So this is what great octogenarian writers do on their spare time. But, alas, Manong Frankie announced that this will be his last public performance.
Video courtesy of one of our anthology’s translators and contributors, Kris Lanot-Lacaba, aka elpinoymatador. Taken during a lunch-time shindig on the last day of the Philippine PEN’s 50th Anniversary Conference, 9 December 2007.
The Singapore International Story Telling Festival comes to a close after a month of engaging performances, workshops and masterclasses. We relive the excitement and poignancy of the previous month.
We are all storytellers in our own way, colouring reality with words – be it while putting the children to bed or defending a missed deadline at work or when arguing with a spouse over why the rent was not paid on time. Most of us have lived on a staple diet of imaginary tales. Myths, fables and stories have long been part of the human tradition of bonding. And Singapore celebrates this timeless oral tradition annually, by hosting the Singapore International Story Telling Festival.
This year, storytellers from eight countries – Australia, USA, UK, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia and India – gathered at The Arts House and other outdoor venues in the city to inspire, educate, amuse and enthral audiences of diverse ages with their fantastic accounts. Jointly organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) and The Arts House, the festival also featured a number of workshops, public talks and seminars, besides a showcase of stories drawn from many different cultures. The two-week festival was held between August 24th and September 9, 2007.
A number of well-known storytellers participated in the event. Evelyn Clark, who comes from the corporate world, having worked with the likes of Microsoft and World Vision; James Bonnet, author of ‘Stealing Fire From The Gods: The Complete Guide to Story for Writers and Filmmakers’; and many others brought a variety of folk tales, family stories, fables, tall tales, fairy tales, and classic stories to life for the 40,000 strong crowds.
According to R. Ramachandran, executive director, NDBCS, “Such a festival generates a love for the spoken and written word, fosters social bonding and builds teamwork among children, within institutions and even corporate groups.”
The tales were varied in content, presentation, and style. While some promoted value systems like caring for the elderly (Sheila Wee’s ‘Basket’), some tugged at the heartstrings (Mable Lee’s ‘Durian’) and others fostered ideals like civic responsibility and respect for the environment (Fran Stallings’ ‘Sky Food’). But it was not all serious stuff: Providing some light fun and inspiration was Roger Jenkin’s ‘Dreams Can Come True’.
The highlight of the festival was the programme, ‘Sayang Singapore’ (’Love Singapore’ in Malay), which coincided with Singapore’s National Day. Women storytellers Rosemaire Somaiah, Sheila Wee and Kiran Shah of the Asian Storytelling Network – Singapore’s first professional storytelling company – narrated contemporary tales to the accompaniment of original chamber music composed by Wong Kah Chun, a local and popular young talent.
The three women shared their different approaches to the craft. “Stories directly engage the mind. The stories we choose to share are those that touch our heart,” said Wee. Somaiah revealed that she never writes down nor even memorises her stories, while Shah, who has taught at preschool, felt that the stories should be simple and that the expertise of a storyteller is in adapting and narrating it in a manner that will appeal to all kinds of audiences.
In addition, there was a meeting of professional storytellers – the ‘Asian Congress of Storytellers’ where teachers, librarians, professionals, parents and aspiring storytellers got the opportunity to share the insights of international storytellers. Seminars with interactive sessions on ‘Developing Marketing and Brand Messages through Stories’; ‘The Power of Storytelling for Leaders’; and ‘Digital Storytelling’ were also conducted.
Jeeva Raghunath, a storyteller from Chennai, India , came especially to the festival to participate in the workshops. She said that although children and adults are influenced by electronic gadgets and gizmos, the art of storytelling still holds. “It is a valuable communication tool to develop skills and it makes you a more beautiful person.”
The workshops also aimed to enrich the participants at many levels. Besides throwing light on a range of techniques employed to create a good story (from developing an idea effectively to using props like puppets), there was also an introduction to digital storytelling – a first this year.
There were some interesting people attending the workshops. Melissa Bun, a popular live radio show host in Singapore, came to gain interesting insights for her capsules. Sri Lanka’s Lishan Perera, 13, already a published author, hoped to further polish his skills.
But storytelling should not only be seen as an engaging pastime. It also has a powerful impact on the personality of a child. According to Dr Calvin Fones Soon Leng, a senior consultant psychiatrist, “Stories are powerful devices to convey messages, especially when they are emotional ones. These go beyond the factual level and help parents to convey values and, more importantly, imbibe and practice them.”
