Jose Javier Reyes: Thoughts on education in the 21st Century

MANILA, Philippines – The inspirational wordsmith William Arthur Ward once said, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

And Jose Javier Reyes is one of those great teachers — a storyteller through and through, who best expresses himself through the lens of cameras, as he masterfully visualizes scripts and meticulously curates all the scenes that spark aspirations within young filmmakers.

A Senior Industry Fellow at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s Digital Filmmaking Program, he has garnered several awards and achievements over the years, to include Gawad Urian, Metro Manila Film Festival and Star Awards for his films such as Pahiram ng Isang Umaga, Batang PX and Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo. As of last count, he has over 28 awards and 60 nominations.

These are his thoughts on education in the 21st century:

On teaching…

“Why do I teach? Because I want to keep on learning. And the only way for me to be in touch with my audience is to be with them, to immerse myself in their world, to grasp the way they think and the way they view their world. A teacher’s learning never ceases — and as a media practitioner, it is important that I know my audience. It is important that I can relate to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift as I can appreciate Virginia Woolf and Edna St. Vincent Millay.”

On challenges and hurdles…

“Students now are different as they should be. These millennials are products of so many factors that did not exist during my time, in the same manner that the worldwide web, social media and the speed of technological advancements have redefined media and still shape the world by the day.”

On millennials…

“They are a restless generation. They are the remote control generation. I can go on and on discussing and describing the millennial student, but all these must not be taken against them, because they are who they are because we, their parents and grandparents, were who we were and are who we are now.

“Remember that these kids are the children of the Gen X-ers and the grandkids of the Baby Boomers. They had rebellious idealistic grandparents who were flower children and believed in the philosophy of Woodstock, played Sergeant Pepper’s of the Beatles, and knew Jimi Hendrix and the Jim Morrison of The Doors. And their parents are the ambitious materialistic driven generation of Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities. Are we surprised these kids turned out to be this way?

“And it is equally important to understand that the Filipino millennial is different — and should be differentiated from his Western counterpart.

“Whereas there are these millennials of BGC and Rockwell and Resorts World much like all the characters of Gino Santos movies, there is the other side of the coin — the students of the University Belt, the children of OFWs, whose only dream is to get out of the country to find a better life, and who grew up away from their parents who were enslaved by the need to provide a better life to their loved ones. These are the real Pinoy millennials, not the privileged few whose life is defined by the model of iPhones they carry.”

On unique ideas…

“There is nothing surprising but definitely there are unique ideas from the Benilde kids.

“There is also that distinction between the kind of Benilde students you have — the haves and the have-nots, the privileged and the scholars. It shows in the stories that they tell. You know who has no world outside the security-guarded gates of their abodes from the kids who literally brave the MRT every morning to get to Vito Cruz for their classes.

“But filmmaking is the great equalizer. It is not a matter of having or not having. It is a question of passion, talent and dedication.”

On future filmmakers…

“I demand that they be brave.  Students should not be ‘the next somebody.’ Many idolize the mavericks like Brillante Mendoza or Lav Diaz, but I tell them we already have those giants — we need new voices. And the students are brave because they have the technology that has become their second nature. Millennials are digital natives compared to the generations before them who were digital immigrants. My generation and the next learned the computer, but the millennials were born with a keyboard attached to their hands.

“What is important is that you let them find their voice and be brave in discovering their voices. That way, filmmaking in this country will evolve with each generation reconstructing and resurrecting their power of narratives.”