http://www.admu.edu.ph/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=40&aid=6257

Ateneo graders stage a new version of Ibong Adarna

by Dr. Fernando Hofileña
2009-01-15

“Adarna at and Alaala ng Kristal,” the 77th production of the Ateneo Children’s Theatre (ACT), is scheduled to open on January 30, 2008 at the Irwin Theatre, Ateneo Loyola Heights campus.

Jonny Salvador, Executive Producer of ACT and Assistant Headmaster for Student Affairs of the Ateneo Grade School explains, “Choosing a Filipino play for 2009 was a deliberate move by the directors in conjunction with the celebration of Ateneo’s 150th year, its Sesquicentennial, in the Philippines. After more than six years of staging Broadway musicals, it is high time for ACT to take a different route, one that will celebrate the beauty of the Filipino language all over again. This, of course, is fueled by the theme of Ateneo’s sesquicentennial year which is nation building.”

Ace Elgar, one of the directors, shares that Khavn dela Cruz, an Ateneo alumnus, volunteered to write the script after he got wind of the fact that ACT was looking for a writer who will give the popular Filipino korido, “Ibong Adarna,” a twist. She also mentions dela Cruz’ enviable credentials: recipient of Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Poetry and Fiction and the Dean’s Award for Literature from his alma mater; an acclaimed composer, songwriter, singer, pianist and writer of several rock operas; and recipient of citations from the Metro Pop Song Festival and the Ateneo Songwriting Fest as well as The John Lennon Songwriting Contest (New Jersey). To top it all off, he is also considered Father of Philippine Digital filmmaking.

Khavn surprised the directors because he did not write about the legendary quest of Don Juan for the Ibong Adarna in order to help his dying father, King Fernando (the first part of the 1,722 stanzas of “Ibong Adarna” which many Filipinos know and love). What he wrote was the last story in this romantic narrative poem – Don Juan’s search for the Reyno de los Kristales (the fourth and fifth part of the entire korido if divided into five parts), because he was driven by the desire to educate the theatre-goers, especially the younger patrons. Unfortunately this part is hitherto unheard of and unseen in this country. Faithful to the korido, Khavn embraced the same lyrical language for the script. Read More »

f i l m j o u r n e y . o r g
world cinema in Los Angeles and beyond

http://filmjourney.weblogger.com/2009/01/15/robert-koehlers-best-of-2008/

Khavn’s “Manila In The Fangs Of Darkness” is one of Robert Koehler’s Best of 2008

The Golden Age Continued: The Films That Matter in 2008

By ROBERT KOEHLER
January 15th, 2009

It’s always dangerous to assume anything, but I figured that by now I would have been teased—somewhere, by someone—for having argued more than once over the past couple of years that we are living in a new golden age of film. This position runs so counter to the prevailing mood and sentiment (dour may be one word to describe it) that I know more than ever that I’m right, just as I know that such a contrarian position opens one up for attack. Hasn’t happened. Yet. Maybe it will this time, especially when some films that seem so wildly and widely loved aren’t listed among the year’s films that matter (say, for the helluva it, WALL-E). Perhaps part of the reason for the critical exercise in listing a year’s survey of films is to offer a counter to the pack mentality that swamps North American movie criticism today. (Not a golden age there.) But the central reason is to stake a position in the field of cinema, to defend it, to cite the films made by filmmakers who fathom that we’ve entered a time where cinema’s essence of a greater understanding and feeling for reality through image and sound, a time that runs full circle to the silent era, liberated from literature, from theater, from all of those alien projects that have nothing to do with cinema. Read More »

“BATHALA NA!”
The Soft Launch of www.khavndelacruz.com & the
Afterparty of the Kidlat Tahimik Retrospective

January 14 Wednesday
7pm to 1am

Mag:net Katipunan
(in front of Miriam College, beside Rustan’s
Supermarket)

Featuring:
Khavn De La Cruz
Tom Estrella Sr. & The Shadows
Norman Wilwayco
Donna Miranda
Roberto Nicolas
Angelo Suarez
Tengal
Earth Jazz Trio
Joel Toledo
Ledh
Taggu N’Dios
Arvie Bartolome
Roxlee
John Torres
J Luna
Joseph Longboy
Kidlat Tahimik

Hosted by VJ Kints On The Hauz

7 PM
Special Screening of “MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS”
(Maynila Sa Mga Pangil Ng Dilim)
This is not a film by KHAVN
Read More »

Ulan

May lumuluha.

Nasa ilalim ka ng ulap,
malayo sa anino niya,
naliligo
sa malamig na tubig
na walang kulay
kundi salamin ng mata mo.

Magdaraan ang ulan
sa bibig,
maalala mo ang kanyang matang
kahawig ng titig mo,
lalasahan mong muli
habang nakatikom ang mata at labi,
hindi mo mabura ang alaala ng mata niya,
unti-unti kang naglalaho
kapiling ng pagtila ng ulan.

May lumuluha.

Ars Romantica

minsan, naitatanong
sa sarili kung para
saan ang umibig
ng pag-ibig na kasing-
ilap ng bulag na bituin?
para makasulat ng tula?