Watch Gimikera [streetwalker] @ the SFo Public Lib | A Powerful new Doc on Human Trafficking in the Philippines

Gimikera (Streetwalker)

A film by Ligaya Domingo & Justin Hakuta

Set amidst the bustling urban sprawl, towering skyscrapers and tin-roofed shantytowns of Manila, Philippines, Gimikera (Streetwalker) is the gripping tale of Mylene, a survivor of forced prostitution, and her struggle to find meaning in a life of exploitation and abuse. With interviews from leading anti-trafficking organizations, Gimikera (Streetwalker) depicts the brutal reality of human trafficking in the Philippines through the eyes of Mylene capturing her triumphs and hardships as she fights to put the pieces of her life back together.The film will be shown on October 3, 2008, Friday at the Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA. Screening Starts at 6:30 and will be followed by a talk with the filmmaker.

For more information email ligaya@traffickingproject.org or call 347-323-3670

Gimikera (streetwalker) is a production of the Human Trafficking Project, a New York-based nonprofit organization that utilizes art and technology to raise awareness of modern day slavery, connect those working to combat the issue and support trafficking survivors. For more information on human trafficking and what you can do to help visit www.traffickingproject.org.

Girl Effect

Young Asian Women's Leadership Forum (YWLF) Bali, Indonesia Nov 2-5, 2008

The Young Asian Women’s Leadership Forum 2008 is a collective, integrative and necessary regional initiative that aims to address, deconstruct and provide viable solutions and alternatives to the challenges facing young women leaders of the Asian women’s movements. As elsewhere, the Asian women’s movements are led by women who emerged as leaders in the 1970s and 1980s.

Their themes, their methods of organizing, their conceptual tools have so far dominated the movements. Similarly Women’s Studies in Asian universities are faced with a generation gap. There is an urgent need for the continuation, expansion and creation of rich Asian feminisms incorporating the needs, methods and concepts of young women. In the face of the highly patriarchal and hegemonic forces of neoliberalism and fundamentalisms, young women have to find their voices.The forum will provide a safe, nurturing and mutually supportive peer based environment that will enable young women from Asia to develop a nuanced understanding of feminisms within a regionally contextual and topically relevant framework.

The forum will be held in Bali, Indonesia from 2-5 November 2008. It will be an integral component of the Kartini conference’s focus on the future of Asian feminisms.

Major Objectives of the YYF:

• Identifying, organizing and orienting young feminist leaders from all over Asia for a sustained and active network for working on women’s issues.

• Alignment of the young talent, research, innovation and initiative in line with the ongoing women’s movement, to make it stronger, more visible, larger and inclusive with the fresh influx of young blood.

• Establishing the much required link between the three major generations of feminisms, the ‘been there done that’, ‘the movers and shakers of the present’ and the ‘exploring, opening and kindling fires’.

Thematic Focus:

1. Identity Politics: Gender, Embodiment and Hetero-normativity

2. Break the Silence: Express yourself, don’t repress yourself: Re-examining women’s sexuality, sexual rights and gendered language/ silence in women’s movements and academia

3. Another World is Possible: De- Gendering Poverty, Livelihoods and Neoliberal Development Discourse

4. The Art of Peace

5. Standing on the shoulders of giants: bridging the genertion gap

6. Circles of Affinity

7. The Future of Asian Feminisms

For more information email: yff@kartiniasia@gmail.com

ADD US in Facebook! Search for Young Asian Women's Leadership Forum group

The Mirror Art Group: Making Waves in the Mountains

Working north of Thailand, Chiang Rai, The Mirror Art Group focuses on projects and programs that aims to help the hilltribe peoples of Mae Yao sub-district to combat their everyday struggles with unemployment, poverty, drug addiction and lack of Thai citizenship. The group also work to provide the skills, education and support to hilltribes of Mae Yao that prepare them to adapt and co-exist with lowland Thais without sacrificing their cultural identity.

