I guess that’s my cue good morning
I also showed photos because I’m also a
travel travel writer i photos because i
needed as part of telling stories hey so
when people ask me what do you do
the first the natural response would be
i yeah as I said I’m a producer director
I’m a travel writer I’m a photographer
but then I think these are I thirst and
means to do something more I think what
I would how I would characterize myself
is that I am a storyteller story teller
cuento and on helicoid from the time I
was young I’ve been consuming stories I
like I like oh Henry I like novels I
like anime hey I like comic books I read
everything I watch everything when I was
younger I buy fifty years old okay fifty
years old I had my first email address
back in 1994 I was born in 1966 so
pretty much half of my life pre and post
the wireless the internet world being
online not that so back then the way we
consume things the way we read it’s just
TV with four or five channels just
magazines I am live National Geographic
or you or you listen to the radio that
was how stories work of a few B the
series video series or news or a book or
an issue or us or a story that you read
is very limited okay now in the modern
world stories come in different forms in
different lengths
for people with different attention
spans in different platforms it’s
evolved and you may not even call them
studies anymore because it has moved on
to actually be content not necessarily
stories because there’s been a jump a
significant jump in the appetite of how
we consume stories information and so
forth and so on
well I don’t know smartphone fine a
minute and bottom a neon Mehran so a
story a narrative for instance that
would require 12 episodes or 1500 page
novel to be consumed sometimes a creator
would have to take that and chop it up
and evolve it so that someone whose
attention span is only one minute can
consume them hey sometimes it’s possible
sometimes it’s not possible or studies
come in the form of content marketing or
in terms of brand marketing the last
couple of days hashtag jelly bean really
it’s a study in the context of having
pie chicken or a young burger where on
my first day you know and you who got
the open a cell and so quite a story but
it’s a story it resonates because it
taps you in the heart
alala more bitterly anyway you remember
stuff like that but it resonates and
then you use it to sell a product
essentially or to empower your brand or
enhance your brand so it does evolve
okay
now whether or not three years three
months down the road or three years down
the road you’re still going to be able
to push that narrative of someone
walking down the aisle and passing you
by it’s probably going to be gasps gasps
nah-nah
in three years but now it has an AIDS
and that’s a story but then to a certain
extent stories are fictional or
non-fictional hey I wanted to establish
that first before I jump into what it is
exactly that I’m going to talk about hey
we are our production house with my
partner in business and I’m married to
her as well
our production house we do not our focus
is not on created narratives hey so I do
not have to think about a moral dilemma
I do not have to think about writing a
character that needs to go to a
transformation I did I did not to
conjure endings what we focus on are
actually real life narratives we just
happened to document it hey for instance
in the last couple of months I’ve been
fortunate to follow raw meager deucer
Seven Summits conqueror he had an idea
of biking from the southern tip of
Palawan allow an island all the way to
the north which took him 15 days he
called it Punjab Palama he was going to
bike it so he did it for 15 days along
with you people and your friends I found
that very interesting
so I tagged in the document if they
photos write about it suffice one I like
that story it’s happening in real time
in real life and I don’t have to create
characters or create a dilemma that
thing writes itself
I just happen to document it hey
currently were we’re doing a campaign
called hashtag no you’re North I’m not
sure if you heard that it’s for a
victory liner it’s not a campaign who
compel people to ride the bus it’s more
of smaller campaign to actually tell
stories about the north about the phony
boys
about Salafi Salafi giant clams the
advocacy to to regenerate the
diminishing population of clams so forth
and so on these are stories that
resonate lives okay
in the context of what we do the real
world is our space okay we have to
constantly not by choice not because we
need to but because of this quest for
looking for stories which has been there
ever since I was young because I want to
tell that I want to tell stories of
ordinary people I want to be wowed I
want grand places I want to be able to
capture that and present it but with
this voracious appetite for for ten
people and a lot of storytellers now in
the form of bloggers this one and so
forth but then also becomes lists and
this and that we we still focus on the
long narratives okay for instance in our