So, while technology may, perhaps, change the way stories reach us, storytellers, with their powerful voices and magical craft, will continue to evolve the art.
Manila-based German scholar Tilman Baumgärtel has just finished his latest book, Kino Sine. In the spirit of creative commons and “piracy,” this book can be freely downloaded from the Goethe-Institut Manila’s website:
KINO-SINE: Philippine-German Cinema Relations
Download the book for free (PDF, 6,5MB)
Edited by Tilman BaumgärtelContributions by Jürgen Brüning, Ditsi Carolino, Lav Diaz, Nick Deocampo, Harun Farocki, Ulrich Gregor, Nan Goldin, Christoph Janetzko, Mark Meily, Ingo Petzke, Rosa von Praunheim, Raymond Red, Roxlee, Werner Schroeter, Bobby Suarez, Kidlat Tahimik, John Torres, Maria Vedder and Michael Wulfes
Beginning in the mid-1970’s and continuing through the 1980’s and into the 1990’s, a number of German film directors, theorists and other movie people came to work or teach in the Philippines. Some came because the Goethe-Institut Manila had invited them for workshops and film presentations. Others came at their own expense because they were fascinated by Philippines, which– after the People Power revolution of 1986 that ousted the Marcosregime– exercised its own peculiar kind of magnetism on many Europeans. The workshops “the Germans” conducted and the film screenings they presented were in part responsible for the emergence of an alternative film scene in the Philippines that went on to garner recognition and awards at international film festivals in the 1980s.
This book deals with the “Sine-Kino- Connection”. It documents the beginnings of the experimental and alternative film movement of the 1980s in the Philippines. And, at the same time, it deals with a part of German film history that few people in Germany are aware of. Today a new generation of independent Filipino filmmakers is emerging and once again garnering critical acclaim in the Philippines and abroad. This book provides an historical perspective on the earlier development of experimental, non-mainstream film in the Philippines.Published by the Goethe-Institut Manila 2007
Exclusively distributed by Anvil Publishing, Pasig City, The Philippines
ISBN 978-971-27-2025-3The book will have its international launch at the Annual Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference in Jakarta and at the Asian Hotshots Festival in Berlin, Germany.
Book presentation “Kino Sine” at the Annual Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference (ASEACC), Jakarta, Indonesia
Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Book presentation of “Kino Sine” at the Asian Hotshots Festival
Babylon Mitte, Berlin, Germany
Friday, January 18, 2008
Also visit Tilman’s last project, Asian Edition: A Conference on Media Piracy and Intellectual Property in South East Asia. Some of the proceedings of this conference are available for download.
Finally. The Philippine PEN has an official website. Click here and have a good gander at it.
The Philippine PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists) is a member of International PEN with Centers in some 150 countries worldwide.
The PEN Philippine Center is celebrating its golden anniversary in December this year. Its founding was marked by a national writers conference, the first of its kind after the war, held for two days in Baguio City in December, 1958 and attended by distinguished literary people and intellectuals from all over the country including Senator Claro M. Recto and President Carlos P. Garcia. The conference organizer and also Philippine PEN founder is now National Artist for Literature, F. Sionil Jose. Among the conference participants were later to become National Artists for Literature: Francisco Arcellana, N.V.M. Gonzalez, Bienvenido Lumbera, Alejandro Roces and Edith Tiempo.
In its 50 years, the Philippine PEN has sponsored many seminars in Manila and in the provinces, hosted the visit of distinguished writers like Wole Soyinka, Richard Kim, Lin Yutang, Khushwant Singh, Hirabayashi Taiko, Hayako Sono, Norman Mailer, Gunter Grass, Mario Vargas Llosa, Mochtar Lubis and many others. PEN also organized two regional Asian Writers conferences in Manila and published anthologies including an Asian PEN Anthology.
During the Marcos dictatorship, PEN stood in defense of the freedom of expression and speech. This is an avowed purpose as embodied in the PEN Charter.
This year PEN Philippines will mark its fiftieth year with a two-day national conference December 8-9, at The National Museum of the Philippines. The conference theme is: “Literature, Nation, and Globalization.” Filipino writers with a retrospective view will discuss current trends and issues in accordance with its international charter’s aim of promoting freedom of expression.
PEN is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
To view the conference schedule, please visit this page.