The Mirror Art Group has one of the largest Internet presence within the Thailand NGO community.
Their well designed IT Development Program uses the internet to create a community to bring in volunteers, create funds, and develop projects. With six of their acitve core members being women working from web design, to e-commerce or leading volunteer teachers to the hill tribes, this group of young artists is trully making waves in the mountains for the hill tribes of Northern Thailand! They also design websites for other NGOs, to raise funds and spread information about the hilltribes to the rest of the world. What an awesome way to use your creativity and pile up the good deeds!

Here are some of the projects: (Taken from their website)

Backtohome.org - Missing Persons Locator
Throughout Thailand, economic and societal changes have created a migration pattern of individuals leaving the safety of their villages. In this migration, some people lose contact with family or disappear as a result of more sinister causes. Backtohome.org attempts to re-unite disappeared people with their loved ones.. Backtohome.org is sponsored by the Asia Foundation.

Virtual Hilltribe Museum @ www.hilltribe.org
The cultures of highland ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia are changing rapidly as the hilltribe people become more incorporated into the lowland majority societies . The Virtual Hilltribe Museum is geared to documenting these cultures and their changes for the world to see. The Virtual Hilltribe Museum is sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Bannok TV
With changes in the new Constitution, local stations will soon have the right to broadcast pertinent, non-Bangkok-centric local programming. Bannok TV is a developing local-access television station set up by the Mirror Art Group to address the needs of the Mae Yao community, keep them abreast of relevant issues, give positive media images to the hilltribe youth and address the lack of knowledge about the hilltribes in modern Thailand.

Project to Combat Trafficking in Women and Children
Every child has the right to happiness and to grow up in a safe environment. Unfortunately, among the poor of Northern Thailand, especially the hilltribes, this right is often not realized. The cities in Northern Thailand are full of children who have left school as early as the fouth grade to struggle earning money for their family. Worse yet, the extreme poverty of the region is fertile ground for those wishing to traffic women and children to wealthier areas of the country and the world.

The Story of PETA

After more than 10 laborious years of research, compiling, writing and editing, the book on the story of PETA is finally available to the public. Entitled A Continuing Narrative on Philippine Theater: The Story of PETA, the 740 plus page book is priced at PhP 1,499.00. You may call PETA - FAU for orders and payment: (+632) 4100822, 7226911 telefax (+632) 4100821.

About the book:

The Story of PETA may be considered a collective biography that provides a comprehensive yet intimate account of its lifework, from 1967 to 2007. It highlights the company’s unique approach and contribution to Philippine theater aesthetics, performance and pedagogy, and to popular education.

PETA began by asserting the then radical view of creating and performing plays in Filipino. A solid record of some 400 plays written, translated, adapted, published and performed, shaped the company’s and indeed the country’s theater history, enriching it through theater forms and techniques that express local, national and universal themes.

PETA’s pedagogy and aesthetics for people’s theater, a unique and powerful curriculum for training in theater and the arts has inspired artist-teachers to share their skills, talents and experiences with others, directed toward individual human development and societal transformation.

This book presents a chronicle of the collective journey of men and women who have inscribed a powerful presence in Philippine theater history. Woven together, their stories provide strings of hope and inspiration, a remarkable tapestry of dreams dedicated to Philippine theater, society, and nation.

As PETA enters its fifth decade of existence, it continues to nurture young artists who will metamorphose into artists-teachers- leaders and carry on the torch of art to inspire many to become cultural creatives.

Panaghoy ng Naghahanap: A Sharing of Experiences of Families of the Desaparecidos

In observance of the International Day of the Disappeared, the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) will host a roundtable discussion on the 29^th of August 200 with mothers, sisters, and daughters of the victims of enforced disappearances. It will be held at the UP Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City from 9:00 a.m.-12:00nn . Entitled Panaghoy ng Naghahanap: A Sharing of Experiences of Families of the Desaparecidos, the activity is a venue for sharing of experiences of the families and how they cope with the situation.

CWR is a research and training institution for and by women. Since its inception, CWR has actively promoted the rights of women through advocacy and services such as education, training, research and publication. Part of the advocacy work of CWR is the promotion of human rights, especially in cases and situations where women are affected.

