Take a closer look at the current state of Filipino independent films as the UP Film Institute along with the Film Development Council of the Philippines, present this month’s Pelikula Lektura with@ Edward Delos Santos Cabagnot – June 17, 2019 (Mon), 1:30 PM at the Film Studio, UPFI Media Center, UP Diliman.

Admission is FREE and open to the public. Certificates will be given to non-UP Film Institute students and only upon request.

For interested participants, you may register at
www.tinyurl.com/PelikulaLekturaEC

LECTURE TITLE
Pinoy Indie Cinema: Shades of Independence from 1982 to 2018

ABSTRACT
The lecture is a quick and dirty look at this thing called ‘Pinoy Indie.’ Borrowing much from last year’s “TRENTA: A Celebration of Three Decades of Pinoy Indie Excellence” mounted by the Cultural Center of the Philippines as one of the highlights of Cinemalaya 2018, the talk will be a hard-nosed look at where our indies are at the moment—strengths/weaknesses, future possibilities, warts, et al.

BIO
EDWARD DELOS SANTOS CABAGNOT’s career in Cinema spans more than three and a half decades. Currently, he teaches film-related courses at the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, and DLS–College of Saint Benilde –his special teaching focus is on Contemporary Southeast Asian Cinema, Film Festival Management, and Philosophy and Pinoy Cinema. His served at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, as the Director of the CCP Media (Film, Broadcast & New Media) Arts Division. A founding member of the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, he was in charge of the festival’s programming. He also held a brief stint as Editor-in-Chief of the AsiaEurope Foundation’s film360 online site.

At the CCP he organized alternative cinema festivals, film workshops and fora, and managed the longest-running indie film and video competition in Asia – the Gawad CCP Para Sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video (CCP Independent Film & Video Competition), which started in 1987.

In 2007, he was awarded an Asian Public Intellectuals Fellowship Grant by the Nippon Foundation for his research entitled “Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives: the Changing Cinemas of Asia”.

From the mid-70’s, he continues to write columns and articles for Philippine and international publications. A two-time Palanca awardee for playwriting, his play, “The Theatre of Director Julius Opus” was published as a book by the UP Press in the early 2000s. Another title, “Film Noir”, was also published in Ateneo de Manila University’s Budhi philosophy journal. His book on philosophy and film, entitled “Heidegger’s Being and Time & Manuel Silos’ Biyaya Ng Lupa”, was recently released by the UP Press.

Since 2008 he does jury work for a host of international film festivals –including the Pusan International Film Festival (2008), Berlinale’s Forum (2011), Amsterdam’s IDFA International Documentary Festival (2013), to name just a few. At these events, he delivered papers on a variety of topics related to Philippine and Asian Cinema –to mention a few: on Asian Superheroes (BIFF 2008), Pinoy Indies (BIFF 2009 and the Huahin International Filmfest, Thailand in 2012).
In early 2010, he completed a five-week scholarship training on Film Festival Management in Berlin, Germany sponsored by the Deutsche Welle – Akademie.

He also served as an executive committee member of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Cinema Committee for nine straight years. More recently he was a member of the MetroManila Film Festival Executive Committee 2016 which brought much-needed reform to the longest-running nationwide festival of the Philippines.