Philippine Entertainment Portal

Dating couple Geoff Rodriguez and Tisha Silang of the Philippines made it to the final leg of Amazing Race Asia 3 after finishing second in tonight’s episode. Tisha and Geoff will join Malaysia’s Ida and Tania, who stepped on the mat first, and Hong Kong boys Vince and Sam, who came in third place, in the 11th and final leg.

The finale episode of Amazing Race Asia 3 will be aired next Thursday, November 20, in AXN.

Amazing Race Asia 3 is the third installment of the popular reality game show, which is actually a spin-off of the Emmy award-winning reality show Amazing Race. It is hosted by Singapore-based Chinese-American actor Allan Wu.

Geoff and Tisha now have the chance to become the first team from the Philippines to win Amazing Race Asia and the $100,000 cash prize. They will also have the chance to erase or at least duplicate the third-place finish of Marc Nelson and Rovilson Fernandez last season.

Geoff and Tisha are actually good friends with Marc and Rovilson.

At the start of the 10th leg, Geoff and Tisha were in third place; behind the teams from Hong Kong and Malaysia. In fourth place was A.D. and Fuzzie of Singapore.

Geoff and Tisha were actually behind most of the 10th leg when they made some crucial errors. First was when they failed to answer correctly the year Mahatma Gandhi, India’s major spiritual and political leader, was born (1869). Then, in Detour (a task that all teams must perform), both Geoff and Tisha had a hard time counting the exact number of nuts inside a sack.

Luckily, all teams got lost going to the Roadblock (a task that only one member of the team can pefrorm) in Muscat, Oman, so Geoff and Tisha arrived there the same time as the other teams. Geoff also finished the Roadblock easily that enabled them to came in second, behind the team from Malaysia.

The team from Singapore, which finished last, got eliminated.

Amazing Race Asia 3 started with ten teams from different Asian countries, including India, South Korea, and Thailand. After each leg, one team gets eliminated, although there are pre-determined non-elimination legs.

Throughout the race, Geoff and Tisha made some enemies mainly because of Geoff’s attitude that turned off the other teams. It was also only Geoff and Tisha who chose to use the Yield and U-Turn against the other teams this season. A team that was yielded will have to wait for a pre-determined time before continuing the race, while the team that was U-Turned has to do the other detour that they did not previously completed.

Tisha was crowned Bb. Pilipinas-Universe in 1998 but resigned due to her Canadian citizenship. She also tried hosting before in some shows of GMA-7, including Mornings@GMA. Tisha also had a relationship with TV host Paolo Bediones.

Geoff, on the other hand, was a member of the all-male group Powerboys, which also included Jordan Herrera, Frank Garcia, Greg martin, and Jay Salas.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines— A spellbinding victory for Philippine cinema.

Visitors to the Cable News Network entertainment website voted Ishmael Bernal’s “Himala,” which starred Nora Aunor as a simple provincial girl turned faith healer, as the best movie of all time in the Asia-Pacific region, outclassing such greats as Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” and Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Others in the top 10 that vied for the honor, in which “Himala” was the only Filipino film, included Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s “Mou Gaan Dou (Infernal Affairs)” from Hong Kong, Chan-wook Park’s “Old Boy” from South Korea, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)” from Japan, Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” from India, Peter Weir’s “Gallipoli” from Australia, Wong Kar Wai’s “Chung Hing Sam Lam (Chungking Express)” from China, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s “Gabbeh” from Iran.

According to the CNN website, critics, industry insiders, Asian film stars, and CNN viewers chose the movies that landed in the shortlist of ten films. The online poll that ran in October determined the winner.

The Filipino classic, which was written by Ricky Lee and originally released in 1982 for the Metro Manila Film Festival, was announced the top vote-getter in the popular vote and named the winner of the CNN-APSA Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of All Time on Tuesday at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Hundreds of film industry luminaries from around the world attended the event.

