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5.31.2007:

IKON launched in the Philippines

Top Filipino groups Spongecola and The Dawn and singers Sitti Navarro and Noel Cabangon are among the leading Filipino artistes who have been nominated to take part in IKON Philippines. Their nominations were announced at the launch of IKON Philippines in Manila this week.

The launch ceremony, held at Manila’s Capone’s Bistro was attended by several other nominated singers and groups and industry figures. The artistes for the IKON Philippines solo artistes’ category include Noel Cabangon, Chris Cayzer, Julianne, Vina Morales, Sitti Navarro, Grace Nono, Skarlet and Top Suzara.

The IKON Philippines nominees for the group category are Chicosci, Chillitees, The Dawn, Greyhoundz, Kala, Kapatid, Kjwan, Spongecola, Stone Free and True Faith.

The IKON Philippines programme will be promoted on the Solar Entertainment Corporation’s terrestrial and cable network.

Attending the launch were Solar Entertainment Corporation’s Vice-President for Business Development and Operations Ralph Joseph Roy, WolfPac Mobile’s Inc’s Chief Executive Rayna Roxas and Vice President Jojit Alcazar, and IKON Media Group managing director Richard Voon.

The launch saw stirring live performances from Kjwan, The Dawn, Julianne, Kala and Grace Nono.

“The Philippines is the third and final ASEAN country to participate in this year’s IKON ASEAN Music Initiative with a strong artiste line-up supported by the top television and radio network. We are delighted that IKON’s objective to promote ASEAN artistes across the ASEAN region is coming to fruition,” said IKON Media Group’s Voon.

“In the next months we will focus on bringing ASEAN artistes across borders for IKON showcases,” he added. The showcases for Malaysian and Filipino artistes will be held in Jakarta from June 11-13, while showcases for Filipino and Indonesian IKON nominees will be held in Kuala Lumpur on June 27 and 28 respectively.

Meanwhile, the ASEAN Secretariat has commended IKON on its efforts “to promote music across borders and raise awareness of the diversity of music in the region, as well as promote the development of local and original music in the ASEAN region.”

The ASEAN Head of Public Affairs, Serena Wong, has informed IKON: “The ASEAN Secretariat is pleased to express our support for the IKON Music Initiative,” and urged the IKON Media Group to expand its programme to include more ASEAN nation’s artistes in the future.

The chairman of the Asean Music Industry Association (AMIA), Arnell Affandi, also praised the launch saying: “The IKON programme will allow ASEAN countries’ music industries to reach out to each other, to exchange ideas and creativity resulting in better quality music in the region.”

Issued by IKON Media Group. Should you require more information, please contact Swithin Monteiro at 019-328-5345 or Serene Yap at 016-343-3914.

Posted by Luis Katigbak

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THE STARS

TOP SUZARA	SITTI	SKARLET	VINA MORALES	CHRIS CAYZER
JULIANNE	GRACE NONO	NOEL CABANGON

THE BANDS

KALA	KAPATID	TRUE FAITH	GREYHOUNDZ	THE DAWN
CHICOSCI	STONEFREE	SPONGE COLA	CHILLITEES	KJWAN

Local showbiz programs bypass Indie Films

Let me  focus on an aspect of Philippine Independence that I’ve been mulling about. This present wave of independent movies has been around four years in resuscitating its lagging behind its Asian neighbors. Filipino indie films, with no box office hits to speak of, with a slew of foreign film festival citations… and startlingly, with no help from the Filipino showbiz press-radio-and tv talk shows. Listen to people in jeeps and the mass railroad transit trains and in malls, they discuss the latest dirt thrown at individual celebs like it’s their masteral theses defense! Like they were there on the scene. But even during the annual runs of Cinemalaya or the internationally- and locally-followed Cinemanila festivals, spin doctors demand “actual” celebs to carry the banner of campaigning indie films. Celebs are integral, make no mistake, attaching an indie film to a celeb gives it an edge, but the process of making an entire film isn’t asked nor talked about with the celeb anywhere. As if it were taboo to do so. And you sense this during the screening of indie films, such films seem to get the (mal) treatment of being the odd-movie out of the stream of Korean-French-Japanese-Bollywood etc. movies. Local showbiz programs ignore the struggle of propping up a crippled local film industry by bypassing indie films whose existence will not fasttrack a financial boom for local moviedom. No, indie films will provide the continuum for our culture to thrive, above all.

If local showbiz is ill-advised, perhaps it should take more interest, enough to ask how they are managed to be filmed, finished (if at all), screened, gets us noticed around the world, within a budget that will never be able to afford a 7-figure worth of advertising spot on tv or anywhere, except on the Youtube and the blog sites–media which are still out of reach of the majority of filmgoers who get their fill from tabloids, tv and the dailies.

It doesn’t baffle me that we don’t see behind the scenes or the making of indie films on local tv outlets, it’s cos this bright and (hopefully to be treated in the near future as) sunshine industry in local culture doesn’t offer as much value in commercial spots and as much value in dirt, by virtue of being the lifeline of local film at present. No wonder here.But in Korea, Japan, Thailand and china, indie film is wonderful showbiz news so much so that they export most of their fare to the world.