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Thursday, July 13, 2006
CAVITE posted on 7/13/2006 08:46:00 PM by agentCB
BACK TO THE GRILL AGAIN posted on 7/11/2006 01:00:00 PM by agentCB
last night i watched the indie film "cavite". a thriller by ian gamazon and neil dela llana. big game and the hair goddess caught the flick with sunshine and i in the u-district.
after getting our refreshments, red licorice (contraband), mango slices (in honor of the movie), and butter with a little bit of popcorn mixed in for good taste.
the butter proved to be part of my downfall.
not realizing that this movie was going to be of the "blair witch" quality in terms of steadiness and editing, i was nauseated as soon as adam got to the pinas. you see, i get carsick easy. i sometimes get carsick even when i drive. don't ask me why.
that aside, let me get to the movie...
cousin tetai mailed me an article (yes, mail as in snail mail) about the movie i was of course interested in anything that includes the motherland. but i had forgotten about it until sunshine asked if i wanted to go. (shout out 2 sunshine).
still, as prepared as i was, i was still deeply saddened by the squatter camps and shantytowns that were showcased in the movie. my mother and her family hail from cavite city, so i was excited to get a peek at my mom's hometown. but i knew ahead of time that it was going to be hard for me to see the deplorable conditions back home. i'm one of the rare few filipino americans that have never been to the philppines. the closest i've been is hawaii, the closest i've felt it was seeing poverty first hand in mexico while on vacation with my parents. but seeing cavite made me realize it was worse than i could even imagined. the areas i went to in mexico were near tourist spots. in cavite, there are areas where people live among garbage and filth a la smokey mountain in manila during the marcos era.
i haven't seen anything yet.
seeing the garbage in the water made me sad, the corruption in the government, the division between christians and muslims. but seeing people survive and struggle didn't make me sad, instead i was humbled. trying to figure out how things got so bad, i just sat and watched and saw with my own eyes how hurt the philippines is as a nation. but what i also took with me is how our people are still surviving amidst the chaos and garbage. fuck.
the filmmakers put the film together for $7000 US. they filmed in the actual city and made do with 2 miniDV camcorders and a video editing program. (if it was imovie, i give ya'll mad props.. if it was on a PC i give ya'll even more props, PC's suck for multimedia). so the pinas was as one review put it the "supporting actress" in the film. (motherland = actress, get it? prrt) if it's playing in your area, go watch it. if you've never been to the PI or pinas, then you really should watch it.
just make sure you take dramamine or don't eat anything during the movie.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
i know i've used this title before for a blog. who cares. no one really reads this anyway so bleh. returned back to the 206 after a long holiday in Cali.
such a different world down there.
felt so relaxed not having to think about work. it was nice to just chill and not worry about anything, even though i did get calls from work. i was able to put it out of my mind and relax.
started jogging again. took a month off because of my hip and some kind of sciatic pain shit goin on. 2nd day of running; pain starting to come back. wtf.