Philippine Entertainment Portal

Just a few days after winning two awards in the 6th International Pacific Meridian Film Festival in Russia, Brillante Mendoza was once again honored in an international film fest. Brillante, first-time filmmaker Francis Xavier Pasion, and John Torres were among the directors who won in the recently concluded Bangkok International Film Festival.

The sixth edition of the Bangkok IFF took place from September 23 to 30 in Thailand. Ferdy Lapuz, one of the producers of Serbis, say that this film won the Golden Kinnaree Award in the Southeast Asian competition at the Bangkok IFF. Serbis shows the life of a family who operate a run-down movie house showing sex flicks in Pampanga. Gina Pareño, Julio Diaz, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin, and Kristoffer King are some of the stars who topbill this award-winning film.

The Cinemalaya 2008 entry Jay, directed by Francis Xavier Pasion, bagged the Special Mention Award in the main competition category. Baron Geisler and Coco Martin appear in this film about a TV producer creating a documentary about a homosexual teacher.

John Torres’ Years When I was A Child Outside won special mention in the Southeast Asian competition. This 2007 Cinemanila International Film Festival entry is also known for its alternative title is Taon noong ako’y anak sa labas.

According to the official website of the Bangkok IFF, the Golden Kinnaree Award “symbolizes the creative spirit—looking to the future, while respecting the achievements and traditions of the past—flying between the worlds of reality and imagination.” This award was won by Brillante Mendoza for Serbis.

The winners were chosen by a six-member jury panel, including Thailand-based, Lao-Australian-ethnic actor Ananda Everingham, Swedish festival artistic director Martial Knaebel and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. The Bangkok IFF has two divisions: the main competition and Southeast Asian competition, each featuring 10 films from the world and the region.

The Bangkok IFF screened around 80 films from over 40 countries during its week-long run.

ABS-CBN News

Nine recipients of this year’s prestigious Gawad CCP will be feted Wednesday night at formal awarding ceremonies at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This year’s recipients include Felicitas L. Radaic (Gawad CCP for Dance); Gilopez and Corazon Kabayao (Gawad CCP for Music); Feliz Monino S. Duque (Gawad CCP for Theater); Malou L. Jacob (Gawad CCP for Literature); Jose R. Moreno (Gawad CCP for Fashion Design); Rev. Fr. Rodrigo D. Perez III, OSB (Gawad CCP for Cultural Work); and the Philippine Folk Dance Society (Special Honors).

Two of the Gawad CCP recipients were honored posthumously: the Gawad CCP for Visual Arts was given to legendary comics illustrator Francisco V. Coching, while the Gawad CCP for Film was given to iconic Filipino filmmaker and actor Manuel P. Urbano (aka Manuel Conde).

The Gawad CCP Para sa Sining is given to artists or groups of artists who have consistently produced outstanding works, enriched the development of their art form. The award is also given to cultural workers who helped to develop and enrich Philippine art and culture through their works in research, curatorship and administration.

Awardees

Felicitas L. Radaic is honored for her achievements in elevating and professionalizing the standards of classical ballet in the Philippines. She conceptualized and authored the Philippine Ballet Syllabus. She founded her own school and co-founded the Dance Theatre Philippines and the Philippine Ballet Theater. Radaic has produced and trained some of the country’s finest classical ballet dancers.

Gilopez Kabayao and Corazon Pineda Kabayao are two of the most esteemed and respected musicians in the Philippines. With a career spanning many decades, the Kabayaos have performed all over the Philippines and the world, sharing their love and gift of music through numerous outreach performances and workshops.

Monino S. Duque defined stagecraft in the Philippines. As one of the country’s most respected lighting designers, he institutionalized standard operational procedures in theater management. Duque also raised the country’s professional ushering service to world-class standards; and laid the foundation for festival management. His body of work encompasses all genres, from the classical to the modern.

Malou Jacob is synonymous with political theater in the Philippines. As a playwright, she is rooted in the tradition of social realism, which stretches from the seditious Tagalog playwrights of the American occupation of the Philippines at the turn of the century, till the subversive theater of the Martial Law era. Her thought-provoking plays are social commentaries that advocate for change and action. She is an advocate for the empowerment of the Filipino, especially women, through theater and education.

