Category Archives: musings

filmmaking, movies, musings

INA NYO

it’s official! c1 originals festival 2017 just posted on their facebook page that our short film, INA NYO, is in competition! thrilled that cinema one originals under ronald arguelles took it in. we finally have our world premiere! wohoo!

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INA NYO is a short film directed by Mary Grace Evangelista and was part of her final requirements for her film program under NYU-TISCH. Ina Nyo (Your Mother) is a day in the life of Ana, a young housemaid in Manila, and her quiet resilience as she is hassled by the family she has come to care for and know. While desperate to send more money to her mother, her job is suddenly jeopardized when the rivalry of the siblings and their desire for her go too far. Ana struggles with how to maintain her livelihood.

was introduced to mary online through her brother, eric. it wasnt until she was about to shoot that i got to really meet her. as i couldnt do her design work for this project, i tapped my art directors kitch napigkit, to be prod designer, and arman montallana, to be prod manager. and since i was supervising the local team and logistics, i got swept into the whirlwind of producing without realizing it. grateful to have done it but im not sure if i did a pretty decent job. i should remind myself to sit in bianca balbuena’s workshops next time.

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production meeting when the crew from new york arrived. from left: me, arman (prod manager), JP habac (assistant director turned coordinator), mikee (stylist), kitch (PD), mary (director), joanne (DOP), charlie (AC), and falko (gaffer).

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notes between kitch and me discussing/consulting design and requirements.

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it’s been a while since mary and i saw each other (we briefly spent an afternoon a few weeks ago with brother eric and his partner stan) so i decided to do a short interview about her thoughts behind INA NYO and her future plans. a first for this blog! always wanted to do an interview so here goes.

tell us a little bit more about writing and developing this story. there are a lot of strong women also in the film. what are your thoughts on feminist filmmaking?

I grew up surrounded by tough women who worked as caretakers, cleaning ladies and nannies. I was inspired by their stories and their resilience. My mom and her best friend, Tita Lina would chismis about work and they’d tell these amusing stories that were sometimes pretty tragic – but it was always told in a way that empowered. There was a lot of laughter growing up so the somber ending to the film is more of my own doing in this case. I am a feminist so naturally I feel my filmmaking will be reflective of that as well.

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it seems this story is relevant more than ever. how do you feel about this with the current weinstein gate?

Weinstein sucks. When I was writing the script I had a professor who couldn’t understand why Ana would give in to John, as if she let herself get assaulted. That was frustrating and alarming because of course she doesn’t – no one is ever asking for it. With the story I wanted to explore how as women we’re constantly navigating these power dynamics and it’s hard to know what the right answer is in situations especially when you feel trapped.

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tell us a bit more about shooting this film

It was incredible to shoot in the Philippines. When you and JP came on board that’s when it all came together and suddenly I found myself on set with thirty people waiting for direction, a generator, a signal number 2 typhoon wreaking havoc and lots of art and production design.

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I also love how my friends who came with me from the States bonded with your team and we became a little family. Lots of Taglish and even some beki lingo were spoken in-between takes and generally it was a playful set which counterbalanced the dark material and the grueling schedule.

any thing else you are currently developing? a full length perhaps? what’s next for you?

I’m working on a couple projects including writing a feature length version of Ina Nyo. It’s set in the Bay Area California (where I mostly grew up) and follows Ana’s rocky first summer in the States while both she and her mom work as domestics and hide from the immigration authorities.

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catch the short film in the shorts program! screening schedule listed below!

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oct 2017. due to changes in 3rd party hosting policy of photobucket dot com a few months ago, one of the many photo servers i use for the blog, a lot of the embedded photos in my blog would no longer show unless i pay for the service (which used to be free). so forgive the inconvenience because i will have to transfer all my content from photobucket to wordpress now and maybe just pay wordpress for cloud space instead.

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when i started this blog years ago in the early 2000s, i built my website from scratch (html with the help of my cuzin ej) and hosted this on yahoo geocities. then i moved to another server site then blogger then settling in finally with wordpress. it can get frustrating having to move all the time but i generally have no choice. ive kept most of my content though (im really not sure haha) but whatever. here i am.

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art & design, filmmaking, movies, musings

si chedeng, si apple, at si elvie

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im currently shooting a new film for cinema one originals with two of the most gorgeous women on the face of the earth, gloria diaz and elizabeth oropesa. these two ladies worked previously on the 1974 cult classic, Ang Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng Lupa, and aptly titled too because even at their current ages, their beauty is unparalleled.  one can only wish theyd age gracefully as these two have.

