What does it take to be in ‘Good Company’?
MANILA, Philippines - Good Company is a weekly half-hour profile-documentary series that traces the journey of iconoclasts who have had significant impact on their respective fields. Traversing the dynamic worlds of film and fashion, art and culture, the show aims to chronicle the personal journey and creative process of these influential personalities through in-depth research, insightful stories with the people around them and interviews from the subjects themselves.
In the first half of the first season, the likes of social media superstar Ramon Bautista, Preview editor Pauline Juan, artist Leeroy New, director Pepe Diokno, food entrepreneur Erwan Heussaff, fashion designer Joey Samson and supermodel-turned-photographer Jo Ann Bitagcol all proved themselves to be Good Company. They’re mold-breakers and outliers. People who may or may not have had long careers in their industries, but all the same have made significant impact on how things are done and how the industry is seen by the country at large.
The show’s focus on talented, accomplished individuals has proven a potent anti-thesis to the social media generation’s preoccupation with what’s hot and trending at the moment. As if to say, at the end, it’s the will to succeed, the body of work you put together, and the legacy you leave that matters.
Good Company comes back tonight with a new episode on Promil Kid-turned-photographer Shaira Luna.
Shaira Luna (March 22)
In another life, she was a child genius who could’ve been the country’s youngest doctor. But early on, Shaira knew that her passions lay somewhere else — in photography, in the creative fields, in making magic out of capturing a moment. Today, she is one of the country’s top photographers, with work that has become a part of everyday Filipino life —everywhere from the covers of major magazines to the billboards that line our highways.
JP Anglo (April 5)
In Bacolod, chef JP Anglo has long been a kind of hometown hero as the man behind Mai Pao and Mu Shu, two of the area’s favorite restaurants. In the last few years though, he’s taken his delicious, unpretentious cooking to the rest of the country—most importantly through his acclaimed Manila restaurant Sarsa and crucially through his stints on MasterChef and Junior MasterChef. To devour chef JP’s cooking is to take a bite out of local island life — the surf culture he’s very much a part of, the local ingredients he celebrates and the international outlook he uses to push things forward.
Angeli Bayani (April 12)
Oscar-winning director Ang Lee calls her a “national treasure,” critics from Singapore to New York sing her praises, and she’s a Cannes darling twice over, but in her home country, Angeli Bayani is a relative unknown. Overshadowed by the glitz and sheen of mainstream Pinoy showbiz, one of the country’s greatest actresses has worked in relative obscurity, winning Cinemalaya and Gawad Urian awards, as well as the admiration of a fickle industry but not the public’s devotion. But does it matter? Angeli’s ascent proves that at the end of the day, what counts is talent and good work. The cream will rise.
Abra (April 19)
Love him or hate him, when you’ve amassed more than 23 million YouTube hits for your first smash alone, you know you’re doing something right. Young rapper Abra has revolutionized the local rap game, finding a wide and devoted audience on the strength of music released on his own record label. What makes him run?
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Good Company airs on Sundays, 7 p.m., on CNN Philippines. Follow @goodcompanyCNN on Twitter and Instagram for updates.
CNN Philippines is available on free TV on Manila RPN-TV9, Cebu RPN-TV9, Davao RPN-TV9, Zamboanga RPN-TV5, Baguio RPN-TV12 and Bacolod RPN-TV8; and on cable on Sky Cable Channel 14 (Metro Manila), Sky Cable Channel 6 (Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo and Baguio), Destiny Cable Channel 14, Cablelink Channel 14 and Cignal Channel 10, and over 200 cable affiliates nationwide.
Kenneth Cobonpue (March 29)
Kenneth Cobonpue has become synonymous with world-class Philippine design, making headlines from here to Milan on the basis of innovative industrial design that harnesses our local resources. His furniture brand is peerless, globally-distributed, and famously patronized by the famous — celebrities like Brad Pitt and Maroon 5 are fans. But it seems Cobonpue’s real legacy lies in fostering a real community of creativity and intelligent design, one that can be felt in the young designers he mentors and his initiatives with the government.
