I can do this not because I am above it, but because I am in it. I can talk to you about screwed up, well-meaning and not so well-meaning people trying their best to make sense of themselves and their situations, because I am one.
What I wish for the audience when they encounter my films is to be like people sitting in their houses doing regular things, things they are very familiar with: eating dinner, drinking, reading, watching television, talking, taking a bath, making love, sleeping … when suddenly there is a power failure and the whole house goes dark, then the audience is forced to grope in the darkness, the familiar becoming somehow unfamiliar, the certain becoming temporarily uncertain.Where the eyes cannot function a chair, a table, a wall, become new in your hands; plain room air takes on a particular scent; we begin to hear the silence more clearly … Where the other senses become heightened, they are forced to use their senses in new ways.They are forced to find their own way through the darkness, not towards a candle or flashlight, but to learn from the wisdom of this particular darkness to the point where even the eyes begin to make out the shapes in it.
Jan Philippe “JP” V. Carpio is a Bacolod City bred self taught writer, filmmaker and performer currently based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He has undertaken a number of writing and filmmaking workshops. Most significant on the list are Ricky Lee’s Film and Television Writing Workshop Batch 11 in 1999, the Cultural Center of the Philippines Media Arts Division workshops under Ed Cabagnot: “Paano Ba Talaga Manood ng Pelikula” film appreciation workshop and in 2000, the workshop module of “The First Filipino Full Length Independent Feature Festival” where he completed and screened his first full length film Girl of My Dreams. In 2005, he completed a workshop facilitated by American master filmmaker Jon Jost as part of the workshop module of the .MOV International Digital Film Festival.
His second full length feature Balay Dakû, the first full length film in the Ilonggo language, was awarded a National Commission for Culture and the Arts Cinema Grant. He completed and screened his third full length feature Hílo (thread) in 2007 at the first Kontra-Agos Film Festival.
Apart from a number of pending short films and full lengths, his fourth full length film Palanggâ (the beloved) is currently in post production. His films have been screened at Philippine film festivals like the eKsperim[E]nto Film & Video Festival, GAWAD CCP, Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival and .MOV International Digital Film Festival as well as international film festivals like the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival.
His writing has been published in national publications like Philippine Graphic and The Philippine Star. His short story “Bundle” was the runner up for Best Published First Short Story at the 2001 NVM Gonzalez Awards.
An advocate of what he calls “artistic cross training”, he has investigated and tried to understand the relationship between the so-called plastic arts he has been involved in for the most part and the performing arts. He has taken workshops such as Jourdan Sebastian’s Act Now in 2004, the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ 2006 Beginning Acting Workshop under Tess Jamias and Ian Lomongo, a free contemporary dance workshop under Dancing Wounded’s Jay Cruz in 2007 and a free martial arts and contemporary dance workshop under Jun Nishio in 2008. He collaborates on occasion with actor and dancer Vanni Liwanag on improvised movement pieces which they have performed in venues such as the I Love You Store, Lav Diaz’s award winning film Melancholia and the painting exhibit opening of Dante Perez’s Versus at Alliance Francaise Manila.
He is currently a lecturer at St. Paul University Manila and College of St. Benilde School of Design and Arts, a freelance writer, transcriptionist, videographer and editor for linao films bread and butter media division, a contributing writer on film and art to online publications, a member of Actor’s Pleygrawnd, a member of Free Expression Philippines, Free the Artist Task Force Movement and an advisory board member of Cine Foundation International.
http://www.youtube.com/user/linaofilms
http://www.vimeo.com/jpvcarpio
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http://mubi.com/users/192555