Pitoy Moreno is the best known among Filipino designers internationally and dubbed as “the Fashion Czar of Asia”. His collections have circled the globe and landed the fashion pages of international publications like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. His beadwork, embroidery and hand painting embellish the gowns of international celebrities, politicians and royalty. He promoted Philippine fabrics and popularized the use of jusi, piña and lepanto. He was one of the earliest exponents of the Maria Clara. He re-fashioned the Barong Tagalog and made it wearable by women. First Ladies of the Philippines, as a matter of course, have donned Moreno’s trademark ternos.

Rev. Fr. Rodrigo D. Perez III, OSB has written and co-authored several major publications that have contributed immensely to the development of Philippine Architecture. He played a vital role in the conservation of churches in the country, specifically when he was Technical Consultant of the Historical Conservation Society from 1960-1963. As a Benedictine priest, he expanded his influence in education and culture by serving the boards of the St. Benedict College, Mirriam College, St. Scholastica’s College and the CCP. Fr. Bob was Rector/President of San Beda College for 15 years.

The Philippine Folk Dance Society is the leading organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Philippine folk dances for close to 60 years. Through its regular folk dance workshops, both national and regional, and the Philippine Folk Dance Teacher Accreditation Program, it has constantly sought to upgrade folk dance education, particularly among teachers across the country. It published and produced important materials such as the “Sayaw: Dances of the Philippines”; “Classic Collection of Philippine Folk Dances”; and the Instructional Video on Philippine Traditional Dances.

Two titans of Philippine visual and film arts were also given overdue recognition by the Gawad CCP posthumously:

Francisco Coching (1919-1998) is a master artist and master storyteller who reached a mass audience through the komiks novels he wrote and illustrated during his 40-year career. Coching’s works promoted Filipino as a national language and proved to be a powerful medium of verbal and visual literacy. His works entertained the masses with high adventure, action, drama and romance, by creating compelling, imaginary worlds where characters like Hagibis and Sabas roamed.

Manuel Conde (1915-1985) is considered to be the first independent Filipino filmmaker. Even as he worked within the studio system beginning in the 1930s; he also wrote, directed, produced and starred in his films, under his own MC Productions. He placed Philippine cinema on the world map when his Genghis Khan became the first Filipino film to be screened in an international film festival—the 1952 Venice Film Festival. He is best known for his screen persona, Juan Tamad and as such came out with several Juan Tamad films that were not just comedies but social satires portraying the best and the worst of Pinoy politics.

ABS-CBN News

An all-girl team from a Quezon City high school bagged the grand prize at the Disney Channel inter-school dance competition in Hong Kong last Saturday.

The Holy Spirit School team of Jessica Meñez, Czarina Jose, Krizia Duka, Lyza Torsiende and Julia Mella are all part of the dance group “Janssen Knights” that bested other entries in the “High School Musical: My School Rocks!” competition.

The competition brought together dance groups around Southeast Asia to choreograph their original dance moves using the songs inspired by Disney Channel original movie, “High School Musical 2.”

A video of Janssen Knights’ performance was posted as an entry at the Disney Channel Web site, where it had gathered 29,000 votes from viewers across the region.

With the victory, the Janssen Knights got the chance to perform in the upcoming “High School Musical: Live!”, which will also be staged in Hong Kong Disneyland.

The team is expected to arrive in Manila Monday afternoon.

GMA News

SUSUPE, Saipan – An all-Filipino band whose members include a carpenter, a heavy equipment operator and air-con technicians by day bagged the second place at a battle of the bands in the US territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Sunday night.

The “High Pitch Band,” one of six Filipino bands that joined the Saipan Summer Jam, proved that love of music and excelling in it knows no social class.

Its members come from different parts of the Philippines – Caloocan City Metro Manila; General Santos City in Mindanao; San Jose del Monte in Bulacan province; Quezon province; and Butuan City.