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i grew up knowing i had family relations with gloria diaz. my middle name is, in fact, diaz; my mother had explained my grandfather and gloria’s father were cousins (and we have connections also on the florendo side of things). to get to work with her for this film is a dream come true but i took my time before letting ms gloria know of this family connection. i preferred to get to know her better first. the first time we met up with ms gloria to discuss film costume requirements, she told us she can provide day clothes but doesnt have sleeping outfits because she only wears gowns and her crown to sleep! a true beauty queen inside and outside, she turned out to be warm, generous, and with a fabulous sense of humor. so when i call her tita gloria, there is more than a kevin-bacon-6-degree truth to that. i, thank you. charot.

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shot in manila and cebu and features awesome cebuano talent behind the camera (director, producer, dop and camera crew, sound crew, etc), “si chedeng, si apple, at ang louis vuitton” is directed by fatrick tabada (writer of sleeper-hit patay na si hesus) and rae red (co-writer of birdshot), based on a fabulous script by tabada. cinematography by don gerardo frasco, production design by carlo tabije and myself (cdo reprezent), produced by bianca balbuena, and executive produced by ronald arguelles, this film is a finalist at the 2017 cinema one originals film festival on november 12-21.

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often called “the sexiest man in siargao” because he is, i had the privilege of taking some shots of champion surfer manuel “wilmar” melindo on our last day in the island, june 1, thanks to makeup artist syrel lopez and caster gaddy. here is one of my favorite shots. might post another photo tomorrow. wohoo!

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grooming by syrel lopez, photo by benjamin padero. shot at tuazon, harana resort, siargao, surigao del norte.

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shooting the sexiest man in siargao

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if walls could see, it would have eyes.

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a load of laundry for almost 6 hours? 

loving my new front load automatic washing i got for 50% off when abenson in greenbelt just this december. i no longer have an excuse to an unattended laundry since the machine can do all the way to cupboard dry! if only it could answer my emails, too. 

working out the settings since i dont need that too long a wash cycle for normal laundry and maybe i should cut down the rinse cycle for my linens. the spin cycle is awesome at 1400 rpm. and the tumble dry feature is a real life saver. 

this is me with the washing machine. comic strip from adamandandy.com

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when your pickup point is correct and you even send a text message to give further instructions but your uber driver drives away in front of you and had to call him up and you had to walk in the rain because he’s now several buildings away (because i dont want to wait for him to go round the block coz by then i’d be really really late). hayst.

update. so apparently he just probably feel he’s better than waze. he couldnt distinguish a right turn 500 meters away and a right turn right this very minute. awesome. 

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so i finally got around to mount some of the movie poster postcards i got from the terryho ponozky shop in prague on a big frame. it’s so pretty. i decided to get 1 frame first and see how it looks and i think it looks awesome. will probably get two more frames so i can mount the rest of the postcards and another set of andy warhol male nude sketches on postcards somebody gifted me (except im still trying to remember who gave it, the note it came with got lost through time). so cool.

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postcards on the wall.

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cleaning up 2016

spent my last few days of vacation cleaning my mother’s house. well, our house in the province. threw out so many things that were mindlessly stuffed away when they could have been disposed of in the first place or have been organized properly so one may realize that there’s too much of the same thing salvaged. so i have made myself busy, yes.

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sporting my grandfather’s hipster glasses. he passed away in 1986. may his glasses live on.

threw out empty boxes (gift boxes, appliance boxes saved, old whatever boxes still alive and unrecycled) stashed everywhere and succeeded in taking old books out of the house. i was able to have my termite-infested bedroom closet removed and in the process, organized everything that were stashed in them. it’s tricky to get my mother to let go of old clothing or her plastic containers. small victories though. easily convinced her i throw away expired stuff like medicine and medical supplies, food, and makeup.

my father’s stuff hasnt been properly sorted through since he died 3 years ago. i kinda went over a few things and with his worktable alone ive already stuffed one sack for disposing. his work area would require a lot of time to organize and dispose/donate/whathaveyou. ill do that in june when i get back.

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essentially my childhood in 3+ plastic crates. 

as a packrat, it’s a miracle to have reduced my stuff and keeping just this amount of memorabilia. and it’s awesome to still have the book on airplanes gifted to you at 4 years old or that greeting card your dad sent you from the US during the ’84 olympics. apparently they still give me joy so im keeping them.

my vacation is short-lived and tomorrow i will have to fly back to manila. i hope ill do better cleaning katipunan since im there 90% of the year anyway. looking forward to more cleaning in 2017.

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