work there when we co-produced on the
brink it’s a narrative on the issues
that later that pertain to will shark
tourism should you allow feeding and
swimming that goes or do we allow the
done soil method we present it to you
now given that you can actually talk
about the same things all over it all
over again finding a different angle or
you expand the coverage of where you
look for your studies okay that is
actually the second part is actually
what I’m supposed to talk about space in
the context of the Philippines
Philippines as a Big Island you can
subdivide that you can subdivide the
entire Philippines in two constructs
that you define for instance if I say I
want to define it by 82 provinces and
becomes
Aparri becomes better Manila Laguna so
forth and so on if I say I want to
define it I want to create a constant
based on UNESCO Heritage Sites but it
becomes what River but uh Davao Oriental
what’s the boreal sinuous one autumn
Akita about the for UNESCO churches
begun by statuses then your construct of
the Philippines is defined by those
filters all right hey now there’s an
there’s an area in the Philippines that
has always fascinated me some people
call it a rmm Autonomous Region of
Muslim Mindanao hey technically there
are other Muslim dominated provinces or
most and populated provinces but they
were not included in AI mmm okay what is
the filter or what is the porn stuff
that defines the Autonomous Region of
course in Mindanao Islam EMA Islam there
is a negative connotation when you talk
about AR mm if that beings beheadings
you know
conflict so creed or blood Wars so forth
and so on there’s that it’s been it’s
synonymous to baby what’s happening in
the Middle East that’s why I have that
negative connotation you’ve heard terms
like Bangsamoro right you’ve heard of
things like that
you’ve heard of Abu Sayyaf or MNLF and
maiella
so forth and so on should we go on with
this honor from a personal standpoint I
have this business basis always
fascinated me so for the last five years
or so I’ve been going there to explore
to find out more about the place so
understand it more of course you have to
be very careful but as you’ve been going
back and forth I realized that my
narratives and my constructs have
actually expanded
what I just used to just to define
what’s on the photos the first one on
the left it’s a suit time second our
bladed weapons those bladed weapons were
forged prior to the arrival of the
Americans
those are heirlooms Hey and those
particular swords have a bloody history
tied up to them concealing Panetta
Coconino P NASA from Kayla and Tina
going on that the man on the far right
is an MNLF commander his
second-in-command to nor Misuari hey as
I’ve gotten back and forth back and
forth stories and narratives like that
I’ve started to come up and then this
these three images are from Sulu
they represent the tau sub culture hey
now let’s let’s uh let’s contextualize
the Towson culture whereas before we
only look at the cluster of Islam in AI
mm as you begin to immerse you realize
more clearly that there are several
people in their house who from Sulu the
yakan from ba si Lang
nee-sama pooja from tawi-tawi the
belinda now one’s kobato Maguindanao
area and the marinelle from Lanao del
Sur and these five for instance five
groups of people are very very different
in the same way we Filipinos do not like
to be categorized nah not not filled up
not dislike we prefer the base of
distinction clear distinction between
Korean a thigh a comer a Malaysian in us
whereas in the lenses and the eyes of
other people in the West they would see
all of us as a John in the same way from
here in the home forts of Manila and you
are up down south you say
they’re almost lips not knowing that
there are constructs and there are
differences in these people these are
the previous the previous at the town
soup soup meaning current people of the
current it’s a very proud race it’s a
very distinct race the supernal of Sulu
was established Islam was brought to the
Philippines before the Spaniards came
here before the Spaniards came here with
a long history culturally very
sophisticated while in Manila or in
Laguna in other place of the Philippines
you were still living in caves and
increase they already knew how to forge
calligraphy is already a given it has a
sophisticated history and so when from
here we’ll look at the narratives of our
people or we look at the people there
and say and we tend to demonize them
because of mr. Prentiss
misrepresentation in the media then we
do not do themselves we do not do them
any justice and it’s easy to call them
such and this and that
Hey that is a manor house that’s inland
O’Dell it’s called act Oregon with a
distinct architectural flavor okay
if you take of architecture in any
school in the university that is going
to be discussed quite extensively okay
now let me go back I can tell you of
different narratives depending on what
culture and what place for instance here
the first lady the lady on the left is a
