link: http://www.animationcouncil.org/page.php?p=112

A Bigger, Better Animahenasyon Festival!!!

We are at it again! said this year’s Animahenasyon Festival Programmer Ricky Orellana. We are once again inviting professional and amateur/student Filipino animators to join the 2nd Animahenasyon 2008:Pinoy Animation Festival. The event, which is spearheaded by the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc., is now on its second year and the organizers are promising to give local animation enthusiasts a broader and better program. Definitely, the scope is bigger this year, Orellana said. We want to give festival-goers a larger view of what Philippine animation by screening earliest works done by animation masters. According to Orellana, last year’s festival has seen a lot of professional animators asking for advanced workshops. That’s why this time there will be master classes for professionals and enthusiasts. There will also be classes on visual storytelling, film language, production design, Asian and Japanese animation, and visual effects, he said. Last year’s festival screened over 150 original Filipino animation works and featured a two-day conference with Filipino US-based animator Ronnie del Carmen of Pixar animation as guest of honor keynote speaker.

The support was overwhelming, said Orellana. We are thankful to the animators who submitted very accomplished works as well as to the movie-goers who went out of their way to watch the screenings. In fact, the week-long event was even extended for a longer run at the Indie Sine Robinson’s Galeria. I thought that it was a very successful festival, said Del Carmen. I was very impressed with the animators. They were undaunted and courageous in pursuing their passion. In fact, so impressed was Del Carmen that he even agreed to give a talk in Naga for the regional extension of the festival. We have very accomplished animators, he said. These animators have contributed over the years to animated content the world over on very popular properties. If that isn’t about being world-class, I don’t know what is. We are known to be reliable and versatile, able to tackle the work and meld into what the project needs and get the job done.

Last year’s festival really proved that there is a very active animation industry in the Philippines, said Orellana. And this year, we are hoping to have more participants and more original works. And just like last year, 2^nd Animahenasyon 2008 will feature 10 categories: one minute up to five minutes; 6 minutes up to 20 minutes; 21 minutes up to 40 minutes; Full-animated feature (more than 40 minutes); music video; OBBs, TVCs, infomercials, demo reels; and TV series. All of them are open for professional and amateur/student animators. Some of the award-winning animation entries last year were Jeff Capili’s Malaya (Best Animated Short, professional division), RJ Mabilin’s WWII (Animated Music Video, professional division), Valroman Francisco’s Pop (Animated Music Video, amateur division), and Anna Katrina Bigornia’s My Pet (Viewers’ Choice Award). The festival also honored the late Larry Alcala with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The deadline for the submission of entries is on October 8, 2008. For inquiries, call: 8172727 loc 108 or send an email to animationcouncil@gmail.com or visit ACPI’s website www.animationcouncil.org.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SILENT FILM FESTIVAL
SCHEDULE OF SCREENINGS

FILMS WITH LIVE MUSIC 7pm, Shang Cineplex Cinema 1, Shangri-la Plaza

• August 26 – The Black Man with a White Soul/El negro que tenía el alma blanca (Spain)
  music by Novo Concertante Manila
• August 27 – Cascading White Threads/Taki-no-shiraito (Japan)
  music by Bob Aves
• September 2 – Faces of Children/Visages d’enfants (France)
  music by Jack Rufo and Yosha
• September 3 – The Oyster Princess/Die Austernprinzessin (Germany)
  music by Noli Aurillo with The Schübligs,
  (featuring Louie Talan, Kakoi Legaspi and Wendell Garcia)
• September 4 – Cabiria (Italy)
  music by Caliph8 (with Malek Lopez and Matt Deegan)

FILMS WITH ORIGINAL SCORE:
7pm, Shang Cineplex Cinema 1, Shangri-la Plaza

• August 28 – Erotikon (Czech Republic)
  5pm, Listening In Style, 5/F Shangri-la Plaza Free admission
• August 29 – The Black Man with a White Soul/El negro que tenía el alma blanca (Spain)
• September 5 – Cascading White Threads/Taki No Shiraito (Japan)
• September 6 – Faces of Children/Visages d’enfants (France)
• September 7 – The Oyster Princess/Die Austernprinzessin (Germany)
• September 8 – Cabiria (Italy)

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT BY WAY OF AN ELEGY
In “Bahag Kings”, Elmo Redrico, aka Ka Elmo, continually exclaimed “We are artist!” while we were maliciously detained in the Cubao Police Station (Gateway) just because we were wearing indigenous Philippine clothing. “We are artist!” It was both plural and singular. It was funny and profound at the same time. “We are artist!” Ka Elmo repeated it aloud. Though I don’t know if the security officers fully heard, if the passers-by really noticed, or if anyone, including us – his comrades, truly understood what he was trying to say. If he meant anything at all in the first place. But Ka Elmo still said it. Again and again. “We are artist!” Something for him to mouth when he still had one. Something for us to think about while our buddy parties into the Great Beyond.
Ka Elmo “King Red” Redrico (+ August 30, 2006)

LINKS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmL6-qJcpCM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmL6-qJcpCM

A group of tribal leaders from the jungle search the city like a hard rock band. Or is it a rock group looking for the jungle? The filmmaker was arrested for the film, together with his half naked kings. Funny, unpolished, musical and (hence) also a little bit political.
It looks like a joke that has got out of hand, a kind of contest: who dares walk the street wearing only a G-string? G-string Kings is indeed a cheerful and cheeky film, in the spirit of the other work by this most cheerful, cheekiest and certainly most productive of Filipino film makers, but it is not just a silly joke. Seven sturdy mature men dressed in no more than the bahag, the traditional string with loincloth as worn by the original inhabitants of the Philippines. It couldn’t be more Filipino, so why should Filipinos get upset about it? Yet the cheerful procession is regarded as a provocation of good taste and even of good order. The film is a feature, made in the idiom of the silent film, but shot spontaneously on the street, like a documentary. The men go out into the world as kings: King Black, King Red, King Blue, King Yellow, King Green, King Purple and King Orange – seven rainbow kings (bahag-hari) with their ethnic G-string (bahag). They travel in a jolting van from the natural forests to the urban jungle. The Bahag Kings, descendants of noble rulers but also of village idiots, search all over for wala (nothing). In the end, they, along with the film maker, are arrested by the police. What was once traditional costume turns out to have become obscene.”
— Gertjan Zuilhof, ROTTERDAM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL