40 Filipino films at Paris filmfest

Paris has set its eye on Manila. That is as far as cinema is concerned.

“Forty Filipino films will take center stage at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival from July 1 to 12,” Jacky Atienza, chairman of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), told Funfare. “This is being done to honor the geniuses behind filmmaking in the Philippines.”

Atienza added that this special tribute, which will be held at MK2 Bibliotheque, a beautiful and luxurious cinema complex in Paris, will be attended by 45 Filipino delegates composed of film producers, directors, actors, scriptwriters and technicians. The director, Aki Kaurismäki, will be present during the beginning of the festival, as well as French actress Nathalie Baye (from the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can by Steven Spielberg) and French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (who won the Best Original Screenplay Cesar in 1983 for The Return of Martin Guerre and was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Philip Kaufman in 1988).

Guest star at Paris Cinema 2008 is film director David Cronenberg. He will be in Paris this summer to present at the Theatre de Châtelet his new opera, adapted by his film The Fly. The Paris Cinema IFF is preparing an exceptional night linked to this event on July 3 where the films The Fly and The Back Fly (1958) will be shown.

“Paris Cinema IFF will present a complete program of these 40 films that pay tribute to the Philippines’ past, current and new generation of talented filmmakers,” Christine Dayrit, chairman of the Cinema Evaluation Board and Festival Committee of FDCP, told Funfare. “Featured films are those from Cinemalaya Film Festival, indie films, blockbuster hits, as well as rare classics, shorts, documentaries, videos, experimental works shall be presented by some invited directors, producers and artists.”

The FDCP recommends classic films like Himala, Kisapmata, Minsa’y Isang Gamu-Gamo, Burlesk Queen, Aguila, Batch ’81 and Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag; mainstream films like Segurista, Sigaw, Tanging Yaman, Caregiver, Minsan Pa and Ouija; and indie films like Ataul for Rent, Kubrador, Mga Pusang Gala, Ploning, Mga Munting Tinig, Magnifico, Ilusyon and Babae sa Breakwater, among others.

Atienza also announced that a delegation of Filipino producers will likewise be invited to present their new projects to French professionals through the Paris Project co-production platform and a series of workshops will be organized to improve the industrial and commercial links between the Philippines and France. Finally, a forum with a large panel of specialists will enable the audience to delve into the diversity of Philippine cinema industry today and its aesthetic issues.

What’s even more exciting is the possibility of bagging co-production deals through Paris Cinema IFF. Digna Santiago, executive director of PFESO, (Philippine Film Export Service Office) and chair of Task Force Paris 2008, said the aim of the Paris Project is to bring key players in the French film industry, around a few international production projects in development. “What makes Paris Project so unique and dynamic is that it aims at encouraging French professionals to get involved in foreign projects to promote financial arrangements, co-productions and networking with potential French parts,” Santiago said.

In a recent visit to Manila by Paris Project director Aude Hesbert and Paris Project adviser Jeremy Segay, the FDCP learned that Paris Cinema International Film Festival, presided over by actress Charlotte Rampling, was launched in 2003 by the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë. This event takes place each year for the last six years, throughout the capital early summer in attendance, several films acquired for distribution and extensive media coverage.

The Paris Cinema IFF honored Korean cinema in 2006 and Lebanon filmmaking in 2007.

Another pride of the Pinoy

Did you know that during Pope Benedict XVI’s recent visit to New York, which featured several public Masses and visits to the United Nations and Ground Zero, it was a Filipina who conducted most of the music played everywhere the Holy Father went? She’s none other than Dr. Jennifer Pascual, the first woman to serve as the director of music at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, seat of the Archdiocese of New York.

Read the following report by Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre (news editor of The Filipino Reporter):

At the Yankee Stadium Mass attended by more than 57,000 people, Pascual conducted three major choirs, accompanied by a 58-member orchestra.

“Animated, enthusiastic and exacting” was how the New York Daily News described Pascual who said that putting it all together was “the highlight of my career and my faith.”

“At one point (during the rehearsal),” Daily News’ Ari Goldman wrote, “Pascual gently chided the members, ‘You sound like amateur nuns at the convent!’ At another, she said, ‘You’ve got to do something with these long notes or your listeners will get bored. I’ll get bored.’ When she got what she wanted, she smiled and clasped her hands together and was full of praise.”

The St. Patrick’s Choir is composed of 55 men and women, a third of them professional musicians. The members range in age from 22 to 83, and also include a number of Protestants.

It was not the first time Pascual performed for a Pope. In 1995, she sang soprano in one of the assembles choirs when Pope John Paul II celebrated a Mass at Central Park.

Pascual, a New Jersey resident and daughter of Filipino immigrant parents, earned her doctorate in organ performance from Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. in 1991. She also holds a master of music degree in piano performance from the Mannes College of Music in New York City and Bachelor of Music degrees in piano and organ performance and music education (magna cum laude) from Jacksonville University in Florida.

Pascual has served as organist and choir director in the Dioceses of St. Augustine, Florida and Rochester, N.Y., and has also been on the Artistic Staff of the Boys Choir of Harlem, Inc. since 1994.

Five years ago, when New York Archbishop Edward Cardinal Egan heard her conduct a church choir in upstate New York, he asked her to head the music program at St. Patrick’s.

In Sept. 2003, Pascual officially became the director of music at St. Patrick’s, which is one of the most prestigious sacred music appointments in the US.

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