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Teaching love through cinema
Teaching love through cinema
by Micah Lima
for the Alexis Tioseco Internship Program (ATIP)
for the Alexis Tioseco Internship Program (ATIP)
"Because one of the greatest joys I believe one can feel is to share that which they find beautiful with someone who otherwise wouldn’t have noticed it, and to see it appreciated."
Learning from a man who knew cinema and fought for cinema, twelve young interns sharing the same passion found their way towards love.
Guiding their journey is the Alexis Tioseco Internship Program (ATIP), which made it clear that love, ever boundless, ever pure, transcends all things.
The program’s namesake, Alexis Tioseco, was a film critic and an advocate of Philippine and Southeast Asian cinema. In his article published in Rogue Magazine entitled, "The Letter I Would Love to Read to You in Person", he wrote, “The first impulse is always one of love. The more films I saw, specifically local independent films, the more I wanted to see. The deeper I got, the more responsibility I felt, the stronger the need to do something, to share that which I found beautiful.” Founder of the online film journal, Criticine, Alexis displayed and embodied an unshakable devotion not only to Philippine Cinema, but as well as to Southeast Asian Cinema at large.
In September 1, 2009, at the young age of 28, Alexis and his girlfriend and fellow film critic, Nika Bohinc, were killed by gunned robbers inside their own home. Mourning his loss were not only his family, friends, and our local film community, but also people from different parts of the world who were familiar with their advocacies.
Months after his tragic passing, in the hopes of continuing the legacy he left, Alexis’ friends and family spearheaded ATIP. “It’s something that Alexis has been thinking about doing,” says ATIP program director, Bono Olgado, 22. “When he passed away last year, we were thinking of several ways on how to continue his legacy and pursue his dreams and his hopes. We decided to come up with this internship program to answer to Alexis' call for the discovery and development of more cultural workers for Philippine Cinema"
ATIP’s pilot year was launched this April. “The whole program from the very beginning is really rooted in the heart and sensibilities of Alexis,” notes Bono. Making the program possible were the combined efforts of the Baang Group, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Mowelfund Film Institute, the University of the Philippines Film Institute, and the Tioseco family. The program was overwhelmingly supported by Alexis' friends and colleagues in the local film community.
Choosing from over seventy applicants, only twelve college students and fresh graduates were given the privilege to undergo weeks of intensive training necessary to cultivate young cultural workers for cinema. They are: Whammy Alcazaren (UP Diliman), Eros Arbilon (Collegio de San Juan de Letran ), Trixie Dawn Cabilan (UP Manila), Dav Dioniso (ADMU), Francis Felices (FEU), Mikey Flores (UST), Geva Jayson (UP Diliman), Rina Lozada (UP Manila), Jerry Perez (Colegio de San Juan de Letran), Patti Sunio (ADMU), Louella Suque (DLS-CSB), and Erin Tagudin (Miriam College).
“Alexis’ ideas are refreshing and so full of hope and inspiration for the rest of us to strive for greatness as well, and put to use whatever we are given to start with,” says intern, Patti Sunio, 21.
the program introduced the different fields of cultural work for cinema including film archiving
The program was designed to provide participants the necessary knowledge and skills to engage in the different facets of cultural work and arts management for cinema. Participants developed a critical understanding particularly of Philippine Cinema including its history and current dynamics. The program introduced participants to and equipped them with essential skills in film programming, film criticism, film archiving and preservation, film cultural body administration and cinematic project management.
Running for seven weeks, the program was composed of lectures, workshops, socials and on the job trainings. Participants attended classes, conducted researches, went to film community events and worked in film cultural bodies.
Escolta, a film journal, is one of the projects organized by the interns to culminate their learnings from the program
With inspiration fuelling their abilities, the interns conceptualized their own cultural projects at the end of the program. These projects showcased the skills they’ve acquired from the program. They programmed INDIE-PENDENCE: A day of Freedom, a film screening which explored the different facets and meanings of independence through films. They also organized and held Philippine Cinematic Heritage: Film Archiving Training and Symposium for Students to spread the word on the importance of film archiving and develop student film archivists in various universiities and student film organizations. Just recently, they launched ESCOLTA, a film journal that aims to “highlight Philippine Cinema and its history and heritage.”
Although the emphasis of ATIP is on cinema, the program has always been about love— because it is love that made Alexis Tioseco inseparable from cinema and it is with and for love that the Alexis Tioseco Internship Program was founded. “As I told them from the beginning, the bottom line at the end of the day is that besides from equipping them with the skills to be actual cultural workers for cinema, is also teach them how, in Alexis Tioseco’s words, to love,” shares Bono.
Working by the ideals of Alexis and immortalizing his strong message of love, by exposing young interns to the various aspects of cinema and cultural works, ATIP achieved its goal. On June 9, 2010, on the night of their graduation, the interns addressed the people behind ATIP and said, “At the end of it all, we have been made to realize the colossal nature of what we had apparently barely understood. What is this Philippine Cinema? In truth we still do not know. But it is as a result of our new understood form of love that we hope find out.”
The success of ATIP’s pilot year is apparent and even surpassed what it hoped to accomplish. Aside from learning skills necessary for Philippine cinema to flourish, and aside from finding love in their work, the interns also saw the possibility of bottomless love through Alexis.
"There is still so much to be said but there is so much more that is left to be done. More than our thanks, our gratitude, what is most truthful is that we promise through action that we will remember with you. We will remember Alexis and his love for Cinema and we will hold it deep in memory in the hopes that we will never find the extent of ours,”the interns expressed in their graduation remarks given by Whammy Alcazaren.
Alexis saw love in films, shared it with others, and to this day, continues to enlighten with the love he found. Without doubt, he will continue to touch lives of individuals both young and old, within and beyond the world of cinema.
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For more information regarding the program contact Bono Olgado (bono.olgado@gmail.com). The Alexis Tioseco Internship Program will continue with its second year in summer 2011, for inquiries contact Louella Suque (Louella.Suque@live.com).
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