The activity will gather women and human rights advocates from the academe, non-government organizations, government agencies, church and media.

We hope you will join us to show our solidarity with the families of desaparecidos.

For inquiries, please contact Di, Teta, or Osang through 411-2796 or 920-1373.

revising endless revisions for version 3

i've been out in batangas for the past 5 days re-editing gimikera. haven't had decent sleep in comfortable sleeping clothes. been wearing the same pair of jeans

my new post prod team, jim (a.k.a. gbong), marie, and ian is a blast. we've been cleaning up sound, color correcting/grading, re-editng sequences, eating a lot of junk food (c/o of marie), playing music etc etc. when we'd get really stressed out. we find a way to wake up by making fun of each other. formulating phony gossips among ourselves about ourselves it doesn't work all the time. especially on extremely late nights/ extremely early mornings.
where we'd end up dozing off where we're sitting.

ali, jim's wife is always gracious and sweet at these hours. when i come around looking probably very unenergized. she never failed to offer, "coffee?" or "cheese bread?" with a sweet smile on her face. its very comforting. she's a beautiful mom. andrea their one year older daughter loves me. the first time she saw me it seemed like i am someone very familiar to her. jim and i have this theory that andrea and i have probably met in a past life. maybe as monkeys or cockroaches or something.

and to think that i even had apprehensions, coming out all the way in batangas to edit. thoughts like, "is it worth coming all the way out in batangas for?" etc etc were running through my head as i half doze off in the 3 hour bus ride getting here. its a good thing i've been learning alot about listening to my intuition these days. so far it's been a fun ride getting to where were trying to get at with this team

gimikera has been a long arduous journey of the mind, body and spirit for me. i have been learning so much about my craft, my self and people in the past 5 days that i've been here. i guess this is how i am basically going to be with anything that i will be doing for the rest of my life. sometimes everytime i go through an artisitic process, i feel that i give so much of myself away. it's exhausting and blood and wallet sucking. everytime though i come out feeling more whole than before. it's interesting how one thing can take so much and yet give so much back at the same time. i wouldn't trade this process for anything less than what it is.

KASIBUAN @ GSIS MUSEUM

The KASIBULAN Exhibiton was opened by Brenda Fajardo March 7, Friday and was attended by KASIBULAN members, friends and families. It was a collection works done by members after 2004 by the women of KASIBULAN. Some works artists who participated had come all the way from Sagada and Davao.

My work was part of my BABAE . A panel of four photograms showing images of movement and for a static image of the body. It presented four movements and the absence of it.

Come and See new works by KASIBULAN artists!!!

KA-BUWAN-AN
March 7, Friday, 6pm
GSIS Museum
Financial Center
Reclamation Area Roxas Blvd.
Pasay City
*Exhibit runs until March 28

BUGSO
March 23, Sunday, 6pm
Nineveh Art Space
2452 1st Ave. Villa Silangan Subdivision
Sta. Cruz, Laguna
T: (049) 808-6617
*Exhibit runs until April 23

Babae Exhibition, Siwang Gallery, 2004

Babae (Woman)

For where the woman speaks and where the woman soars and where the woman roars.

Babae is an exploration of the woman through her body. The woman as how society continues to impose her realities through the ages. Here, Ligaya explores this using Barbie dolls to create the metaphor of the body with the deliberate use of the archetype of a woman that the doll represents. Drawing from her memories of Barbie dolls from her childhood. She uses its images to tell the story of women she witnessed in her life, a friend, her mother, an suspecting stranger she encounters in a street corner.

In 2004, these pieces were exhibited in a solo exhibition called Babae (Woman) at now defunct Siwang Gallery.

