The cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were left devasted last December after the immense tropical storm Sendong passed through them.

The rainfall was immense but the tragic human toll (there are at least 1,268 fatalities but the final figure is unknown) exacted by the storm did not come from the massive rainfall but what the flooded waters carried with it during the night.

The storm brought huge floods and out of the darkness they swept immense “logs” – thickets of fallen trees, many the size of school buses, into towns and villages throughout the region. Entire towns vanished without a trace overnight.

My friend and colleague Kiri Lluch Dalena immediately set out as an independent journalist and filmmaker to report on the human tragedy and the relief effort when the news broke about the destructiveness of the storm.

What she saw in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan made her stop everything else she was working on and commit to covering the aftermath of the storm.

Months later, as Sendong has faded from the news, it became clear to her that the only way someone like myself could begin understand what took place last December was to bring a part of it home with her in Manila.

It is one thing to read about events like these in the paper or see them on the TV. It is an altogether different experience being among some of the natural makeshift battering rams that caused so much devastation.

You can now walk among the remnants of some of those logs that killed hundreds of people last December in her latest exhibit: Washed Out.

Kiri has made an effort to create a memorial out of her exhibit and she resists turning the exhibit into a political statement. She instead invites visitors to look closer at the logs scattered around Finale Art File and allow us to discover for ourselves how human activity played its part in the death toll.

The storm did uproot many trees, however it is strongly believed that the vast majority of the trees that were swept downstream came from extensive illegal logging throughout the outlying areas of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. It should also be noted that it is believed that a lot of it came from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, outside of the jurisdiction of the national government.

There is an ongoing investigation into this and Kiri immense logs are a mute testimony for us to never forget and pursue answers to this tragedy no matter how far it may take us or how long it will take.

I would like to invite my friends to visit Kiri’s exhibit: “Washed Out” – on view until June 30. @ Finale Art File, located @ La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City.

You can read more about it here:
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/53335/fury-frailty-in-kiri-dalena’s-‘washed-out’

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I would also like to thank Canon Philippines for partnering with Kiri for the exhibit. Canon generously loaned her two powerful projectors worth hundreds of thousands of pesos so that she could project some of the footage she recorded while covering the Sendong aftermath.

Canon Philippines continues to go out of its way to support many photographers and now filmmakers here in the Philippines and I applaud Canon Philippines for their continuing support for Filipino artists.

Exactly 1.1 million views, 900+ comments and 5,000+ likes later I have much and more to be thankful for this past February.

I would like to first thank Gerry Cacanindin, Carla Laus, Anj Santos and Wish Torres over @ Oglivy – for giving me this great opportunity to work with them and direct the Real Men Valentine’s video for Dove Philippines. For those of you who are interested to watch it, you can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLJjsCwLeww

There is simply no way I could have accomplished my work on this video without the good people over at Torch Productions. I would like to especially thank Maricel Ticar, the Torch Executive Producer, for her energy, experience and intelligence. Her fine work made it easy for me to look very good.

I also would like to thank Ronnie Barbierra for his fine work as our Technical Director. Rudy Gonzales for his work as our Live Sound wizard and our production designer Mitoy Sta. Ana for doing a lot with a little when it came to concealing our cameras @ the venue.

I am so appreciative of the fine work from our veteran cameramen: Gerry Magtira, Nico Babierra, Dexter Da Silva and Nelson De Guzman. They had roughly around 230 seconds to get the footage we needed and they did a very admirable job with that extremely short window of time we had to film the stunt. I would like to especially thank Gerry Magtira on the 7D. He had the most challenging assignment for coverage and absolutely aced it with some incredibly framed shots.

The Real Men stunt could not have had a better kickstart from Jona Paculan – a member of the celebrated The Akafellas. He did a great job of launching the stunt and I am very glad he was kind enough to help us out with the Real Men video. I also would like to thank Jerome B Smooth and Tom Hines for making their beautiful LU Restaurant available to us for the filming of Real Men.

I would like to thank Geneive Mercado for her great work as our Caster and all the great gentlemen like Edric Mendoza who gamely volunteered to do something special for their wives and girlfriends. The video would not have been any kind of hit without the touching sincerity of the love they have for their partners.

This video was designed from the start with the full intent of it going viral – and that is an extremely difficult thing to do. A large part of the viral success of Real Men must be accredited to the fine work of Joseph Torrijos and Arlene Cheryl Calleja – the cyberspace warriors of Real Men.

As for myself, as a film professional – I really enjoyed having the trust of my colleagues as I went about my work and a unique chance to see hundreds of people reacting to work that I directed. The hundreds of comments from both men and women were overwhelmingly positive and stirring.

I am so very glad that the Real Men video reached out and touched peoples hearts this Valentines. It just goes to show, it is never wrong to show a little ♥ to the person you care about:

Fedde Le Grand – So Much Love (Official Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM4et8GNRwk&ob=av2e

This site has been setup to showcase my profile as a film director, I’ll continuously be updating it to reflect my most recent work as a filmmaker. Anyone interested in my services can visit this place anytime they like to find samples of my work and my most recent film reel.

About Me: I discovered my passion for filmmaking by accident while completing my undergraduate studies and I never looked back. I’ve been in the discipline since 2003.

Over the course of the past several years I have directed a wide variety of work. That would include everything from documentaries, reality TV, music videos to branded viral videos. I believe working in film production is a rare privilege and love the collaborative nature of the work. Every job is extremely important to me.

For an example of my feature work you can check out STANDING UP @ www.standingupthemovie.com / It is a feature length documentary about the War on Terror in Afghanistan.

STANDING UP had its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2008 and was screened at several other film festivals around the world, including the Washington DC National Gallery of Art as part of a special film program on Afghan history and culture.

About the Site: If this is the first time you’re visiting the website you may have noticed the unusual look. I would be very unhappy if you come away from here mistakenly thinking that I’m secretly part of some obscure illuminati-like secret society. No, I just wanted this site to be visually memorable and to symbolize my approach to film as both an artist and as a professional.

The large picture on the main navigation of the staff entwined by two serpents is taken out of Greek mythology. It’s the caduceus, the “herald’s staff” carried by Hermes.

The caduceus is a recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals. As a film director I strongly believe that the process of filmmaking is largely an ongoing negotiation among peers – and reminder to myself to value the input, needs and creativity of those I work with and my clients.

The navigation of the site uses the astrological symbols for the 5 classical planets of Hellenic astrology, they are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. No really deep symbolism here – it just is in keeping with the theme first set by the use of the caduceus symbol and looks cool.

The pentagram on the main page and the image of the man with his arms and legs extended on the links page are both part of the same image: The Vitruvian Man, a world-renowned drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1487. The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura.

I choose to feature these symbols of the ideal human because of the singularly unique understanding the human species has of imagery and film. It can move us to tears, laughter and terror. It is very powerful and the exercise of this power I believe is something unique to the human species. No computer or robot will ever be able to produce a 2001: A Space Odyssey or Saving Private Ryan.

And that is about the run of it on the major symbolism stuff. There is other little semiotic nuggets scattered throughout the site; you can find Hermes’s wings as a banner for the new section, quotes from great writers and filmmakers that I will leave it up to you, the visitor, to interpret for yourself. Thank you for taking the time to visit my site, I hope you enjoy checking it out.

PS: I cannot thank my web designer Arlene Cheryl Calleja enough for taking the time to artfully put together this website. I cannot recommend her strongly enough if you’re looking for an affordable wed designer that produces amazing work. <3 Arlene!