Christopher Quijalvo Gozum was a Master of Arts in Theater Arts student in the University of the Philippines. He was an alumni of the 2006 Asian Film Academy Fellowship Program in Pusan, South Korea.

Christopher won two Palanca Awards for Literature for his two full-length drama War Booty (2001) and The Pasyon of Pedro Calosa and the Tayug Colorum Uprising of 1931 (2002). His second Palanca-winning play with a revised title of Pure Stone Is the Source of Light was awarded a publication prize/grant by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ Ubod Young Author’s Series in 2005.

Christopher’s filmography includes The Independence Mission (2004 Gawad CCP para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video), Lakaran ( featured in the 2006 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival ), and The Calling
(produced by the Asian Film Academy in 2006 and premiered at the 13th Pusan International Film Festival). The Calling won Best Short Film in the 9th Cinemanila International Film Festival in 2007.

Christopher is from Bayambang, Pangasinan in the Philippines.

FILMED ANLONG PROJECT
a project proposal submitted to the NCCA Cinema Division for a short film production grant

*(Anlong is an ancient Pangasinan word which means poetry.)

Project Background:

Tagalog-language media rules in the mass media industries and institutions in most of the non-Tagalog provinces/regions in the Philippines today. Many linguists, scholars and cultural workers are alarmed that this monolithic version of a “national culture” presented in the majority of the mass media institutions all over the Philippines is one of the causes of an uneven cultural development of non-Tagalog Filipinos resulting to their loss of ethno-linguistic pride and the increasing unpopularity and rapid deterioration of the indigenous/mother language in many non-Tagalog ethno-linguistic communities all over the Philippines.

In the Pangasinan region where I am coming from, a very alarming observation today is the increasing number of Pangasinan children who constantly speak Tagalog rather than the Pangasinan language even inside their homes. Moreover, it has also been observed that many Pangasinenses who leave the homeland to work abroad discard their “Pangasinanness” or their ethno-linguistic identity choosing to speak in Tagalog rather than the mother tongue even in the presence of their fellow kabaleyan or provincemates. One incident told me which I find shameful and revolting is about two male nurses currently working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia who constantly speak Tagalog even in the presence of other fellow kabaleyan.

Because of these developments, I feel strongly that there is a need to diversify the content of the audio-visual media produced in many mass media industries and institutions all over the country today. I do not propose the abolishment of the Tagalog language media in the non-Tagalog regions but instead, media professionals (i.e. filmmakers, etc.) and the mass media industries and institutions in the provinces must create more audio-visual media in their mother language presenting the rich culture of their region alongside.

This short film project was conceived with the aim of creating more audio-visual media in my region with a Pangasinan content. What I mean by Pangasinan content is the material is communicated in the mother language and it speaks truthfully and creatively about the culture of my people. This project was also conceived with the aim of reintroducing to the consciousness of contemporary Pangasinan audiences a forgotten but still alive literary tradition in the region called the anlong (poetry).

This short film project is very important because seeing more and new audio-visual media with Pangasinan content in my region and elsewhere (i.e. in the Internet) hopefully will help reawaken a sense of Pangasinan identity or ethno-linguistic pride among my people wherever they are and whatever mass media form they subscribe to.

Project Description:

Five contemporary Pangasinan-language poems (anlong) from five authors/poets (umaanlong) will be presented in film images and sound art. The written words of the anlong will be rendered both in visual and aural medium similar to the approach/style we see in experimental cinema and many music videos today.

The poet (umaanlong) reciting his poem will be recorded inside a studio. His recorded voice will serve as the main audio track in each of the five short films whose original titles as anlong (poem) will be retained. The umaanlong may also become the main actor in a series of related/unrelated film images that expound the poem’s idea/rhythm/texture/mood/story narrating the film images either in a linear or non-linear manner.

The individual poet will closely collaborate with the filmmaker-director on how the film images will be created, the specific film images that will best define each of the poem, the cinematic style that is appropriate for each of the individual poems, and the sound design that will best express the mood and the texture of each of the anlong.