yak and her name is Ana Raisa she is a
weaver she’s about 19 years old of her
age bracket she is probably the best
weaver of her generation in 4050 years
if she continues she will probably be a
national living pleasure in the same way
lamb doula is a national living fashion
up girl is going
be one of them see look at the leaf in
her in her head so you look at the
distinct patterns but very small okay
these are recurring geometric patterns
these are recurring motifs and that was
hand-woven if you look at the color the
the synthesis of all those patterns and
then you try to understand it and then
you find out because the yakan has a
fear of empty spaces we new panini la la
casa milà salon not met they have a
natural fear of leaving things black
that’s why they do it and so when you
begin to understand that as you discover
the place then it fascinates you and if
people can do works of art like that and
have crafts like that then these people
are not these people are sophisticated
right that is Ambala how solid I met her
in a in a waiting shed in Lomita and
Basilan we were waiting for the bus to
bring us – ooh
Isabella and she was there smoking and
very animate that make you cracking
jokes this and that and isn’t that when
she found out my name was Gabby she said
I am Savin because we were it’s like
Shannon and Gaby know and so I’m Sharla
so we were having a laugh then I found
out that oh she’s a weaver and all that
so I took her photos took her photos
three weeks ago that lady Impala asylum
was by a presidential decree as declared
a national day big measure and I met her
in a waiting ship okay right and so you
look and there’s a wealth of narratives
there’s a wealth of stories these are
kids in from sue missive pasilla for
instance they have a word that’s called
to my where the movement the jerky
movements are of the use of the spear
it’s fascinating
next like this
I just go through the slides man well
anyway I have different narratives the
point is the point is you look I’ve seen
I am NOT a political analyst I look at
this from the point of view of what I do
what I do as a document documentary
filmmaker I look at this from the point
of view of a photographer and as a
writer I try to understand the
narratives and the more I learn about
the narratives the more I get myself
immersed in the culture down south the
more I know I do not know that I don’t
know anything and relationships and
things that are happening are complex
and by bringing these stories to life
and by informing people more about it we
tend to understand things a bit better
and I thought about myself as I do this
I learned to understand cultures more
and more there is growth in me and
there’s a thirst that gets picked say I
have to learn more I have to find out
more and you meet more people and then
you begin to tie things up more closely
still recognizing that there’s a huge
gap and huge disparity in what you know
and what’s happening so I’m saying the
the narrative in the south is not as
simple as we would like it to be fed to
us and there is that gap that needs to
be bridge and for lasting peace to
happen for clearer solutions to the
problems in the South we’re going to
have to understand them more and more
and more I might say
learn several things everyday and still
I do not know anything
Hey so in a nutshell I’d like to end in
a study I’d like to end you decide I can
end a lot more studies if you are but
okay that guy the the MNLF commander
when we sent word that we wanted to meet
him so I could photograph him hey we
agreed on meeting in a school in Hollow
but today in school so it’s neutral
ground so we didn’t have to go up to the
mountains don’t have to go to MNLF
territory okay with us along with my
wife with us we were being secured by 18
SAF personnel 18 okay we even had an APC
an APC with us and so we were waiting in
the school and a pickup truck arrives
this guy
Jakub Mahmud came down in full MNLF
regalia Crescent star moon Crescent star
Dallas came down with a boy his son and
he came to us and I said this guy came
and escorted and he came and he wore
when he was walking towards us and all
the SAF troops stood up they went to him
you know you paid respects as someone
from the outside looking at that I see
the narratives here are not a
straightforward the SAF are paying their
respects to the guy who was not escorted
and so that’s a simple situation but I
don’t understand but that is a an
example of the complexity of
relationships down there so again I
repeat I am privileged to be doing this
so us work but then it’s not just work
it’s a continuous learning experience of
discovering stories of understanding and
improving yourself and you know having a
deeper grasp of things in the world and
hopefully with that we can also share it
as part of our advocacy so that the
deeper understanding is hopefully passed
on and so for the realization that
there’s a huge gap that needs to be
bridged and hopefully continuously the
learning experiences
keep going on thank you
[Music]
