How one woman’s love for film gave birth to DOST-backed EdukSine

Karen Jane Salutan, founder of recently-launched website EdukSine, can only thank her education and natural interest in filmmaking for leading her to what is probably the first and only streaming device to promote Filipino-made independent films.

During the EdukSine recent launch at the University of the Philippines’ Cine Adarna, Karen recalled how she shuttled between her Business Management studies (on scholarship) at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde and working as a crew member of Pizza Hut Call Center in Cubao. Living with her parents in San Jose del Monte, Karen had to transport herself from Bulacan to Cubao and Taft Ave. and back every single day, and night.

The tough schedule allowed her only four hours of sleep each night. This, plus a complex of family problems stemming from poverty, gave her suicidal thoughts. Karen thanked La Salle’s Religion courses for pulling her out of her depressive state.

“Eduksine is the culmination of my education, IT, business and film,” the 35-year old social entrepreneur said.

One time in class, the teacher showed them an indie film, Fireproof, which she said gave her hope and healing.

Such exposure inspired her to study film after finishing her management degree. Karen got accepted at the UP Film Institute, where she took up her masters in Mass Media Studies, Major in Film in 2013. She finished the academic requirements of the two-year course, but didn’t get to complete her thesis.

“By then, I have started to show movies at Cine Adarna, where I learned what sacrifices our filmmakers were making just to produce films. They would beg, steal or borrow, sell this and that, just to come up with a meager budget.”

The problem is, Karen shared, these filmmakers didn’t know how to make their craft sustainable, so they could make more meaningful films.

While at UP, she met so many directors facing gargantuan problems that she decided to put her directorial ambition on hold. She pitied producers and filmmakers, who attempted to show their movies in commercial theaters but ended up with the first-day, last-day syndrome.

“My background in business management made me realize that commercial theaters are not the proper venues for their films. For instance, I learned from school the so-called Blue Ocean Strategy, which pushed tapping uncontested, underserved markets, thus making competition irrelevant. The strategy opened alternative solutions to a problem. We in EdukSine are bringing movies to schools and government agencies through live streaming,” she said.

Karen traces the birth of EdukSine to the very first movie she screened at Adarna in 2014. The movie was Dukit by Armando Lao. On her own, she managed to sell 200 tickets. In one of the screenings, she met Elwood Perez, whom she called her “pinakamamahal na El Maestro.” The veteran director, together with UPFI’s Nonoy Lauzon, served among her early inspirations in her advocacy to show indie films.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, she would have daily film screenings. The money she made from these screenings, she channeled to finance her other advocacy, Cine Kabundukan, whose most recent stop was in Kalinga, Apayao.

“My idea is to bring independent films around the country, so our people can learn a thing or two about change, inspiration,” she said.

Meanwhile, Karen said EdukSine is a customized web program and mobile application for the screening of independent Filipino films in universities and learning institutions, local government offices, companies and organizations in cities and towns and from mountainous to coastal villages across the Philippines. Screenings are held either online or live. It showcases educational, socially-relevant Filipino films with global impact.

Karen believes that outside of malls and other commercial establishments, there’s a different niche market out there for socially-conscious, independently-produced films. They can reach more people through online, face-to-face and hybrid, pre-arranged block screening events.

Such is the unique concept behind EdukSine, recipient of a P3.9M-grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through its program, Women Helping Women Innovating Social Enterprises (WHWise).

Aside from providing contextual and transformative film content to audiences, the interactive platform is a start-up social enterprise that gives sustainable support to independent Filipino film producers, directors, actors and film marketers.

“It is our mission in EdukSine to make independent Filipino films accessible to every Filipino. EdukSine bridges the gap between indie filmmakers and their markets (schools and government offices) which serves as a new and unconventional platform to promote Filipino culture and arts,” said Karen.

The site is backed by a creative, technical and administrative team headed by Eduksine CEO and founder Karen, co-founder Romae Marquez and executive communications director Hec Gloria, together with a team of software engineers, led by Jacob Catayoc, Raphael Marco and Noriel Damundon, and sales managers Roger Macua, Gloria Topue and Nilo Magno.

The EdukSine launch had full support of UP Cinema Arts Society (UP CAST), a student-based film organization at UP Diliman. DLSU-Bacolod professor Hec Gloria opened the EdukSine launch with a sharing on education and film. Speakers included Russell Pili, chief of DOST’s Technology Transfer Division. Testimonials were also shared by master director Elwood, journalist and PH Movie Confidential book author Nestor Cuartero, Tofarm Film Festival’s Sonny Guingab, film marketer Peter Yabut, child actor Micko Laurente and PNOC’s Belinda Cubelo.

Under its current library, EdukSine has 40 films and growing. It has had 1,500 block screenings, including those held in Adarna, reaching over one million Filipinos locally and abroad.