This short film consisting of five filmed anlong (poem) intended to have an approximate total running time of twenty to thirty minutes is a highly collaborative project between the five poets (umaanlong) and the filmmaker-director. Other filmmakers here in the Philippines specifically from the Pangasinan region and abroad will also be invited to collaborate in the field of cinematography, sound design, production design, and post-production to create the cinematic vision for each of the five chosen Pangasinan poems.

The five filmed poems when finally pieced together through editing and a recurring sound motif will have a narrative structure that is episodic and non-linear(cyclical). Each poem (anlong) will be presented as an independent scenario expounding on one thematic concern.

The filmmaker-director is interested with the following thematic concerns: birth, growth/maturity, death, rebirth and redemption. This is a paradigm echoing that of the “pasyon” of Christ. The main criteria in choosing the Pangasinan poems which will be featured in this video-poetry project will be based on poems expounding these five distinct but related ideas. When the five filmed poems are finally pieced together during post-production, they will present an impressionistic dreamlike vision of a young artist who yearns for a cultural and linguistic renaissance in his beleaguered Pangasinan region.

The main element that will unite these five poems presented in five scenarios each articulating a distinct but related thematic concern is the character of a young man, an artist who returns to the heart of the motherland (Pangasinan) and experiences birth, growth/maturity, death, rebirth and redemption. This young artist will be the main character in all of the five scenarios.

The short film is intended to be screened among a student audience in schools in Pangasinan and in art venues within and outside of the Pangasinan region. They will also be aired in cable television channels and television stations within the Pangasinan region. The filmed anlong will also be screened inside Victory Liner and Five Star buses that travel the Manila to Northern Luzon route daily. Lastly, the filmed anlong will be posted in various Pangasinan websites and other related Internet sites. All the screenings will be presented to the public for free.

In the distant past, Pangasinan literature which includes poetry (anlong) is oral literature that is “performed” before a live audience. According to Santiago Villafania, a contemporary Pangasinan poet (umaanlong) :
“Pangasinan anlong or poetry was once predominantly oral: tumatagaumen and umaanlong performed poems. Often, it was accompanied by kutibeng (ancient guitar) and/or tulali (a kind of string instrument similar to kudyapi or lyre.) One good example of Pangasinan oral poetry was the Petek, a kind of poetic joust similar to the Tulang Patnigan of the Tagalogs. When the written form of poetry became dominant, oral poetry became unpopular. Such is the case of Pangasinan poetry. (“Retrospect and Prospect of the Pangasinan Anlong: Oral Tradition into the 21st Century”)

Using 21st century media technology like the digital cinema, this short film project aims to help revive and popularize the anlong tradition of Pangasinan by presenting the contemporary written/printed anlong as oral/performed media bringing it closer to its original form as oral literature and performance in the distant past.

The pre-production stage of this short video project will start on June and continue until November of 2008. The production stage or actual shoot will take place by early December 2008. Post-production will take place from January until April 2009. The short film will be screened to the public for free starting May 2009.

Project Benefits:

We envision this short video project to impact/influence the reading/reception of the anlong from its postmodern readers/audience by presenting it in an audio-visual medium that is both contemporary and readily accessible to many Pangasinenses. We also envision that this independent project will generate more interest in the anlong tradition among the hypervisual younger generation of Pangasinenses who were weaned mostly on Tagalog and English language media culture and postmodern forms of mass communication like the cinema, television and the Internet. Hopefully through this initiative, these younger generation of Pangasinenses who either are living in the province or have relocated all over the Philippines and the whole world will have an awareness and eventually gain appreciation of a very important literary legacy in Pangasinan.

This filmed poetry project is a united effort among an enlightened and youthful group of Pangasinan creative writers and cultural workers that will contribute to the revitalization of Pangasinan’s cultural heritage by supporting and promoting new literary works written in the native tongue. This short film project is also a part of sustained efforts by concerned Pangasinenses that will continue the tradition of using the Pangasinan language as a lingua franca in intellectual discourse like literature, mass media and other spheres of contempory life. Lastly, this project which is a part of a growing advocacy/movement in the region will contribute positively to the aim of preserving and popularizing Pangasinan which has become nowadays an endangered /fading Philippine language due to neglect and disuse from its community leaders and native speakers.