Saturday, October 15, 2011

Miss Representation

Miss Representation is a documentary written and directed by Stanford University graduate Jennifer Siebel Newsom about how women are portrayed by the media. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival under the Documentary competition on January 22, 2011 and was shown at the Athena Film Festival in New York City on February 12, 2011.

Its broadcast rights was bought by Oprah Winfrey's OWN to premiere on October 20 9/8c in the United States.



From its official website:
...the film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.
An interesting documentary this is. We've had two female presidents in the Philippines, have voted for female senators, Congress representatives and provincial governors, appointed female judges and Ombudsman and such but media still plays a strong role in packaging women in molds that place them on pedestals or re-create stereotypes that make them "desirable" and unreal.

In other words, we do have our own mis[s]-representations of women's issues that aren't fully addressed or handled exhaustively despite more women significantly visible in media as media practitioners themselves. Having more women in this field does not mean more women (in general) have become fully aware of their rights as citizens or of their roles in nation-building. One only has to note young girls' role models (mostly female celebrities on covers of the glossies) or the rising incidents of violence against women and children.[1]

More details on Missrepresentation.org

[1] "...From January through November, the (Philippine National Police) PNP reported 9,225 cases of domestic violence against women and their children, a 91 percent increase over the same period last year. This number likely underreported significantly the level of violence against women and children."2010 Human Rights Report: Philippines / Download the PDF

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Inspire: Makeshift Magazine and Newspapers in Education

MAKESHIFT MAGAZINE
Launching on 30 September 2011 at the A Better World By Design conference is Makeshift Magazine, a Kickstarter.com-funded project. It is a
"...quarterly magazine and multimedia website about creativity in unlikely places, from the favelas of Rio to the alleys of Delhi. These are environments where resources may be scarce, but where ingenuity is used incessantly for survival, enterprise, and a self-expression. Makeshift is about people, the things they make, and the context they make them in."
Makeshift Magazine is co-founded by Making Do author Steve Daniels who also co-founded A Better World By Design. Wishing Makeshift Magazine the best. (Also watch Steve Daniels' TEDx-Brooklyn 2010 talk "ICT in Emerging Markets" here.)

Makeshift from Makeshift on Vimeo.
Video credits: Editing: Zach Caldwell / Footage: What Took You So Long and Steve Daniels
Voiceover: Jerri Chou /Music: "Generator ^ Second Floor" by the Freelance Whales

NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION
Also sharing something closer to personal experience which happens to also be an advocacy (my mother is a journalist; we grew up eating news for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so to speak, and her newspaper work sent us to school) is Newspapers in Education (NIE)'s video of a case study in Colombia.

It is a well-made video that speaks a lot of what I believe our education thrust should take inspiration from considering how television has taken over households as "news sources" but that televised news sources, especially on free channels, intersperse their broadcast with more showbiz gossip than necessary just to get viewers hooked.

While the fate of newspaper publishing in the Internet age is slowing being shut, the benefits of reading the news ON paper (and of reading in general) is irreplaceable. The video clearly features more advantages to reading than watching, particularly when educational institutions use such programs in the proper context.

The video is from the WAN-IFRA Newspapers in Education site.




Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Aug 2 2011

Typhoon "Kabayan"

To "enjoy" a full day of  downpour my brother-in-law calls "torrential rain" when he texted a greeting; classes were suspended and public and private workers were asked to take the rest of the afternoon off. My sister called.

Some Metro Manila main streets were flooded since this morning (a car was captured on lunchtime news floating in flood waters and Marikina River had overflowed to above street level by late afternoon).

Then a 3-way business-and-pleasure Skype session with a good friend from the old campus-theater days, now based in Penang.

And Nora Aunor arrived today. For real, finally.

Nora Aunor in "Himala"

Somebody posted an hour ago:
"Si Ate Guy?" RT "Overheard: Bakit kasi pinapayagang makapasok sa (why was [it] ever allowed to enter the) Philippine Area of Responsibility!" "panalo" ("Winner!")
Funny. This is Pinoy humor that's amusing even to a "Noranian" like myself. Say what? This is the first time I have ever written that: Noranian.

It's another August 2 day today that has generated other random thoughts:

  • About the alleged Election fraud hearings, etc.: If it is proven that FPJ won in 2004, what would declaring him a winner do besides correct history books? Will it invalidate all decrees, laws, contracts, etc. signed by GMA? Will it invalidate the election processes that succeeded it, like who he may have chosen fielded instead? I feel inadequate not knowing the answers, knowing that those who opened the can of worms have no idea themselves what vermi types they are.
  • Have the authorities learned from real climate change — and its effects — beyond just lip service?
  • Do we really need another TV game show that caters to the masses, give out houses and lots and other money prizes because there's just too much of it in the pocket? And after the winners cry tears of joy on air, are they equipped to handle the responsibilities of being real homeowners and instant millionaires?
  • Cultivating a culture of mendicancy. Everyone's on it.
  • Encouraging a culture of gossip through trial by publicity, disinformation, abuse of social networks, irresponsible reporting and such. Wring it on!
  • A bungling rescue effort in a historic location by The Bay is nearing its 1st anniversary. It's the one that caused an erosion in leadership confidence, unfortunately. "Heads will roll" said he in the headlines. One year hence, not one has.
  • The elite Philippine football team has taken attention away from honest-to-goodness sports development program/s that should have benefitted other local sports and athletes. Seriously. And the local rugby team should have been called AZPEENS instead in honor of the brown boys.
  • Oh, a fugitive elected official resurfaces, then makes a subtle public entrance by riding on, literally, the bandwagon. For reference, check a Cavite event the President attended this year.
  • Ad nauseum.

Our Manila-Penang Skype afternoon session was a mix of stats and data, requirements, opinions, touching base with global and national issues and such — yes — and, like a pendulum, swung from good times past to harsh realizations of the present. Has anything changed?

Sometimes, days like these makes one vulnerable because the grey, swollen skies bring with it mementos of unpreparedness and fragility (just that, minus the mori, haha).

We may need an authentic Himala without the political color. So, make it neutral tone. Or brown — it's better. (Oh, did I mention how much I love that Bernal movie? And Mario O'hara's "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos"?)

Or perhaps something as unexpected as Oprah Winfrey springing a Charice Pempengco surprise. Come to think of it, this little girl may well be the 21st century Nora Aunor of her generation though they fulfill two different entertainment values. (Then again, there's Eugene Domingo who may aptly be the new-gen Nora. I love them who goes against the grain of industry-prescribed "beauty.")

Yet there's a lot to be thankful for in the past 365 days, and in days coming. Like that 12 year old girl named Janelia Lelis from Albay who saved the flag, solid and upright in the middle of a raging flood last week during typhoon "Juaning."

Frank Lorzano via @cesarAPOLINARIO / http://twitpic.com/5zsoil/

Or hoping that the sun will come out tomorrow.

- 02082011

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