Italian MovieMov to Hold its First Ever Online Film Festival

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Here’s something to look forward to while staying at home during the quarantine! The Philippine Italian Association will bring the fifth edition of Italian MovieMov to the Philippines through its first ever online film festival. In its fifth year of collaborating with the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) under its Film Cultural Exchange Program (FCEP), Italian MovieMov will partner with My Movies to organize a virtual cinema from April 21 to 26 that can accomodate 300 online attendees under the banner MovieMov Goes Online.

This year’s edition of Italian MovieMov will screen six (6) contemporary Italian films and an Italian classic. Laura Chiossone’s Genitori Quasi Perfetti opens the festival on April 21 and will be followed by the screenings of Lontano Lontano, La Dea Fortuna, Il Testimone Invisible, Fiore Gemello, and Il Colpo Del Cane.

The festival will conclude with the classic Federico Fellini Film, La Dolce Vita. Chosen as this year’s cornerstone film, La Dolce Vita, is Fellini’s satirical drama depicting the hedonistic lives of the post-world war 2 Italian upper-class. La Dolce Vita won the Palme d’Or for the Cannes Film Festival upon its release in 1960 and claimed the Best Foreign Film in that year’s Academy Awards. Since then, it has become a classic of world cinema, and is often considered fixture of Fellini’s ouvre and one of his many masterpieces.

La Dolce Vita will screen under the festival’s Fellini 100 section which will conclude the online festival by celebrating the acclaimed Italian director’s 100th birth anniversary.

With 300 online attendees, the Film Festival will allow for more people beyond the 100 person capacity of the Cinematheque Centre Manila where it is usually held.

Through Italian MovieMov, the Philippine Italian Association aims to build a platform for the cultural and commercial promotion of contemporary Italian cinema in the Philippine market and establish a “continuous dialogue with local realities.” It was established by Goffredo Betini in 2016 in partnership with FDCP and screened at Cinematheque Centre Manila.

Why Do You Need to Tell a Taboo Story Anonymously?

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Whenever someone decides to talk about sensitive issues or taboos of society, there is always a threat to their safety. People with contradictory views hunt such people down and target them in various forms. Therefore, it is never easy to speak up about issues that are sensitive in nature or the issues that involve extremely powerful and filthy rich stakeholders.

This is where anonymity comes to help those who want to generate discourse on such issues. You can use the anonymous writing platform of John Doe to pour your heart out. Here are some of the reasons that make it necessary to write about such topics and taboos anonymously.

Protects You and Your Loved Ones
Speaking up about the topics that are generally considered sensitive comes with a price. If you are targeting people directly by exposing them to the world, then it can put a tag on you and your family. So, make sure that you write about such things anonymously. It will protect your identity; hence, you’ll not have to worry about being on the mark list of the people you are exposing or the community that thinks it’s a taboo to write about these things.

Ensures Zero Bullying Whatsoever
Threatening your life is not the only worst thing that can be an outcome of writing on taboos. You can be a target of online bullying and harassment. It can take a severe toll on your health, and you might not be able to step out of your house without being bullied. Therefore, if you are not ready to take all this heat, then anonymity is the best refuge for you. Take a pen name and write your heart out without any fear.

Doesn’t Affect Your Mental Health
Whenever you talk about something that has the potential to fire back, there’s always a chance that it may affect your mental health. It is because people make you a direct target of bullying and harassment. It can take a serious toll on your mental health, and you may end up very depressed and sick. However, all this can be avoided if you just take a pen name and write about such issues anonymously.

Extend rental holidays, deferment of rental payments

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Tugade instructs airport authorities to extend rental holidays, deferment of rental payments for airport concessionaire

Due to the implemented extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) throughout Luzon, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade has directed airport authorities to extend, until end of April, the implementation of rental holidays, and the deferment of the collection of rental fees for airport concessionaires until the end of May 2020.

This directive was made during a teleconference meeting between the transportation chief and aviation and airports sector officials of the DOTr on 15 April 2020.

“Nag-issue ako ng instruksyon na dahil nag-extend ng [enhanced community] quarantine, ie-extend po namin ang rental holiday hanggang end of April. Kasama rin dito ang rental [charges] deferment," Sec. Tugade announced in a radio interview, Wednesday.

The directive, which was immediately executory, aims to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the country's aviation industry, and its stakeholders.

"As our aviation and airports sector has been hardly-hit by this COVID-19 pandemic, following the decreasing number of passengers, and flights -- this extension of rental holidays, and deferment of rental charges would ease the burden of paying fees for our airport concessionaires," Secretary Tugade said.

The order covers all concessionaires that are renting/leasing spaces in the terminals of airports under the jurisdiction of Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), and Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC).

With the extension, airport concessionaires’ lease/rental payment for the entire month of May will be deferred and they shall begin paying their duties by June 2020.