I also showed photos because I’m also a
travel travel writer i photos because i
needed as part of telling stories hey so
when people ask me what do you do
the first the natural response would be
i yeah as I said I’m a producer director
I’m a travel writer I’m a photographer
but then I think these are I thirst and
means to do something more I think what
I would how I would characterize myself
is that I am a storyteller story teller
cuento and on helicoid from the time I
was young I’ve been consuming stories I
like I like oh Henry I like novels I
like anime hey I like comic books I read
everything I watch everything when I was
younger I buy fifty years old okay fifty
years old I had my first email address
back in 1994 I was born in 1966 so
pretty much half of my life pre and post
the wireless the internet world being
online not that so back then the way we
consume things the way we read it’s just
TV with four or five channels just
magazines I am live National Geographic
or you or you listen to the radio that
was how stories work of a few B the
series video series or news or a book or
an issue or us or a story that you read
is very limited okay now in the modern
world stories come in different forms in
different lengths
for people with different attention
spans in different platforms it’s
evolved and you may not even call them
studies anymore because it has moved on
to actually be content not necessarily
stories because there’s been a jump a
significant jump in the appetite of how
we consume stories information and so
forth and so on
well I don’t know smartphone fine a
minute and bottom a neon Mehran so a
story a narrative for instance that
would require 12 episodes or 1500 page
novel to be consumed sometimes a creator
would have to take that and chop it up
and evolve it so that someone whose
attention span is only one minute can
consume them hey sometimes it’s possible
sometimes it’s not possible or studies
come in the form of content marketing or
in terms of brand marketing the last
couple of days hashtag jelly bean really
it’s a study in the context of having
pie chicken or a young burger where on
my first day you know and you who got
the open a cell and so quite a story but
it’s a story it resonates because it
taps you in the heart
alala more bitterly anyway you remember
stuff like that but it resonates and
then you use it to sell a product
essentially or to empower your brand or
enhance your brand so it does evolve
okay
now whether or not three years three
months down the road or three years down
the road you’re still going to be able
to push that narrative of someone
walking down the aisle and passing you
by it’s probably going to be gasps gasps
nah-nah
in three years but now it has an AIDS
and that’s a story but then to a certain
extent stories are fictional or
non-fictional hey I wanted to establish
that first before I jump into what it is
exactly that I’m going to talk about hey
we are our production house with my
partner in business and I’m married to
her as well
our production house we do not our focus
is not on created narratives hey so I do
not have to think about a moral dilemma
I do not have to think about writing a
character that needs to go to a
transformation I did I did not to
conjure endings what we focus on are
actually real life narratives we just
happened to document it hey for instance
in the last couple of months I’ve been
fortunate to follow raw meager deucer
Seven Summits conqueror he had an idea
of biking from the southern tip of
Palawan allow an island all the way to
the north which took him 15 days he
called it Punjab Palama he was going to
bike it so he did it for 15 days along
with you people and your friends I found
that very interesting
so I tagged in the document if they
photos write about it suffice one I like
that story it’s happening in real time
in real life and I don’t have to create
characters or create a dilemma that
thing writes itself
I just happen to document it hey
currently were we’re doing a campaign
called hashtag no you’re North I’m not
sure if you heard that it’s for a
victory liner it’s not a campaign who
compel people to ride the bus it’s more
of smaller campaign to actually tell
stories about the north about the phony
boys
about Salafi Salafi giant clams the
advocacy to to regenerate the
diminishing population of clams so forth
and so on these are stories that
resonate lives okay
in the context of what we do the real
world is our space okay we have to
constantly not by choice not because we
need to but because of this quest for
looking for stories which has been there
ever since I was young because I want to
tell that I want to tell stories of
ordinary people I want to be wowed I
want grand places I want to be able to
capture that and present it but with
this voracious appetite for for ten
people and a lot of storytellers now in
the form of bloggers this one and so
forth but then also becomes lists and
this and that we we still focus on the
long narratives okay for instance in our
work there when we co-produced on the