Para sa Tatlong Taong Kasama ang Singsing

3 8"x 10" gelatin silver prints
Para sa Alingawngaw ni Ningning

15 8" x 10" gelatin silver prints

Takusa Sari-sari
12 8"x 10" gelatin silver prints

Kasal-kasalan
8"x 10" gelatin silver prints

Alitaptap Sari-sari

15 8"x 10" gelatin silver prints

Gimikera (Streetwalker)

Gimikera (The Streetwalker), 2008

48 minutes, Stereo, Color

A Documentary by Justin Hakuta and Joy 'Ligaya' Domingo

Mylene is 29 years old. She grew up in a rural province of the Philippines . As a teenager, Mylene was forced from brothel to bar to brothel in a vicious cycle where escape is difficult, where the only option is prostitution. She has been the sex slave of a policeman. She has been a gift to politicians. She has been forced to board docked ships to service its customers. She gave birth to her son under these brutal circumstances. None of this was her choice.

Gimikera presents the life of Mylene within the issue of human trafficking in the Philippines- within the economic troubles, the cultural factors, the corruption, the international aid, the media coverage, the statistics and the hype of trafficking, you have the people that actually go through it all. You have normal people, like you and I, who are victimized and forever transformed by this terrible injustice. You have the social workers, lawyers, and advocates who tirelessly fight to combat the issue. You have organized crime and endemic corruption that allow trafficking to flourish.

This film depicts the reality of trafficking in the Philippines through the eyes of a survivor. Gimikera, or Streetwalker in English, follows the struggles and triumphs of Mylene as she picks up the pieces and tries to put her life back together.

Perya (The Carnival), 2007

Perya (The Carnival), 2007

30 minutes, Stereo, Color

A Documentary by Joy "Ligaya" Domingo

Perya or the carnival but not quite. Remember the magical ferry's wheel, the cotton candies and the vicious Zuma and Medusa? Don't forget the serene Deysebel! Where do we find them now? They are definitely not here. Perya is a documentary about a community of peryante (perya workers) moving from one town to another as they scrounge their ways through the very travels of beginnings and endings of every new site for every new fiesta.
Every new site is another splendor. Every new site is just another backyard for just another night.

Art Spaces and Public Service

Uy joy,

sorry kung medyo delayed yung response ko medyo busy. sayang di tuloy kita natext nung opening dati sa fp pero me show kasi kami din darating sa sept 6 sa green papaya. sana makapunta ka. meron din kami sa Sept 12 sa west agllery sa west ave. tapos sa sept 19 sa guijo naman tapos sa sept 28 sa ccp..... grabe deads nako sa dami ng deadline kaya di ko alam kung masasagot ko agad yung tanong mo - pero di naman sa pinapaboran ko ang green papaya - malakas lang kasi ang sustainabiltity nila , and parang mas may direksyon sila or apektado lang ako masyado ng pagkadismaya ko minsan sa mga nangyayari at pagkahinayang sa mga nabuo nang mga programa at art spaces dahil wala masyadong follow-through. Mahirap din kasi talaga pagsabayin ang magtaguyod ng art career at magserbisyo sa eksena. kasi parang public service na din ang mag taguyod ng gallery lalo na kung di siya talaga pangbenta - kailangan kasi ito ng matinding commitment - mahirap gawin para sa mga nagsisimula pa lang magtaguyod ng kanya-kanyang career - it's either maging stepping stone niya lang to ang magtayo ng art space (kaya din kadalasan natatali sa certain personalities ang mga galleries/artist-run-space - meaning nagiging egotistic din ang aims pero subconscious lang siguro yun) or maging stepping stone ng ibang artists na ineexhibit niya dito - in short - parang branding din.

Pero tingnan mo din yung structure ng mga artist-run-spaces sa ibangbansa tulad sa Japan, thailand, singapore, new york at La at kung saan pa para may comparison din kung ang success at failuire rate ng mga ganitong klaseng spaces ba ay natatali din ba sa culture? Parang ganoon din - kasi meron ding nagiging successful na tumatagal ng 10 years although ang structure niya ay kaparehas na din ng mga institution na may mga board of trustees din at nagrorotate ng mga members.

Di kaya parang ganoon lang din ang lifespan ng mga ARS dito sa Pinas ay dahil sa ningas cogon pa din?



