Letters

By MARIA PAMELA S. REYES FOR the youth, death seems to be out of arm’s reach. It is a mere figment of their imagination, a problem they will only need to face when they get older. They tend to look forward to the future and to the various goals that keep them grounded. Once a person gets older, however, everything changes. Their perspective in life shifts and they sometimes start to accept where their choices have led them. Age may also make them wonder if they could have had a different story or a different ending to their life. In this year’s QCinema Circle Competition, director Dan Villegas featured Hintayan ng Langit, a film based on viral spoken word poet Juan Miguel Severo’s stage play of the same name. The film features Aling Lisang (Gina Pareño), an elderly woman who h

By RYAN PIOLO U. VELUZ FROM the main door of the church, wooden statues of Jesus Christ and various saints draw throngs of devotees and parishioners, either due to their divine significance or embellishment of sacred details and the linens of royalties attached to their lifeless structures. Illuminated by candles and elusive light bulbs, these inanimate sculptures seem to come to life through people’s extreme devotion and expression of faith. Director Hiyas Bagabaldo’s entry to this year’s QCinema International Film Festival, Pag-ukit sa Paniniwala, is a documentary film that explores the different facets and expressions of Catholic faith in the Philippines. Set in Paete, Laguna, the carving capital of the country, the film deciphers the process of creating sculptures—how artists

By LORRAINE C. SUAREZ DEATH is a paradox—it is a concept known to everybody, and yet, it remains a mystery. It is something that each person is very much aware of, but not something that is truly understood. Thus, one tends to observe it in a manner convenient for primal instincts: through fear and terror, emotions that are similarly observed when dealing with something in the darkness, something unknown. For 44-year-old Sonya (Marietta Subong), death is but a means to make a living. She is the proprietor of her family’s funeral home and the sole breadwinner in a household of two composed of an apathetic father and herself. From the ground floor of their home, she manages their business by directing funerals entirely on her own, starting from the creation of floral pieces down

By ISABELL ANDREA M. PINE THE SPANISH colonization of the Philippines centered around God, gold, and glory. One cannot deny how these played a big role in the country’s history and how they created a lasting impact on Filipinos. This begs the question of whether or not modern-day Filipinos still have a hold of their true culture and how much of their identity is influenced by the colonizers of the past. For this reason, Masla A Papanok retells the destruction of culture and the reality of forgetting it through the perspective of two representations of the Filipinos’ beginnings. Set in 1892, Masla A Papanok tells the story of two royalties of Maguindanao and their experiences during and after the Spanish colonization. The first story focuses on Clara (Quennie Lyne Demoral), origin