Another all-Filipino band called “Rated R” got the texters’ choice awards with 3,137 text votes or about 43 percent of all the votes counted, while other bands barely got a few hundred text votes.

Rated R also placed 6th among the 10 bands that competed in the smoke-free event organized by Beach Road Magazine.

“First time naming sumali sa ganito kalaking contest … Nagbunga rin ang pagpa-practice namin (It’s our first time to join in a big competition like this…Our practice paid off),” High Pitch Band guitarist Vergelio Lauganas told GMANews.TV right after the competition.

Lauganas, from General Santos City in Mindanao, came to Saipan in 1992 to work as a farmer. It was only two years ago that he changed his job category to that of a musician for a Polynesian dance group.

The High Pitch Band’s high-wire performance awed the crowd of mixed races and nationalities, who also got to hear rock, reggae, ska, ballads, pop and Pinoy rock and roll from other Filipino bands – “Project X,” “J,” “Past & Present” and “The Channel B Band.”

“Project X” even belted out Sampagita’s classic Pinoy rock song “Nosi Balasi,” to the amazement of the crowd.

“Iba talaga ang Pinoy. Kahit saan makarating, nananalo sa mga contests na sinasalihan (Pinoys are really different. Wherever they go, they win in contests they join in),” said High Pitch Band drummer Virgilio Aguilar, who is an air-con technician by day. He hails from San Jose, Bulacan.

One of Saipan’s most popular bands consisting mainly of Filipinos, the “Big Beats,” pumped up the crowd with cover songs, and wrapped up their performance with the Doobie Brothers’ “Without Love.”

The first prize went to a local band, “Burning Bush,” which belted out reggae songs from the iconic Bob Marley and other island songs which are popular in the CNMI.

The CNMI is host to about 10,000 Filipino contract workers and Filipino-Americans.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

LOS ANGELES, California—Chris Chua, 29-year-old Filipino-American animator at Pixar Animation Studios, makes things look easy.

When we interviewed him at Pixar’s sprawling Emeryville office, Chris casually rattled off things about his career. Unintentionally, he made his rise in the animation world sound simple—which, of course, was not.

“I went to California Institute of the Arts in Valencia for college, joined DreamWorks, transferred to Pixar and then got assigned to do my first Pixar movie, which is ‘Wall-E,’ ” he said.

He added, “I always look forward to coming to work because the people I work with here are just so passionate about everything.” And so is Chris.

“It’s great working here,” he stressed. “Everyday, no matter how tired I am, I always look forward to coming to work.”

Loving it

“Work” for Chris means doing what he loves, donning casual clothes everyday, or riding a bike, scooter or rollerblades around the office. In his “free time,” he may take some “enrichment” courses at Pixar University.

“Wall-E,” the latest film from Academy Award-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”), is about the last robot left on earth to clean up the trash that mankind has left behind. It is a very timely and relevant movie about the environment.

Chris, who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2-D Animation from Cal Arts, explained the look of “Wall-E,” which is unlike other Pixar movies: It is monochromatic at times and has almost no dialogue in some scenes—an animator’s dream, or nightmare.

“Some animations are bleak and have a doomsday feel to them,” Chris said. “For ‘Wall-E,’ I think there are moments when it is very colorful and entertaining. For me, it is totally a dream project because, as an animator, you are taught that pantomime comes first. All the great scenes happen when you turn off the volume and you know exactly what is going on even without sound coming from the characters’ mouths. The visuals take center stage. We do not have to deal with voices. Just the fact that these emotions can come from this little robot with simple eyes is fulfilling—you can do so much with so little.”

Chris, who got married last year, joined the Pixar team last November as a fix animator for “Wall-E.” He takes shots from the films that have already been animated and polishes them up for final use.