brink it’s a narrative on the issues
that later that pertain to will shark
tourism should you allow feeding and
swimming that goes or do we allow the
done soil method we present it to you
now given that you can actually talk
about the same things all over it all
over again finding a different angle or
you expand the coverage of where you
look for your studies okay that is
actually the second part is actually
what I’m supposed to talk about space in
the context of the Philippines
Philippines as a Big Island you can
subdivide that you can subdivide the
entire Philippines in two constructs
that you define for instance if I say I
want to define it by 82 provinces and
becomes
Aparri becomes better Manila Laguna so
forth and so on if I say I want to
define it I want to create a constant
based on UNESCO Heritage Sites but it
becomes what River but uh Davao Oriental
what’s the boreal sinuous one autumn
Akita about the for UNESCO churches
begun by statuses then your construct of
the Philippines is defined by those
filters all right hey now there’s an
there’s an area in the Philippines that
has always fascinated me some people
call it a rmm Autonomous Region of
Muslim Mindanao hey technically there
are other Muslim dominated provinces or
most and populated provinces but they
were not included in AI mmm okay what is
the filter or what is the porn stuff
that defines the Autonomous Region of
course in Mindanao Islam EMA Islam there
is a negative connotation when you talk
about AR mm if that beings beheadings
you know
conflict so creed or blood Wars so forth
and so on there’s that it’s been it’s
synonymous to baby what’s happening in
the Middle East that’s why I have that
negative connotation you’ve heard terms
like Bangsamoro right you’ve heard of
things like that
you’ve heard of Abu Sayyaf or MNLF and
maiella
so forth and so on should we go on with
this honor from a personal standpoint I
have this business basis always
fascinated me so for the last five years
or so I’ve been going there to explore
to find out more about the place so
understand it more of course you have to
be very careful but as you’ve been going
back and forth I realized that my
narratives and my constructs have
actually expanded
what I just used to just to define
what’s on the photos the first one on
the left it’s a suit time second our
bladed weapons those bladed weapons were
forged prior to the arrival of the
Americans
those are heirlooms Hey and those
particular swords have a bloody history
tied up to them concealing Panetta
Coconino P NASA from Kayla and Tina
going on that the man on the far right
is an MNLF commander his
second-in-command to nor Misuari hey as
I’ve gotten back and forth back and
forth stories and narratives like that
I’ve started to come up and then this
these three images are from Sulu
they represent the tau sub culture hey
now let’s let’s uh let’s contextualize
the Towson culture whereas before we
only look at the cluster of Islam in AI
mm as you begin to immerse you realize
more clearly that there are several
people in their house who from Sulu the
yakan from ba si Lang
nee-sama pooja from tawi-tawi the
belinda now one’s kobato Maguindanao
area and the marinelle from Lanao del
Sur and these five for instance five
groups of people are very very different
in the same way we Filipinos do not like
to be categorized nah not not filled up
not dislike we prefer the base of
distinction clear distinction between
Korean a thigh a comer a Malaysian in us
whereas in the lenses and the eyes of
other people in the West they would see
all of us as a John in the same way from
here in the home forts of Manila and you
are up down south you say
they’re almost lips not knowing that
there are constructs and there are
differences in these people these are
the previous the previous at the town
soup soup meaning current people of the
current it’s a very proud race it’s a
very distinct race the supernal of Sulu
was established Islam was brought to the
Philippines before the Spaniards came
here before the Spaniards came here with
a long history culturally very
sophisticated while in Manila or in
Laguna in other place of the Philippines
you were still living in caves and
increase they already knew how to forge
calligraphy is already a given it has a
sophisticated history and so when from
here we’ll look at the narratives of our
people or we look at the people there
and say and we tend to demonize them
because of mr. Prentiss
misrepresentation in the media then we
do not do themselves we do not do them
any justice and it’s easy to call them
such and this and that
Hey that is a manor house that’s inland
O’Dell it’s called act Oregon with a
distinct architectural flavor okay
if you take of architecture in any
school in the university that is going
to be discussed quite extensively okay
now let me go back I can tell you of
different narratives depending on what
culture and what place for instance here
the first lady the lady on the left is a
yak and her name is Ana Raisa she is a