Interviewihin mo din sana sina Katya, Wire, Yason and mga taga-museums din tulad nina Eileen, Din Din araneta, si Isa Lorenzo ng silverlens o kaya sina canete, mga teachers mo kung bakit di din nila masyado pinopromote ang magpunta sa mga shows sa mga ARS .he he he



Tsaka kung may great difference ba talaga ngayon ang mga ARS sa mga institutions? ...hhmmm kaya ko nabanggit ito kasi dati parang may ganitong comment si Yasmin (sison) about CCP na parang ARS lang din siya kung mag-operate - na nagaaccept lang sila ng kung sino nagpropose sa kanila para magexhibit pero wala naman talaga silang binibigay na pondo para sa pagexecute ng work, even for cocktails. Sagot lang nila pagprint ng invite ( na ngayon ay pinagsasabay ang 3 ongoing shows sa isang postcard invite) at pagsend out ng press release. ni pera para sa pagtransport ng work, kargo pa rin ng artist. tapos ang sagot lang nila palagi ay dahil gobyerno kasi sila - duh?!



naku pasensya na para na akong naglitanya ng jadedness ko - kulang lang siguro ako sa tulog pero sana makapunta ka sa mga shows namin. Ayus!



L.

08.28.06_L's Article

Hey L,

Panalo yung article mo. I was really impressed, i enjoyed reading it so much. I heard may event last saturday sa FP some 70 artists ba? I missed it though. Anudun ka ba? Okay yung parallelism na ginawa mo about the Art Walk and Cubao X. Never thought of it though before I read you paper pero I think its something interesting to explore. I have a question though. About GP, I'm just wondering I notice yung favorability mo sa practice ng GP.

Do you think that there is the word 'maturity' is significant to mention over the success of GP? They've been running for apparently 6 years the longest running space among the ones you mentioned and the people primary running them are ...well to a certain extent has already attained a certain level of maturity already as artists. San kaya sa tingin mo naging tama ang GP to have run that long and have attained the success they already have?


Ako ulit,
Joy

Ayme Occular

Who's this Sontag woman anyway?

I didn't get to sleep from last night since I had to finish my report for my 240 class today. I reported on Susan Sontag's essay, Against Interpretation. I've been working on that report since Monday. Actually, I began working on the report since a week ago. But I only got to finally finish it this morning. Its not because I've been working on it too hard. I probably just have a thing for running after things. My mind is usually more effective under pressure. One has to admit, when its only 2 hours away from your deadline and you're only half way through with what you're supposed to do. The mind cannot help but intervene. "Finish the damn thing. Or else."

I pulled it off though. Thank god! Demi was a sunshine, "You somehow pull it off anyway," as we were texting this morning before class and as I was cramming away to finish my report and as the bright morning light imposes its own inconvenience for me today. Well, I guess I do pull it off most of the time but it's always better to really have enough time for studying and researching-if one goes around to actually doing it with ample time at hand.

Who's this Sontag woman anyway?

Susan Sontag was a blast! I was actually more interested in her than her essay. Well, her essay is...how should I put it. Well, let's go on to that later.

Sontag was born of a Jewish American couple, Jack Rosenblatt and Mildred Jacobsen. Jack was a fur trader in China but died of tuberculosis when Sontag was only five years old. From there, both her and her sister, Judith stayed with their grandmother at Tucson, Arizona while her mother finds another husband. Her mother came back to fetch them when she was 14 with their new stepfather, Nathan Sontag. The sisters took on their stepfather's last name from there and moved to LA where Sontag studied her high school education. Sontag didn't seem to like childhood nor her mother very much. In an interview, she would openly say, "my mother was a selfish young woman," and would talk of childhood as "a waste of time."

Sontag was a brilliant student. She began her BA at the University of California, Berkley at the age of 15. (To think that at this age, I can only think about how cute David Aguirre of Razorback is. That was then though, he's not that cute anymore. ) She didn't finish at Berkley since she married Philip Reiff (28), a sociologist instructor in her sophomore year after a ten-day courtship. (She was 17 at this point.) They moved to Chicago, that's why she had to finish her college degree at the University of Chicago and had her son David. A run-away bride with the groom. Its more of a "come, let's run away, groom" thing.