He explained his job further: “Mainly, I assist the animator. For example, you have an animator who has Wall-E going left and right on the screen, but he wants him to go a little slower. So he would come to me and ask me to make Wall-E slow down. I already have the main scene going on in front of me. I just need to adjust it. Sometimes it is very easy, like they will say, ‘Okay, add one blink here.’ Other times, it is more involved and they will completely change everything. I will have to do those changes as well. Then I get them approved by my supervisor. If it’s a bigger change, then the director has to see it since it’s his movie.”

The animator, born in Manila to a Chinese father and a half-Filipino mother, moved to the US at age 10. He said he’s the only artist in the family. Dad William is a banker while mom Juliet was a secretary.

It was during high school that Chris discovered his love for drawing. “I loved to draw and enjoyed watching cartoons and movies,” he recalled. “My teacher told me that I could do this for a living. She said that there is a school in Southern California called the California Institute for the Arts. I think it was right before high school ended when I saw ‘Toy Story.’ That changed everything for me. That was when I set my goal of becoming an animator. Once I had seen more Pixar films, I got more convinced.”

Asked if it was hard for him as a Filipino-Chinese to break into Hollywood, Chris replied, “In this profession, especially animation, it’s not so much about race. There is no real race barrier. It is just about how much work you put in.”

Previous work

Prior to joining Pixar, Chris worked as an animator at DreamWorks Animation on various projects, including “Sinbad,” “Shark Tale” and “Flushed Away.” In the Bay Area, he had a short stint at LucasArts working on the video game project, “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.”

“Wall-E” is his first Pixar movie.

He recently got promoted as animator on Pixar’s latest film, “UP” which will be directed by Pete Docter (“Monsters Inc.”) and is due out next May. He and wife Joy recently moved from Emeryville to North Berkeley where they just bought a house.

Asked how it was working with director Andrew Stanton, Chris said, “Andrew knows what he wants. He may feel things out a couple of times as he will see it and say, ‘That’s not what I want, let us do this.’ But a lot of times, he has a good eye for filmmaking and detail. With him, a movie almost feels like a live-action film just with the way the camera moves.”

As for the Pixar culture, Chris exclaims, “It’s great!” He added, “The movies they make here are ‘director-driven’ as opposed to ‘public-driven.’ In the same way that I am more passionate when something comes from the heart. You feel like when it comes from the director’s soul, you feel like it comes across. That, more than anything else, is what makes Pixar great.”

ABS-CBN News

Filipino independent film “Confessional” was hailed Best Film in the First Features section of the 10th Osian’s Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema last Saturday, July 19th in New Delhi, India.

The film, directed by Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Antipuesto, tells the story of an amateur documentarist who brings out an explosive confession of a crooked politician.

The film’s executive producer and project head of Cinema One Originals, Ronald Arguelles relayed the news of the film’s victory to abs-cbnNEWS.com.

The acclaimed film won the most number of awards from last year’s Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival including Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Screenplay and Best Director.

Tarog said he did not think that a film like “Confessional” would be appreciated abroad.

Tarog and Antipuesto received $5,000 and the Osian’s Originating Film Development fund worth $20,000 to finance their next film.

The Osian’s-Cinefan also honored Filipino scriptwriter Jose F. Lacaba with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lacaba was known for his three Lino Brocka films “Jaguar,” “Bayan Ko” and “Orapronobis.” These films were also shown at the Cannes International Film Festival.

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines – Two Filipino choir groups proved their vocal prowess after winning major prizes in a recently concluded choral singing competition in Hong Kong.

The Vox Angeli Children’s Choir and the University of North Eastern Chorale received top awards in the 2008 Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choir Festival, QTV’s Balitanghali reported Monday.

Despite being greenhorns in the international competition circuit, the Vox Angeli choir managed to bag the gold in the Children’s choir category while snagging the silver in the Folkloric category.

Vox Angeli fell a few points behind the University of North Eastern Chorale which received the gold award in the Folkloric category.

The North Eastern chorale also won a silver for the Mixed Youth category.

The two groups arrived in Manila on Saturday evening and were greeted with placards and streamers congratulating them for their victories.

The Vox Angeli choir reportedly performed with Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan in the World Sings for Olympics concert.