Literary Archives - Page 49 of 50

Jul192016 by No Comments

Ma’Rosa: A Pure Witness to the Filipino Condition

Literary

A PORTRAIT of a homeless family, a couple with a child, scraping glass bottles to sell to the junkshop—at a distance is Rosa (Jaclyn Jose), watching them from the police jeep. Slightly soaked from sweat combined with rainwater, she is handcuffed with her husband by her side. It is visible on her face the subtle yet emotionally-shattering note that her family’s life beholds a different fate if not for one thing. The Filipino auteur Brillante Mendoza makes his return to the Cannes competition with Ma’Rosa. The film has a clipped pace and a violently truthful narration of the condition of a small-time drug dealer from a shady street in the sprawling city of Mandaluyong under the corrupt surveillance of policemen. Mendoza understands the core of being a Filipino living in the slums of M...

Jul172016 by No Comments

Photo of the Week (07/17/2016)

Liyab

When dusk begins, the city starts talking. Buildings whisper stories to sidewalks; stories about lonely office workers and people who drop their cups of coffee while running to work. Roads groan in pain due to the new construction project that they don’t even need. The city talks while we lay asleep in our beds. It talks about how frightened it is when dawn begins: when we start gossiping near the office walls, or causing accidents in streets. It fears our destructive impulses and our habits of tearing it apart. The city fears us. That’s why it never sleeps. F Words by CORHEINNE JOYCE B. COLENDRES Photo by KATHLEEN MAE I. GUERRERO

Jul112016 by No Comments

Photo of the Week (07/10/16)

Liyab

A Muslim woman worships during the ceremony rites to celebrate Eid'l Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, last July 6 at the Golden Mosque, Quiapo, Manila. Photo by RIO LEONELLE I. DELUVIO

Jul112016 by No Comments

Iadya Mo Kami: An Advent of Epiphany

Literary

IT IS through rose-tinted spectacles that man perceives the social order, making him selective and indifferent to the troubles burdening him at the present time. Director Mel Chionglo deviates from the typical themes used in films and transgresses to expose one of the ills in today’s society with his movie "Iadya Mo Kami" (Deliver Us). Through the power of cinema, he concentrates on a controversy that silently plagues not only the Catholic Church but also man’s reality. The film brings to life Greg (Allen Dizon), a diocesan priest who has broken his vow of chastity by siring a child with his lover Carla (Diana Zubiri). Living as a sinner himself, his life plunges deeper into the realm of immorality as he moves up to the town of Placido for his reassignment as its next parochial prie...

Jun172016 by No Comments

Double-sided Gesture

Literary

Double-sided Gesture by Dianne Alyssa A. Aguirre Let your thumb speak your judgment about the past in a coin toss, when He was more than a right-sided face in every five-peso, and led the Motherland in its first republic year. A thumbs up could be as double-sided as a flipped coin, when heads and tails fight for dominance in mid-air and two opponents are left hoping to win in silence. The gesture could be an act of approval to the freemason fighting for independence, the politician who created truce with Spain, the president of the revolutionary government. It could also be an act of condemnation, wherein you make a fist as if holding a lighter, with the thumb ready to roll the spark wheel. From its flame you would smell contempt for the man who declared s...

May82016 by No Comments

Huwag Magpigil Seryoso

Literary

Huwag Magpigil Seryoso ni Ynca Ann Eve Duerme Isang parodiya sa tulang “Ang Huling Tula Na Isusulat Ko Para Sa'yo” ni Juan Miguel Severo Ito na ang huling tula na isusulat ko para sa’yo. Pangako ‘yan, at totoo. Sa pagdami ng taong kay dulas magsalita at sa pagdami ng mga indibidwal na ipinapako sa pader ang kanilang bawat gunita, dito kita ihihimlay sa pahinang ito, dito kung saan walang tugma’t sukat o ritmo, kung saan gagamitin ko ang kahit na anong kataga, letra, salita upang ilabas ang imbiyerna sa mga ipinanukala mo. Di ko alam kung gaano magiging kahaba, kung kasya ba sa isang piyesa o isang pahina dahil hindi naman lahat nasasabi sa dulo. Pero pangako ‘yan, ito na ang huling tula na isusulat ko para sa’yo. Wala akong pakialam kung abutin man tayo ng buong maghapon pero kaila...

May52016 by 2 Comments

Artistang Artlets’ Pendulum: A Review

Literary

TIME IS the indefinite continued progression of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. However, Pendulum seeks to let the audience think otherwise. Fascinated by the concept of time, writer Rani Mae Aberin attempted to reconcile Cronus, the god of time in Greek mythology, with the modern era. She revealed a god who intervenes with the linear motion of time. He halts time and allows the past to catch up. As he trains a student to be his rightful heir, the next in line to help the mortals proceed to the future, he was in awe by the struggles of the youth faces today. The play had three settings carefully arranged in one spacious stage with the mood set through stage lighting. Any change of color and the...

Feb42016 by No Comments

3 Stars and a Sun: A Subtle Revolution

Literary

FIFTY YEARS from now, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration perceived that half of Manila and parts of Las Piñas will be completely gone due to the effects of climate change. On the other hand, most fantasize about a Philippines taken over by robots and highly advanced technology like “smart homes.” However, for writers Mixcaela Villalon and Rody Vera, the Philippines 70 years from now would look exactly like a dystopia, but with a few twists: a country haunted by the remains of a nuclear war, a group rebelling against their oppressive government leaders, and the Stormdome, a walled shelter established by their ancestors to “protect” what remained of the population from the possibility of their countrymen's extinction. “3 Stars and a Sun” is one of Philippine Educatio...

Dec72015 by No Comments

Encapsulating

Liyab

This is home. No matter what, this is home. I close my eyes—I hear the low birdsong floating over the roaring of earthbound engines and feel the tension between earth and sky holding me still. I don't mind the people in the same way they don't mind me. We all suffer from different agonies. There is a certain force, an internal pain, which I feel. This pain may just be a blip in the universe, but it is, at the same time, enormous. I need to rest. Let me rest. Let me heal, for a while, in my home. Words by ANDREA JAMAICA H. JACINTO Photo by LORENZO ABEL S. DIONISIO Ignite your intellectual senses! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter: abtheflame Visit us at

Nov12015 by No Comments

Comedy of a Summer Romance: ‘It’s April, What Are We Doing Here?’

Literary

NORTHROP FRYE, in his theory of Archetypes, mentions that there is a universal experience discernable in each season of the year. Summer, he said, was the start of romance: the celebration of marriage and the consummation of love. However, Palanca award-winning writer Rolando Tinio rebels on this idea. In the very title of his play “It’s April, What Are We Doing Here?” one can delineate a dejected rhetoric—a certain feeling of disappointed yearning and frigid impassivity. In his play, summer represents the slow degradation of romantic love. The play was recently staged by IKARUS in a black-box type studio at DITO: Bahay Ng Sining, in Concepcion, Marikina City. Set in Manila during the 60s, the play starts when Teresina catches her husband, Nicholas, inside the apartment of his...