From there, she went on to study her MA in English Literature, Philosophy and Theology at the not so famous Harvard University and then her PhD, (dig this) in 4 years to be exact. (Shit, I can't even finish this damn report in two days!) From there, she got a scholarship at St. Anne's College, Oxford but decided that she was too good for St. Anne's so she moved to Paris and studied at the University of Paris. Paris or the French thought and aesthetics for that matter will be greatly influencing her mold for the works that she will be producing soon enough. Even after Paris, she would spent half of each year there throughout her life.

Sontag was "fabulous" intellectual. She always made her way by saying the right things and attracting people's attention both from the popular culture and the intellectuals of NY. She has a way with formulating apocarypthic statements that will haunt you for the rest of your life. Her writings caused tensions from left to right. Gaining applause from the popular bourgesie and stirring tensions among the intellectuals. She knows how to say things-juxtapose words and pose for a photograph.

To be continued...

Ilocanization

This will be my "going back to my roots" week... I'm not sure if that's the right thing to say though since I was born and raised in Manila and don't know much of anything that makes me Ilocano except for my father being Ilocano and my skin. I have the dark Ilocano skin.

Well, it's time to find out.

I'm trying to learn how to speak Ilocano. At some point, I knew how to speak Ilocano when I was probably, seven, eight years old. It slipped away too easily since Papa refuses to speak to me in Ilocano. I guess I'm realizing how important it is to have these kind of things in your backpack when travelling. It comes in so much handy. I know I asked him several times before. I can't remember when exactly and I don't remember how he responded. I think he's just too lazy. There's something about him that doesn't want to go back home. Not go back. Go back. But really go back.

Everyone is speaking in Ilocano in front of me now and I don't understand a damn thing. I'm inclined to going back to my book and reading English instead. Yeah, I know...the only way to learn a language is first by listening (like any language...) I'm finding that my innate impatience is making this a bit difficult.


I'll be back in Manila soon and I still don't have any idea what I will be exhibiting on June. Shit! Oh well, wanna finish my book first and make sure Mamang is okay. Then I'll think about other things.

MartOne Mall
Satiago City, Isabela

Si Mamang, si Arundhati at ang Peryahan sa Appari

Internet Cafe @ MartOne Mall
Santiago City, Isabela

It's usually slow in places like these anyway. Mamang is going to have her operation 1pm today. I like being here. I suddenly realized that I enjoy spending time with Mamang and hearing her stories of their life in the barrio. Mostly, if we are not having our random conversations about relatives and the weather, we either sleep or eat. If there's nothingelse to do, I would read. Right now, I have Arundhati Roy to occupy me. I love her! It's like reading a long poem! Besides, that I've never read a book with an Indian setting. The book is just about events in a bourgousie Indian family, their oddities and ironies to the typical Indian society. It's supposed to be boring though if you just look at it as just series of events but I love the way Roy wrote it.

I would love to stay here some more and look at the perya that Papa has been talking about. He said that he has a cousin in Appari inviting him for the fiesta. The fiesta is going to be on Sunday though. I love fiestas! Lots of food (that I can't eat.) But I love it anyway. There is so much movement! So much spirit! People go out of their houses and make an effort to see or to be seen.

I hope I could ask Uncle Jojo to take me there. Papa wouldn't go. Uncle J. said, it's nice there because our relatives' house is just near the beach and the waves are not as strong as it usually is, since its only May. The shore in Appari is supposed to be parallel to the South China Sea already. Lot said she wants to come too and finally experience Appari. She finally wants to see the the name behind the Eat Bulaga song. A place supposed to be unreachable to most people in the Philippine islands. I wouldn't mind doing the same either. I've been hearing that song eversince I started watching TV.

Papa said that the Perya their is also different. It's not like the usual ones you see in Manila. There are still Live Chicken-eating shows, and balancing acts and trapeze shows! Whaa! They have the old-school type. Many people say that these types of Peryas are only seen in the far flung barrios now since most cities all over the Philippines have been invaded by either SM or Robinson's. I hope I could at least go to see the Perya. I'll never maybe I could see material that I could use there.