and Sam Milby

Adrian here:

Star Cinema is making history --- and money. Nothing is healthier than a national cinema with an active studio system which continues to run the film industry generating hundreds of jobs to its people; and a diverse alternative cinema challenging the former's aesthetic, cultural and political content. Just to add a little bit of history here, the Philippine Studio system has always been with us since 1930s. It reached its Golden Years during the 1950s-1960s which was one of the most important periods in Philippine Cinema. We had LVN Pictures whose films were famous for being complex in terms of production and fim costumes. We also had the Sampaguita Pictures whose films were characterized by a pairing up of the prettiest and handsomest faces of the industry made for the youth. Premiere Productions boasts for its action and crime films while Lebran, Inc. was famous for their 'international' film aimed for the international audience. These were the Big Four of the 1950s.

Star Cinema has learn a lot from these big four studios. To keep its business going, it is solely run by its mother company, ABS-CBN, one of the biggest primetime television network operating today. Spanning for more than 17 years in business, it continues to reinvent itself by combining the strategies of the big four and a careful study of taste preference of its current market. It started 1993 with three films: Adan Ronquillo: Tubong Cavite... Laking Tondo (1993) an action film starring Bong Revilla; Home Along Da Riles (1993), a comedy film with ensemble cast starring Dolphy Quizon; and a romantic film May Minamahal (1993) starring Aga Mulach and Aiko Melendez. This line up would somewhat predetermine the type of films Star Cinema would be producing in the next 16 years: action, comedy and romance.

As part of CINEMATON! CINEMATON!'s monthly series, November is dedicated to STAR CINEMA and its history-making track record of genre films, that, 20 to 30 years from now, would be engraved in film history books on Philippine Cinema at large. CINEMATON! CINEMATON! offers fresh ideas with a pluralist touch on the topic: what is really Star Cinema from bones to flesh? With a special guest writer coming soon, this November's Cinematon will surely be as enjoyable as a fresh breath of air!

INDEX OF POSTS

Day 1

Adrian's Anatomy of AND I LOVE YOU SO (2009)

Day 2

Carl Joseph Papa's Me and You and Everyone we Know... JOLOGS!

Day 3

Miss You Like Crazy: The whole universe conspires for a happy ending by Fidan

Day 4

Chris Fajardo's Star Cinema, "Kailangan kita"...

Day 5

[link]

Ciao!
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CINEMATON 1 - MANILA

From Manila (2009) - director Raya Martin and Rosana Roces

Adrian here.

The first of the monthly series, Cinematon 1 is finally here with the topic MANILA. As we all know, Manila has been explored as a piquant filmic space ever since Philippine cinema started. From its appearances in Western recordings available in the Library of Congress as in Escolta, Manila (1903) to its post mortem dissection in Adolf Alix and Raya Martin's Manila (2009), it became a diachronic space for inspiration for the works of filmmakers, artists, and writers from different generations. Works like Ishmael Bernal's Manila by Night (1980) and Lino Brocka's Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (1975), both highly studied masterpieces, are still compared with its depiction of Manila. Other films like Once Upon a Time in Manila (1994) and Manila Boy (1993) still lacks discussions and analysis.

Cinematon! Cinematon! dedicates its first monthly series, which will run from October 18 to 23, to elucidate, problematize, and dissect the almost 107 years depiction of Manila in film using various approaches and styles in criticisms.

INDEX OF POSTS

Day 1 (October 18)

Adrian's Introductory Poem and Video

Day 2 (October 19)

Si Manila Boy at ang Pelikula ng Masang Pinoy para sa masang si Epoy

Day 3 (October 20)

A review of Manila Skies (Himpapawid) by Fidan

Day 4 (October 21)

Manila by Night: Internal and External Aesthetics by Adrian

Day 5 (October 29)

Photoreview: Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag by Sani

Ciao!
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Cinematon! Cinematon!

Adrian here:

Welcome to Cinematon! Cinematon!

In response to the growing trend of blogathons in the film blogosphere, four Filipino cinephiles, Sani, Adrian, Fidan and Epoy merge to create a series of blogathons to analyze, 'problematize', laud, incarcerate, resurrect and demystify both the lost and growing trends in Philippine cinema and world cinema at large. On a group discussion over a cup of coffee last Septembet 17, 2010 at Cine Europa 13, the group felt the need to go against the traditional trend in film criticism. After forging their ideas and unwrapping several approaches and attacks to the problem, Cinematon! Cinematon! was born.

Hence, my dearest readers, this blog is created not under film criticism standards. Cinematon! Cinematon! values the school of eclecticism and pluralism: a way to attack cinema at various points of views using different approaches rendered under different mediums to create an approximate picture of the whole. From poem review to Neoformalism to photo review to interviews and podcasts to painting, sculpture and random link rolls in English, Filipino, Latin , Russian or French, Cinematon! Cinematon! commits to be a different venue for cinema: an alternative, revolutionary and comprehensive site for everyone to love and hate, to criticize and applaud, to denounce and recognize.

After all, cinema is revolution.


Ciao!
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