weaver she’s about 19 years old of her
age bracket she is probably the best
weaver of her generation in 4050 years
if she continues she will probably be a
national living pleasure in the same way
lamb doula is a national living fashion
up girl is going
be one of them see look at the leaf in
her in her head so you look at the
distinct patterns but very small okay
these are recurring geometric patterns
these are recurring motifs and that was
hand-woven if you look at the color the
the synthesis of all those patterns and
then you try to understand it and then
you find out because the yakan has a
fear of empty spaces we new panini la la
casa milà salon not met they have a
natural fear of leaving things black
that’s why they do it and so when you
begin to understand that as you discover
the place then it fascinates you and if
people can do works of art like that and
have crafts like that then these people
are not these people are sophisticated
right that is Ambala how solid I met her
in a in a waiting shed in Lomita and
Basilan we were waiting for the bus to
bring us – ooh
Isabella and she was there smoking and
very animate that make you cracking
jokes this and that and isn’t that when
she found out my name was Gabby she said
I am Savin because we were it’s like
Shannon and Gaby know and so I’m Sharla
so we were having a laugh then I found
out that oh she’s a weaver and all that
so I took her photos took her photos
three weeks ago that lady Impala asylum
was by a presidential decree as declared
a national day big measure and I met her
in a waiting ship okay right and so you
look and there’s a wealth of narratives
there’s a wealth of stories these are
kids in from sue missive pasilla for
instance they have a word that’s called
to my where the movement the jerky
movements are of the use of the spear
it’s fascinating
next like this
I just go through the slides man well
anyway I have different narratives the
point is the point is you look I’ve seen
I am NOT a political analyst I look at
this from the point of view of what I do
what I do as a document documentary
filmmaker I look at this from the point
of view of a photographer and as a
writer I try to understand the
narratives and the more I learn about
the narratives the more I get myself
immersed in the culture down south the
more I know I do not know that I don’t
know anything and relationships and
things that are happening are complex
and by bringing these stories to life
and by informing people more about it we
tend to understand things a bit better
and I thought about myself as I do this
I learned to understand cultures more
and more there is growth in me and
there’s a thirst that gets picked say I
have to learn more I have to find out
more and you meet more people and then
you begin to tie things up more closely
still recognizing that there’s a huge
gap and huge disparity in what you know
and what’s happening so I’m saying the
the narrative in the south is not as
simple as we would like it to be fed to
us and there is that gap that needs to
be bridge and for lasting peace to
happen for clearer solutions to the
problems in the South we’re going to
have to understand them more and more
and more I might say
learn several things everyday and still
I do not know anything
Hey so in a nutshell I’d like to end in
a study I’d like to end you decide I can
end a lot more studies if you are but
okay that guy the the MNLF commander
when we sent word that we wanted to meet
him so I could photograph him hey we
agreed on meeting in a school in Hollow
but today in school so it’s neutral
ground so we didn’t have to go up to the
mountains don’t have to go to MNLF
territory okay with us along with my
wife with us we were being secured by 18
SAF personnel 18 okay we even had an APC
an APC with us and so we were waiting in
the school and a pickup truck arrives
this guy
Jakub Mahmud came down in full MNLF
regalia Crescent star moon Crescent star
Dallas came down with a boy his son and
he came to us and I said this guy came
and escorted and he came and he wore
when he was walking towards us and all
the SAF troops stood up they went to him
you know you paid respects as someone
from the outside looking at that I see
the narratives here are not a
straightforward the SAF are paying their
respects to the guy who was not escorted
and so that’s a simple situation but I
don’t understand but that is a an
example of the complexity of
relationships down there so again I
repeat I am privileged to be doing this
so us work but then it’s not just work
it’s a continuous learning experience of
discovering stories of understanding and
improving yourself and you know having a
deeper grasp of things in the world and
hopefully with that we can also share it
as part of our advocacy so that the
deeper understanding is hopefully passed
on and so for the realization that
there’s a huge gap that needs to be
bridged and hopefully continuously the
learning experiences
keep going on thank you
[Music]
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